While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.
Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.
I hate the Disney Channel Live Action Universe
Yeah from transfers done on D1 tape in 1992-93 for laserdisc.
There never was a transfer done for DVD, blu-ray and there never will be an official one for 4k UHD.
There never has been a restoration done of the original films, and there probably won’t ever be one.
Lucas doesn’t want it to happen it isn’t about the money.
Yeah from transfers done on D1 tape in 1992-93 for laserdisc.
There never was a transfer done for DVD, blu-ray and there never will be an official one for 4k UHD.
There never has been a restoration done of the original films, and there probably won’t ever be one.
Lucas doesn’t want it to happen it isn’t about the money.
Kathleen doesn’t want it to happen either.
I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.
Star Wars has 3 eras: The eras are 1977-1983(pre Expanded Universe), (1983-2014) expanded universe, or (2014- now) Disney-bought version. Each are valid.
My movie reviews aren’t AI, they’re just written by someone who’s Neurodivergent. If you don’t like them, then simply don’t read them.
It’s that lack of availability that makes me want to spread the word about fan preservations as much as I can to my friends and family. This weekend, my family will be watching the Despecialized trilogy for the first time. None of them have even seen the unaltered versions since they were in the theater, and I’m very excited to make those available to them again. I would be very happy to see some official release at some point, but after all this time, I’ve resigned myself to the reality that fan restorations will always be our only decent option.
It seems so counterproductive not to restore and release them. Doing that would be hugely profitable and produce a lot of fan goodwill towards Lucasfilm. But it seems that George was firm in his demands, and I doubt Disney has any interest in releasing a “non-canon” version of the trilogy alongside their current version.
the big companys don´t care about the fans.
so the fans would help themself.
thanks harmy,project 4k and others who bring back the movies as they are.
I doubt Disney has any interest in releasing a “non-canon” version of the trilogy alongside their current version.
Bingo. The last ‘real’ release was like 25 years ago. But now the new expanded material supports this version of events with NZ Boba and Macklunkey etc so it’s going to stay dead.
While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.
Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.
I never knew they were still pressing those DVDs in early 2011. Or selling them right up to the blu ray release, They really did take the biscuit with that “Limited Edition” text they put on those 2006 DVDs!
It is bizarre when you many fans see on reddit or social media be overjoyed that they have finally got hold of these 2006 GOUT DVDs, because they think it is the only way to the unaltered cuts. And they don’t know about Harmy’s Despecilaized, TN1’s 4K projects, or other projects on here and other similar websites.
And those poor 1997 Special Edition fans don’t even have their preferred cut of the OT on a digital release. Unless you count those very low quality VCDs.
The GOUT will be to the hd/4k era what Faces/“THX”/OneLastTime was to vhs and dvd.
While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.
Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.
I never knew they were still pressing those DVDs in early 2011. Or selling them right up to the blu ray release, They really did take the biscuit with that “Limited Edition” text they put on those 2006 DVDs!
They even said “for a limited time” on the official trailer for the 2006 DVD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtnEQS8ICw
5 years being the “Limited Edition” and also “for a limited time” 😃
They “took the biscuit” (I love that phrase, and will be using that for the next few weeks!) with the quality of the 2006 DVD release too!
Although I do still treasure my copy of it, as a victory for all the fans who campaigned for them at the time, and won.
I remember when I saw that trailer, I was all “Hmph. Why would anyone care about owning those stodgy old versions?”
A is A, my ass.
Gods for some, miniature libertarian socialist flags for others.
While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.
Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.
I never knew they were still pressing those DVDs in early 2011. Or selling them right up to the blu ray release, They really did take the biscuit with that “Limited Edition” text they put on those 2006 DVDs!
They even said “for a limited time” on the official trailer for the 2006 DVD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtnEQS8ICw
5 years being the “Limited Edition” and also “for a limited time” 😃
I knew I’d heard that somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place it. Thanks for that trailer post, some old memories in there. I hadn’t noticed they spent more time advertising the Lego Star Wars game in there than they did the unaltered cuts being in the release.
Edit: a 2011 thread on here, about the 2006 GOUT DVDs going out of print:
On top of that, they even still sported the “Limited Edition” tag on the front when they were slimmed down for the 2008 DVD set.