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I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. It felt a bit of an imposition to get as much as I did from this guy, but he was pretty friendly and the video quality was really good. It would probably have to be the kind of thing where I buy him an external hard drive and have him mail it to me.

Definitely a possibility though. I’d love to get the Simpsons shorts in better quality/without watermarks as well. Watch this space!

(P.S., I’ve got family from Guam. It’s always cool to see someone else from there)

I really love the look of this thing so far, man. Definitely shoot me a link to the work print when you get draft 2 done.

This is an idea I’ve had for a while that probably won’t fit here, but figured I’d mention it anyway.

Basically, use establishing shots from TROS to suggest that Kylo hangs out on the DS2 wreck. In other words, replace the Star Destroyer passing Starkiller shot in your preview with a shot of the wreck from across the ocean. And then cut inside to Kylo’s pain which we can assume is his lair aboard.

It’s fanservice-y but…
(a) that matches Kylo’s headspace thematically — obsessed with the past…
(b) it’s the last place we saw Vader’s helmet in the OT (in the same system, at least) and finally…
© would allow you to include the TROS vision of Han.

I picture that scene either just before or just after Broom Boy. Kylo is down and out after the battle of Crait. He’s disillusioned and conflicted so he retreats to his previously established lair and sees the vision of his father. Of course you’d have to cut references to Leia being gone (I think that would be pretty easy). And end the scene as he throws his lightsaber into the ocean.

Otherwise the Han Solo thread is a little unresolved, no? I think it might feel strange for Han to appear only in brief glimpses and not have at least one scene.

Definitely radical and would potentially mess with the flow of the ending but just wanted to throw it out there. The pros are that it would give Harrison Ford a little more screen time and a give even more closure to the story (though I’ve always liked the optimistic open-endedness that TLJ has).

Looking forward to this!

Edit: just read an earlier post of yours mentioning that you wanted to end with Kylo as the Supreme Leader. So maybe this is an idea for a different edit!

I didn’t see the SE in theaters, nor have I ever seen it on home video, but this looks good to me!

Looking forward to the full release.

So, this is a weird one.

You might know that The Simpsons originated as animated interstitials on the Fox variety series ‘The Tracey Ullman Show’. But you might not know that there was another series of animated shorts that more or less alternated with The Simpsons in the first season of the show. They were created by National Lampoon cartoonist MK Brown and focused on the often surreal misadventures of a therapist named Dr. Janice N!Godatu.

They’re nothing spectacular (there’s a reason why they didn’t launch a 32-year-and-counting prime time series), but they’re a pretty interesting piece of forgotten history. And I’ll admit that I got a few chuckles from them.

As The Tracey Ullman Show is extremely hard to come by these days, the Dr. N!Godatu shorts have very rarely seen the light of day. All told, six episodes of the shorts aired (they’re broken into 3 or 4 scenes each, like the early Simpsons shorts). Three episodes can be found on YouTube with a little digging but the latter three eluded me for months…

Until I somehow made contact with the world’s biggest Tracey Ullman fan. So I now have the complete collection of Dr. N!Godatu animated shorts, and they’re in surprisingly good quality.

But, yeah. PM for a link to all six. I edited them all together into a single video (runs just over 8 minutes). You’ll also see a folder with a bunch of screenshots, including some from the two additional episodes that never aired.

NFBisms said:

Rian saved Luke Skywalker from being a boring generic superhero in my eyes. The whole zen monk vibe he had in RotJ felt somewhat disingenuous to the initial character anyway (Mando helped me realize this), and to see that contrast adapted into a philosophical struggle in TLJ was really interesting and more satisfying storytelling than Force God fan wank.

The kid didn’t want anything but a dad, his friends, and a sweet piloting gig, especially when thrust with the Jedi responsibilities he didn’t really understand. In the end, his human heart and love for his dad beat The Empire, not his powers or sick saber moves. He certainly didn’t have to follow in Obi-Wan and Yoda’s footsteps. Badass Jedi Knight? Nah, just a good son.

Luke dealing with the expectation that he was more than any of those things is perfect meta commentary on how so many people thought or wanted it to be otherwise. “Like my father before me” is more important than the “I am a Jedi” part and I’m glad Rian found that soul from a character so muddled by pop culture.

Very well said.

Excited to check this out!

Mocata said:

If they can’t get it right here, then making it work for a whole new show is in doubt. I would have loved for the ending here to make me feel positive. Really. I would love to feel like ‘wow Luke is here what an ending’. Instead I just though ‘oh god this again’.

That’s exactly how I felt. Wanted to love it but couldn’t see past the uncanniness of it. It’s very interesting that there’s such a divide in people’s reception to it. Most seem to be on board, but I’m seeing more reactions like yours and mine. Really shows how subjective this stuff is. I’d much rather see genuine acting, even if it’s not Hamill or if he looked a little older than he should have. Picture-perfect facial replication just doesn’t do anything for me.

I hope I won’t be raining on anyone’s parade but that was… bad, right? I’ve really enjoyed this season but that really left a poor taste in my mouth. I thought the pacing was bizarre and that whole final sequence… Yikes.

I’m not against what they did in principle but good god. Would it kill them to recast a role or let an actor play his own age when the alternative is a straight up video game character?

I haven’t seen anyone else’s take on the episode yet so I really hope I’m not the only grump. I wanted to love it but damn.

This one was already said (so maybe it’s not so unpopular after all), but Solo > Rogue One.

And Temple of Doom > Last Crusade.

Sounds cool! I’d definitely check it out for my next rewatch. Out of curiosity, did you use any material from ‘The Missing Pieces’? Not that there’s anything so essential there but maybe the stuff that’s set after the finale of S2?

The lost cut version of the cantina is available in much higher quality on the 2011 Blu-Ray set (and many subsequent releases).

Those outtakes come from the digital version of the ‘Making Of’ Star Wars books by Rinzler. They’re probably only marginally better than that YouTube video of you grab them straight from the source, unfortunately.

And as for the Jabba scene, I believe OT.com user Bobson Dugnutt was attempting a better recreation of it. I don’t believe he has finished it yet. And it will probably never be completely seamless as a portion of the scene only exists with scrolling credits over it.

Let me know if you need help finding anything else!

OutboundFlight said:

Ima be honest… I wasn’t a fan of this episode. It was decent, but nothing stood out to me. The Clone Wars characters are cool in theory, but I’m worried the dark saber plot-line is going to take over the narrative. I hope this doesn’t become Siege of Mandalore #4 (how many times is Bo Katan gonna try to retake it lol).

The reason Season 1 was so great was because it was something new, with original characters and original stories. This felt more like New Mandalorians show up and fights Stormtroopers for 30 mins. I thought Chapters 9 and 10 did an amazing job recapturing the originality of the first season, but this Chapter fell flat unfortunately.

I pretty much agree with you. Still liked the episode well enough but, for me, characters from The Clone Wars showing up is the least exciting thing that could have happened.

Can you send me a link too, please?

Really excited for it too. Had a lot of great memories with the old games and that trailer is fantastic. Can’t wait!

I’d be interesting in checking this out. Sounds like you and I have pretty similar opinions about the theatrical version. And I like your concept to give some uniformity to these spinoffs by matching Solo’s opening text.

That’s an interesting idea. Like I said last time, though, I think you have to define your goals a little more clearly here if this is an actual project you want to kick off. Where would you want potential viewers to stop watching the official series and start watching this fan-made final season? Again, for me, I would keep seasons 1-8 as they are and then build a final season on the bones of season 9.

But another good place to start is, what’s your series finale? Who Shot Mr. Burns is a pretty solid candidate for that, actually. Considering it’s a two parter. But would you be worried about killing off a character or doing something drastic considering The Simpsons Movie? I think it’s pretty good (better than the show had been for a few years prior to its release) and I wouldn’t want to mess with that.

I like this idea. I guess the first question is when do you think The Simpsons stopped being good? For me the last great season is 8. But there are some gems in season 9, more than any subsequent season (do to it including some holdover episodes from season 8). Off the top of my head I like the NYC one, ‘Realty Bites’ and ‘Cartridge Family’.

I think it’s important to have a Treehouse episode (you could mix and match the segments from different years). There should also be a Sideshow Bob episode. Not sure which I would pick. And it’s a good idea to get as much Phil Hartman as possible (his last appearance is in season 10).

As for closure, that’s a good point. I think the one where Maude Flanders dies would probably be a good inclusion (even if it’s a little depressing). Also ‘Behind the Laughter’ feels like a final season kind of episode. Not sure how far into the series you want to go, in terms of matching SD/HD episodes, but I vaguely remember there being some decent stuff in season 20 that could give a good sense of finality.

Last thing I’ll say is I would be cognizant of the different show runners. I find it’s pretty easy to feel a difference between them (I’m a big Oakley/Weinstein fan, myself. They did seasons 7 and 8). Seasons 9-12 were run by Mike Scully and everything 13 and on was Al Jean (with occasional Matt Selman input). Would the goal here be to pick one of those eras and stick with it, or try to get the best of everybody’s? That could be done too. Season 9 has three holdovers from the Oakley/Weinstein seasons AND two run by David Mirkin (who ran seasons 5 & 6).

Great job on this! Congrats.

Nien Numb has a subtitled line as the Resistance is being briefed for their attack on Exegol. “There aren’t enough of us.” That’s just off the top of my head, there might be more than that.

I know that Mark Hamill provided a voice for that announcement in Empire. But that voice is not consistent between releases. For some reason I have it in my head that it’s always Mark Hamill just pitched down to the point of being unrecognizable in some versions, though I don’t remember where I got that idea and I have a hard time believing it. I’m hoping someone on here knows exactly what’s up with that line. Is it always Hamill or was it/is it someone else? Is it a mono vs. stereo thing? Or was it something changed in a subsequent release?

I’d really appreciate a link to this too, please!

I’ve been thinking for weeks that a great final scene would be a redeemed Ben Solo exiling himself on Ach-to. His Tie Fighter burns in the background as he stares out over the sea, then he turns back to see Luke’s ghost, who raises the X-Wing from the water as a token of forgiveness. Iris out on Luke and Ben finally making amends (which was a weird omission for me in the official version). You’d have to cut these beats from the earlier scene with Rey on the island (but I would do that anyway to remove the Palpatine reveal) and Adam Driver would be rotoscoped from the beginning of the Han memory scene.

I just posted a review of Rise of the Resistance on my YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/ze3xeFNAjmE

Oh cool. Thanks.

Very interesting and comprehensive. Thanks for that. I knew it was more complicated than just a “lost cut” and the final version, and its hard to know exactly what appeared in which iteration without seeing them for ourselves. What can you tell me about the original exterior shot of Ben’s hut? Is that available somewhere?