Great!
I understand about the Resistance reaction, I’m not 100% on that either. I will keep working on it, if not for this edit then for my own, where all of the almost-ideas go. 😉
I haven’t seen much of Clone Wars, or any LEGO Star wars save some short videos, but I have watched every season of Rebels so far, and there is definitely a lot of darkness going on like you said. But I think there’s a difference between violence in a CGI show and in a (partly) live-action movie. The trilogy would still feature at least 3 violent ‘disarmaments’ and at least one beheading, as well as the political dialogue necessary to keep the story coherent. It just stops short of showing our hero maimed and tortuously burned beside a river of lava.
I also remember reading a parent’s reaction to showing their child Episode 3. In short, it was traumatic, since kids have a very binary sense of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. Anakin is a ‘good guy’, and to consider that he could become evil can be a very challenging concept at a young age. Furthermore, Luke’s attitude in ANH and ESB is very childish in this sense, since he sees everything in this same binary light. His father was a good guy, Obi-wan was a good guy, and Vader is a bad guy. The revelation is much more powerful when seen in this light, and this edit of the prequels would reinforce that interpretation.
Thanks. I can export them each as stereo as well, if it would be easier.
I’m thinking it would be for very young children whose parents want to show them something Star Wars but don’t think they’re ready for the OT (I had to leave the room when I first watched Empire at age 5 or so). It’s designed to fit with the general tone of The Clone Wars and Rebels.
I’m pretty sure that exactly zero people on these forums would want to see this version of the prequels - that’s what the other fanedits on this forum are for. But it might be very useful thing to have for new generations just being introduced to the franchise. It’s a light, abridged version of what is already cartoonish fare, and could potentially make for a fascinating revelation after seeing the OT. Imagine that you were 4 and saw these edits, then saw the OT a year later. Then you could see the real prequels or more complete fanedits, and uncover this whole new darker side of the films, rather like a perfected Machete Order.
Great minds think alike. 😉
Inspired by Episode 1: Jar-Jar’s Big Adventure, I thought, what would the other two prequels look like with the kid-friendly treatment?
Episode 2 seems easy enough - have it focus on Obi-wan and the discovery of the clones, and end much as the original ended with the big battle, Anakin losing his arm, and the wedding. Cut most of the love plot and political meandering and it’s a decent hour-long detective story with a battle at the end.
Episode 3 would be much more tricky. Since these films would be meant to be seen by very young audiences, they would naturally be seen before the OT and thus Anakin’s fall is a poor fit because of how it ruins the reveal in Empire, besides being too dark. So however it happens, it will need to address the perennially problematic ‘other student’ issue.
Here’s a rough idea of how I’d go about it:
Episode III
Revenge of the Sith
As the Clone Wars ravage the galaxy, Anakin has returned home from his long campaign to Coruscant to become a Jedi Master.
Now without an apprentice, Master Obi-wan has become a teacher at the Jedi Temple, but he is eager to return to battle and end the war.
So when the Droid Leader General Grievous attacks Coruscant and captures the Chancellor, the two Jedi gladly embark on one last mission…
The opening battle is much the same, but with Palpatine’s machinations cut. Most of Palpatine’s interest in Anakin has been cut, and perhaps the only scene they share is when Anakin is tasked to inform him that Obi-wan has encountered Grievous. He immediately informs Mace, and then obeys him and stays in the council chamber. This is the last we see of Anakin in this edit. He is cut from the Mace/Palpatine duel, so Palpatine alone defeats the Jedi and enacts his sinister plan. Obi-wan returns from killing Grievous and Order 66 to find that Anakin has apparently been killed in the Jedi Temple, and has confimation of this when he views the (selectively edited) security holograms.
Mustafar doesn’t factor into this edit, as the Separatists are all defeated on Utapau and the war ends. Padme gives birth to the twins without incident. The film ends like the original, with Luke going to Tatooine.
So what do you think?
For me Star Wars was always about the Rebellion vs. the Empire.
True dat!
Unlurking for this very special 5/4, here’s one old SW fan’s ranking:
- Star Wars
If G-Lu had a heart attack and died in '77 and no sequels were ever made after the first film, I think SW would still be considered a classic today. A fun crowd pleasing popcorn film with some actual ideas percolating just underneath the surface.
- The Empire Strikes Back
Essential viewing. A very, VERY close second edged out only by being a darker, more mature sequel to the original. Best puppet acting in history.
- Return of the Jedi
Almost as good as the first two but just not quite there due to some shaky, half baked concepts (Death Star II, return to Tatooine, Lando and Han both get to live?!). I’m ok with the Ewoks but I think this one really misses the wisdom and insghtfulness of Gary Kurtz.
Big space here…
- Rogue One
From here on out none of the following movies are in the same league as the OT. RO is more how I sort of imagined the prequels could have gone–a return to the used, run down SW universe featuring brand new characters, albeit in stories not necessarily so tied to OT continuity. I don’t love it like I do the OT but I don’t actively loathe it either.
- The Phantom Menace
Ouch, you can’t go home again. The beginning of undead zombie Star Wars or SWINO as far as I’m concerned. Really should have only been bankrolled with a story by Lucas and directed by someone else with a little more piss and vinegar. The “best” of the three prequels but still all unnecessary back story better left untold. An absolute waste of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and CPY shits on real Yoda, but still the least offensive to OT characters/plot–except for demystifying the Force of course.
- The Force Awakens
Arguably a better made reboot/sequel than all three prequels but still not really for me or my post 18-35 year old age demographic. Still nice seeing some old familiar faces again though probably should have been made 30 years ago. New characters mildly interesting, though plot a bit of a reheated souffle. Basically, meh…fair to middling entry IMO, though in light of recent political events in the US, posesses the timely theme that old evils never truly disappear, they just change their brand name.
- Revenge of the Sith
The whole damn point of the entire prequel trilogy but after the first two I couldn’t really find the energy to give a shit anymore. Could have been brilliant but due to the shaky foundations of TPM, the tragedy of 'lil orphan Ani ended up wasted potential. Again the whole turn to the dark side and lava fight was probably better left untold. And again shits on Yoda.
- Attack of the Clones
The worst. Unnecessary filler to pad out an unnecessary trilogy that actually makes me hate OT characters Obi-Wan, Boba Fett, C-3PO, R2-D2, the Emperor, and myself for wasting my life watching and obsessing over this shit. Once again, Yoda is shat upon–he really never should have appeared in these films at all.
Still after all the CGI disappointment and greenscreen abuse, like a battered and bruised junkie spouse I remain a SW fan and look forward with (a new) hope to The Last Jedi.
Hovercraft out. May the Fourth be with you all!
Good list. I would only switch TFA and RO. I feel like TFA has the potential to climb (or fall) in people’s rankings quite precipitously with the release of TLJ, just as TPM fell in my estimation after the release of AOTC. And we won’t even mention Episode IX…
Trevorrow: “It’s just us now. Rian Johnson can’t save you.”
I used to have tremendous respect for Bill Nye. Then I watched this and this.
It’s amazing how one can take credibility built up over decades and flush it all down the crapper in the blink of an eye.
Poor Rachael Bloom. I actually enjoyed her in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Ever since this I’ve considered Bill Nye to be a rather pretentious ass.
Maybe just because of the abomination posted by Duracell and whatever Han’s face is in that Sabacc pic.
It’s amazing how many commenters here respond in all seriousness to tongue-in-cheek suggestions.
(Forgive me, for I have Frinked)
I’ve always wanted to be a verb.
You shut your Frinkin’ mouth!
I look forward to seeing this 😃
That comparison is from the final render, version 8. I don’t think there’s a Vimeo link, just a Mega one: Star Destroyer over Maz’s Castle
^^Thanks for the input. I’m having difficulty in judging what’s good or bad with this scene in particular, since so much of our relationship with the Republic (audience and Resistance) is still up in the air at this point.
In other news, I know some people aren’t very happy with the stereo treatment of the Starkiller Destruction sequence, but lacking a 5.1 setup I’m unable to rectify the situation. Therefore, I thought that I would export each track of the scene separately as a mono wav so that it could be technically possible for someone with the correct setup to do a 5.1 mix.
https://mega.nz/#F!bZ0mFTjT!32f63DDvxmwjHpxcKHEo7w
I regret that it’s quite a mess, with 9 tracks in various states of disorganization. Being new to the process, I essentially threw SFX wherever they would go, so most of the tracks have explosion SFX at some point and the LFE channel doesn’t stay on the LFE track at all times.
I completely understand if nobody wants to tackle this, but at least now it’s out there if somebody wants to fix it up right. 😃
JEDIT @ Val:
I noticed the lack of clouds in the second Star Destroyer shot as well, but it’s like that in the original film. I suppose I could add some more clouds to the second shot…it’s something to consider.
As for the R2 scenes, it’s a delicate line between being too obvious and making the audience wonder why nobody noticed the blinking lights and making it too subtle and having people miss it. I opted for subtlety, since people bothered by the conveniences would probably be more observant anyway. My brother suggested a slow zoom in to the panel. That could work.
I also agree with you about the fanedit info, but it’s not a big deal for me either way.
As for the crawl, I still think the middle paragraph could use some work:
Episode VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS
Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the fallen Empire, plotting it’s return to power.
Suspecting that the First Order has developed a terrifying new weapon, General Leia Organa withdraws from the timid New Republic to mobilize a covert RESISTANCE.
Desperate for Luke’s help, Leia has sent her most trusted pilot on a daring mission to Jakku, where a clue has been discovered as to the whereabouts of the Last Jedi…
^True 😃
It’s amazing how many commenters here respond in all seriousness to tongue-in-cheek suggestions.
(Forgive me, for I have Frinked)
Four stars out of four potential stars.
You are weird.
His system was perfectly lucid to me, but then again I’m also weird.
May the 4th be with us, every one!
Fair enough. I won’t let it bother me 😃
Great news!
And is nobody gonna mention how awesome that new shot is???
And the image in that banner is tantalizing as well.
I was just thinking about an Anakin-centric edit of TPM that played as a children’s film, but thought ‘I’m sure someone has thought of that before, let’s check the backup data’. Lo and behold, there’s something possibly better.
Perhaps a crawl like this would do:
There’s trouble in the galaxy.
The Greedy Trader’s Guild is
invading the peaceful planet of
Naboo.
Along with human settlers, the
planet is home to a people called
the Gungans, who want nothing more
than to be left alone.
Only one Gungan stands between
the humans of Naboo and the evil
Trader army, and is about to run into
two stowaways fighting for peace in
the galaxy…
It then opens with the invasion and meeting of Jar Jar, and everything takes place much as it does in the theatrical version albeit with less plot detail until Coruscant. Once there, only the Anakin/Jar Jar scenes remain, so basically just Anakin in Padme’s quarters and some of his meeting with the council, followed by Jar Jar’s discussion with the Queen. Then they leave, have the final battle with much of the queen/Jedi bits excised, and end on the celebration as usual.
GASP! A RELEASE MONTH!!!
And the image in that banner is tantalizing as well.
As it is in Restructured right now, there’s an odd key shift in two places where the ‘Starkiller’ track has been inserted. As well, there’s no reaction from the Resistance, so here I’ve tried to remedy both issues:
https://vimeo.com/215916349
Password: leia
There’s still a discordant sound when Han falls into the pit, but it could be further tweaked.
Thoughts?
Yes, but there’s a difference between mystery and confusion/convenience. R2 randomly waking up at the end to give them the map was the latter, while the origin of Snoke (as much as I dislike him) is the former.
This is an odd case where the worldbuilding of Star Wars (hyperspace travel is a precise science) conflicts with the Star Wars ethos of ‘keep it simple and mysterious’. There’s also the matter of the villain’s plan. To take a villain seriously, their plan must make some amount of sense. Right now, Kylo’s plan seems nonexistent, because after he reads her mind, what then? Will he have to go into the map room and program planets and stars from his memory of her memory? Furthermore, if he was able to know in the forest that she’d seen the map, presumably he got a glimpse of it as well. What more would he need in the interrogation?
What would be ideal would be to have the chair read her brainwaves and generate a hologram of her memories that illuminates the darkened interrogation room.
https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/youtubevimeoetc-star-wars-video-finds/id/11772/page/46#1072239
File this under miscellaneous ideas that may or may not ever be implemented, but there must be some device in the Star Wars universe which could accurately translate mental imagery into computer data. Why else would Kylo think that Rey was all he needed to assemble a working map to Luke? Traveling through hyperspace requires precise calculations, so any map generated from Rey’s recollections must be pretty damn accurate to be safe. And I assume that the ‘final piece’ of the map isn’t in the archives of the empire, otherwise Kylo would have said so and R2 would have it in his backup data, so it’s not a simple matter of seeing the final planet on the red dotted line.
What would such a device look like? Well, perhaps there’s some sort of headgear involved on Kylo’s part, or perhaps the overcomplicated torture chair has this ability. Some lights shining onto the sides of Rey’s head would be sufficient for establishing that the contents of her mind are being read by computer. It certainly doesn’t need to be as complicated as this:
Thoughts? Am I overthinking this? I tend to do that.