skyjedi2005

xhonzi said:

I also think the ysalamiri aren't on the same terms as midichlorians.  Yes, they are both hard to spell... But if the force is the energy of all living things, then the ysalamiri are like an anti-matter.  They are anti-force.  To me, that's not any more or less mystical than what Yoda was talking about.

You mean just like how the Vong came from a nearby Galaxy and couldn't be found in the force, in the new jedi order series.

Funny thing is you can get VHD discs for next to nothing but buying a refurbished player, they are rare will cost you somewhere between 2000 dollars and up.  Finding and buying an X0 laserdisc player is far cheaper.

The last player i saw on sale had the 3-D  equipment so sold for 5 grand plus like 20 movies.  And i think Friday the 13th 3D and jaws 3D.

I think VHD was a japan only format and was popular for music videos and anime amongst other things.

So she needed to be on drugs to make it through the good star wars movies. 

I wonder what people on the prequels had to be on to survive those horrible movies where most of it was made in post and the actor is standing in front of a green background,lol.

I mean i would not blame  Hayden if he got baked every day before arriving on set just to avoid falling asleep from boredom, Lucash goes faster and more intense when 90% of the movie is not even in existence when they shoot the video.

It would also explain a lot if everyone from Christopher Lee, Liam Neeson and terence stamp for showing up on valium.  I also bet Portman and Mcgregor were stoned all the time.

The truth is probably no one on the set of three prequels was on drugs, but it sure makes the movies far more interesting to look for excuses for the horribleness.

Carrie's cocaine diet was never a secret look how much weight she gained when she got off the stuff.  The Same thing happened to Kirstie Alley.  Look at her in star trek II versus now when she is clean of drugs.

Interesting it seems the 2:35:1 version has the most picture information.  Most animated films are done in 4:3 format and have the top and bottom chopped off to create a letterbox or anamorphic theater version.

There are obviously some films composed in widescreen for animation like the Studio Ghibli Films, pre ghibli topcraft like Naausicaa.  And of course limited Disney films were composed for widescreen viewing before the modern era.

Like Sleeping Beauty being composed for 70mm and being wider than 2:35:1.

This and monkey king have beautiful  hand drawn cel animation.  With all that is known of anime in the west i am surprised Chinese animation remains unknown, or Korean.  Today Singapore animation is used in a great deal of japan animation and the US but the quality is so poor to compare it to this would be criminal.

I was under the misconception that Lucas was a good writer and director, when the star wars prequels proved that childhood ignorance to be incorrect.  Now i understand what people mean when they say "Luca$ the hack strikes again!"

The making of star wars, based on the unpublished work of Charlie Lippincott.

Rinzler edited it for publication.  He may have authored the book but the raw interviews and accounts of the making from 1976 on was done by Charlie.

One of the unsung heroes of star wars success, he was there in 1976 at the world science fiction convention to promote the film.

I still think Charles Lippincott deserved a co author credit.

Its like Lucas taking credit for the authorship of the star wars trilogy.  When other people wrote them.

digitalfreaknyc said:

Just to confuse things, if you will, AG is now coming to Blu-ray. ;)

Oh goodie, another blu ray i can boycott for not being the theatrical version of the film free of cgi, digital edits and a new color timing.

It will probably be a new DTS mix too.  Screw Lucash, thanks to him i have to hold onto laserdisc to watch the real versions of the star wars trilogy, the real versions of graffiti and thx.

It would be cool to see what Nathan Hamill thinks of the prequels, versus the real trilogy his dad starred in that Lucas has since twice, desecrated, with a third desecration to come in 3-D.

A special commemorative hardcover is going to be published with a new thrawn short story by Zahn.  It will include annotations.

Cover price set at 30 bucks USA, but through Amazon will probably be able to get it for less.

Instead of a new book by Zahn as we were promised we get this.  I guess better than nothing.

I think they already put out the anniversary hardback for dark empire as a trilogy set.

Remember the star wars 90's revival before star wars was destroyed, when we actually looked forward to the special edition and prequels,lol.

I won't be seeing them in 3-D.

If the hobbit is filmed in 3-D which is video i will stay home. The same with star trek 12.

That video is proof beyond a doubt of Lucas destruction of star wars with the 2004 set.  Even with the bad changes and cgi at least they got the soundtrack and color timing right in 1997.

Me personally i will only ever watch the original versions and every now and again i might want to watch the 1997 version to recall my senior year in High School, but the 2004 set is just a bad video edit, Lucas personal fanedit.

It would have been nice to see the original intended re-release with cleaned up soundtrack, picture and opticals, but with no added cgi.

A B C said:

In N° 1 position, I think it may be "The Planets", by Holst.

The Title theme was actually believe it or not, mars the bringer of war.

One piece of temp track music which pretty much made it into the score intact, is a nod to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho when Han lifts up the storage cargo containers they are hiding in.  From the score by Bernard Herrmann.

You know what i find totally ridiculous about this and, how insane it is.  Is that Lucas spent 30 million to have jar jar step in poo in 3-D but he tells the media he can't afford to restore the original theatrical star wars trilogy, or afford to do the live action tv show,lol.

xhonzi said:

We all know it was evil... but why was that again?

All answers are welcome, but something deeper than "The Emperor was evil, therefore the Empire was evil" would be awesome.

All Gov't's first task is self preservation.  What was it about the Empire that made it so evil?

George Lucas.

It was the Harry N Abrams publisher's edition of the tolkien book with stills and concept art.

I also remember my recollection of the art on the record of the films dialogue and sound effects, there were 2 versions a complete version and a edited version of this LP.

The concept art looks a little different from the finished film, rather like colored storyboards.  They were produced in the USA, but the animated program was produced by the Japanese studio Topcraft, who also animated Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, and thundercats amongst other things including return of the king, rotk also had french animators as well.  Produced by 3 countries,lol.

Don't feel bad that they cannot get a perfect edition of the hobbit on home video though, look at what the fans of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings have had to suffer through.  The only open matte version of that film is on a rare japanese laserdisc with burned in subtitles.  The Vhs, the DVD and Blu ray and all do not give an adequate version of the film as seen and heard in theaters.

At least the Hobbit and Return of the King were available on CED.  Though the video was about the same quality as the vhs, if not worse.

Actually these screen captures make it apparent the color definition of the CED is somewhat better than the vhs and gives an idea of the original colors.  The funny thing is the quality of the return of the king ced is atrocious going by the pictures.

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/tolkien/hobbit.html

Also here is an article with info on the original color that they wanted while making it.  Described as monochrome like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/books/tolkien-hobbitani.html

If that is the case then the bright disney like color job on the DVD is wrong.

The best source for the tv broadcast has to be a 16mm print if you can find one and afford it, and have the screening equipment.  Otherwise the VHS is the only version with the real color timing intact.  The DVD color saturation matched the cels but the colors don't i once had a book with the artwork from this film.

From what i have gathered the DVD was from the negative and so the original color timing was lost, also the sound track was taken from an earlier more pristine mix which was not the final and was missing things.

Reminds me of Rhino's original transformers release.

muddyknees2000 said:

I was very dissapointed with the DVD that was released for this film as they have gone and mucked about with much of the color, and the sound. Many sound effects were changed or simply left out. I had a good condition vhs copy transferred onto DVD....but its quality is much lower than the remastered version picture-wise. I was wondering if there was anyone out there who would be willing to do an Adywan style re-edit of this particular film, or if its already been done. I am currectly working on DVD artwork that is much darker than the overly cheery garbage  they made for the official DVD and will gladly supply it to anyone who might like to undertake a re-edit of this film...

I think what you are looking for is called the Hi Fi hobbit.  It is up on youtube and has been floating around online for about a year on the torrent sites but apparently is hard to get a hold of the DVD.

Here is the first part on youtube anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcllH6Kslw8

Okay so its the DVD video with the colors changed, but at least this person ripped the vhs audio and spliced it with the DVD audio.

Can someone write a book about how Lucas has destroyed star wars, or make a documentary called George Lucas Sucks, or Luca$ the hack strikes again.

msycamore said:

Well, I don't know which version you have, skyjedi but my R1 DVD of American Graffiti have a dolby 2.0 surround track not a 5.1 track. I know the audio was in Dolby for the first time in '78, it even says so on the posters of the re-release but are you sure the initial '73 release was in mono? I thought they just reworked the original 4-track stereo into Dolby because it was the new popular format back then.

You are right the DVD is in 2.0 and probably is the theatrical audio, from the re-release if you discount the bad new color job and cgi you could pretend it is the real version of the film.

As for Graffiti i now for a fact some prints were in mono, even if it was mixed in stereo.  Lucas insisted all prints be stereo but the studio did not want that as a lot of theaters at the time were mono equipped and the studios thought stereo was a gimmick.  I think it was in an old Lucas interview from the late 60's but again i am relying on memory.

ChainsawAsh said:

skyjedi2005 said:

I was looking forward to the Hobbit but looks like it will now never happen, or PJ will film it on a soundstage in europe which would be lame.

It looks like The Hobbit is moving forward, as a 2-film adaptation...

...and it'll be 3D.  Which makes me angry, as I was really hoping for it to be shot on film, like LOTR.

If it is shot on video then i am boycotting the movies since they are not films.

IS their a good fan version of Jedi that is essentually the 2004 minus Hayden as the ghost ?

Not sure but i think ADigitalMan restored Shaw but made a lot of other edits so its not really a virtual theatrical reconstruction like Adywan's Empire Strikes back.

What about episode I and II, then episode IV and V, followed by III and VI.

msycamore said:

skyjedi2005 said:

So the blu ray of THX is in DTS and the movie was never even released in DTS.  The real version never was in Dolby as far as i know, but academy mono.  So what if the directors cut dvd was in 5.1 that was not Walter Murch's awesome mix.

Not sure if a re-release ever came out after star wars 77 in Dolby. There is no info to confirm or deny.  Though i bet the directors cut theatrical was in Dolby 5.1, or DTS.

American Graffiti's original mix is not on the DVD either, so Lucas has committed more alleged crimes against cinema than Star Wars.

But why would they include the original audio mix when the original cut of the film isn't included?

As far as I know the audio mix on the American Graffiti DVD is the original Dolby mix for the 1978 theatrical re-release and that is the only cut of the film that's been released on home video so far, along with the additional tweaks done to the opening scene in the nineties.

If it was the dolby mix for graffiti then why was it in 5.1 ?  It should be in 2.0 stereo.  The true theatrical mixes are pre dolby one is academy mono and the other stereo. The same mix really and it was always intended to be in stereo but the initial first release prints were in monaural.

At the time they were lucky it got released at all even with the trims.  Universal Wanted to sell it as a tv movie because Ned Tannen thought it was a turkey.

What is this a new hope you speak of don't you mean star wars ?

I am hoping there is no revisionist garbage and will compare it against the old making of book.

I mean what will George say next.

I always intended to have Empire shot in 3-D video, lol.

Star Wars 1977

The Empire Strikes Back 1980

Return of the jedi 1983.

Watch in that order, fairly simple.