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For A More Civilized Age

George Lucas May Be “Revisiting” the Star Wars Movies For the Blu-ray Release

by Susana Polo | 3:32 pm, August 24th, 2011


I think it’s safe to say that we all understood that there would be some improvements made to the Star Wars trilogies when they finally got a Blu-ray release this year. Color correction, gaffes edited out, widescreen widened, sound clarified, you know, actual remastering, not the stuff that George Lucas seems to consider “remastering.” And, in fact, The Digital Bits has an extensive list of improvements that Lucasfilm has made to each trilogy for the Blu-ray release, gathered by taking an actual look at the disks that will be going into the set. Which just so happens to include one significant change to Episode I, and possibly other things.

Now, don’t get too excited, it’s not like George cut out Jar Jar. He put in a CGI Yoda.

Once again, George has apparently added a few new “surprises” into these films. I don’t know what they are and didn’t get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be “new things to notice” when we watch the films. I think we can safely assume that one of them will be the new all-digital Yoda in Episode I. Way back when Episode III was released on DVD, ILM digital effects supervisor Pablo Helman confirmed to me that the puppet Yoda in Episode I was replaced with a digital version to better match his appearance in Episodes II and III. In fact, the Episode III DVD extras includes a clip of the Episode I digital Yoda. However, this Blu-ray set is really the first opportunity we’ll have to see it in full. What the other changes to these films may be, I have no idea, but I suspect there will be no lack of blog posts on this very subject within hours of the first discs becoming available to fans.

Bleeding Cool, on the other hand, was told almost two weeks ago that there had been no alterations of significance in the versions of the films etched onto the Blu-ray set, so there’s some confusion as to who’s got ahold of the right information.

But who could believe that George Lucas would take the opportunity of Star Wars being released on a new format to re-re-re-re-master even the content of his films? Pfft.

(Story via Topless Robot pic via Penny Arcade.)

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  • Kim Tink

    It looks like they’re fixing a lot of small things, so if you’re a stickler for quality these would be a good buy. I’m thinking about getting them simply because I’ve never owned a physical copy of the series (don’t kill me!) and these look like a very good quality take to own.

    Also, bringing Yoda from Ep1 in sync with the other two doesn’t seem that terrible a thing, if they’re going to be fixing things anyway.

  • http://www.facebook.com/SmokeyPSD Paul Down

    the replacement of the puppet has been known for a bit in episode 1, though I guess more will eventuate closer to release.

    Regardless, I won’t be buying a further altered release that’s for sure. I want the opposite happening not more. I just picked up the 1st season of The Twlight Zone on bluray. It’s painstakingly restored and looks tremendous. Done from the original prints. Other films have given devotees options of altered versions and originals as another point. George Lucas however feels that people who grew up with these films are deluded in thinking that the original modelers deserve respect and we must grow to love his new expensive, digital splashes all over the frame.

    End rant/

  • Anonymous

    I can’t completely tell if the author is irritated by Lucas tweaking his movies
    more or not. Does a CGI Yoda for Episode I really bother anyone? The
    puppet Yoda in that movie looked like crap anyway – and I mean that in
    comparison not only to the CGI Yoda in II and III, but to the original
    puppet Yoda in V and VI.

  • http://twitter.com/MightySquid Kate Falanga

    No.

  • Anonymous

    Whatever. I’m so over Lucas and Star Wars. I won’t watch any version but the 1995 THX VHS editions, though they’re fullscreen, since I was stupid when I was young. I would give anything to find a widescreen edition of these VHS tapes and then transfer them to DVD myself.

  • http://amidstdancers.blogspot.com/ Shard Aerliss

    Episodes I-III… meh.

  • Anonymous

    Bah.

  • http://www.facebook.com/SmokeyPSD Paul Down

    It’s actually the same puppet. That’s why yoda looks so unheathly. I myself couldn’t careless what Lucas does to the prequels, he could goto town on them for the next 20 years. I care about the original trilogy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/SmokeyPSD Paul Down

    Try and pick up the limited DVD releases which have the unaltered theatrical versions. The transfer has had nothing done to them but it would be better and last longer than your VHS. Non anamorphic but it is widescreen. and upscales pretty decently on a big TV as even though they were lazy they didn’t do anything off with colouring, digital processing or anything. That’s a tip from me as a purist.

  • Anonymous

    Could you provide a source? The two puppets look completely different, so I’m having a hard time believing they are the same. It’s not a matter of ‘the puppet looks raggedy’, it’s that it looks like a different, poorly-crafted puppet. The face is just messed up, mostly.

  • Anonymous

    Could you provide a source? The two puppets look completely different, so I’m having a hard time believing they are the same. It’s not a matter of ‘the puppet looks raggedy’, it’s that it looks like a different, poorly-crafted puppet. The face is just messed up, mostly.

  • Anonymous

    Could you provide a source? The two puppets look completely different, so I’m having a hard time believing they are the same. It’s not a matter of ‘the puppet looks raggedy’, it’s that it looks like a different, poorly-crafted puppet. The face is just messed up, mostly.

  • Anonymous

    Could you provide a source? The two puppets look completely different, so I’m having a hard time believing they are the same. It’s not a matter of ‘the puppet looks raggedy’, it’s that it looks like a different, poorly-crafted puppet. The face is just messed up, mostly.

  • Anonymous

    tinyurl.com/2df4ccp

  • http://www.smallfish-bigpond.com/ Kerensky97

    I agree 100% about the Ep1 Yoda.  It was the odd man out from the series and the later CGI versions were better than the googly-eyed puppet.

    After reading the list of changes it seems that this time they actually fixed things that needed it (barring any unforseen surprises).  And the idea of finally getting all the deleted scenes for the original trilogy makes this set a “must buy” in my opinion.

  • http://www.facebook.com/SmokeyPSD Paul Down

    Frank Oz himself. Sorry don’t have a link on hand but the puppetry material wasn’t built to last. It had morphed and sagged from temperature changes and such. They restored yoda as best they could but it still looks… Odd

  • Anonymous

    I hate seeing black boxes around TIE fighters flying through space! So, I would except that the unaltered theatrical versions aren’t (obviously) remastered like the THX versions. 

  • http://twitter.com/ltdementis Stanley Kramer

    Will they be CGIing Hayden Christensen into someone more talented?  This is the only fix I care about.

  • Anonymous

    If that’s true, then they really just shouldn’t have tried to use the puppet. Again, it looked terrible, even with their attempted restorations, if that is indeed the case. So yeah, very happy they’re CGI-ing that crap out.

  • Randy Bounder

    Perfect comic to illustrate the point.  So to speak.

    Love Penny Arcade.  The performed a similar service for old school Transformers fans here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/07/17/

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