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Saving Star Wars: The Special Edition Restoration Process

24 points by parenthesis 16y ago

malloreon 16y ago
I have Spike on tv in the background while browsing HN, and they're showing The Empire Strikes back, which they seem to do every 1-2 weeks. Perfect! I leave it there and read. A few minutes ago they showed the Bespin scenes in which Vader has short conversations with Boba Fett re: Han Solo (alive/dead, carbonite or no, etc). Fett's voice has a DISTINCT New Zealand accent. Looking on Wikipedia, indeed, Temuera Morrison, who played Fett in the prequel "movies," re-dubbed Fett's voice for the Special Editions. Aside from restoring the prints to usable quality, none of the rest of the changes should have happened.
pragmatic 16y ago
Star Wars needs to be saved from its creator. It was great, now all the prequels and the extra-super-bonus editions of the originals have tarnished a once nigh perfect franchise.
- ericb 16y ago
  I am utterly confused by the turn of events. The first trilogy convinced me Lucas was amazingly talented. The dialog was good, but funny. The characters were characters. I feel like the criticisms here are pretty valid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI I'm at a loss as to why what he produced in his 50's would be so much worse. Shouldn't Lucas be the old wizened sage--the Obi Wan of films by now? What happened?
  - rdoherty 16y ago
    Great question! I think the primary reason is the originals (4-6) were written/edited/produced by other people, while 1-3 were solely managed by Lucas. No one stands up to him now that he's established and revered. There's a great review of Star Wars Episodes 1 & 2 on YouTube that are absolutely worth the time to watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/19/FxKtZmQgxrI http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/19/FxKtZmQgxr... http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA
    - zandorg 16y ago
      Ah Redlettermedia! His review of the TNG Star Trek films is hilarious.
dhess 16y ago
Wow, fantastic essay, both for its technical and historical content. I worked at ILM during the digital restoration of the original trilogy, and most of the author's account is news to me.

24 points by parenthesis 16y ago

I have Spike on tv in the background while browsing HN, and they're showing The Empire Strikes back, which they seem to do every 1-2 weeks. Perfect! I leave it there and read. A few minutes ago they showed the Bespin scenes in which Vader has short conversations with Boba Fett re: Han Solo (alive/dead, carbonite or no, etc). Fett's voice has a DISTINCT New Zealand accent. Looking on Wikipedia, indeed, Temuera Morrison, who played Fett in the prequel "movies," re-dubbed Fett's voice for the Special Editions. Aside from restoring the prints to usable quality, none of the rest of the changes should have happened.

pragmatic 16y ago

Star Wars needs to be saved from its creator. It was great, now all the prequels and the extra-super-bonus editions of the originals have tarnished a once nigh perfect franchise.

ericb 16y ago
I am utterly confused by the turn of events. The first trilogy convinced me Lucas was amazingly talented. The dialog was good, but funny. The characters were characters. I feel like the criticisms here are pretty valid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI I'm at a loss as to why what he produced in his 50's would be so much worse. Shouldn't Lucas be the old wizened sage--the Obi Wan of films by now? What happened?
- rdoherty 16y ago
  Great question! I think the primary reason is the originals (4-6) were written/edited/produced by other people, while 1-3 were solely managed by Lucas. No one stands up to him now that he's established and revered. There's a great review of Star Wars Episodes 1 & 2 on YouTube that are absolutely worth the time to watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/19/FxKtZmQgxrI http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/19/FxKtZmQgxr... http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA http://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterMedia#p/u/0/CfBhi6qqFLA
  - zandorg 16y ago
    Ah Redlettermedia! His review of the TNG Star Trek films is hilarious.

dhess 16y ago

Wow, fantastic essay, both for its technical and historical content. I worked at ILM during the digital restoration of the original trilogy, and most of the author's account is news to me.