Should new footage of Prequel Characters be added to the Classic DVD's?

[bigbarada]

Originally posted by Maximillian Phokas
Adding extra footage to already existing films 20+ years old is ridiculous. This is nothing more than another money-making scheme cooked up by Lucas.

No, releasing a DVD set of the original versions, a DVD set of the SE's AND a DVD set of the enhanced versions would be a shameless money making scheme. Lucas knows that fans would buy multiple sets of the OT DVDs if he released them, thus he is holding off and waiting until he can "do them right." That is about as far from a "money-making scheme" as you can get.

Notice how many films release a barebones DVD and shortly afterwards a deluxe DVD of many movies (X-Men, Pearl Harbor)? That is blatantly milking public demand, fortunately GL refuses to go that route.

Anyways, back to the topic. No changes really need to be made to the OT for them to mesh with the prequels. I think we really only need to have the SE changes redone with improved technology and update more areas special-effects-wise. If he wants to film new scenes and add them in that is fine too. He knows what the entire story is intended to be, so I say let him tell it. Sure I would like to have the original versions on DVD just for historical preservation; but I can live with the changes as long as they mesh better visually.

[JediTricks]

Wow, look at "YES" go!

On behalf of the entire SSG moderating staff, I sincerely hope no confusion was caused by the switch to the new thread only a few minutes after the old one was created. The original vote count has been transferred over here.

[GroundskeeperWillie]

Lucas should definitely put the Classic (pre-Special Editions) versions on any DVD release--he should feel free to change the movies however he sees fit, but he does sort of owe it to the older fans who fell in love with 'our' version of SW twenty years ago. It's too bad that Lucas and company feel that they are making the movies 'better' with every addition--I'd like the freedom to pick and choose. The new Jabba in ANH sucks, but the new Wampa footage in ESB is pretty good. I'll always bow in deference to John Dykstra's dogfight sequence from ANH, but there's no question that the CGI stuff in the Special Edition looks better. Luke now screams like a little girl in ESB, which is a total betrayal of the guts it took to choose death over joining Vader and the Dark Side. There are many decisions Lucas made throughout all three of the Special Editions, not all of them bad, not all of them good. The beauty of DVD is, Lucas could easily give us a menu option that allows us to make our own version of the movies, altering whatever scenes we see fit from the choices he's given us to make our own 'perfect cut'. Why he doesn't do this is beyond me.

And until I can have Han shooting Greedo in the stomach BEFORE Greedo has a chance to fire, there'll only be one real version of the OT for me...

[Tycho]

I voted "No."

Padme should be dead and Luke's tragedy or lone-victory over evil (man against the world thing) would not be a tragedy if he

1) gets a holo-letter from his mother conveniently stored in R2 all these years and never mentioned until now.

2) sees her ghost when she's not a Jedi

3) if she's still alive and it negates all the EU, which has always been strictly controlled so these problems never arose. That's what editors jobs are for.

If your estranged father goes out and murders millions of people and you have to bring him to justice, it is not a happy movie, OK? If mom's been around, she ought to have done something about this when you were 2 years old. Don't tell me she's alive now!

Thanks for being there these past 22 years, Mom. If I were Luke, I'd set her on fire in the woods along with my good-for-nothing father.

Next, Bail Organa. If we learn who he is in Episode 3 and get to even like him (2 lines of dialogue in Palpatine's office doesn't cut it), we'll remember him when we think of Alderaan. Especially if there are scenes on Alderaan in Episode 3. We'll remember him, just as Leia is, while Tarkin is threatening her with killing him (and their whole planet). So we'll empathize with Leia - one of the main characters of the movie, feeling and remembering what she does. If we see Bail Organa, it takes away from one of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher's best moments in the movie.

It's totally unnecessary and even detrimental.

Not to mention if any OT characters are supposed to react to anything done with the prequel characters' appearances, they'll come off reacting to them as bad as Harrison Ford does when Greedo's shot goes off right into the wall next to him and the audio dubbing sounds bad, and he makes no indication like he was surprised he was shot at. There's a difference to being cool under fire and not actually being fired at. Greedo WAS going to at least mug Han for the money he owed Jabba, if not kill him anyway. By firing the only shot, Han actually doesn't murder him in cold blood. It's still self-defense, just the gray area.

But I wouldn't care if he murdered Greedo in cold blood. Through the friendships he makes in the OT, his character becomes a good guy and less of a jerk and mercenary. But I like that guy Han started as. Let's not soften him up. And if you're Lucasfilm, let's not deny that you are. If you want to be PC, be proud of it. Don't deny it or don't change it. It's that simple.

[Lord Tenebrous]

I have the same sentiment. I hate the TPM DVD because of the added podrace scenes. And the air taxi sequence isn't relevant to the plot.

It's just pretty pictures and timewasters, and I hate them. That's why I only watch the original versions of these movies. If I want Lucas' afterthoughts, I'd rather read a book on it.


If the only version of the DVD is the "Archival" edition, then I'll digitize my tapes so that the initial magic can never be eroded away...

[see3poman]

DON'T DO IT!!!!!! The idea of adding prequel character's to the classic trilogy is insulting to the fans who grew up with these movies. Ted Turner decided to add color to all the b/w movies in his catalog which included classics like "It's a Wonderful Life". Most of Hollywood objected, saying it destroyed the classic old movies. And if I recall, you George were one of those who protested the loudest. So what's the story Mr. Lucas??? It's ok to muck with your own films but not someone else's??? I refuse to watch the "Special Edition's" I LOVE the original's. Most star Wars fans know how the story goes, so who are you changing these films for? The unborn Star Wars fans of the future? Your loyal fans are here and now. We who grew up with Star Wars are who you should be pleasing. And when the next generation, or the one after that watch Star Wars, they will be glad you didn't change the original's anymore than you alreay have. It's one thing to clean up the visual's, and tweek the sound, but to add or remove character's is just plain Banta fodder.

[Jedi_Master_Guyute]

Eh, i dunno...i wanna see how it'll be done and so on and so forth.....i agree that bringing back Padme will be kinda goofy, unless it's done tastefully...like a flashback when Leia is talkin' about her, something like that...but none of that ghost seein' crap...i mean, good lawd, in that scene with the ghosts it's: Yoda, Anakin, Obi-Wan and now Padme...crap, bring in all the freakin' characteres who have croaked: Biggs, Greedo, Jabba, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, and i would LOVE to see a ghost version of everybody's favorite pilot: Jek Porkin's, maybe he'd be snackin' on some chips or drinkin' some brew with a Tie fighter pilot, being buddies...bring him on, i say!!! (in case nobody caught it, that was sarcasm) but, yeah, my two cents...

[Uncle Owen]

Originally posted by Brett3xmvpfavre
When did Leia say that Padme was dead? Also i think that there should be a lot of changes made to link the 2 trilogies together and make them flow easier. For example Obi-Wan says he was trained by Yoda, but obviously Qui Gonn Jin did that.

Not exactly....I think Clones clears that up nicely...It shows Yoda training the Younglings...So from a certain point of view, Yoda trains all the Jedi.

Owen Out!!

[GroundskeeperWillie]

To the people who are getting all riled up about this, there is NO REASON to make this a black-and-white issue. Yes, Lucas has the right to change his movies, and we, as fans, should have the right to watch whichever version we like. To argue that the old trilogy is the only way the movies should be watched is nonsense. To the person who posted saying 'who is he making these changes for, future generations of Star Wars fans?' Well, yes. I may appreciate the old Ray Harryhausen 'Jason and the Argonauts'-style movies, but I don't put them in the same bracket as Star Wars, and I don't think Melies' 'A Trip to the Moon' is all that great except from a historical perspective. Unless the movies are given an update (uniform CGI effects, etc), they run the risk of being 'those crappy old movies dad always tries to make us watch', and that would be pretty sad.

The point is, Lucas can do whatever he wants with the movies, PROVIDED he makes the original versions available as well. And in answer to Lucas' assertion in the latest issue of the Insider that the idea of putting the original versions on a DVD alongside the Special Editions would be like putting all of the early rough cuts on too, that's faulty logic. The original trilogy was released in the theater as is--that makes them 'official', at least official as of 1977, 1980, and 1983. They are not rough cuts, but finished films, and for an entire generation of fans, they are the versions we know and love. Why can't we have both? That's what DVD menus and bonus disks are for. Lucas has already raped us to the tune of $100s of dollars on different versions of the movies over the years so far--I don't imagine many people would be offended now if they were asked to shell out an extra $20 per movie for a bonus disk that included the original versions. I don't see what all the debate is for--can't we have it both ways?

[CaptainSolo1138]

Though the idea of Star Wars v3.0 is more often than not a dumb idea to me, there are a few things I think would be cool about it. That's why I voted "Maybe...". I think the movies are being tied together just fine. Saying that they're not sufficiantly tied together is a rather premature statement, seeing as E3 is still three (loooooong) years away. I think (if Mr. Lucas doesn't blow it) that with the release of E3 the movies will flow wonderfully. There's just something almost sacred about the OT. To use an oft borrowed cliche, it's like painting eyebrows on the Mona Lisa. If Lucas keeps up his "revisions", pretty soon it'll be a 15 hour movie. Hmmmmmmm.... six movies at 15 hours apiece is 90 hours of Star Wars. Maybe I should rethink my stance on this.