Caffeinated Clint
As if those special edition versions of the “Star Wars” trilogy – what with lumpy the wookie humping a CGI in the background of Jabba’s hut, Greedo climaxing before Han, and all – aren’t depressing enough to watch (those touch-ups really do take you out of the movie; it’s like a perfectly-good volkswagon with mazda astina headlights and a new bumper… that doesn’t quite fit) get this : George Lucas has been mucking with the “Star Wars” films even further. Yes, another blade to an already tender rectum.
The beard is tinkering and touching-up the six films for their Blu-ray release next month – but it ain’t all bad news.
The Digital Bits reports :
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 imagine those “new things” include someone wearing an extra ear (or in Princess Leia’s case, an extra bun) or some eye-sore of a special effect dry-humping the corner of a frame.
Greeeeeeeeat. Thankfully, sounds like most of the touch-up’s have been to Episodes 1-3.
…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.
But it’s not all tissue-needed news…
One of the biggest complaints people had about the Original Trilogy DVDs in particular was that the color timing was wildly uneven. As a result, lightsaber colors varied from shot to shot. Previously bright saber blades became dull. I’m told that all of this has been fixed. Particular attention was paid to properly correcting the color space throughout the films. And I’m told that not only have all the saber colors have been restored to their intended hue, their bright white “cores” have been restored as well. up and other little “fixes” have been applied as well. Here’s an example of one such fix done to Episode V. For years, fans have complained that in this shot of the Wampa attacking Luke’s Tauntaun, you could see part of the puppeteer’s arm because the costume didn’t extend quite far enough…
The site also reports that the films look great on Blu-ray and the extras package is worth killing an Imperial Guard for.
