Every day, new people are born into this world. There’s a good chance most of these people have parents, and there’s an even better chance that their parents watched at least one Star Wars trilogy while growing up. These new parents are faced with all kinds of important decisions during their children’s formative years, none more divisive and controversial than the one I’m going to address today: What order do you show your offspring the Star Wars saga in?* Do you stick to the chronology in which they were made, dictating the order be episodes IV through VI followed by I to III? Or does one honour the ‘logical’ sequence of I through VI? I have come to the conclusion that neither of these billings are satisfactory, and the best solution is to use the zig zag narrative structure popular in today’s storytelling (my theory is that this was caused by a generation of writers heavily influenced by House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ ).
Those stuck with this task can now rest easy, as I’ve done their thinking for them. Come with me as I show you the path and why it must be this way.
Ten years ago to this day, author R. A. Salvatore killed Chewbacca. More specifically, his book Vector Prime was published, a Star Wars novel in which Chewbacca is consigned to an ignominious death on a planet succumbing to a killer poison bug swarm. (Lest you think this absurd, be warned that this is amongst the more plausible phenomena in Star Wars fiction.)
For most people, Chewbacca’s death is news even now, and that’s to be expected. There have been hundreds of Star Wars books published, and many people, even those who liked the original Star Wars trilogy, are eager to dismiss the books as the purview of the especially deranged and obsessive. I would place myself in this camp, except that when I learned that Chewie had been killed, it bothered me.
It was in fact 2003 when I found out, four years after the fact, and by then there wasn’t really anything to be said. I was late to the party. A ten year anniversary, though, seems like as good an excuse as any to devote about two thousand words too many to the subject of Chewbacca’s demise.
Star Wars: Uncut is the ultimate fan collaboration project, the aim of which is to attempt to recreate the entirety of Star Wars: A New Hope one fifteen second clip at a time. Anyone can participate, all you have to do is pick a scene, film it and upload it. Be sure to check out the trailer to see some of the awesome submissions they’ve received so far.
When all the scenes have been collected, they will be edited together to form a completely remixed film. Colour me intrigued, I may have to submit a clip myself.
As many Star Wars fans know, Jedi are able to manipulate the force in many ways. One of those ways is using the force to move extremely fast: force speed they call it. The climactic three-way (hot) battle from The Phantom Menace would have been a perfect time for Obi-Wan Kenobi to use the force in such a way. Sadly, he didn’t, and Darth Maul had his way with Qui-Gon Jinn. But what if Obi-Wan had used force speed?
I’m trying to think of a way to include more sexual innuendo in this post, but I’m drawing a blank. Something, something… double-sided lightsaber. This stuff writes itself!
I have been collecting toys and comics for most of my life. While I have been able to collect entire series of comics, the same cannot be said for toys. I would start with a series that I thought was really cool, but before too long I would get bored and move on. I have shelves full of toys from movies, comics and video games, but none of them are a complete series. Then I saw them. I thought for sure this would be the series that would finally break my pattern of not following through with my collecting.
It started innocently enough. They were cute and chunky and reminded me of my childhood in a way no other toy line had been able to do. I picked them up and took them home and made room for them on one of my shelves. They were the first wave of the Star Wars Mighty Muggs and each one of them had their own spot among the rest of my toy collection. Boba Fett glared at Han Solo, while Chewbacca covertly aimed his crossbow in protection of his friend. The lone Stormtooper looked a bit awkward though, with his gleaming white suit and no one issuing orders, however it wouldn’t be long before they had company.
The next wave arrived, and with it confusion. I wasn’t sure why they would make a figure of Mace Windu before Princess Leia, it seemed to me that she should be one of the first figures issued. Instead, she showed up in the third wave along with Lando Calrissian and two others I was not expecting: Jango Fett and Commander Cody. Commander Cody who was that? I had to look him up to even figure out who he was. I was beginning to feel like I’d been tricked into buying them because of how cool the first wave was and started thinking that maybe I should stop. Then I remembered that I wanted to finish at least one toy line and I knew I was doomed.
The figures were expanding weekly and I was running out of room for them. Not only was I buying these things without knowing who they were or what part they played in which movie, I was becoming obsessed with making sure I had all of them. After the sixth wave, I had 26 of these guys on top of my kitchen cupboards. It got to a point where I had to get risers so that I could see each one. And then things got weird: I decided to organize them according to which movie they appeared, beginning with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and finishing off with Return of the Jedi. There was some bickering as to where Asajj Ventress should go, since she wasn’t in any of the movies, so I ended up pairing her with Clone Wars Anakin. I’m still unsure about that decision.
I have run out of room and I also have run out of patience. There is no Slave Leia, or Jabba the Hutt or even a Padme. There isn’t even a Tauntaun either, despite the fact that there are both Luke and Han in Hoth gear and a Wampa! I am done with these figures. I cannot invest any more time, energy or money collecting these toys. I have 32 of them sitting on top of my kitchen cupboards and are a constant source of entertainment for my friends. Enough is enough; I am officially throwing in the towel and not going to finish this toy line either. I give up.
Oh no. I just found Bossk and Biggs Darklighter.
And those are just the Star Wars Mighty Muggs! Hasbro also makes Marvel Universe, Transformers, G.I. Joe and Indiana Jones Might Muggs.
The Binary Bansai has unearthed a rare hour long interview with Star Wars creator George Lucas from 1971. Filmed hot on the heels of his first feature film THX 1138, the piece entitled George Lucas: Maker of Films features a 27 year old Lucas discussing the movie industry, film theory and his hopes for the future with media theorist Gene Youngblood.
Footage of Lucas at this age is extremely rare; it’s even more rare to see the man who would make Star Wars and Indiana Jones being so candid. You have to give Lucas credit for following through, even in 1971 the guy knew exactly what he wanted: independence from the studio system. Francis Ford Coppola and Lucas tried to achieve this independence with their company American Zoetrope, but the commercial failure of THX 1138 nearly ruined them. The irony of this failure is of course that Coppola was then forced to make a little film called The Godfather to make ends meet.
They also discuss some of Lucas’s early student films, there is so much potential in them. While no one can argue that Lucas has been a visionary and clearly been very successful, you can easily make the case that he never lived up to his potential as a maker of films. He hasn’t made an original film since Star Wars; his greatest success, but probably not his best film. It’s a really fascinating interview, to see where Lucas came from and now to see where he is. But who am I to judge the man, he has made good films (THX 1138, American Graffiti), has his studio independence and has billions of dollars. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the man behind the beard.
“Han Solo, P.I” is the creation of YouTube user TheCBVee. The video is a mashup of Star Wars and the 1980’s TV show Magnum, P.I. starring Tom Selleck. Oh, internet you never cease to amaze me.
The Star Wars spoof is a painstaking shot for shot re-imagining of the original Magnum, P.I. intro sequence, as you can see from this side by side comparison. The irony is that Tom Selleck was Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s first choice to play Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and not Harrison Ford.
The first trailer for BioWare’s upcoming massively-multiplayer game Star Wars: The Old Republic debuted at E3 today. The Canadian developer previously developed the single player Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic role-playing games.
Is it me or is that trailer almost better than all of the Star Wars prequels combined? Regardless, I’m sure Bioware has a treat in store for us. The last massively-multiplayer Star Wars game, Star Wars: Galaxies was considered a major disappointment by many, myself included. Although Bioware has never made an MMORPG, they’re a very capable developer. I’m confident that this game will be a superior product.
When I was 10 years old my mother introduced my brother and me to Ray Harryhausen. We watched Jack the Giant Killer, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts and other films featuring Harryhausen’s amazing stop-motion effects. By this point in my life I was already well versed in the works of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, but I had no idea of the connection between the Harryhausen films and the Lucas/Spielberg movies I so loved. I became obsessed with stop-motion animation and special effects in general for a period in my youth. I would mold things out of clay, building massive models out of Lego and destroy them both respectively. Sadly, I never realized I could film any of my creations, nor did I have the means at my disposal to do so. I watched uncounted hours of Movie Magic on the Discovery Channel; a show that gave viewers a behind the scenes look at the effects that went into Hollywood blockbusters of the early 90’s.
From watching Movie Magic I learned about the lineage of some of the great special effects pioneers, specifically those specializing in stop-motion effects. Thomas Edison, or more likely those he employed were some of the earliest stop motion pioneers. Early stop motion techniques were present in Edison Company films as early as 1902! Willis O’Brien, the man responsible for the stop motion effects in 1933’s King Kong got his start animating movies for Thomas Edison’s company. O’Brien would in turn train and later collaborate with Ray Harryhausen, the man who inspired generations of filmmakers and effects artists. One such filmmaker and artist was Phil Tippett, who after seeing The 7th Voyage of Sinbad as a child became determined to get into the special effects business. Tippett would go on to do all of the stop motion effects in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. Directors like James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro and Sam Raimi have all cited O’Brien and Harryhausen as influences and many eventually went on to employ Tippett on their films. Even today stop motion is still used in film and television, most notably Robot Chicken and South Park.
Recently, I’ve once again become enamoured with stop motion animation. Not just the creature effects of O’Brien, Harryhausen and Tippett, but the obscure and experimental uses of this effects technique as well. Pinscreen animation, cut-out animation, puppet animation, etc. ; there are so many ways in which stop motion effects can be used and employed. I’ve assembled a list of some of the most important, impressive and interesting moments in the history of stop motion animation.
A new trailer for ‘77 has hit the net. ‘77 (previously known as 5-25-77, the release date of the original Star Wars) is a coming of age story that focuses on a geeky high-school student and aspiring filmmaker named Pat (John Francis Daley of TV’s Freaks and Geeks). Like many people, Pat’s life changed on seeing Star Wars for the first time, something I’m sure all of us dorks can relate to.
The film is partially autobiographical: Pat is based on the director, Patrick Read Johnson (writer and producer of Dragonheart). ‘77 doesn’t yet have a release date or distributor, but should hopefully be hitting the film festival circuit in the coming months.
Artist and Blogger Josh Shaffer of StrangeGods.net has drawn an excellent series of drawings featuring Star Wars characters using the microblogging service Twitter. The series also features Sith Lord Darth Vader and everyone’s favourite bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Today is May 4th, which means that it’s Star Wars Day, May the Fourth be with you! Get it? Ughh… that wasn’t funny when my high school computer science teacher said it, and it still isn’t. In any event to celebrate Star Wars Day, I Heart Chaos has posted the original theatrical trailers for the six Star Wars movies.
I can only imagine how amazing it would have been to see the trailer for Empire Strikes Back in theatres, I’m sure it would have been so awesome that I would have lost control of my bowels. Seeing the trailers one after the other also helps to remind us how much better the original films were, and how badly Episode I and Episode II really sucked. I still enjoy Revenge of the Sith despite all of its major shortcomings. All I know is that I would pay good money to see a feature length version of this Return of the Jedi/Rush Hour mashup.
Recent Comments