Happy Birthday Star Wars (today!)
 

With the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars coming up on May 25, I started digging through my video collection and watching a bunch of the peripheral releases.

Among the various fan-edits and rarities compilations, three brilliant fan-made documentaries stand out, and I thought this would be a good place and time to share them with you, my friends.

So the first two or three geeks to PM me will get DVD-R copies of "Deleted Magic", "Building Empire" and "Returning To Jedi".

"Deleted Magic," created by Garrett Gilchrist, uses outtake footage from many sources to create an entirely new version of "Star Wars".

"Building Empire" and "Returning To Jedi", both created by "Jambe Davdar", are more documentary-style films on the second and third movies in the original trilogy.

To date, none of these movies have incurred the wrath of Lucas or the RIAA, probably because they've only been distributed by fans through trades, with no money changing hands. If you are one of the lucky two (or three), please pass them along to any other geek in your life that might enjoy them.

*raises hand*

Is anyone else here going to Celebration IV in downtown L.A.? I'm going to be there Weds - Mon (May 23 - 28) letting my freak flag fly.

Why was May 4 listed as "Star Wars Day" on my calendar?

I was seriously considering going to CIV, since it's in town and all ... and always otherwise took place in other cities, while I was in the Star Wars line that I'd rather die than leave.


But, now that it's come to it .... I am just not in the mood for a Con ... and I'm simply not as into Star Wars as I once was. The second trilogy both revived my love intensely ... and wore it out of me.


I hope to be able to find some fun screening of Star Wars with some friends somewhere, sometime around the anniversary. And I've been saving watching the dreaded Christmas Special for the very first time, which I'm going to make a special anniversary treat (if I can sit through the whole thing).

Oooh, and I'll probably watch Star Wait again.

If the cops and the geeks start fighting downtown during the celebration. I swear I will use Jar Jar as a human shield....

OK, I've now promised 5 sets to some lucky LoTers, so I have to cut off the offer. I encourage those that get them to throw viewing parties as soon as possible (and invite me).

I'd love to see Jar Jar take a tear gas canister to the head :evil:

And FWIW, my favorite SW peripheral is Troops

Because:

May the Fourth...Be With You!

Yeah, I know.
:D

I love Troops, too! Hilarious!

I love Troops. Unfortunately, the first version that was released is no longer officially available - the director was forced to alter the soundtrack to remove the "Bad Boys" theme (from Cops).

There's a great fan DVD called Star Wars "Spoofs and Bonus Features" by a guy who goes by the name ADigitalMan. It includes the video of Troops from the Total Movie DVD (great video quality) with three separate audio options.

It also includes: George Lucas in Love; Hardware Wars; The Muppet Show w/ Mark Hamill; That 70's Show: A New Hope; R2-D2: Beneath The Dome; Evan Mather's Short Films:Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars/Godzilla vs. Disco Lando/Kung Fu Kenobi's Big Adventure/Les Pantless Menace; Crazy Watto; Episode III Teaser Trailer; All three 1997 SE Trailers; The Making of the SE; Kenner Vintage Toy Commercials

It's worth seeking out.

^ Hahaha, that's a great line-up o' stuff!




One fan-film that really tickled me, besides Troops, and I've no idea where to find it, is a short called "Tie-tanic" that mashed up Star Wars with the James Camerson shipsinking movie, to hysterical effect.

What? No Thumb Wars?

Teehee, thanks Matt.

Slightly related - Brokeback Titanic

OK, that was just painful. But I like it!

:D

:)

I finally got a watchable copy of the Donny and Marie Star Wars spoof circa 1977. Holy crap!

Kris Kristofferson as Han Solo, Paul Lynde as Grand Moff Tarkin, Redd Foxx as Obi Wan Kenobi, Thurl Ravenscroft as Darth Vader, Donny as Luke, and Marie as Leia (Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew as C3PO and Chewbacca respectively).

It's as painful as the Holiday Special, yet since it's a spoof (and only 12 minutes long) it's easier to take.

There's a (crappy quality) cap of it on youtube. It's probably all you need.

Hahahaha!!! Damn, I can't mojo you!! I'll give you "post" mojo, then! :snap: I once saw something very similiar to this, but instead of a dancing Hammer, it was Tom Cruise jumping up & down on Oprah's couch. Heehee!

I first read this thread as "Happy Birthday, Star Trek" (yes, I'll admit I still watch the original show when it's on TV, and it's on Sunday nights at midnight on NBC.) However, I love Star Wars, too!

Heavens to Betsy, I'd give my eye teeth to see that, mousepod!! Off to youtube I go! I'm sitting here DYING over the casting choices of Redd Foxx & Paul Lynde. That's just fabulous!

The Holiday special was way painful, but I love anything that sucks so good! Haha! :D

I don't think I've ever used quotes for my signature from the same person twice in a row before.

I can't wait till I can get home to YouTube and ChairFall.

Happy Birthday Star Wars! :cheers:

I was two weeks old when it came out, and living in Israel. My family story on this (which you may have heard already, my apologies) is that it wasn't in Israel for a while. Before it showed up there, my family was already moving to the US. My dad came over to get a job in order to procure visas for my mom and I (my mom isn't a US citizen). He finally saw Star Wars months after it came out and was blown away. When my mom and I finally did come over, one of the first things he did was take my mom to see it. The movie supposedly flopped in Israel.

For my own part, whenever it was on TV, we always watched it. It was something that's always been around. I couldn't imagine a world without it AND the sequels. They're a part of my childhood, and a part of my hardwired fantasies.

Whatever awful things happened afterward, I'll always be grateful for the Trilogy, and the wonder I still feel when watching it for the billionth time.

Happy birthday to Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Threepio, Artoo, Obi-Wan, and Vader...you're still the gold standard, and we still love you.

The only movie my Dad ever went to see with me in a theatre.

I never saw the original version of the movie on an INDOOR big screen - only saw it at the drive in.

Our movie theatre only had one screen, they've now walled off the balcony and made it two. It took a good year I think for it to make it to our town.

It was the first movie I drove to on my own. Took a bunch of friends in my car, right after I got my license --- so it must have been June of '77. We had to wait 3 hours to get into the theater, which featured the biggest screen I'd ever seen ... and, unbeknownst to me at the time, one of only 8 true 70mm Dolby Stereo prints of Star Wars being shown that first summer anywhere in the U.S.


I realized the movie had gotten under my skin when, on the way home, 16-year-old new driver that I was almost flipped the car on a clover-leaf freeway interchange while pretending to be an X-Wing pilot dive-bombing the Death Star.


Ooooops. :eek:

I want to see a picture of a 16 year-old iSm. :D

Here are two of my fav. spoofs of Star Wars (Besides Hardware Wars)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh-6umxGqL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdJDAPDltMM

Enjoy!

Tom Cruise unleashes the power of the Dark Side:


Luke showing off the "Force Kick"

The second one is great - a little slow in the middle but worth watching to the end. :cheers:

Yeah, I never saw any spoofs of Episode 3 before. That movie kinda killed my interest in Star Wars ... which I'm going to try and revive next week for some 30th-anniversary nostalgia.

So that "A Lost Hope" film was new to me, and really, really funny.



Couldn't watch the Donny & Marie thing on YouTube, though. The sound synch was so off, I couldn't stand it.

Hey Coaster Matt,, major MOJO for that Oprah/Tom Cruise pic... I was screaming.....

Who needs "officially" when we have YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_i...wz7Xv99fEM7Xxy

DO you want to be a Jedi? You can...


http://www.nyjedi.com/

We met those guys when we were working a show in NY last year. They were so obnoxious they made me, for the first and only time in my life, embarrassed to be a fan.

Sorry for the double-post, but I'd like to thank MousePod for the DVDs that arrived today! I'm so busy with CIV prep that I can't watch them until next week, but I can't wait!!! Thanks! (Actually, I'll pack them and hope I can watch on my laptop in the weeeeeeee hours of CIV). :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap: :snap:MTFBWY brotha!

That's a lot of snaps. Thanks!

I tried to give more, but apparently there's a limit! :blush:

I've finished watching Deleted Magic, and it was terrific stuff. I was particularly amused that, at one point, after a Stormtrooper demise, the program went off into a brief excursion about the famous "Wilhelm scream," including the footage from the old western in which that scream first happened. Hilarious. The whole disc is highly party-worthy.

God, this still makes me feel like an ancient mariner.

I got the discs, too, Jesse. Thanks a bunch. Something else doin' tonight ... but Wednesday thru Friday (the actual anniversary), I'm going to cram Star Wars stuff.


Heheh, I've StarWarsd-out my condo for the week. I love being a geek!

Wow, look what the Japanese have done to Princess Leia!




scroll down for even better, ahem, views.

I dont seem to recall her ever being quite that curvy

Now there's a Leia costume I might actually wear. Just saw the buns for sale at the Star Trader last weekend...

That is really cool!

Curvy and pointy...

Ok, the Star Wars Holiday Special was everything it's despised to be. But there were, to my surprise, a couple of elements I actually liked.

One of them was the animated cartoon that featured Han, Leia, Luke and Boba Fett. The character designs were, well, curvy and pointy, and I liked 'em. It was also a nicely StarWarsy segment in a bloated 90 minutes devoid of Star Warsian goodness.

I also liked Bea Arthur's entire, and entirely weird, segment as the barkeep in the Mos Eisley Cantina.

The brief cameos by Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamil were weird ... but, damn, was Ford cute as hell back then!


The entire overarching story and setting of Chewbacca's family under house arrest on "Life Day" was beyond lame ... and the choice to start the show with a nearly half an hour of dialogue consisting solely of Wookiee grunt was one of the most WTF in entertainment history.


All in all, a bizarro tangent of Star Wars filmography ... and I'm glad to have finally seen it.





Once.


:iSm:

Family Guy: Star Wars Special

Just a preview, and there's crowd noise, but you can hear everything.

I'm giddy.

The only thing I remember is being deafly afraid of the Darth Vader as a kid.

My dad took me to see it in Modesto, before they added fifteen billion screens.;)
it was fun.
The next morning I had the original poster above my bed. One and only great moment I can remember with my dad.

Sorry for the thread rez...

I never got to see the ep when it first came out, so I made a point to not see it until DVD. Which, just came out today...

Well, frankly, it's funny. We got the special extra fancy edition, and it's pretty cool.

As one of the few, the proud, the geek, to have seen all six movies on opening day...

I love to shut down all the younglings who think "Star Wars" was originally released as "Episode IV".

oops, I'm no geek, I guess, I only saw the original Star Wars in Santa Cruz on first release