Does Lucasfilms own The Star Wars Holiday Special?

[erniebert1234ss]

Hey, the prequels were (to put it mildly) godawful. The Holiday Special can't be worse than the prequels!

BJ

 

[Drtooth]

Personally, I'm sick of the whole "The prequals were crap" bandwagon. I think that they did severely lack the young wiz kid quality of the original 3, and the first one has no rewatch value (it's all long, lengthy plot expo). The second one I felt was enjoyable, and the third one I think saved the franchise, wooden acting included. To which I always say, why is Empire Strikes Back the fan favorite of the franchise... Lucas didn't really direct it.

 

[frogboy4]

Personally, I'm sick of the whole "The prequals were crap" bandwagon. I think that they did severely lack the young wiz kid quality of the original 3, and the first one has no rewatch value (it's all long, lengthy plot expo). The second one I felt was enjoyable, and the third one I think saved the franchise, wooden acting included. To which I always say, why is Empire Strikes Back the fan favorite of the franchise... Lucas didn't really direct it.

...but word is that he really tried to ruin the edit. Thank frog that didn't happen.

The original trilogy has a craftsmanship, charm and classic movie-making resonance that is missing the new trilogy. The new films are slick and attractive, but contain too much digital whim rather than thorough thoughtful planning. I'd also say the world of non-linear editing has harmed films like the Star Wars franchise. Too much is created in post-production that should have been considered in the pre-production phase or while shooting.

Anyway, all good franchises have their eyesore bits that creators never want to see the light of day. To me that makes them worth even more. It shows what the idea could have been in the wrong hands. It also makes for good mocking! If the Muppets Valentine's Special with Mia Farrow didn't have some sweet parts in it I'd almost compare the two. Don't get me wrong. I like it, but man, there was some weirdness in that thing that only appeals to some fans.

 

[erniebert1234ss]

Jamie has made a wonderful point regarding the original trilogy (and the best trilogy IMHO).

There really IS a craftsmanship that's sorely missing from the prequels. It just seems that more was taken into account during preproduction and filming during the original trilogy, while the prequels (and I'll freely admit 3 is better than 1 & 2 combined) have CGI that looks like it wasn't even previsualized before they just upchucked it into the film in postproduction.

BJ

 

[frogboy4]

Oh...and there's this!

What the frog is that?

 

[Drtooth]

...but word is that he really tried to ruin the edit. Thank frog that didn't happen.

The original trilogy has a craftsmanship, charm and classic movie-making resonance that is missing the new trilogy. The new films are slick and attractive, but contain too much digital whim rather than thorough thoughtful planning. I'd also say the world of non-linear editing has harmed films like the Star Wars franchise. Too much is created in post-production that should have been considered in the pre-production phase or while shooting.

It reminds me of something a writing teacher once told the class.... it used to take him X ammount of time to write a book on a typewriter... and we all know how it is to write on a typewriter... correcting things takes too much time, and you wind up having to think carefully about what you put down. When he switched to a computer, wouldn't it have made sense that he took less time to write the books? If anything, it took him more time, since correcting was too easy and he became a perfectionist. That's what I think the CGI's amounted to.

As I said, the reason why the first 3 films were great is because George entered the franchise as a brilliant wiz kid, crafting stuff out of 3-D materials, while he entered the prequals as a grumpy old perfectionist, using CGI to cover up his mistakes. Plus, they could have given Jar Jar a completely less annoying voice.

That said, even the prequels are better than those hacky Ewok movies. Shudder shudder... and he actually let that one OUT!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Will, I will say that to me episode four was the best and most exciting one of them all, and while I liked episode one, it was boring in comparison... All the thee and thus thou-ith and and "booga-bonga" attendance and space politics and the confederation... Snooze alarm at five o' clock. It was just missing a Han Solo to liven things up.

 

[frogboy4]

I'm at the toy shop right now stocking Christmas Star Wars items that just came in featuring Yoda with fighting with a candy-cane-saber, Chewy with a Christmas tree in hand, Vader with a Santa hat and more! Not to mention we've had this Yoda Santa snowglobe forever along with ornaments featuring M&Ms dressed up like Star Wars characters in holiday dress. I'm wondering what Lucas could have against the corny special.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Lucas admitted in an article once that in the prequals, the story took a backseat to the special effects and that is almost always a mistake. Hollywood needs to learn that a movie is only as strong as its storyline. The special effects should support the story, not BE the story.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Good point Jamie, I definitely see what you mean.

I actually don't dislike Jar-Jar because at least he wakes you up in an other wise boring movie. Like I have stated, that just needed a human character... An everyday, average guy to relate to the audience amongst all the craziness...