Top Ten Things I Want on the Upcoming Star Wars Blu Ray Set
This past weekend at the Star Wars Celebration in Orlando Florida, George Lucas announced the arrival next year of the complete Star Wars Saga on Blu Ray. Long awaited by home theater lovers, Star Wars is The Holy Grail of Blu Ray catalog titles (along with the Indiana Jones trilogy…get on that one too, will ya George?) Apparently, the guys at Lucasfilm have been working on this set for quite awhile, promising things fans have never seen before. At the convention, they gave us a small (but awesome) tease of what is to come, a long thought lost alternate opening to Return of the Jedi, with Darth Vader trying to telepathically communicate with Luke, who is constructing his new lightsaber on Tatooine. Enough to make any Star Wars geek pee their Darth Vader underoos.
Since hitting the market in 2006, Blu Ray has rarely hit its true potential. Sure, the picture quality is greatly improved, but one of the advantages Blu Ray has over standard def. DVD is it has way more storage capacity for all kinds of things. Few discs take advantage of this, with movie studios choosing to be cheap and just port over old special features off the previous DVD editions (although a few movies like Bladerunner and 2009’s Star Trek really have taken advantage of the Blu Ray format.) But Star Wars is arguably the most popular film series of all time, a cultural touchstone that has no real comparison with any other movie. If anything desererves all the bells and whistles, it is this. Blu Ray is very likely the last physical media movie format; whatever comes next will be simply virtual. So listen up Lucas…this is the last time you are gonna be able to make a “definitive” box set to sit on every geek’s shelf, so don’t screw the pooch here. Without further ado, here are my Top Ten Most Wanted Features on the Definitive Star Wars Saga Blu Ray set:
10. Deleted Scenes.
All of them. I know we are getting the “Luke builds his lightsaber” scene from Return of the Jedi, but I want them ALL. or at least, all the ones still in existence. Luke and his friends watching the space battle from the surface of Tatooine from the original movie? Want it. The Wampa attack on Echo base on Hoth from Empire? Want it. Not only that, but if he could restore them and finish them as well, woudn’t that be sweet? I don’t care in Lucas is giving away half of his billion dollar fortune to charity, he still has enough money to do this.
9. Vintage Documentaries
The 2004 Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set had only one significant special feature, and it was the excellent Empire of Dreams documentary. But while that documentary was good enough for newbies and casual Star Wars fans, the people buying this Blu Ray set are gonna be the hardcore fans, the ones willing to sit through hours upon hours of Star Warsy goodness, and more than once. I want the original The Making of Star Wars special from 1977 all the way to the History Channel’s most recent Star Wars documentary, The Legacy Revealed.
8. All New Documentaries
Star Wars is way more than just the movies; it is video games, comics, and toys. (LOTS of toys) For some people, dressing up as an Imperial Stromtrooper is a lifestyle. All of this ephemera are worthy of their own documentaries. Hell, just the merchandising avalanche alone is worthy of an extensive documentary all its own.
7.The Original Star Tours Film
Now closed for good, the Blu Ray set should include video of the entire original Star Tours ride, if only for posterity. One last flight to the Endor Moon.
6. Original Concept Art and Posters
Star Wars has, hands down, the coolest looking concept art of any film series, from Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept pieces for the first trilogy to Ian McCaig’s various designs for Darth Maul. And then there is all the beautiful poster art, both domestic and foreign. Blu Ray has the storage capacity to include hi res images of all of this stuff, or at least all the major ones. Don’t cheap out on us and forget to include them George. “Still Galleries” have always been a kind of lame special feature, sure…. but for Star Wars we’ll make an exception.
5. The Original Boba Fett Cartoon
While it will be a cold day in hell before Lucas ever releases The Star Wars Holiday Special (perhaps wisely?) there is nothing to be ashamed about in the original animated Star Wars adventure from that same television special, which featured the first appearance of Boba Fett. It also has all the original actors providing the voices of the animated counterparts, so its pretty cool if only for that reason. Dig it up and slap it on a disc.
4. The Original Clone Wars Micro Series
Without a doubt, the best thing to come out of the prequels has been the hit animated Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network. But before the series debuted in 2008, a 2D version was made in 2003 by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack. While I believe Warner Brothers own the rights to the new series, I believe the rights to the original animated micro series are still with Fox. Should be easy enough to throw on here.
3. Vintage Kenner Toy Commercials
Sure, these things are all over Youtube, but it would be cool to have them all in one place and in more or less decent prints…or at least better than an upload off a 30 year old VHS tape.
2. Easter Eggs
These can be anything really, but they should be cool and fun. From weird 80’s PSA ads with R2 and 3PO to some of the better made fan films, these should be hidden in the discs for fans to find.
….and last but not least:
1.The ORIGINAL Versions of the Films
Aside from Greedo shooting first in the Cantina, there isn’t anything I especially hate about the Special Edition versions of the films, expecially the “Fixed” special edition versions that came out in the 2004 DVD set. But the film history buff in me hates that Lucas is trying to pretend that the older versions didn’t happen. Frankly, I’m not sure what would be so hard about doing a seemless branching version of the movies (despite popular nerd belief, they aren’t that different from the classic versions) but Lucas seems intent on considering the classic versions to be the “workprints” and therefore not to be seen. He did relent and release the classic versions a few years ago on DVD, hopefully he will do so on this set as well. We can only hope. It would really help to make this a truly definitive set.
