Return of the Jedi - The Spence Edit

[spence]

I don't like this movie.

There's some great, great stuff in it. Luke's storyline. Jabba's palace. The space battle. The emperor.

So why don't I like it? I'll give you some hints: they're small, furry, and annoying as all hell.

The Ewoks, to me, ruined Return of the Jedi. The dark and exciting ending to the star wars trilogy is riddled with annoying little Teddy Bears. Every scene Harisson Ford has with them he looks like he's embarassed to be part of this series. The battle at the end is a disgrace and the ending is absolutely unforgivable. I basically absolutely despise them.

So my edit mainly will remove the Ewoks. The end battle on Endor will appear to be Rebels vs. Stormtroopers, no Ewoks at all. They never meet Wicket, they never go to the tree house city, and a Teddy bear is never seen.

It seems to work perfectly work except for one part. After Han and Leia are captured, the Ewoks surprise attack the empire, allowing them to escape. Problem is, now nothing surprise attacks the Empire. I'm still working out this little bit. If you have any suggestions let me know.

Also, if any sound wizards could assist me, I'd love to have some of the Ewok sound effects removed from the other channels. I don't really know how to do this but I'd love some help. Doesn't matter if the music gets removed, I have every bit of soundtrack I can find.

I'm also going to remove other little odds and ends, silly lines and stuff like that. I really want to make this the ending that I always wanted.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me about the Ewoks, but since childhood I've always tried to like this film and the furry little buggers and I've never quite been able to do it. Hopefully there's some others out there that will enjoy this edit!

Maybe downloadable from info

 

[TeresofBlood]

What edition is this you are editing?

If it has a 5.1 mix, it may be possible. You can separate the 5.1 into 6 separate files. If the sound fx are on the dialogue track you might be in trouble, but if they are on a separate track it would be easy to delete. The music also has a separate track on 5.1 so if it is an action scene the music will cover the gap.

I think there's a free program that will separate the files. Boon knows. I can do it for you if you have no way to. Your only problem then would be syncing the files with your project.

 

[Zebedee]

Always annoyed the hell out of me as well. Basically the Ewoks did what the rebel alliance couldn?t. Beat the empire!

So I like the sound of this.

 

[voodl]

how about something like "Star Wars: Path of the Jedi"? Only Luke's story based on three episodes with flashbacks from "revenge of the sith"?

 

[f1209]

I'm really surprised no-one has tried this before.

I'm really keen to see how you pull this one off.

On your past examples, this should be real good.

 

[voodl]

So......Shall I do this?

 

[Aztek463]

Well...what about having them just defending their homes? Essentially, you can cut out the cuteness and still have them there. Make it appear as if they're only defending their homes...it could work that way.

 

[DragonAngel]

I'd steal a scene or two from Episode 3 with the wookies. If you could cut the ewoks out of ROTJ and add in the wookies, I think you'd have billions of fans.

 

[boon23]

spence, great idea!!!!
voodl, yeah, go for it, but can you please also care for Luke not being such a moron all the time? I always thought he acted as if he had onyl two brain ceels at max. If he coudl be made to appear more clever, this would totally rock.

 

[FatherMerrin]

What a great idea spence. I'm sure we've all thought at one time or another that Jedi would be cool without those annoying Care Bears running around, but if you could pull it off that would be great.

Also, If you re-name the film as well how about "Redemption of the Jedi"
It links to the Anakin plot & to the fact you've "redeemed" (you see what I did there :grin: ) the film.

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

i am curious to see this. although i did actually like the ewoks. I am not sure about adding in the wookies from ep3. it may look too akward

 

[spence]

i really like the idea of adding the wookies.

i know it might not synch up, but i'm trying to make this kind of be what I wanted it to be, it doesn't have to look perfect. It's more of a "ROJ could have been this" as opposed to an actual improvement. It's a bit experimental.

I'm actually thinking of using machinima (animated video game footage) to alter a few things too. That won't synch up (obviously) but it is a good example of where this film could have gone.

If any one has ideas for incorporating the wookies, please share.

 

[FatherMerrin]

I hate to say it but from what I remember there's only a couple of scenes with the Wookies in EP III & one of them has mostly Yoda in it so it's probably best you don't force them in if they don't work.

Then again if you're going for something experimental throwing them in probably wont do any harm.

 

[Finn]

Instead of wookies can'y you just plunder a shot or two of rebels firing rom the bushes, or maybe just composite some blaster fire from a piece generic forest footage from predator or something, then use the shots of the troopers reacting?

 

[FatherMerrin]

From what I remeber of Jedi the chase scene doesn't have any ewoks until the end & the scene where Han & co brake into that building doesn't have any ewoks until they get out.

Maybe there's an edit to link them up somehow. Maybe cut before Leia falls off & go straight into the building scene or even having the wookie scene inbetween.

I don't really know I just though I'll throw some ideas out your way.

 

[spence]

yeah. ive decided no wookies.

 

[barnephiliac]

Getting rid of the ewoks - excellent idea!!! Even at the age of 14 I hated them when jedi premiered and I still do today!!

No ep III scenes please (ep I, II & III never happened) en please use the original Jabba's Palace and original ending mr. Spence.

Just call it 'Revenge of the Jedi' so you can use the old trailer (which need to be de-ewokized also of course) and logo. Revenge fits for me when I think of Luke's vs. Vader. I don't care what Lucas says - he lost his mind a long time ago.........

 

[spence]

See, the problem with the original ending is it involves the ewoks so heavily there's no way to cut around them. I may have to use some of the special edition celebration stuff just to have an ending at all.

 

[barnephiliac]

Of course...there's no way to edit the teddy bears out with the original ending....I got overexcited

But about the ending.....I was thinking...instead of going out with the celebration, is it possible the skip the celebration images and end with the 'Funeral pyre', Luke and the images of Ben, Yoda and Anakin (Shaw of course).

Or am I way out of my mind?

 

[spence]

im playing with both ideas currently.