2017 marked the 40th anniversary of the ground breaking movie, Star Wars, and we wanted to celebrate this and honor the artist who played Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher, by creating the ultimate editions of the movies that make up the saga.
When I was growing up these movies were referred to as Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. They were not called Episodes 4, 5 & 6, and we didn't understand where the title "A New Hope" came from. Then the Special Editions were released, and while some things were corrected, there was a lot of excess CGI that didn't fit the movies.
Episodes 1, 2 & 3 materialized soon after, and as much as I have tried I just do not like these films. They attempted to change the focus of the Star Wars movies to the story of Darth Vader. As much as I love this villain, Star Wars was always about Luke Skywalker's journey and not Darth Vader. He was a bad ass we all feared, not felt sorry for.
Luckily The Force Awakens and Rogue One do not rely on Episodes 1, 2 & 3, so we can conveniently remove them from existence and
focus on the original story that we love!
The Star Wars: Avid Editions will therefore include the following titles
1. Rogue One
2. Star Wars
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Force Awakens
6. The Last Jedi
7. The Rise of Skywalker
The Episode number in the intro crawl will be removed from each film, the title "A New Hope" will be removed from Star Wars, and a crawl will be added to Rogue One to make it feel like a part of the Star Wars Saga, which it is.
In addition, various source material will be used to restore much of the original trilogy, all in High Definition. This means unnecessary and distracting CGI will be removed in the Star Wars: Avid Editions.
Jabba and Boba Fett will no longer appear in Star Wars, and of course, Han shot first! Where updated CGI actually provides value, like in space craft effects and restoring Light Saber colour, then the new shots will be retained as long as they compliment the scene and story and not distract from it.
Some of the changes in the Avid4D Edition of Empire Strikes Back include:
1. Remove episode number.
2. Trim the Wampa scene to closely match the original release but include just one new shot.
3. Restore some minor soundtrack changes made in the Special Edition.
4. Restore Boba Fett's voice to the original version without the New Zealand accent.
5. Trim Emporer scene to closely match the original conversion.
Return of the Jedi Avid4D Edition has also had many subtle edits including the episode number removed, and some other changes are:
1. Remove new unnecessary CGI characters added in the Special Edition.
2. Restore the original song by Sy Snootles and the Rebo Band.
3. Restore the original Ewoke celebration song, Yub Nub.
4. Remove the ghost of young Anakin and restore the original older Anakin.
For a complete overview of The Last Jedi Avid4D Edition, please see the post dedicated to this movie. While we have made minor edits to most of the Star Wars movies, the exception is The Last Jedi, where many scenes have been altered and re-ordered.