Forgotten Plot Devices
Okay, I admit we skipped a really funny segment of the Holiday Special… Malla’s cooking show. Now, I know a lot of you are still trying to rehabilitate yourselves back into society after the mental-breakdown-inducing horror of the first or second viewing of the Holiday Special, but it does wear… er, I mean grow on you. IF you can get past the gag factor then catching a glimpse of Malla dancing as she cooks is actually worth a smile at least.
Here’s how I think it works. You see or hear something that is messed up or wrong and you get pissed. Your first response is to be shocked, but then as it sinks in, you get angry. Once you think about it for long enough and understand the reasons behind whatever it was that upset you, slowly you are able to reassess it. You’re no longer floored by how messed up the “thing” is. That’s because you’ve now come to expect it. You anticipate it. You’re ready… sort of. You can at least accept what that thing is and view it in a new fairer context.
I’m still in the pissed off phase in responding to the Prequels. Yes, that gag factor can be a real b***h. Let’s see… the Holiday Special was meant to be funny and for the whole family. When faced with comparatively no budget (compared to the SFX extravaganza that was Star Wars) they realized that they simply couldn’t afford action. The one thing they could afford, however, was comedy and celebrity cameos. In many ways, the Holiday Special fails even here, and yet it has an excuse.
It’s this justification of being a plodding, low budget, family comedy special for television that makes it easier for me to watch it these days with a more open mind. That’s why I can watch the Holiday Special and only feel I need to gag once or twice. Once you get over it, you can actually find small things here and there to appreciate. The Prequels on the other hand were not made as comedy, were trying to be a serious background to the Star Wars universe, and are supposed to be canonical. So WHEN / IF I watch the Prequels I hold them up against a much more merciless set of criteria.
That is my far-from-scientific breakdown of the gag factor. I will give some of my stronger reactions to the Holiday Special in our next update. Wednesday’s strip will deal with what many would agree is the biggest gag / mindf**k of the whole special… and it’s to do with grandpa Itchy.
By the way, I’ve switched the YouTube clips for the last three Holiday Special strips. The version I had been linking to was of lower quality and used a Roman Numeral numbering system. Part IV had 50 seconds of a freeze frame before the segment actually begun. I found a much better version of the Holiday Special and have made amends to the previous posts if anyone is interested in re-watching them.
Are you new to BMS? If so, then you can start reading this webcomic from the beginning by clicking here.
I always wondered about those blockades. They always show them in a ring like or flat blockade around the planet (or death star) couldn’t someone just go over them and no one would be the wiser ?
Good point!
Meh, you’ll get used to the prequels… Hell… You might even [i]ENJOY[/i] them someday!
Yep, you do warm to them for all of their faults.
I just hope that special Editions of THOSE films will be produced. This time however, I’d like to see them weeded out – shortened – with lots of crap removed.
Instead of MORE crap ADDED as in the OT Spec.Eds.
Let’s focus on me actually being able to sit through them again someday. That will be an achievement! 🙂
There is something called “the phantom edit ” , its basically episode 1 will all of the crap cut out.
But I already skip to the Darth Maul fight. LOL. Okay, I’d like to take a peek at it. Give me a link.
I think this is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVQdq18RHiA
Fascinating! I must find the time to watch it.
Only 15 minutes long?
That is just part one, I might have gotten the wrong video. You can probably find the full thing on a bit torrent site.
Hi Sam,
I watched the first part on YouTube – quite good! Any idea where the rest of it is?
Thanks
John
John, the rest can be found by clicking on the user’s name below the video and viewing his other videos. Once on his page click on “see all” in the right column, then scroll down to the bottom. The parts start from the bottom in ascending order.
I watched the first part. It was okay. Still not very exciting, but better than the original thanks to the cutting down of Qui Gon’s awful and pointless exchange with Obi-Wan. However, watching part two, I see that despite the editors foreword in part one about cutting out Jar Jar and trimming down Anakin’s scenes, Jar Jar is alive and kicking. I got as far as “ex-squeeze” me before stopping it. IF you’re going to cut Jar Jar out of the film because you find him annoying then why this scene remains I have no freaking idea.
If someone else can watch the rest of this re-edit maybe they will be able to reassure me that Jar Jar is edited out in such a way that he is killed soon after this scene.
Star Wars the Phantom Edit
Ok Rod. There’ll be a Special Edition – just for you – with a free Clockwork Orange style chair, manacles and eye-hold-openers.
Please no! Actually, it would probably be more like torture if it was the Clone Wars. Still, I’d rather watch the Prequels or the Clone Wars over any of those SAW or Hostel type movies.
Clone Wars is one of the greatest steaming piles of… Great review of it here:
http://tinyurl.com/38mtyu5
“Well, it’s slightly better than the 1978 Holiday Special. Then again, so is being punched in the face.”
Thanks for the Phantom Edit info Rod. You mightn’t be seeing the original actual ‘Phantom Edit’ if you’re getting Jar Jar Stinks. There are many versions.
No, I followed the link to the Phantom Edit that Sam gave us and viewed the rest of the uploader’s videos to see the next part.
I still can’t quite bring myself to watch the holiday special…I both want to and am afraid to. I’m still able to follow the comic, though, so that’s good.
I’ve reached a point with the prequels where if I can forget they’re SW movies, I can enjoy it for what it is. Just don’t think too hard when you watch them, or your brain may explode.
Good point, FG. The only trouble is that, as RedLetterMedia’s review of the Prequels (as well as Confused Matthew’s reviews) have pointed out, the movies are awful just simply as movies… although removing the comparison to the Original Trilogy must at least help. In order for me to try to judge the Prequels more fairly, I have to try not to compare them to the OT, or to movies with good / believable characterization and a plot that makes sense. Minus those elements what we have left is a theme park ride, like the Van Helsing movies, which I did not enjoy for exactly that reason. It’s probably easier for me to suffer through the Holiday Special because I’ve always loved kid’s television anyway, and while the Holiday Special is not a glowing example, it is something I probably have more tolerance for than most Star Wars fans. So, when it comes to the Prequels I’m not sure when it will click for me. 😀
I have watched them, except for the last one, a few times now, including with my son…he also likes the OT more.
The only thing I think the Prequels brought to the table was more believability in the force and the light saber fighting. I always found it interesting that for Vadar to be this ultimate bad@ he never really did much. He choked a few people and threw a few things. The Emperor shot some lightning, and “foresaw” everything but his own death and failure. I guess the powers were weaker for Vadar after years of being beat up, cut up, and all, but that is if you follow the Expanded Universe. So, I always infered that he was a lot tougher and scarier- I was 3 when I saw TESB in the theatres- but reading this and rewatching them…he just doesn’t come off as being very convincing on screen as a really bad@ guy.
Luke I could see not being as good with the force since he was never fully or properly trained.
The original saber fighting was very old school, chivalrous, two knights hacking away fighting you see in older movies. I like that the Prequels did bring in some of the flashier choreography/spinning and incorporating some force moves/powers into the fighting, but it didn’t do enough to make up for Jar-jar or the plot, or Anakin being 7 or so in the original movie and magically saving the day, or that he magically jumps to looking 20 while the Queen doesn’t age.
That reminds me of the american pie spoof Weird Al did about episode 1, look it up its hilarious.
I dont think the prequels will fully click for me, I like Episode 3 for the movie it is and for some reason the ending gave me that OT feel. Like you said Red Letter expose the first two for being just plain bad movies.
On that note, what’s up with Padme’s blatant Cradle Snatching!?
Doctor Who had even less of a budget and look how good that was. What basically amount to repurposed trash cans are *still* the most popular villains. Star Trek writers did grand things with blinking lights and cardboard boxes, not to mention lots of generic rooms and camera shaking. Both shows are still widely appreciated, while I think this is the first time I’ve actually heard a defense of the Holiday Special. Nobody expected anything at the caliber of the movies but, given the license, the writing was poor no matter how you spin it. 😉
Good point! But I’m not really sticking up for the Holiday Special. Trust me, as a writer, the script is the first and foremost thing to stand out like a sore thumb. But what I’m saying is that if you can treat the Holiday Special as a simplistic diversion with genuinely decent Wookiee costumes, the reappearance of some Stormtroopers, Saun Dann’s overcoat with the Imperial pen pockets, the presence of Harrison Ford, Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher, you have something that is worth the pain. Rather than scarring me for life, I actually find the bizarre moments and the fails here and there as unintentionally funny. I just think I’ve gotten past the outrage and bewilderment phase.
Being a big fan of Classic Who myself, particularly of the Black and White and the 70s era, I’m accustomed to low budget productions. Even the Nightmare of Eden had a better plot… although the acting was about on par. Still, the Holiday Special had Ford, Hamil and Fisher. Which would you rather sit through, the Holiday Special, or let’s say, the Creature from the Pit. Both are rough.
You forgot to mention the singing Fisher…
wait…. how did malla get all these contacts anyway?
imo, the new Star Trek movie is what the SW Prequels are, but for Trek.
What ever that movie was great.
Lord Draken, I simply can not abide by that statement. The new Star Trek movie was better than any before it, and some of them were pretty good.
But come on dude. That movie was freaking amazing.
Watching the ‘Phantom Edit’ now – if it really is the right one. It’s MUCH less boring than the original version of Phantom Menace.
But, as Rodders said – there were opportunities to remove Jar Jar that have – oddly – been squandered.
I don’t know if any of you read them but the full story for the prequels was in the comics about the same time as TESB. My memory of this is pretty vague but I’m pretty sure Jar Jar was actually a character everyone liked!!!! As for the stories the way they are mangled can kind of be explained as that they worked as serial comics – over many episodes. A similar example was the dozen or so Judge Dredd stories compressed into that t**d that was the Judge Dredd movie.
The films do have some good sequences – Anakin flying the big ship in in part 3, some of the robot battles in part 1, even the speeder chase in part 2 – but all that only goes to throw their true abject awfulness into stark relief. !!
Hey there is something else both Judge Dredd and the prequels have in common – far to much reliance on twiddly and often fake looking computer animation, how can million dollar effects somehow look worse than the effects from plan 9?
The only way I could get through the Holiday Special as an adult was with the Rifftrax commentary.
One of the many, many reasons I love following this amazing work of you and your wife, is your no-nonsense commentary on the highs (the actual 3 films) and lows (the 3 “videogame trailers” as I call the ‘prequels’) of Star Wars. So much of your critiques ring true for me. I am probably mssing that someone already mentioned this, but have you seen the awesome Redletter Media reviews of the prequels? (For the record, those start incredibly strong, but somewhat lose some of their restraint and depth, as the writer started focusing too much on the over-the-top persona of RLM) Oh, and did you already mention/see Garrett Gilchrist’s amazing “Star Wars: Deleted Magic”? I was already a big fan of his from his work on a She-Hulk movie.
I haven’t seen Star Wars: Deleted Magic. I’ll look it up and get back to you.
Red Letter Media did, as far as I’m concerned, a great breakdown of Prequels and their inherent problems and weaknesses. Generally, I agree with a lot of their various film reviews, although despite all the weird choices made by Peter Jackson for the Hobbit, I still enjoyed the film(s). Likewise with Man of Steel, I had a lot of fun watching the film and wasn’t hung up about the origin change or his solution at the end of the film. RLM’s take on the Prequels, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Prometheus however has been right on the nose.