Toasted Pixel reviews the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set! They're finally here; the reason we have DVD players. That's right, the Star Wars Trilogy is on DVD. This review will cover the differences between the original films and the DVD edition of the films. The Special Editions (referred to from now on as Special Ed. for short) of these movies, released on VHS in November 2000, made several changes to the original films. But the DVD Editions have made changes to those Special Ed. changes. Thus, we will refer to Special Ed. throughout this review. 9/15/04 UPDATE: If you've already read the reviews for Episodes IV and V, the review for Return of the Jedi is now up. Enjoy!

Episode IV: A New Hope

"HAN SHOOTS FIRST" / HAN VERSUS GREEDO SCENE: Here's the Original Version of the scene:

Greedo the green bounty hunter threatens to kill Han Solo, but Han pre-emptively shoots Greedo. Simple, straightforward, understandable. In Special Ed., George Lucas doesn't want Han Solo to shoot first, because that would be too murderous:

STAR TREK / STAR WARS CROSSOVER! In Special Ed. version, Han engages in what Star Trek fans refer to as "The Picard Maneuver." Basically, to elude an enemy, Han moves at Warp speed for a split second, creating a shadow image of himself. The enemy shoots at the wrong image, allowing Han to shoot back at Greedo. Or maybe it was bad digital editing, who knows. Here's the DVD Version of the scene:

Greedo shoots a bug on the wall about two feet from Han's head, while a lounging Han shimmies to the right seamlessly and shoots Greedo. Actually, wait, now I just have no idea what the hell is supposed to happen in this shot. What the fuck.

HAN VERSUS JABBA SCENE: There was no scene with Han and Jabba in the Original Version. In fact, we never see Jabba in the original film. The Special Ed. version has a scene where Jabba meets with Han Solo, hoping to collect on a debt. Here's the DVD Version of the scene:

Han Solo steps on Jabba's tail as they walk together. The consensus around the office is that stepping on Jabba's tail to make him yelp is the equivalent of stepping on Tony Soprano's balls while sassily explaining why you didn't pay him back. It's not generally something you get away with, much less with a 'you're a wonderful human being' comment attached. However, it should be pointed out that this shot was redone for the DVD's, and is a marked improvement over the previous Special Ed. version of the scene:

OBI WAN VERSUS DEATH STAR ROOT LOGIN SECURITY This is the scene where Obi Wan sneaks past Death Star security to shut off the space station's tractor beam. Here's the Original Version of the scene:

Obi Wan turns dials and switches that shut off power to the Death Star's tractor beam. Pretty self-explanatory, because the scene shows a sign in English saying "Tractor Beam" over power levels.

Here's the DVD Version of the scene:

They redid the words so they would be in the Aurebesh, rather than English. But they didn't redo any of the rest of the scene. So Obi Wan is still using punchcards and 20 baud modems on the Death Star's mainframe, only now we have no idea why.

The consensus: George Lucas feeds off of our brain waves, and we taste better if we're scared or confused. He changed A New Hope to make us taste better.

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