It was actually while watching ROTJ that I decided to do a couple of blogs about the originals. For me personally, the most dramatic change was to ROTJ, not TESB and not even ANH. More about that later, let's start with the beginning.

Again I got the feeling that the theatrical presentation of the movie was not was Lucas had envisioned. Just like ANH and TESB. If the technology had been there, it would've been different. Take for example the musical number in Jabba's palace. From a "saw the SE first" point of view, it was bland. It missed a certain Star Wars flair. Some oldtimers will see it differently, I'm sure of it, but I didn't like it, at all. And no Oola? I think that was a good build-up to later scenes with Luke. Speaking of Oola, it says that the orginal actress did the added SE shots as well.

The Rancor shots are of course more old school in the original version, they really did a nice job cleaning it up, but it's hardly worth mentioning. What is, the lack of Boba in the orginal. Later you have a Boba walking through the frame from left to right, an essential tweak... And also Boba flirting with some of the dancers. Why is that worth mentioning? Well, for me it was a sign of impending doom. The guy's distracted, no wonder he wound up in the almighty Sarlacc. Now, in the original, his end it disappointing. All too easy. In the SE, it's more acceptable.

Just like say the establishing shots of Mos Eisley and Cloud City, there are now more shots of the Dune Sea in the movie. The herd of Banthas. If you've never seen them, then you're not likely to miss them. But I did, it's what Star Wars is all about. Perhaps they overdid it a little in the PT, but I like the shots of environments, animals, people, buildings, etc... I believe it was Rob Coleman who said of the Theed shots on the TPM commentary track, that even after having seen them dozens of times, he's still discovering new things. Okay, if you've seen one Bantha, you've seen them all, but I totally understand the addition of stuff like this.

Rather bland as well, was the Sarlacc. Almighty? Yawn. Really, the Sail Barge scenes were always fun and exciting to watch, but ohriginal my. Yeah, I said I would get a little blasphemous and I'm just getting started.

Eyebrows! Meh.

Coming to the most dramatic change, the ending! The original ending ruins it for me. I've seen many topics in the OT Forum about the Ewok Song. Now I know what those people were talking about and I can honestly say, I'm glad they took it out! That's right, blasphemy! I mean there are people that have the following to say:

The gleeful song sung by the Ewoks at the end of "Return of the Jedi" (also known as the "Victory Celebration" track) . A fantastic song. A joyous song really. A magical song chalk full of glowing childhood memories. A song which they left out of the ####ing re-released version. I went to see the re-release in the theater and sat shocked as some neo-pop-kennyG-filler-crap-with-fake-ewok-voice-layover sat smugly where the Nub Nub song had rightfully ruled for over a decade...

THEY AXED THE ##########ING NUB NUB SONG.
Is nothing ####ing sacred to these animals of commerce?

I see this as proof positive (along with Jar-Jar) that George Lucas has indeed turned to the dark side.

- http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=713658

Well, the original ending just didn't do it for me. As George Lucas himself has said, 50% of the movie experience is sound/music. The ending of The Saga, the celebration scenes throughout the galaxy (I missed those too), Luke watching the Jedi ghosts... The drama of it all, I can see all the episodes flash by if I close my eyes... And then the Ewok Song?! Brrrrrr... No goosebumps.

Don't think I'll be watching the originals again. I am going to watch the current versions soon though, perhaps that'll give me some more to blog about, who knowns. And then it's time for another prequel viewing. My preferred order is definitely OT then PT by the way.

Anyway, The Victory Celebration/End Title track is coming to an end and so I say to you MTFBWY!