Star Wars: A toy story?

[Cramulus]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/08/star-wars-was-born-a-long-time-ago-but-not-all-that-far-far-away-in-1972-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer.html

After the release of "Empire"... talk turned to a third film and after a decade and a half the partners could no longer find a middle ground.

"We had an outline and George changed everything in it," Kurtz said. "Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn't want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason."
The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns," as Kurtz put it.

Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.
He was especially disdainful of the Lucas idea of a second Death Star, which he felt would be too derivative of the 1977 film. "So we agreed that I should probably leave."

[AFK]

I kinda wish I hadn't read this.  Because that movie that didn't happen sounds like it would've been awesome. 

What the hell is wrong with Lucas anyway? 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

MAn, that sounds awesome... I aalways had heard rumors that George Lucas basically ruined his own creation, but I didn't know to what extent.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I kinda wish I hadn't read this.  Because that movie that didn't happen sounds like it would've been awesome. 

What the hell is wrong with Lucas anyway? 

I've wondered that myself. Like when he did the umpteenth remake... Greedo shoots first, deleted scene with a skinny Jabba the Hut, different music. What the hell was that? He should intentionally try to make a movie worse. It would probably be more enjoyable.

[AFK]

Yeah, don't get me started on the re-makes, updates, special editions whatever he calls them.  Yeah, the movies were made in the late 70s/early 80s.  Sure, movie splosions and puppets were a little crude back then.  That's okay George!  For those of us who grew up on these movies, bought all the toys, slept in the Wookie Sheets, had the Yoda footy pajamas, we don't care.  We don't need our Star Wars to be updated!  We don't need it to have the latest in CGI special effects. 

But did you bother to ask us?  No!  You went ahead and did it anyway.  That fucker who started Facebook must be a protoge of yours or something.  And then what do you do?  You go ahead and bury the originals in the desert somewhere, so when our VHS copies finally wear out, we're screwed! 

Thanks alot George!

[Jasper]

I was prepared to hear this.  It seems like the whole business model back then was to make shows for the sole purpose of selling toys.  The Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon was the same way.  Most 70's/80's cartoons were that way. 

Sigh.  My generation's nostalgias are bollocks. 

[E.O.T.]

THANK YOU. I've loved STAR WARS (since I was 7 years old!!) and HATED the lame way the "alleged" triple-trilogy has played out. Obviously it never was thought out, really, and now STAR WARS sucks, mostly.

[Kurt Christ]

I was prepared to hear this.  It seems like the whole business model back then was to make shows for the sole purpose of selling toys.  The Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon was the same way.  Most 70's/80's cartoons were that way. 

Sigh.  My generation's nostalgias are bollocks. 

Especially Transformers, though the toys for it totally kicked ass (I actually grew up with the 90's era Beast Wars version, which had the same essential model of marketing).

[Jasper]

I was prepared to hear this.  It seems like the whole business model back then was to make shows for the sole purpose of selling toys.  The Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon was the same way.  Most 70's/80's cartoons were that way. 

Sigh.  My generation's nostalgias are bollocks. 

Especially Transformers, though the toys for it totally kicked ass (I actually grew up with the 90's era Beast Wars version, which had the same essential model of marketing).

Yeah.  But transformers fans just love toys, so it's alright. 

[Don Coyote]

I was prepared to hear this.  It seems like the whole business model back then was to make shows for the sole purpose of selling toys.  The Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon was the same way.  Most 70's/80's cartoons were that way. 

Sigh.  My generation's nostalgias are bollocks. 

Especially Transformers, though the toys for it totally kicked ass (I actually grew up with the 90's era Beast Wars version, which had the same essential model of marketing).

Yeah.  But transformers fans just love toys, so it's alright. 

Liked the toys.
Watched the cartoon because of the toys.

[Jasper]

I liked TF because, fuck;  9 Million year old robot feud.  Sweet.

[Thurnez Isa]

What the hell is wrong with Lucas anyway? 

$$$$$

Im not particularly against this. If the fans are willing to go along with it, why the hell not. Sure the original idea sounds better, but if the movies still made a fanatical following.

[eighteen buddha strike]

I think Lucas was a very skilled director, its academic now that he borrowed heavily from kurosawa, but he did it well. ... as for the newer movies, I think he lost what ever it was that he had. Divorced from his film-school roots, he produces commercial tripe.

... but perhaps Star Wars was meant to sell toys all along. It just seems unlikely that Lucas anticipated his success.

[AFK]

I was prepared to hear this.  It seems like the whole business model back then was to make shows for the sole purpose of selling toys.  The Ruby Spears Megaman cartoon was the same way.  Most 70's/80's cartoons were that way. 

Sigh.  My generation's nostalgias are bollocks. 

Especially Transformers, though the toys for it totally kicked ass (I actually grew up with the 90's era Beast Wars version, which had the same essential model of marketing).

Actually, the original was pretty good as was the animated film based upon the original series.  I mean it DID feature the voice talents of Weird Al and Orson Wells.  Can't go wrong with that.  But all of the Transformer reboots did suck.  The graphic novels were pretty good too. 

[AFK]

What the hell is wrong with Lucas anyway? 

$$$$$

Im not particularly against this. If the fans are willing to go along with it, why the hell not. Sure the original idea sounds better, but if the movies still made a fanatical following.

Yeah, and as far as Jedi, I still very much like the original, non-Special Edition version that did get made.  I know a lot of critics make fun of the Ewoks, but at as cute and cuddly he made them, he also did throw in a little darkness when we see some of them get killed.  So it wasn't all cute fluffiness.  But the special edition version really cheesed me off.  I hate how they redid the celebration at the end, and the musical number at Jabba' palace when they replaced the puppet with some cgi monstrosity.