Star Wars Original Trilogy at Bantha Fodder with Fanedit News

My Star Wars Experience

I was 5 Years Old when my Parents took me to see "Star Wars". My life was forever altered on that day. I was a Die Hard from Day One - action figures, cards, books, posters ... I collected it all (and still do!). And then Empire came out in 1980. I will never forget how that line wrapped around the theater two times - I've never seen anything like it since. For the next 3 years I would argue with friends that Luke was not Vader's son. Return of the Jedi proved me wrong in 1983. America lost "Star Wars Fever" after the final movie in the original trilogy. Darth Vader was dead. I will admit, my interest did wane slightly in the late 80's, and I dabbled in Star Trek (oh, no!!!) That didn't last long. The 90's brought Star Wars back in a big way: new novels, comic books, action figures, and other merchandise have helped to bring back the fever to original fans, as well as a new generation. The fever officially returned on the 20th Anniversary of Star Wars in 1997 with the release of "Special Editions". And now, we also have the New Trilogy as well. Luckily for collectors and fans, Lucasfilm has released the original Star Wars Trilogy in an incredible DVD collection. Several of the misaligned changes from the Special Editions were fixed or minimized including the Greedo scene, Jabba scene, Luke's scream was removed from Empire. Sorry - "Jedi rocks" is still in there.

And in late 2010 George Lucas himself announced that all six Star Wars films will be released on Blu-Ray High Definition in 2011 (probably in the Fall). Also announced is that all 6 movies are being converted to 3D and will be re-released in theaters!

When I sat down at Manns Chinese theater in 1997 and watched the Star Wars Special Edition I couldn't believe what I saw - one big example was Greedo firing first. I also couldn't believe what I DIDN'T see - for example, the same crappy dated exterior Death Star Shots were still there forever reminding us how the Emperor chose to NOT defend his greatest creation.

I have been familiar with fan films since "The Phantom Editor" re-edited Episode One. In 2008 a fan Editor called Adywan has completely blown me out of the water - one man has produced the Star Wars everyone has dreamt of!!! A "Suped out" Special Edition with tons of new effects, as well as many of Lucas's "fixes" removed. It is true to the original vision and feel of the film, but with new special effects that do not distract or try to upstage the story and progressing the plot. Gone is Jabba (although the scene is added as a deleted scene), and Greedo is no longer firing first. Even better - Greedo's face is fully animated - it looks amazing! See below for screen captures of some of the brilliant work this fan editor has done. For more information on this edit, visit here and here. He is currently preparing his fan edit of Empire Strikes Back for release, and has a fan page on Facebook with trailers, screenshots, and video clips. It is scheduled to be released in mid-2016. For information on Prequel fanedits, visit our Prequel Trilogy page.

About These Pages...

If you are looking for the exhaustive guide to Star Wars, detailed lists of aliens that appeared in the movies, summaries of novels, or picture galleries, you have come to the wrong place. If this is what you want, check out my Star Wars Links for help.

For your information, it is the original user and web site of the name "Bantha Fodder" on the WWW, ever since the day it opened. The name of this site comes from Return of the Jedi, when Jabba the Hutt insults Han Solo by calling him "Bantha Fodder", or Bantha Food. If you did not know, Banthas are large creatures that are used by the Tusken Raiders (Sand People) as a means of transportation. They are large, slow moving beasts, natives of the planet Tatooine. This slur is also used in Phantom Menace as well.