The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition (1997) Movie Discussion

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty quiet. Almost too quiet in fact, but I think that's actually a good thing. Anyways, yeah, so I'm here to talk about the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition from 1997. But, I'm also going to be talking about the history of the Star Wars franchise from 1983 when Return of the Jedi was first released in theatres to 1997, when the Special Editions were released. So let's get into it.

The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition was the first major re-release of the Original Trilogy since each movie's original releases in 1977, 1980, and 1983. Much had changed for the franchise since then. Let's go back to 1983 though, and talk about Return of the Jedi first.

Return of the Jedi was released on May 25th, 1983, exactly six years after Star Wars had first hit theatres in 1977. The movie grossed $480 million at the box office against a production budget of $32.5 million. However, this was the end of the series as George Lucas, the creator of the franchise, decided to focus on raising his adopted daughter, Amanda, following his divorce from his wife, Marcia, which cost him a ton of money. Slowly the franchise started dying out, though the comic would continue for another three to four years, two TV movies based on the Ewoks came out in 1984 and 1985 respectively, and two animated series, Droids and Ewoks would debut on ABC from 1985 to 1986.

In 1985, Kenner released a new Star Wars toyline called The Power of the Force, but with things like G.I. Joe, The Transformers, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and She-Ra, Princess of Power capturing their imaginations, kids didn't want to play with toys from a series that had ended, so these figures quickly ended up in the bargain bins of various toy stores around the world. Star Wars was dead...

However, on May 1st, 1991 a novel was published that changed the landscape of media forever. That book was Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn and published by Bantam Spectra Books. This book was a smash success, proving that Star Wars WASN'T dead. The success of this book led to Zahn completing the trilogy with Dark Force Rising in 1992 and The Last Command in 1993, and convinced Lucasfilm and Bantam to launch a successful publishing program that continues to this very day.

At the same time Dark Horse Comics, a relatively new publisher, released the first issue of a new mini-series, Dark Empire by Tom Veitch, with art by Cam Kennedy. The issue came out on December 12th, 1991, and it also sold extremely well. Like with the novels it launched an entire expanded universe of Star Wars comic book stories that continues to this day. 

To celebrate the final home video release of the trilogy prior to the 1997 theatrical re-releases, Kenner, now owned by Hasbro, who also owned Transformers and G.I. Joe, relaunched their Power of the Force toyline with brand new, ultra-buff, molds for the figures, and updates of the ship playsets, like the Millennium Falcon and Luke's X-Wing. The first wave of these came out in 1995, the year the THX remastered VHS releases came out. Despite Power Rangers and Batman being huge sellers, the new The Power of the Force line cemented Star Wars's hold on 90's pop culture. But, could the movies that had already come out hold their own at the box office, or was Star Wars finished at the cinemas?

With plans to re-release it theatrically in 1997 for its 20th anniversary, George Lucas took a look at the print of Star Wars and realized that it had begun to deteriorate over the last 20 years. However, with the advancements in computer technology that Industrial Light & Magic had made with movies like Jurassic Park, Lucas chose to finish certain sequences that he hadn't been able to finish in 1976, and update the visual effects elements that had been groundbreaking, but still very rudimentary, in 1977. Star Wars: The Special Edition was released in theatres on January 31st, 1997 and ended up grossing a worldwide total of $255.5 million at the box office, adding to the $530 million made during it's original release and subsequent theatrical re-releases in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1982. It immediately rocketed to #1 at the box office.

The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition has fewer changes made to it than Star Wars did. Primarily because of how much the technology had changed between 1976 and 1979, and how big the movie's budget was following the huge success of its predecessor. A CGI version of the Wampa Ice Creature replaced the original hand puppet version, Cloud City was opened up, Vader is shown taking his shuttle up to his Super Star Destroyer, and the Emperor's scream was added to the shot where Luke falls from the platform he and Vader had had their duel on, for some reason. The movie was released on February 21st, 1997 and grossed an additional $67.6 million, adding to the money it made during its 1981 (a double bill with Star Wars) and 1982 re-releases.

Then on March 14th, 1997 Return of the Jedi: The Special Edition was released to theatres, grossing $16.29 million in its opening weekend. An entirely new musical number called "Jedi Rocks" replaced the original "Lapti Nek" song during the first act at Jabba's palace, a beak and more tentacles were added to the Sarlacc monster, an entire herd of Banthas were added to the Sail Barge shot, "Celebration", which was a new John Williams piece, replaced the original "Yub Yub" song at the end of the movie, as well as a montage of Tatooine, Cloud City, and Coruscant, the planet's first appearance in a movie, was added in the middle of the Ewok celebration on Endor at the end of the movie as well.

I originally saw Star Wars: The Special Edition in late 1997 when it aired on TV. My parents taped it for me. However, I didn't see these versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi until I borrowed the 1997 VHS box set from someone in early 2000. I honestly don't mind most of the changes made to the movie. Particularly Star Wars, because this version was closer to what George Lucas had envisioned when he made the movie in the 70's, but it just wasn't possible back then. I do feel that the Greedo shooting first change was absolutely unnecessary, just because it does soften Han's character just a bit, even though he was SUPPOSED to be someone you weren't sure if he was a good guy or a bad guy. I think George did it because he did have kids by the time he was working on the Special Editions, particularly a fairly young son, and having kids can absolutely change your views on certain things.

I did eventually get the 2000 VHS box set re-release of these versions of the movies, which matched up with the VHS release of The Phantom Menace, which was just coming out at that time. Though I wouldn't get the set until my 16th birthday in 2002. I have the 1997 VHS set in my collection today though, and that's how I watched the movies over the course of the weekend for this discussion.

The soundtracks for all three movies were re-released in 1997. The soundtracks were expanded with "Jedi Rocks" and "Celebration". Of course, the packaging was updated to reflect the Special Edition releases.

All three novelizations were re-published with Special Edition covers. However, unlike the movies themselves, the novelizations weren't rewritten. The novelization for Star Wars contained all of the scenes added back into the movie for the Special Edition, and the other two novelizations were untouched in terms of the text.

Dark Horse published an all new comic book adaptation of Star Wars. This not only altered the original adaptation from Marvel, that Dark Horse had printed a few years earlier under the title, Classic Star Wars: A New Hope.

The new adaptation was published in trade paperback form in January, prior to the single issues being released in January, February, March, and April, 1997. 

Oddly enough though, when the trade paperbacks for the comic book adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were published, they didn't contain new adaptations. They simply collected the Classic Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Classic Star Wars: Return of the Jedi issues from 1994, which were two issue reprints of the original Marvel Comics adaptations of the movies from 1980 and 1983 respectively.

Kenner and Galoob, released toys for the movie, with Kenner continuing its The Power of the Force line of figures, vessels, and playsets, and Galoob releasing Micro Machines ships and playsets. The toys had continued to sell well, which was a huge change from when Kenner had initially tried to release toys under the Power of the Force banner 12 years earlier in 1985. 

I suspect that the reason George did the Special Editions to begin with, even before it became this huge restoration project, is because he wanted to see if Star Wars could still be successful at the box office. The Phantom Menace was still about four and a half years away from coming out when George began working on the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, and if updated versions of the original movies weren't going to succeed, then maybe George feared that Episode I wouldn't do very well either. As I talked about last time, those fears were unfounded, since the Special Editions AND Episode I did extremely well at the box office. Yet those fears were still valid.

While the books and comics had been selling well since they began in 1991, without any movies coming out, Star Wars had become a niche franchise, with the general population being uninterested in the books and comics. Particularly in 1992 and 1993 when DC killed off Superman and broke Batman's back. In fact, the sales for the novels had already started to drop off by 1997, and Lucasfilm was already starting to develop a new publishing initiative that would shake things up, but that's a story for another time. In this instance, with book sales dropping, and comics and toys being niche markets, Lucas was understandably nervous about whether audiences would not only return to theatres to see the updated version of the Original Trilogy, but would go and see a brand new Star Wars movie. Luckily though things worked out very well in both regards.

Overall, 1997 was like a trial run for the massive wave that The Phantom Menace would make, starting with the initial teaser trailer release in 1998. Toys were selling out, merchandise was flying off the shelves faster than stores could stock them. Commercials played on TV constantly. It was a major hit and one that I was on the fringes of, as I saw the commercials on TV, hadn't started reading the books yet, and had only some of the newer toys, though none that came out in 1997. I still enjoy this version of the Original Trilogy, even though you can only watch it on VHS now since Lucas made even more changes for the initial DVD release in 2004.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back later this week with more blog posts. So until then have a great evening and I'll talk to you all later. Take care.

Batman Comics in the 90's

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's been super miserable temperature wise outside this week, so I've been stuck indoors for most of the week because it's been too hot to do much of anything. Which is why this is the only blog post that I'm doing this week. Today I'm talking about Batman comics in the 90's through the lense of the first six issues of the main DC Universe Batman comics that I got when I was a kid. I just finished re-reading all six issues as I picked up new copies of all six at conventions and various geek sales before the pandemic hit in 2020. I'll talk about where Batman was at the time I got these comics, my (brief) history with the character, the stories in each issue, the artwork and the ads in each issue. So, let's get into it.

As you are probably all aware of by now, my history with Batman began on television. As I'll talk about when I get around to talking about the show as part of my series of posts on YTV, I was introduced to the Caped Crusader through reruns of the 1966 TV series starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. These reruns aired at 5 pm on YTV from 1992 until 1996, a year or two before they began airing on the brand new specialty channel, Space Channel (now known as CTV Sci-Fi Channel). I loved it. At the same time, Batman Returns had just come out and Batman: The Animated Series had just started airing. As a result, Batman was everywhere in the 90's. 

My introduction to comic books was through the third issue of Star Wars: Dark Empire and the Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation comics that DC published throughout the 80's and early 90's. But, eventually I started getting issues of The Batman Adventures, the comic based on Batman: The Animated Series. Which led to me getting my first mainstream DC Universe Batman comic.

That first issue was Batman #493 which has a cover date of Late May 1993. During this time, DC was just starting the massive story arc, Knightfall, which culminated in Batman having his back broken by a villain called Bane. In this issue, Batman faces off against a killer named Zsasz, who is at the center of a hostage situation at a prestigious all girls school just outside of Gotham City. The story is written by Doug Moench with art by Norm Breyfogle, one of the three major Batman artist of the 90's. The other two being Jim Aparo and Kelley Jones, who was the cover artist for both Batman and Detective Comics during this time.

Of course, I was six years old when I got this issue so I didn't know any of that. I had no idea who Bullock and Montoya were as I hadn't seen the animated series yet, nor did I know who Zsasz was, because, none of those characters were in the 1966 TV series because they hadn't been created yet. I was excited to see Robin show up for a single page, but, I had no idea who Tim Drake was yet, as Dick was Robin in the 60's TV series, AND was still Robin in the animated series. So I was introduced to alot of new characters with this issue. Which was cool. Of course, I didn't care about the differences I was seeing in the comic. I was six. I was just glad to be reading a Batman comic. I just thought that was really cool

I really like Norm Breyfogle's art in this issue. He uses the colours extremely well, changing the colours of both Batman's and Robin's costumes in the school's dark hallways in comparison to outside or in rooms that have lights in them. His backgrounds are really good too. 

I got this issue at the CHEO gift shop sometime in 1993, probably not long after the issue had been published. I think my mom was going to pass it by because of the cover (you can see it above), but after flipping through it, and seeing Robin in the book, she bought it for me.

I think I like this issue better now, as an adult than I did when I was a kid. Just because I've read all of Knightfall now, and so I have better context for who Bane is, and everything going on in Gotham City at this point in Batman's comic book history. I still liked it as a kid, just not as much as I do now as an adult.

Next is Batman #495, which has a cover date of late June 1993. This issue was once again written by Doug Moench, with another Kelley Jones cover, but this time, the interior artwork was done by Jim Aparo, who has a very classic feel to his artstyle. Which makes sense since he had a stint as artist on the Batman books in the 70's and his artstyle didn't change from then to when this issue came out. However, certain characters, like Jean-Paul Valley a.k.a. Azrael ends up looking like a blond Bruce Wayne because Aparo seems to use the same character model for all of the men who are close to being Bruce's age in his work. 

Speaking of Jean-Paul Valley, this issue was my first introduction to the character. He's only in two scenes, and he's wearing the generic costume that Tim made for him when Bruce approved Jean-Paul for training as a hero instead of as an assassin, so he doesn't make a huge impact on the story. In this issue, Batman has to face Poison Ivy, another character I hadn't encountered in the 60's TV series. Same with Lucius Fox and Dr. Leslie Tompkins.

Once again I got this issue at the CHEO gift shop. This time though I wasn't at the hospital for an appointment or anything like that. 1993 seemed to be the year for big events at CHEO that my family was invited to. I don't remember which one we went to this time, but Mom bought it for me before whichever event we went to.

In terms of being an introductory issue for new readers, I liked this issue better than I did 493. While that issue felt like I'd been dropped into the middle of a situation that I had no context for, this one felt more reader friendly. Like I didn't need to have read the issue of Detective Comics that came before this issue.

Batman #496 was a big issue for me because it was my first encounter with the comic book version of the Joker, AND my first introduction to the Scarecrow, as well as my first look at the 90's comic book version of the Batcave. It was also my introduction to Jason Todd as Robin, because when the Scarecrow uses his fear gas on him, Batman sees the Joker beating Jason to death. Of course I had absolutely no context for any of this because I didn't know about A Death in the Family or The Killing Joke or even The Dark Knight Returns. All I had to go on was Joker's comment to the Scarecrow early in the issue that he'd killed Robin though Batman's sidekick seemed to be back somehow. I also had no idea what had happened to Dick Grayson, because Nightwing hadn't shown up yet, and he clearly wasn't Robin anymore. 

I wanna stop and talk about the ads in these first few issues. There are alot of ads for video games such as The Incredible Crash Dummies, which I have the Game Boy version of, the original version of NBA Jam and a game for the Sega Genesis called Flashback, which had versions for both the Genesis, the Amiga, and for computers. Which is crazy. There are also tons of ads for Reign of the Supermen, which was huge, coming off of the Death of Superman story arc, which I also didn't know about at the time, as well as future issues of Knightfall, which happened to be Detective Comics as this first part of the storyline went back and forth between Batman and Detective Comics.

I actually felt more in my element as a Batman fan when I first read this issue back in 1993. Batman, Robin, the Joker, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon were all here, and even though the issue opens on the previous Detective Comics issue's cliffhanger, it felt more like I'd started watching an episode of Batman: The Animated Series as the episode came back from a commercial break, where I didn't necessarily need to see what happened earlier in the episode to be caught up with what was going on in the opening of this issue. And, like I said, all of the elements of Batman's universe I was familiar with, minus the Batphone, the Batsignal, and Wayne Manor, were in this issue.

Switching gears slightly, the next Batman comic I got was issue #5 of Robin by Chuck Dixon, with art by Tom Grummett and Ray Kryssing. I got this issue, along with the next issue of Batman that I got, when I had to go in for day surgery. I don't even remember what the operation was for. I just remember it was minor enough that it didn't require me to stay in the hospital overnight or for any length of time.

This issue was my introduction to Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. the Spoiler. Naturally, she became one of my favourite characters in the Bat-Family, which was quite a bit smaller in the 90's compared to today. There was just something about her that made me like her instantly. I think it's because she was capable as a vigilante, but also flawed and not great at regular life stuff. 

This was also my first full interaction with Tim Drake as Robin. By the time this issue had come out, I had seen Dick Grayson as Robin in Batman: The Animated Series, where he wears Tim's original Robin costume rather than the original one that he wore from 1940 to 1984, and that Jason wore from 1984 to 1988. 

Because this series is focused on teen superheroes, I actually felt like this was the final episode in a multi-part episode of Power Rangers when I first read this issue back in 1994. Because by this point, I'd fallen in love with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I mean MMPR was the only TV show that focused on teenage superheroes that also contained elements of sitcoms like Saved by the Bell, which is why I used it as a comparison, since I hadn't seen any other teenage superhero show or movie at that point (this was long before the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies had ever come out), and I hadn't read any Spider-Man or X-Men comics at the time either. I really enjoyed this issue, but it would be almost a decade before I got anymore Robin comics, and almost two decades before I ever read Spider-Man comics set during Peter Parker's teen years.

Batman #506 was probably my least favourite issue of this first batch of Batman comics I got when I was a kid. Doug Moench was still the writer and I enjoyed Mike Manley and Josef Rubenstein's artwork (they took over for Jim Aparo after Batman #500). It just didn't feel like Batman. The character didn't even look like Batman. I'd missed Batman #497, where Bane broke Batman's back, and Batman #500 when Jean-Paul Valley first donned his armored Batsuit, so I had no idea who this guy was, or why Bruce Wayne was in a wheelchair. I just knew that the Batman I knew didn't use missiles or guns or razor sharp claws against his enemies. 

Part of what I didn't like about this issue is that, not only was Commissioner Gordon unsure about Batman, but I didn't understand where Dick Grayson was, and why he wasn't Batman, if Bruce was incapacitated to the point where he needed a wheelchair and couldn't be Batman anymore. I also had no idea who the new character, Ballistic was, or whether this was his first appearance or not (spoiler: it's not), or who the villain, Abattoir was. 

As an adult I like this issue alot more than I did when I was a kid, just because I now have more context for who the armored Batman is, having read all of Knightfall and Knightquest: The Crusade. I still dislike Jean-Paul Valley as Batman though.

Last but not least is Batman #514. I don't even remember why I was in the hospital when I got this issue. I THINK it was for an appointment. In fact I'm about 99% sure it was for an appointment because I wasn't in for day surgery anymore by this point and my stays in the hospital were becoming less and less frequent. This is my favourite issue of the bunch. I finally got to meet the main comic book version of Dick Grayson, AND he was finally Batman, something I thought DC should've just done in the first place.

Not only that but the Batcave looked even bigger than the quick glimpse I got of it back in issues 496 and 506. Heck, it was even bigger than it was in the 60's TV show. The issue also felt a bit more simple. Even though it was part of the larger Prodigal storyline, this issue felt more standalone than almost any of the previous issues I'd gotten up to that point. Batman is facing off against three common thugs who had escaped from Blackgate Penitentiary after Two-Face had messed with the facility's computer system in a previous issue of this storyline. Even though he manned the Batcomputer, it was kinda nice seeing Tim in action in an actual Batman comic, since Bruce and Jean-Paul had basically sidelined him in the previous issues. Which is why he got his own monthly title.

Mike Manley and Kelley Jones had been replaced by Ron Wagner as both interior artist and cover artist. Jones would be back as the main artist of Batman following the end of Prodigal. I actually like Wagner's work in this issue. It feels more modern than Aparo's work, but also less pointy (look at the ears on Batman's cowl on both Kelley Jones's covers and Norm Breyfogle's interior art) than Aparo and Manley's work was. 

Overall all six of these issues hold up pretty well after 30 years. The 90's was a pretty weird time for the comic book industry, but, it still produced some pretty great stories. If you've never read these before, I highly recommend picking them up. They're all collected in trade paperback collected editions with five of them also appearing in hardcover omnibus editions as well. So they should be pretty easy to get your hands on, even if you can't get them individually.

Alright my friends, that is it for me for today, and for this week. I'll be back on Monday though for a very special blog post where I'll be looking at the 1997 version of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, as well as the hype surrounding this monumental theatrical re-release of the Original Trilogy. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)...25 Years Later Movie Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with another movie discussion/review post for you. This time I'll be taking a look at Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which celebrated its 25th Anniversary last month. I had other posts I wanted to do in May, which is why I didn't get around to rewatching and then writing about the movie until now. I put discussion in the title of this post, because this isn't really a movie review the way I would normally do it. Oh sure, it'll have elements that I include in my movie reviews, but this is going to be more focused on my personal history with the movie, and why I think it's the best movie of the Prequel Trilogy, as well as some of my Episode I merchandise that I had when I was younger.

Originally released on May 19th, 1999, Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars movie that I ever saw in theatres. It's also the first of only two movies I ever saw in theatres more than once. The other being Frozen in late 2013 and early 2014. I had seen the Original Trilogy numerous times on VHS by this point, but I'd missed the releases of the Special Editions in theatres in early 1997, and, obviously the previous theatrical releases/re-releases of the Trilogy happened before I was born or when I was less than a year old.

With it being the first new Star Wars to come out since Return of the Jedi originally came out in 1983, there was massive hype for The Phantom Menace. Even before I saw the movie, the commercials were playing on TV all the time, both the TV spots for the actual movie, as well as the commercials for the toys. I even remember hearing a radio commercial for it during a news break on the MAJIC 100 Morning Show the day the movie came out. It was everywhere.

Yet, I didn't mind because I love Star Wars and my friends and I had discussed the possibilities of the Prequel Trilogy during recesses every day for a week or more. So when I finally did see the movie, I loved it. Both times. Why? Because the movie was made for me. I was twelve years old when The Phantom Menace came out, and George Lucas has always said that he made Star Wars for ten to twelve year olds. Not 35 year olds. Not 50 year olds. Ten to twelve year olds. It was an accident that it appeals to all ages, cultures, and genders. 

And because I was twelve years old when The Phantom Menace came out, I was able to appreciate Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker, as well as the antics of Jar Jar Binks. Jar Jar has always been one of my favourite characters, because, well, he's a goofball who was ostracized for being different from the other Gungans. I resonated with that when I was a kid. I still resonate with that now, as an almost 38 year old. 

I loved Anakin, because, even though he becomes Darth Vader, there wasn't any of that in this movie. Anakin was just this kid who was special and it took meeting Qui-Gon for him to fully tap into the thing that made him special. 

I also loved Queen Amidala/Padme Naberrie. The way George did it so that you didn't know they were the same person was incredible. Not to mention sheer luck that he found an actress in Keira Knightley who looked enough like Natalie Portman that you couldn't tell that she was a decoy. Especially in the scenes where Padme and "Amidala" are together.

Also, as soon as I saw Darth Sidious on screen for the first time, I knew that he was Palpatine. Not just because he wore the same robe and hood that the Emperor wore in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but his holographic form didn't quite distort his voice enough to disguise Ian McDiarmid's voice. Not to mention that devious smile and jaw line were clear enough to be recognizable, even though the hood covered his eyes. I know George Lucas wanted to keep it a secret until the reveal in Revenge of the Sith, and maybe some audience members were completely fooled. But, I wasn't.  

My dad bought the movie on VHS eventually, and as soon as he did, I watched it again. I got my own copy in the early 2000s, in a two pack with the VHS for Attack of the Clones and I watched it pretty regularly. Even now, I have a copy of The Phantom Menace on VHS. There's a preview for the Official Star Wars Website at the beginning of the tape, with nothing after the movie. What's interesting is that, the VHS is the only way you can get the original theatrical release of the movie on home media. There isn't a huge difference between the edition of the movie that came out on DVD in 2001 from the theatrical version.

I eventually got the movie on DVD and I still have my original copy in my collection. As I just mentioned there isn't a huge difference between the VHS and the DVD, except that George extended the beginning of the Podrace, by introducing a couple of more characters, and then inserting a shot of Anakin and Jar Jar entering the speeder that would take Amidala and her party to Senator Palpatine's place. The stupid thing is that an even more extended version of the opening of the Podrace is included as a deleted scene on Disc 2 of the DVD, as well as that speeder scene. Neither does anything to further the story, as they don't include any new information, so I have no idea why George even included those scenes in the movie, except that it was basically Star Wars's debut on DVD, as this was the first Star Wars thing to appear on DVD.

I remember when the movie was released to theatres in 3D in 2012, a year after its debut on Blu-ray in the Star Wars: The Complete Saga set. I didn't get to see it in 3D, but I honestly didn't care, because I'm not a fan of 3D. I still thought it was cool that The Phantom Menace was getting a theatrical re-release as theatrical re-releases aren't as common as they were before home media became a thing in the late '70s and early '80s. Disney was the only studio to re-release their movies, especially their older animated movies, in theatres in the '90s and 2000s. It's started to become more of a thing in recent years with anniversary theatrical re-releases, but it's not super common for modern day movies.

I ended up getting the novelization of the movie, which was written by Terry Brooks. I got the Queen Amidala hardcover edition, which had Jar Jar on the back. I don't remember if that was the only edition of the book that was at Chapters that day, but I picked it because I liked Amidala and Jar Jar. Eventually I'd get the Anakin cover, with Watto on the back, but that wasn't until years later. Even then, I kept my Amidala cover edition because it was pretty cool.

I would eventually get two of the junior books too. The main Junior Novelization, and the Queen Amidala Journal book. I'd had the Luke Skywalker Journal from the Original Trilogy, but this was the only one I had for Episode I. Again, I didn't get these until I was an adult.

I also got the Art of and Making of books for the movie. The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was a birthday present for my thirteenth birthday, and it was the original coffee table hardcover edition that I got. The Making of book was one I got second hand as an adult. Long after I'd seen the bonus features on the second disc of the DVD. I still have The Art of Episode I in my book collection and I pull it out every so often to look through.

I also got all four issues of the comic book adaptation of the movie, as well as three of the character one-shot issues that took place either before or during the movie. I got issue #2 of the comic book adaptation first, and didn't get the remaining three issues until a few years later. I got the Amidala one-shot, which takes place just before the Podrace, the same day as the second issue of the adaptation of the movie. I was only missing the Qui-Gon Jinn one-shot, which I have yet to find to this day. I eventually got rid of all seven comics, though I do have the adaptation of the movie in trade paperback form, which is cool.

While I didn't own them, I played Episode I Racer and Episode I: Battle for Naboo on the N64 as we rented both games pretty regularly. The last time I played Racer was at a friend's place after we'd been to the funeral of a mutual friend of ours back in 2007. I enjoyed both games though.

I didn't have very many of the toys though. When the movie came out I got a couple of the KFC and Pizza Hut special toys, and I still have the Queen Amidala/Padme one. We also had two of the Lego sets as well, like Anakin's Podracer, and the Tatooine lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. But, I didn't get any of the Hasbro figures when the movie initially came out. I did get the Mace Windu and Anakin figures second hand sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s, but I don't have them anymore.

The first piece of Phantom Menace memorabilia I ever got though was issue #43 of Star Wars Insider. My mom got me the special Previews edition, which I talked about when I covered this issue on the blog a long time ago. This issue was my first look at the characters of the movie, and was my first good look at all of them, particularly the prequel versions of returning characters from the Original Trilogy, like Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Threepio, Artoo, and Yoda, since none of them appear for very long in the trailers and TV spots. 

John Williams's score for the movie is unique in that, aside from the opening Star Wars theme, none of the music from the Original Trilogy was used here. It's all original, though it's possible there were some cues from the Original Trilogy as part of the score. They aren't prominent like they would be in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. 

Honestly, The Phantom Menace still holds up after 25 years. The thing is, this movie was huge when it came out. To the point where for issue #45 Star Wars Insider left out some of their usual columns in order to cover the movie's premiere. Even now, as an adult, I'm still feeling the movie's hype as I remember it from back then. Leaving that aside, I genuinely enjoyed watching the movie yesterday. To the point where I watched it twice. I watched it on VHS yesterday morning and then sat down and watched it on DVD last night before bed. It was alot of fun to revisit the movie after having not seen it since I reviewed it for The Review Basement back in 2020. 

The reason The Phantom Menace holds up though and is the strongest movie in the Prequel Trilogy, is because George Lucas and his team at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic basically worked on the movie for five and a half years. George announced it in the fall of 1993, but didn't start the writing process until the fall of 1994, a year after the announcement was made. Even then, the movie didn't go into full production, and didn't start filming until 1997, after the Special Editions were finished and in theatres. And because the movie didn't get released until 1999, George was able to make a great movie. In comparison Episode II and Episode III felt rushed because by the time George started working on them in earnest, there was only two years until their respective release dates being that George planned to have them come out in 2002 and 2005 respectively. And as we know a movie that's rushed out into theatres tends to be not as good as a movie that takes many years to come out.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon for more posts throughout the week. So until then, have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1 (2024) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing really well, though it's super hot out today, so I'm staying indoors all day. Which gives me the opportunity to work on this blog post. I'm doing a comic book review on the first issue of the recent Power Rangers mini-series published by BOOM! Studios, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return, which came out earlier this year. There will be some spoilers, just so I can talk about the issue, but nothing major. Like, I won't spoil the ending the issue. So let's get into it!

Written by Amy Jo Johnson, who played the first Pink Ranger, Kimberly, on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from 1993 to 1995, The Return #1 was published in February, 2024. The premise of the story is that in an alternate timeline even outside of the continuity established by the main BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic book series, in 2001 the Rangers finally defeated Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, saving the world once and for all, and then the team broke up. For reasons not revealed in this issue. It's implied that Tommy was killed in the final battle against Rita, and that Trini died of an illness that Billy was working on a cure for. Jason has kinda done the rogue vigilante thing that Raphael has done in various iterations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Zack has revealed his identity as the Black Ranger to the world, leaving the rest of the team's identities out of the mix, Zordon and Alpha are gone, Billy is using his power coin's connection to the Morphin Grid to look for ways to use teleportation on a wider scale, and Kimberly has moved to Canada and changed her name to Emma Phillips, for some reason. Again, it's not revealed in this issue (probably in issue #2 or issue #3).

This is kinda what I was afraid BOOM! Studios was going to do with the original comic when that began publication back in 2016. Mainly because alot of things were getting darker, more adult takes in comics at the time, like Scooby Apocalypse and the weird take that DC took on both The Flintstones and The Jetsons at the time. Though the original BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series felt more like a CW teen drama than anything else.

What makes this comic work though is that it isn't written by a Power Rangers fan or by a writer from the show. Amy Jo Johnson played Kimberly for two and a half seasons AND two movies, from 1993 to 1997. Not only does she know the characters, she knows the world of Power Rangers. Plus, her history as an actress makes her the perfect person to tell this tale, with her co-writer, Matt Hotson. 

While I'm glad this wasn't the direction the main comic went for back in 2016, I honestly think that this is the perfect time to tell this story. Even though there's been so much emphasis on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers over the last fourteen years, from when the 2010 version of the first season was airing on ABC Kids to the anniversary seasons featuring characters from the original series, I understand why. MMPR was what started the franchise. It's what people think of when they think of Power Rangers. Especially if they watched it in the '90s but didn't keep up with the franchise from Zeo to Cosmic Fury. And with it being a better seller than the modern seasons in terms of toy sales, Saban, and now Hasbro, would want to focus on it in merchandise.

I can't seem to find any info on whether this story was something Amy Jo and Matt came up with and pitched to Hasbro and BOOM! Studios, or if it's something that BOOM! went to Amy Jo and asked her to write it. Given that Amy Jo chose not to be involved with the Netflix special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, I'm assuming that this mini-series was her way of contributing to the 30th anniversary of the franchise rather than appear as Kimberly in the Netflix special. Which is fine, if that's true. 

The artwork is pretty good in this issue. I'm not familiar with the artist, Nico Leon, but he does a good job at drawing the characters. He's also pretty great at the backgrounds as well. I think his style works well with Amy Jo and Matt's story.

The one thing I'm a bit iffy about, is that it opens with the tired cliche of the hero, in this case, Jason, arriving in his base of operations, the abandoned, damaged, Command Center, and being attacked by an unseen enemy. It happened alot in the CW DC shows, and other superhero movies, that it was kinda, well, unnecessary in a way.

Overall, this was a pretty good first issue. I love that Amy Jo Johnson is the one writing it, even if she has a co-writer. Mainly because, well, she hasn't been in Power Rangers since Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie back in 1997, and hasn't been a series regular since 1995. So to have her involved on the creative side is pretty cool. With the TV show ended and no idea what Hasbro's plans for the franchise are, beyond selling the toy license to Playmates Toys, if these comics are the way the franchise will continue for the forseeable future, then that's pretty cool. Though I'd recommend picking up the individual issues and then reading them all together as the series is only four issues, and the fourth issue just came out last week (I have the first three). 

And that my friends is it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. Until then have a great day, stay cool, and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My History with YTV

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. I had a D&D session yesterday, which was alot of fun as always. Today however, I'm going to be doing something a little bit different. As this post is my 350th post on this blog, I decided I'm going to introduce a brand new series where I take a look at a particular TV station, my history with it, and all the shows that I watched on it. That station is YTV and this post is going to be my history with the channel as it's one of the few that I've watched fairly consistently over the years, even into adulthood, long after I've aged out of the channel's target demographic, which I'll get into later on in this post. In future posts I'll be taking a look at particular elements of the station that I watched, as well as individual posts on each show I watched on it. So let's get into it and talk about...YTV!!!

While YTV has had many logos over the years, this is the one I think most Canadians who grew up in the '90s remember the most. The blue TV with the red screen, and the YTV name in white popping out of it. This appeared at the end of many TV shows, even after the main channel logo had changed in the late '90s with the channel's "Keep it Weird" campaign. But, being that some of you might not have grown up in Canada, or grew up in an earlier time, and didn't have kids in the '90s, you might be asking, what is YTV? I'm glad you asked.

YTV stands for "Youth Television", and began broadcasting on September 1st, 1988. While the United States had Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and other TV stations aimed at children, Canada didn't until 1988, when both YTV and Family Channel began broadcasting (on the same day no less). Sure, our broadcast stations, such as Global, CTV, and CBC all had programming blocks dedicated to children's programming, but none of them were 100% dedicated to it the way YTV, Family Channel, and eventually, Teletoon (now Cartoon Network Canada), were.

My history with YTV began in either 1991 or 1992 with reruns of The Flintstones, Get Smart, and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Friends, as well as a children's show known as Take Part. New episodes of Video & Arcade Top 10 were also on at the time. I'll be talking about all of these shows, except for Take Part (it has no presence online), in future posts. But this was my introduction to the channel. Mostly during the day when I was in the hospital or home from school, so I didn't watch The After School Zone at the time. Don't worry, I'll talk about that more later too.

Everything changed when reruns of the 1966 TV series, Batman, began airing on The Zone in late 1992, alongside new episodes of an anime known as Samurai Pizza Cats, and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Of course, my family moved out into the country, where we didn't have cable, and the only time I had access to YTV was either at one of my grandparents's houses or at the hospital. Which didn't prevent me from discovering The Zone hosted by Phil Guerrero, a.k.a. PJ Phil, where the killer 5 o'clock hour combination of Batman reruns at 5 pm and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at 5:30. That was my favourite time of day from 1993 to 1994, when MMPR was removed from the station and replaced by Rugrats, which I also enjoyed. I mean I watched Power Rangers on Global at home, but watching it with an episode of Batman before it was extra special for me. Especially because Mom would change the channel to CTV for CJOH News at 6, and then a 6:30 rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation on CHRO (known as CTV2 Ottawa in the present day). 

Around this time I was also watching the preschool block known as The Treehouse for shows like The Big Comfy Couch, Postman Pat, PJ Katie's Farm, Shining Time Station, and The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon. I liked these shows, even though I was nearing my 10th birthday in 1996, because they were something to watch in the mornings as Kids TV on Global was shorter by this point.

In early 1996 we moved to a house that had cable, and that opened my siblings and I up for more YTV as Sailor Moon was already on the channel, as were Spider-Man: The Animated Series, ReBoot, and Beast Wars, among many other animated shows that I watched with both my siblings, as well as by myself.

By the late '90s Teletoon had become a thing, and Family Channel was no longer a premium cable channel. Yet, my siblings and I, despite watching Teletoon, we stayed glued to YTV. By this point Pokemon had come to North America and Pokemania was in full swing, which led to more English dubs of Anime to come to North America, like Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh!. At the same time though, I was starting to watch live action shows on YTV like The New Addams Family, Animorphs, Incredible Story Studios, Radio Active, and reruns of a show that had run on CBC from 1992 to 1994 called The Odyssey. While I still enjoyed animation, I was approaching my teen years and live action shows were calling to me a little bit more than they had during my early childhood when cartoons dominated my daytime TV viewing. 

The Zone had changed as both PJ Phil and Snit (voiced by Atul Rao) had left, and had been replaced by Jennifer Racicot (formerly known as PJ Katie) and Pat Kelly. I was more aware of popular music, so my favourite segments on The Zone were when Pat and Jenny would interview bands and music artists, like Savage Garden. 

By the early 2000s though, I found myself watching YTV less and less. Particularly once I got my own TV in my bedroom in the summer of 2001 and could watch shows like That '70s Show, Friends, Frasier, and The Simpsons. Sailor Moon and reruns of Radio Active were still on, but most of the shows that I had enjoyed on YTV, like Animorphs, Incredible Story Studios, and The New Addams Family were over, Batman reruns had moved over to Space Channel, and Family Channel had grabbed my attention with new seasons of Power Rangers, and shows like Radio Free Roscoe and Disney's House of Mouse. I had also dropped off of both Pokemon, which continued airing on YTV until 2014, and Digimon, which stopped airing on YTV in 2004. Though I would still watch reruns of Boy Meets World on YTV, finally catching the first three seasons of the show that I had missed when they had aired as part of TGIF on ABC, as well as movies like Pokemon: The First Movie (the beginning only), Sailor Moon R: The Movie - The Promise of the Rose, and Batman: Masked of the Phantasm. Though, again, I would still occasionally also watch Justice League and Teen Titans with my brother, but even those viewings were few and far between. By the late 2000s YTV was gone from my thoughts as it briefly became a premium cable channel, much like Family Channel had been from 1988 until 1997, as a result, my family didn't have access to it anymore. But then, in 2011 that changed.

Almost two decades after it had been removed from the channel, Power Rangers returned to YTV in 2011 with Power Rangers Samurai. After nearly a decade of being owned by Disney, Power Rangers was bought back from them by Saban Entertainment, now known as Saban Brands, in 2010. In the U.S. the series moved to Nickelodeon. But, even though Nickelodeon Canada began in 2009, Power Rangers was broadcast on YTV as well as on Nickelodeon Canada, as YTV had shared Nickelodeon shows with Family Channel since Day 1. For example, while Family Channel got Zoey 101, YTV got iCarly and Victorious. Canadian television is weird. 

Regardless, the return of Power Rangers to the channel brought me back to YTV even though I was in my mid-20s by that time and no longer in the demographic for the channel. And because Power Rangers was on on Saturday mornings, I didn't watch The Zone or anything that aired on weekdays. Just Power Rangers, and one episode of Pokemon that was on after an episode of Power Rangers Super Megaforce in 2014. But then, both shows moved over to Teletoon for some reason, and I became less interested in newer Power Rangers seasons as I had been very disappointed in how they'd handled the 20th anniversary season, Super Megaforce, given that it was adapted from one of my favourite seasons of Super Sentai ever, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which was that franchise's 35th Anniversary season. So once again, YTV fell from my view as there was nothing on it that piqued my interest anymore.

My last encounter with YTV happened in 2021 when the first season of the Canadian produced live action TV show adaptation of The Hardy Boys aired on the channel, alongside the follow-up series of the 1980s's cult sitcom, Punky Brewster. They were on on Friday nights and I enjoyed both shows. It also gave me a window into what YTV was in the modern day, as I'd seen it change and evolve over the course of my lifetime. 

Even though I don't watch YTV anymore, I have fond memories of watching it, from the early days of Batman and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to the Anime era of Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Digimon in the 2000s, to Frank and Joe Hardy appearing on my TV screen on Friday nights in the present day of 2021. I spent so many hours watching so many shows, seeing so many hosts from the PJs (Program Jockeys) of the '90s to Sugar and Carlos in the 2000s, the various commercial bumpers, and hilarious commercials for shows like Radio Active, to the feeling of being accepted for just being a YTV Kid. YTV was as much an escape for me as Star Trek was, and I am grateful for its existence. I hope there's some kid who is watching YTV now, who has as many fond memories of the channel as I do.

That's it for me for today, but I will be back soon with more blog posts. One note I would like to make about this series on YTV is that I'm only talking about the shows I watched on YTV, and believe me, I didn't watch all of them. So if there's a show that aired on YTV that you watched, and it's not on my list of shows to talk about, then I'm sorry. Some of them were on when I was really little, were on after I'd gone to bed, and were over by the time I was old enough to stay up later at night, or I wasn't allowed to watch them, like X-Men: The Animated Series, or were on after I'd grown up and was less inclined to watch them. If you want a more comprehensive look at the history of YTV, including reviews of all of the shows, I recommend checking out Shinken004's YTV Retrospective series on YouTube. The retrospective has alot of info on all things YTV. I'll leave the link to the channel at the end of this post. 

Until next time, have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Shinken004 YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@Shinken004