March 17, 2025 • 49 mins
Today we look at 5 fantastic kurosawa inspirations that play a big part into star wars. Revenge of the Sith turns 20 years old and is blasting back onto the big screen later in April! And finally the celebration guest list has grown and completed, let's take a look who will be there in Japan!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Time to abandon ship.
(00:05):
Oh no!
Here we go!
Can I persuade you to join us for a drink?
It's a tradition.
Here, here.
Jar Jar, homie, my main man.
Quick!
Before the separatists attack, get into the escape pod.
Hey!
This is escape pod!
(00:27):
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, I'm your host Josh, and we have our co-host Blake
with us this week for a small chat about two different things.
Movies that inspired Star Wars storytellers, we've got five on a list to go through, as
well as news that inspired Star Wars.
So let's get into it.
(00:49):
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, I'm your host Josh, and we have our co-host Blake
with us this week for a small chat about two different things.
Movies that inspired Star Wars.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
(01:10):
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
Another happy landing.
(01:31):
Another happy landing.
Alright, welcome back, sir.
Man, set in the mood with his music, holy smokes.
I remember watching Revenge of the Sith for the first time in the theater and it was glorious.
(01:52):
Music like this was a first to hear in a Star Wars movie.
To this grand scale.
I mean, if you don't count Duel of the Fates, that is also a great track.
That would have been my first version of this.
Yeah, but it was unbelievable.
And to this day, I feel like there still isn't a movie I've ever seen that has music like this.
(02:14):
More grand?
Yeah.
I feel like that's something that's really been missing lately.
Is it just me, or has music in movies gotten too, like, droney?
Stale?
Well, I mean, like, you know, like...
What was the first one to do it?
It's Inception.
Remember, like the...
Right?
(02:35):
You know, like that kind of droning noise?
I feel like that's just become, like, standard.
So you don't get a lot of this orchestral, kind of classic music.
I think...
Well, okay.
So, like, I'm thinking of other superhero movies and, like, I don't know, fantasy films and stuff like that.
It really has been less memorable, I think, in my opinion.
(02:59):
Like, there has been a few over the years that has struck me well and been like, oh, that's a memorable tune.
But I think for the most part, it's really, like, none of them have hit me so hard in the face.
Like, this one, that's just, like, a life-changing song.
You know what I mean?
It feels like part of the background.
Right.
I feel like with the original six movies, there's so much the case where the music, it felt like it was its own character.
(03:25):
Like, it had its own moments where it was in the spotlight.
Yeah.
Like, even all the way back to A New Hope with the twin sun setting.
Yeah.
Yeah, 100%.
Like, you know, it's definitely a part of George's movies that went absent from the later films.
Which is so bizarre to me because we still had John Williams.
(03:46):
Yeah.
I think what it comes down to, really, is just the director telling the story.
Like, sometimes directors don't want the music to overshadow the story.
But George's movies were visual stories.
Like, you know, you watch those movies and it's like, you don't need dialogue.
You can watch the movie with music and image alone and understand completely what's happening.
(04:10):
100%.
And I can think of moments, especially in The Force Awakens, where, like when we're first introduced to Rey.
I feel like there's a few moments like that.
Yeah.
And then, as well as the March of the Resistance.
But nothing to the same level as Duel of the Fates.
(04:31):
And Battle of the Heroes.
Battle of the Heroes.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agreed.
Well, that being said, Revenge of the Sith returns to theaters this year.
And, you know, we'll be there.
Wait, didn't they just do Phantom Menace?
They did.
Phantom Menace just celebrated its 25th last year with its return to theaters.
(04:53):
And, you know, sparingly, that is.
Like, not every theater around the world was doing it.
But we had one in our area.
I think, yeah.
Yeah, we made that happen and made the drive.
I believe we dressed up.
As is the custom.
Yeah.
But, wait, so Phantom Menace, now Revenge of the Sith.
What happened?
(05:14):
Yeah, so we were just talking about this off air.
Just as a small history here.
Beautiful poster that's come out with the 20th anniversary launch by Matt Ferguson.
He was the same guy who did the 25th anniversary poster for the Phantom Menace.
He's done posters for a variety of other films.
But in the years past, he also did one for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
(05:38):
Each celebrating their 40th anniversary.
And when Dial of Destiny came out for the indie series, he did a poster for that, too.
So he's been involved with the Lucasfilm group for a while, you know, doing things.
And your question being, why not Attack of the Clones?
Like, where's Attack of the Clones, right?
What happened?
So, yeah.
So, you know, we were trying to dig through this.
(05:59):
Because I feel like within fandom, Attack of the Clones is generally considered the bottom of the three.
Yeah.
On average for most people.
So that could be one thing to consider, for sure.
The other thing being Episode 3 celebrating its 20th.
It seems like five years early that they should be celebrating this sort of thing.
But I guess maybe they're like, oh, well, we did 40 years for the other two.
(06:23):
So, like, maybe we don't need to care.
But, yeah.
It looks like 2022, when Attack of the Clones did celebrate its 20-year anniversary.
It was pretty busy.
There was a lot of stuff happening that year.
We had Disney Plus opened up with The Book of Boba Fett that year.
We also had Obi-Wan Kenobi, which returned and reunited Ewan and Hayden on screen again.
(06:48):
We had Andor Season 1.
There was a Disney Plus special called Light and Magic, which took us back in time to the birth of ILM.
Tales of the Jedi launched on Disney as well.
There was a Star Wars celebration that took place that year.
And that's not everything.
There was a Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation special that launched on Disney Plus.
(07:09):
There was a slew of announcements on Ahsoka, The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch.
There was also, of course, in the background, the 20 years celebration milestone for Attack of the Clones.
We had lots of merchandise come out for that.
Hasbro hot toys.
Lots of, you know, Marvel even did a few 20-year badges on things.
(07:32):
The High Republic celebrated its launch of Phase 2, which was the prequel phase that goes before Phase 1.
There was a few books and comics that year.
And most notably, The Princess and the Scoundrel, which was written by Beth Rivas, which we still have not read.
As well as the Yoda Marvel comic series.
And Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga launched as well.
Holy cain! That was a huge deal. That was a massive game.
(07:56):
Yeah, so, and this was, was this the game or was that the Galactic Edition? I forget.
I think it was, I think it is this game. I think the game did come out that year.
And it got delayed.
Yeah, it was 2022. Yeah, it did get delayed to that year.
And Lucasfilm Games also announced a sequel to Fallen Order.
(08:18):
The title was revealed for Jedi Survivor.
John Williams turned 90 that year.
And a few other, a few other things.
We heard about Acolyte that year as well.
And, oh, Star Wars Galactic Pals, whatever that is.
So, okay, so it was a busy year, right?
There's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff.
I don't think to date we've had a busier year.
(08:41):
No, I think you're right.
I think that was probably the busiest year.
And I believe, I believe, there's only one year that might compare.
But it was probably the busiest year if you count everything up.
It was like the year that was like saturated in Star Wars stuff.
Especially with shows.
Just the fact that they had those three live action shows come out.
(09:03):
And then Tales of the Jedi on top of that is a lot.
Right.
So maybe they thought, well, let's not celebrate the 20th and re-release the movie.
Let's celebrate the 25th and re-release the movie.
But I think maybe they only started to clue into this pattern of, hey, let's start doing this.
Let's start making this a thing.
Once Episode 1 turned 25.
Because that was when that got the nice special poster.
All that, even though they had gone to Matt before for the Episode 5 and 6 posters.
(09:28):
And those did have some re-releases in theaters and such.
But in general, those movies, I feel like are more commonly, because they're older.
I feel like they are more commonly re-screened at smaller independently owned theaters.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, we've gone to the VSO.
Indiana Jones and Planet of the Apes and a bunch of small independent theaters tend to do like.
(09:50):
Yeah, stuff.
Play like the whole original trilogy or trilogy of films all in one sitting sort of idea.
We've gone to a live concert, which has replaced the music in the movie and did the music live on stage.
You know, that's a thing that some symphonies do.
So, yeah, there's numerous, numerous releases for those movies.
And I'm glad that those got us a 40th anniversary nod of the head.
(10:11):
You're right, though.
You don't really see that for movies from the early 2000s yet.
Even though, as we were saying, they're 25 years old now.
Yeah, yeah.
Getting there, right?
And so, yeah, Attack of the Clones missed their 20th.
But I feel like time has gone by so fast that now we're rapidly approaching Attack of the Clones 25th anniversary.
So I feel like maybe we'll see it returned to theaters for the 25th anniversary instead.
(10:36):
I could see that.
Why would they do Revenge of the Sith for 20th and then play do them out of order?
Yeah, I know.
Because Phantom Menace was 25th, you said.
Yeah, it is.
So it's 25th Phantom Menace, 20th Revenge of the Sith, and now theoretically 25th Attack of the Clones.
Here's another reason why the pattern started with Episode 1 being like, OK, let's do 25th.
And then, you know, maybe we'll do Attack of the Clones for 25th, so on and so forth.
(11:00):
Is Episode 1, when it returned to theaters, did return to theaters with a preview of The Acolyte.
Which was the show that takes place prior to The Phantom Menace.
So I think maybe they thought it was also a way to promote the new show.
And it just sort of aligned with the 20th year, 25th year anniversary, right?
But Revenge of the Sith is such a, you know, well-liked movie that I think they just thought,
(11:22):
Well, you know, this is an obvious one to do in a year that we have less stuff coming out.
You know, this year we just have Andor Season 2.
And how far are we from Attack of the Clones 25?
What year is that?
Well, it came out in 2022.
2022 was the 20th anniversary.
27.
So 2027 is currently 2025.
So we basically got two years.
(11:44):
Two years in full and a few months.
And they don't want to wait that plus another three to do Revenge of the Sith.
Right.
Two years and four or five months.
Yeah, that's it.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And Revenge of the Sith, maybe it will come back for its 25th.
That's the thing.
It'll be weird if they do it.
I kind of wish that.
The posters are so awesome.
I do kind of wish it said 25 year anniversary on there, but whatever.
(12:05):
You know, it'll be cool, though.
It'll be cool to see.
I mean, heck, I'd celebrate those.
I mean, some people watch them every year.
I feel like most Star Wars fans do.
I mean, I do.
You watch them every year?
The prequels?
Yeah.
Well, is it all of them?
All the films?
I watched six of them.
George's?
George's films?
You know, I feel like I've seen them so many times, I find myself less.
(12:29):
Don't say it.
Going back less these days.
You know, I just don't have so much stuff.
It's just one of my go to feel good series.
I can play that.
Lord of the Rings.
I'll just put it on if I just want to have a chill day.
They just live rent free in my head and I love them to death.
Right.
That's why I don't need to like, you know, it's almost like, you know, when a loved one
leaves the house for work in the morning, you know, you're not torn up or anything that
(12:51):
bad.
You know, it's just like, you know, all right, have a good day.
See you later.
How long do you wait then between rewatches?
I don't know.
I think the last time I rewatched them was the last time that perhaps we did a commentary
track.
No, no, no.
I've seen them once.
Maybe more than that.
More recently.
I'm trying to remember if we did the commentary tracks before or after episode nine.
But it has gotten to a point where it's you can't watch all of them on repeat all the
(13:16):
time.
Right.
Yeah.
I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a little long to do a marathon these days.
But yeah, I I'm looking forward to going 20 years.
It does irk me as well that clones got snubbed, but I'm sure we'll see it return for its
25th.
I sure hope so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fingers crossed.
(13:37):
But it depends how busy it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this one returns to theaters on April 25th.
So not in May.
And I feel like there's in May.
Well, its original release was in May.
Yeah.
But I mean, the previous anniversary releases.
Oh, yes.
The Phantom Menace returned to theaters in May of last year.
(13:59):
So, yeah, unlike unlike its counterparts, which all the prequels released were released
in May.
Originally, you know, this year that that is not the case.
They're releasing it a little early in April.
But I feel like that is strategic on their part because Disney has a number of things
coming out this summer.
And in May, we have the release of Lilo and Stitch, which is, you know, also a semi return
(14:25):
to theater.
And, you know, it's a live action version of it.
It's a whole new movie.
But it's at the same time, it's like it's a title that also came out 20 years ago.
That's true.
Yeah.
This came out while the prequels were still being released.
Yeah.
That's right.
We also have Marvel's Thunderbolts coming out on May 2nd.
So I feel like maybe they just didn't want to compete with themselves.
(14:48):
Yeah.
I mean, Disney, they they definitely have like I'm sure they have like hundreds of people
coordinating and planning all this stuff to make sure everything comes out without overlap.
Yeah.
So last year in 2024, Disney didn't have any movies on the roster for May.
At least.
Sorry.
Correction.
They had I think is this one.
Technically, they own Fox.
(15:09):
So Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes came out that month.
And I think that was it, I believe.
So, yeah.
I mean, as far as this year goes, May is a bit tight.
So, you know, maybe they just didn't want to compete.
Yeah.
Because we know that Revenge of the Sith is going to overshadow Lilo and Stitch.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, a Star Wars episode three is playing in the movie theater again 20 years
(15:33):
later.
And Lilo and Stitch.
Yeah.
What you taking your kid to?
Right.
Like, I mean.
Better be AVX.
IMAX.
Oh, that's another thing.
It's not just returning to theaters on the screen, but it's returning to theaters with
those special seats that move and vibrate.
The D-Box seats.
They're called.
Yeah.
They're called D-Box here.
(15:54):
And other theaters are called like 4DX or something like that.
So.
So, yeah.
Trying to think.
That's pretty cool.
Maybe during the fighting over the lava, the seats can just.
All the seat warmers just turn on.
It says.
Get this.
So, it says 4DX experience features high-tech motion chairs that sync over 21 effects, all
(16:15):
designed to complement the narrative of the film.
I'm going to be honest.
Those things just take me out of the movie.
They're so distracting.
I did it once with.
I think it was Transformers.
I feel like I was on a roller coaster.
It was like a little crazy.
Bucks throws you into the next aisle of seats ahead of you.
(16:36):
I was screaming louder than Shia LaBeouf in that movie, I tell you.
Man, I would love to do it for like Fast and Furious or maybe like the pod racing scene.
Oh, man.
Fast and Furious would be pretty sick, actually.
But yeah.
Pod racing.
Harry Potter with Quidditch.
Just for that one tiny segment.
Yeah.
Sequence based.
But like, how do you do it for Star Wars?
Like, other than.
Okay.
(16:57):
I imagine.
You know what?
You know what?
The opening shot.
The opening shot of like when the camera tilts down into the battle.
Oh, my goodness.
The feeling you get on one of those seats.
It's going to feel so weird.
Make people nauseous.
Yeah.
Because you look like directly down into the battle.
Right?
So, yeah.
That would be a cool.
That would be a great movie to do this for.
(17:18):
I don't know if George is going to be there in one of those theaters.
Yeah.
He'll rent out the whole theater himself and sit in the D-Box.
Yeah.
You just hear him.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
Whoa.
Wow.
Wow.
Hey, Rick.
Check this out.
Rick McCallum's there.
All right.
Just them and Dave in D-Box seats together.
Exactly.
(17:39):
Yeah.
It says.
Oh, yeah.
And with this also comes.
If I forgot to mention this amazing poster.
Definitely.
If you haven't seen it, go and check it out by Matt Ferguson.
And it's one of the greatest posters I've ever seen.
So.
You should message him and request a 25th.
If you'll update it to 25th for you.
Swap out the numbers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(18:00):
I'll have to ask him for that.
If it ever gets released again.
Yeah.
For 25 years.
All right.
That it.
We're done to the Sith.
We can move on to our next thing.
We got five films that inspired Star Wars storytellers.
And this is an article from Star Wars dot com.
So thank you, Amy, over at Star Wars dot com.
We'll just read through this and we can talk about it.
So she says no filmmaker.
(18:22):
No filmmakers work has ever had more of an impact on Star Wars creators than Akira Kurosawa.
Whether you're heading into it to Tokyo or following Star Wars Celebration Japan news from home.
Watching some of Kurosawa's filmography that inspired George Lucas and countless other creators will give you a better appreciation for a galaxy far, far away.
Lucas first became aware of Kurosawa's work while he was at film school at UCS in an.
(18:48):
USC.
USC.
Thank you.
What's USC?
What's UCS?
Is that Halo?
That's Lego.
Lego.
Oh, yeah.
I've been looking at my Lego magazine too much.
In an interview with the Criterion Collection, he talked about the filmmaker's impact.
It's hard to really appreciate the true genius of Kurosawa until you've seen a few films and you've been able to see other films at the same time.
(19:11):
Be able to realize his visual style, said Lucas.
I think he comes from a generation of filmmakers that were still influenced by silent films.
The visual graphics and framing, just the quality of the images go a long way to telling the story and setting the mood.
You're not going to find a lot of filmmakers that have the facility quality with the medium that Kurosawa had.
Here are the five Kurosawa films that inspired Lucas in the modern generation of Star Wars creators.
(19:36):
Number one, just called Hidden Fortress, 1958.
That's the year it came out.
In Hidden Fortress, two peasants seeking fortune agreed to escort two individuals unknown to them, a princess and a general, across enemy lines.
There are obvious parallels between the two peasants and C-3PO and R2-D2, both fond of bickering with each other, and the princess and the general to Leia Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
(20:00):
But the inspiration goes deeper than that, evident in how Kurosawa and Lucas similarly framed the action in different shots throughout these stories.
You'll also see nearly identical wipe transitions where one shot travels from one side of the frame to the other to replace the next.
That's a very George Lucas, Star Wars.
Now it's remembered to be a Star Wars thing to do like wipes, but that was very much a Kurosawa thing, I guess.
(20:26):
I actually didn't realize that because I'm gonna be honest, these movies have been on my list to watch forever and I really need to get to watching them.
Yeah.
Because they were so influential to Star Wars and George.
I have seen one of them on the list.
Okay.
But that's it.
I didn't realize films from that era had wipes like that.
Yeah, pretty cool.
(20:47):
How do you even do it if it's not digital?
I think that's like, that's almost the magic of like old cinema now.
It's like it's old enough now that that's the thought is like, how did they do this without digital technology?
They literally like glue two different reels together.
Yeah.
Like how did maybe they had some sort of piece of cardboard that like they, you know, manually like slid over two different between two different reels or something.
(21:12):
I'm thinking if you, if you lay them on top of each other and then just have basically like a ruler and like an exacto knife and like cut them on an angle and then just like stitch them together.
Yeah, maybe.
Because then as the frames go by, you'll see it switch from one to the other.
But that would only be like a single angled wipe.
Someone in 1958 is just shaking their head like these two idiots.
(21:33):
Right.
Dang kids.
All right.
Next up on the list, Seven Samurai from 1954.
Seven Samurai is an action-packed tale of a village hiring a group of samurai to help protect them from the invading bandits.
Star Wars fans can similar, find similar echoes in Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 2 episode Bounty Hunters, where Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka partner with bounty hunters to protect a village on Felucia from pirates, which is Hondo and his gang, I believe.
(22:01):
And The Mandalorian Season 1 episode Sanctuary, where Din Djarin and Cara Dune fight off raiders threatening krill farmers on Saurigan.
So there's two episodes by Dave Filoni.
He repeated the plot, I guess, of Seven Samurai in Mandalorian.
But I guess when George was running the show in the writers room with Clone Wars, he probably suggested this as well.
(22:24):
And this is the one movie on the list that I have seen.
And it's a long movie, dude.
I think I sat there for like three and a half hours or something like that.
It was a long movie.
A little tough if you're watching it and you don't know Japanese.
I assume you're watching the subbed version.
I can't remember if I found it with subs or not.
(22:46):
It may have been.
But it's a long movie still to watch even with subs.
And I hate dubbed.
I know.
Me too.
It takes you out.
It just totally takes me out of the movie.
Subs it is.
But I don't know.
I find it really tough to go that far.
It's almost like a marathon because you're constantly reading and watching.
Yeah.
And listening.
(23:07):
For that long.
And I will say on top of that, older films have a much slower pacing.
Yeah.
And I don't know about the rest.
I'm pretty good about not getting distracted when I'm watching a movie.
I don't scroll on my phone.
I'm not a multitasker when it comes to movies.
If I'm watching a movie, you have my full attention.
But there was a few times where it's like, okay, I'm going to get up and get a glass of water.
(23:31):
And I can still see the screen from my fridge or whatever.
But you turn your head for half a second, you miss something somebody says.
Because you have to read the text.
Right.
You have to pause it.
Yeah.
So I do find it is kind of tough.
I found that with Squid Game as well.
And great show.
But at least you can do that 45 minutes to an hour at a time.
Whereas Seven Samurai is like a three-hour movie.
(23:54):
And I don't know.
Maybe I'm OCD about this.
But I don't like taking a break halfway through a movie and going back to it later.
I don't either.
You come back, you just lose a lot of the details and the momentum.
You lose the momentum.
That's my issue.
You lose the motive to finish it.
And it's like, meh.
It makes it less memorable.
Yeah.
Because you just don't have all that fresh in mind.
Yeah, it is.
(24:15):
Yeah.
Seven Samurai, though, great movie.
I feel like the plot has been so iconic.
It keeps getting ripped off because it's so good.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
It is.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
The Clone Wars episode was great.
And, you know, I feel like season one is well-remembered for Mandalorian.
So clearly it paid off well, you know, doing an episode like that in season one.
(24:36):
Because it's like classic get the band back together storyline, right?
Yeah, totally.
All right.
Third on the list, Yojimbo, 1961.
Yojimbo also centers on a small village in trouble.
But this time the hero of the story is a ronin, which is a samurai with no master.
Toshiro Mifune plays a ronin who uses his wits against two criminal warlords fighting over control for the village.
(24:58):
It's a simple plot that's a fantastically entertaining film.
All thanks to Kurosawa's talents.
Director Deborah Chow talked about the influence of Kurosawa's work while she was directing the series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
There's such a strong correlation for me between the Jedi and the ronin.
Particularly in this period where all the Jedi are being hunted.
I was really looking at what you do if you're the last samurai.
(25:19):
You're more than a warrior.
There's also an ethical code that goes along with it in a world that's vastly changed.
In the behind-the-scenes featurette focused filmmaker focus, The Duel, creators from the Star Wars Visions short The Duel spoke about how their story paid homage to several Japanese films, including Yojimbo.
Seven Samurai and Lone Wolf and Cub.
(25:41):
Junpei Mizusaki, founder of Kamikaze Duga, the studio that made The Duel, which is the Star Wars Visions animated short, noted that we really wanted a high contrast black and white cinematography style like the one from Kurosawa's monochrome era.
Which I feel like that worked really well for that.
I feel like that was taking Star Wars and moving it closer to the source material, which was super cool.
(26:07):
We're getting a third volume of that.
I hope so.
Has that been announced?
Yeah, it has.
I just forget when that's supposed to come out.
We're talking about this year being somewhat dry with only a re-release for Revenge of the Sith and Andor Season 2.
But I think maybe Visions Volume 3 does return this year.
Very appropriately, seeing as Celebration Japan is happening this year as well.
(26:32):
Not to snub that year, but that's also happening this year.
And yeah, I don't know when this comes out in 2025, but it's supposed to come out in 2025.
So I would imagine probably third quarter, fourth quarter.
Towards the end of the year then.
Yeah, because we had the tail end of Skeleton Crew in January and then the build up and lead into April being very busy with Revenge of the Sith, Celebration Japan and Andor.
(27:00):
All in April and May.
So it's a busy first half of the year.
So I would probably say look for it in, I don't know.
After summer.
Yeah, look for it in September, October.
So far away now.
I'm looking forward to that.
Yeah, there you go.
All right, Rashomon from 1950.
Rashomon tells the story of an assault and murder from multiple points of view.
(27:24):
The recollections of the events all have many differences, changing how the characters' actions are perceived by the audience throughout the film.
Rian Johnson's film, Star Wars The Last Jedi, also showed the audience different perspectives from the fateful night shortly before Luke's Jedi Academy was destroyed.
Rey first hears about this night and the fateful confrontation between Master and Apprentice from Luke's perspective.
(27:47):
When Rey hears Kylo Ren's version of events, the flashback changes to show Ben waking up to see an enraged Luke about to strike him, wielding a lightsaber that was notably not seen in the first telling of the story.
From this perspective, Ben's actions appear to be self-defense.
When Rey confronts Luke about the contradiction, he tells a third version of events where he ignited his lightsaber above Ben's bed, then hesitated, but not before Ben woke up to see his uncle and acted to stop him.
(28:14):
The audience is left to make their own decision about what the true events of that night really entailed.
The episode Destiny and Night from The Acolyte used a similar method of storytelling, showing a deadly encounter between a group of Jedi and a witch coven on Brendok from several different perspectives.
This change of viewpoint in turn alters the opinions audiences may have about the characters in the series, like Master's soul and their motivations.
(28:40):
As The Acolyte's showrunner Leslie Hedlund explained, it is a serialized story, so each episode gives you more information about the story.
We were obviously influenced by samurai films like Rashomon, where you see one story and then you see it a different way.
We were actually talking about those episodes just off air, like before we started doing the podcast.
Yeah, earlier tonight.
I feel like maybe that kind of thing does work better in a single event, like a single movie.
(29:04):
I think so too.
It's unless they can release the series in one go or you watch it on one sitting.
But if you're watching week to week, it's hard to remember those details to really understand all these different angles on the same event.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
I also have not seen this movie from 1950, but I do like I mean, I thought that as I mean, obviously, that is a big part of The Last Jedi, right?
(29:30):
Like the events that transpired between Luke and Ben.
Right.
And that's one of the least complained about things about that movie.
Like it's a very divisive movie, divisive, whatever the word, but like it's you know, I feel like some people like it.
Some people hate it.
Right. Sure.
And I've never been the biggest fan of the sequels myself.
But between the three of them, I found it the most interesting.
(29:53):
The Last Jedi was certainly the most unique compared to the prior six films.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't know.
It just it did kind of keep me engaged.
And yes, there was a lot of wasted screen time with other things.
But but at least the parts regarding Luke and Ben, I thought were were somewhat interesting to see that a Star Wars movie was willing to do a flashback like that.
(30:17):
Because because really, like other than Rey's vision, like that was never been done before.
It's true, actually.
Yeah.
Come to think of it, there's never really been.
We've talked.
I think it's been years now because there's been several flashbacks since then.
But for a long time, there was no flashbacks in Star Wars.
Right. It was a here and now.
Yeah.
Like what Qui-Gon says.
(30:39):
Ironically, the movies were in chronological order in the films, but not in the releases of the films.
The events were.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's it's I would like to do a whole like, you know, I would like to know more about when did flashbacks start in movies?
You know, has this always been a thing that's been used in movies before?
(31:02):
Obviously, this, you know, Rashomon movie has, like, played a big part in why it's in Star Wars.
But was that kind of a big turning point for movie storytelling?
Was was Kurosawa the first guy to do it?
You know, with with flashbacks and different perspectives or just flashbacks in general?
Maybe Hitchcock.
Is that before or after?
I don't know.
It's a good question.
(31:23):
Yeah.
He.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
No, he definitely made movies through the 50s.
I think they're on the same time, right?
Yeah.
So maybe.
I haven't seen I don't think I've seen any of his movies either, to be honest.
You haven't seen Hitchcock movies?
Oh, man.
I don't think so.
So many classics.
Birds.
Yeah.
I don't know.
All right.
Cool.
Last one here.
(31:44):
We got Cage Musha, the Shadow Warrior from 1980.
One of Kurosawa's later works.
Cage Musha features a thief recruited to be the decoy of an aging warlord.
Decoys, of course, played a large role in the storyline of Star Wars, the Phantom Menace
and Star Wars, the Clone Wars season four episode Shadow Warriors, where Jar Jar Binks
doubles for a Gungan boss in a nod to to Cage Musha.
(32:09):
Dave Filoni also pointed to Cage Musha's dreamlike sequences as an inspiration while
filming the reunion of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano in the world between worlds in
Star Wars Ahsoka.
So there you have it.
Well compiled.
So thank you, Amy, who is a lifelong Star Wars geek and author of several books, including
Star Wars Timelines, Star Wars, The High Republic, Character Encyclopedia and Star Wars.
(32:32):
I love you.
I know you can find her on Instagram and Twitter.
I think it's pretty neat that they threw this list together just because I didn't realize
there was new films that since George passed the torch, there's new samurai films from
the 50s that are still inspiring.
Yeah.
Star Wars going forward.
Because I think there's like the big ones, you know, Fortress, Ujumbo and the third one
(32:53):
I'm blanking on.
Seven Samurai.
Seven Samurai.
Thank you.
Those are like pretty notoriously known to be pretty big inspirations for Star Wars.
Yeah.
So it's neat to see that there is new ones.
Like we're still trying to keep to that route that George had of using theatrical films
of the past to influence what's coming out now.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
(33:14):
Yeah.
We got to watch some of these movies.
I know.
Yeah.
I think it'd be fun to do some episodes where we just chat about them and then kind of do
what we just did now, but like on a much deeper level.
Yeah, for sure.
Like per movie.
For sure.
Yeah.
Let us know in the comments if you want to see that.
Definitely.
Definitely let us know.
And other ways to reach us are in the description.
All right.
We got our final article here.
(33:36):
So 2025 celebrity guest confirmed for Star Wars Celebration Japan.
The final update.
Final update.
Yes.
So Hayden Christensen and Vanessa Marshall, also known as Anakin Skywalker actor from
Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, as well as Vanessa Marshall who plays the
voice of Harrison Doola on Star Wars Rebels, will be going to Star Wars Celebration.
(33:58):
And you know, as Star Wars Celebration goes, they pull them out onto the stage.
You know, they talk with them in front of a bunch of people.
And all these celebrities that go to these Star Wars Celebrations, they are treated like
rock stars.
They're not just like the smaller conventions where they just do signings and stuff like
that.
Like, yeah, they might do some signings, but you know for sure that, you know, if they're
(34:20):
going, they're going to be brought out on the stage and be appreciated and, you know,
be photographed.
And, you know, you'll hear them speak and whatnot.
So like, it's always it's always cool to be kept away in a tower.
Yeah.
Limited access.
Yeah.
Is there some open wounds here I hear?
Yeah.
There's some open wounds about this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(34:41):
I don't want to talk about it.
All right.
We also have Oscar Isaac who is, you know, plays Poe Dameron from the sequel trilogy
and voices Poe Dameron in Star Wars Resistance.
That's cool to see he's coming back.
I feel like it's been a number of years since the sequels were out.
Yeah.
So, like, it's been long enough that I would feel like a lot of these actors are like,
(35:03):
okay, time to move on, whatever.
So it's cool to see that they're still interested in coming back and seeing the fans.
It's been five years since episode nine, which blows my mind because I feel like five years
after Revenge of the Sith came out.
It didn't feel like five years.
That felt like way longer.
I don't know.
Maybe it was just high school.
Maybe.
Yeah.
I think that's maybe it.
(35:24):
Like, maybe time just was way slower back then.
Now time is like, just, you know, way, way faster.
Since COVID, I feel like time has just gone by faster and faster.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, Oscar Isaac, everybody.
All right.
Rosario Dawson, also known as Ahsoka Tano from the live action series, The Mandalorian,
The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka is coming to Star Wars Celebration as well.
(35:45):
So that's cool.
Ahmed Best, who plays Jar Jar Binks, as well as John Knoll, the VFX master.
You know, what else do you say about him?
Integral part from the special editions in the 90s, through the prequels, all the way
to current Disney era.
Very, very involved for Rogue One.
(36:07):
Yeah.
Definitely recommend anyone going to Celebration to go to his panel.
Usually it's a bit smaller.
It's not on the main stage.
But man, if you want to see a guy who's an integral part in the background of Star Wars,
definitely go to his panel.
Yeah.
That's great advice.
That's a guy who does all of the all the miniature ships and actually built the rigs and filmed
(36:28):
it himself to put in like Mandalorian and stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, to those listening who don't know who he is, he co-created Photoshop and he
has served as the VFX supervisor on several films, including The Phantom Menace, Attack
of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew.
So very important guy.
He's not in the forefront of Star Wars by any means.
(36:50):
But man, massive influence.
Definitely check out his panel if you get the chance.
For sure.
Also, Ahmed Best, you know, I say Jar Jar, but also Keller and Beck from Mandalorian
Season 3.
This is the Jedi who saved Grogu.
So some people might, I guess, recognize his face a bit better from that role.
Right.
Yeah.
But yeah.
(37:11):
No wonder the big rubber hat.
Yeah, exactly.
But also, you know, he is right next to Jon Nolan on this announcement here because he
is technically the first actor who pioneered motion capture in a feature film, full character
like for the whole movie.
You know, like before that, motion capture was significantly less, if not of a role,
(37:34):
if not absent from most movies.
And now after Ahmed Best, it's become integral to almost every movie, especially with roles
from large feature films from Marvel.
You know, Thanos being a big one.
So, yeah.
Smeagol.
Smeagol.
Andy Serkis.
Yeah.
Andy Serkis.
That wasn't too long after.
(37:55):
That wasn't.
Yeah.
That's very true.
Yeah.
Andy Serkis and Ahmed Best.
Filming around the same time.
I think they were.
Yeah.
Ahmed Best and Andy Serkis.
Both very integral to that industry.
Diego Luna and Sam Witwer.
Diego Luna plays Andor from Andor.
And Sam Witwer plays, you know, you might know him as the Secret Apprentice from The
Force Unleashed, but he also voices Darth Maul from Star Wars Rebels and the Son from
(38:21):
Star Wars The Clone Wars and Darth Maul from The Clone Wars and Solo A Star Wars Story.
So lots of roles.
Did you mention Starkiller?
Yeah.
From The Force Unleashed.
Yeah.
So like lots of roles.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Darth Maul from Star Wars Rebels.
And before that, he was an episode of Dexter where he was a weird, creepy guy who did taxidermy.
No, I do.
(38:42):
Before that, he was in Smallville.
Oh, yeah.
As as Doomsday.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Terrible season.
Maybe skip that part.
I love that show to death, though.
All right.
Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who portrayed the father of the Death Star and Jyn Erso's papa,
is also returning.
Mads Mikkelsen plays Galen Erso from Rogue One.
(39:05):
He's coming back as well.
Alan Tudyk, who plays K-2SO, is coming.
Manny Jacinto, who plays the Stranger slash Khmer from The Acolyte, is coming.
And Daniel Logan, who plays Kid Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones and Star Wars The
Clone Wars, is coming to Star Wars Celebration as well.
So three more great names there.
(39:28):
We have Anthony Daniels, the one and only, C-3PO.
Tamora Morrison, who plays Jango and Boba Fett.
Doug Chang, production and art designer on many, many things.
In fact, we just were talking about Doug Chang in our last episode, which dropped a few
weeks ago.
Another guy definitely worth checking out.
Oh, yeah.
As far as big people in the background.
100 percent.
(39:49):
Designed the Naboo Starfighter.
That's right.
Get it.
Bring an N1 Starfighter from, like, Lego or Hasbro or something.
Get him to sign it.
1999 toys.
Yeah.
Worth the signature.
And then Ashley Eckstein, finally.
The voice of Ahsoka Tano, who brought that character to life.
I mean, you know, Rosario Dawson might bear the face, but Ashley bears the voice.
(40:12):
You sound conflicted.
Without the two of them, we could not have the great stories that we have right now.
That's true.
You know.
Yeah.
There you go.
I sense conflictedness.
I was actually pretty heartbroken when they announced that Ashley would not be carrying
her role into live action.
I remember this.
Yeah.
(40:33):
But yeah, it is what it is.
I mean, I'm quite happy with Rosario Dawson.
She's awesome.
She did a really good job.
Fantastic actress.
Admittedly, a big part of our concern was before we even saw Ahsoka in Mandalorian.
That's true.
That's true.
That's very true.
All right.
Tickets for Celebration have been on sale for quite some time.
We've talked about it many, many times.
I think it's sold out, isn't it?
It's fully sold out.
(40:54):
I've checked.
Hit that refresh button every few minutes for two weeks.
Oh, yeah.
It's been gone.
Star Wars Celebration tickets are fully sold out.
This is everything.
Kid passes, adult passes, day passes, half day passes, full weekend passes.
It's all gone.
Kids in their church coat passes.
Yeah.
Those of you who are going Makarai, Messe, Japan, you'll be there April 18th through
(41:21):
the 20th.
And the rest of us will be tuning in online to see what we can catch the crumbs.
Because they don't put everything out.
No, they don't.
Yeah.
They just they often do the main like open room panel or they just interview people.
Yeah.
But as far as like specific panels, it's usually just like the opening panel.
And then maybe like one or two other big ones is kind of it.
(41:43):
Remember?
Yeah.
What's different this year?
What kind of advice would you give to someone who's going to celebrate based on our experience
at 20?
Sell it.
It's different.
Because when we went, you had to go super early and get in line for wristbands for wristbands
to go to specific panels.
Now they do a raffle.
Yeah, it's way better.
Now is every hour.
(42:04):
We just kept going earlier and earlier because we couldn't get them.
And so the last day, Bryce and I went.
You had already given up.
You and Ben, Bryce and I went.
We left at like three in the morning and we managed to get the Mark Hamill panel.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I hate to say it, but like I had an amazing day that day when I didn't go.
(42:26):
Yeah.
Ben, my brother in law and I, we it was the final day.
And this is so the Japan one is a three day thing.
But the one we went to 2017, that was a four day thing.
And yeah, that final day was the fourth day.
Most of the things had packed up.
It was way less to see.
We'd already seen the main hall a lot.
Yeah.
(42:47):
And we were pretty burned out, I think, with just the idea of not.
Long days, just getting up super early.
Yeah.
And not getting into convention halls and stuff.
And it was in Florida.
So it was super hot.
I was standing on concrete to get in.
Yeah.
So.
And then afterwards we went to Disney World every night.
Every night.
Every night.
Until they closed.
I feel like Ben and I were just like, we need some Disney magic.
(43:08):
Like we just, I don't know.
It was a really good time.
But we were like, I think we're just going to like roll the dice on having a good day at Disney World.
We had a great day.
I still don't regret it.
But you guys had some really cool stories that, you know, when we met up at the end of the day.
Heard what a great time it was.
Yeah, it ended up being the best day.
Yeah.
Go figure.
We got to do the most stuff.
Yeah.
(43:29):
So.
But yeah.
It was fun.
It was fun.
We did some cool coasters and got to see more of Disney World.
And that was awesome.
Yeah.
Great advice.
Raffle system.
I feel like Ian was telling us this year.
Because last year when we spoke with Ian, who we actually just spoke not long ago with the Living Forest Review.
But he went to the second England.
(43:51):
The one in London.
Which happened.
Just a few years ago.
Two, three years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he said that that was also a raffle system.
That's when they started it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is way better.
It gives everyone a shot.
Yeah.
To get in.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
I never would get there.
And people are just camping in line for days.
Oh, man.
And the 2017 one, I think, to this day, is still the largest one that they've had in
(44:14):
population.
I'm pretty sure.
We timed it pretty well, huh?
Yeah.
It's probably because it was in Orlando.
Yeah.
I think so.
Yeah.
I think so.
But yeah.
It was fun.
I do recommend bring a backpack full of bring some Gatorade or Powerade of water or whatever.
And bring some snacks.
Because those convention halls are weirdly absent of food.
(44:37):
That too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember being in that giant convention, the main place where you can see all the shops
and stuff like that.
It feels like you could.
It's like an airplane hangar.
You could walk for like.
It's huge.
Yeah.
At least when we were at.
It's like two kilometers across or something.
But yeah.
There was like no food in there.
Man.
(44:59):
You know, to get any food at all, you're walking a long way.
So, yeah.
Bring some stuff with you.
Bring some mandarins.
You know, hit the convenience store somewhere.
Mandalorian brand mandarins.
Yeah.
And every location where they host this event is always different.
But like, it's always better safe than sorry for your first day.
And you can always ditch the bag on the second day.
But like, definitely bring.
And that way, if you buy anything, like you can.
(45:20):
You got something to store it in.
Right?
That's true.
Yeah.
I feel bad for like people that wear like crazy costumes.
Because like.
Man.
Yeah.
There was a guy that had a Darth Maul costume.
He was like on stilts.
Gosh, dude.
He was trying to be with robot legs.
Those stilt legs were crazy cool.
But like.
He could barely walk.
Yeah.
He could barely walk.
And it was like.
You know.
Like, where's all your stuff?
Like.
(45:41):
He didn't even have a shirt on.
No.
He just.
He bought.
He's probably.
Because we didn't see him until the afternoon.
He probably spent the whole morning doing like body paint.
Yeah.
With Darth Maul.
Like.
It was that kind of dedication that like humbled me in that moment.
I was like.
Whoa.
Am I even a real fan?
Like.
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Time to abandon ship.
(00:05):
Oh no!
Here we go!
Can I persuade you to join us for a drink?
It's a tradition.
Here, here.
Jar Jar, homie, my main man.
Quick!
Before the separatists attack, get into the escape pod.
Hey!
This is escape pod!
(00:27):
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, I'm your host Josh, and we have our co-host Blake
with us this week for a small chat about two different things.
Movies that inspired Star Wars storytellers, we've got five on a list to go through, as
well as news that inspired Star Wars.
So let's get into it.
(00:49):
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, I'm your host Josh, and we have our co-host Blake
with us this week for a small chat about two different things.
Movies that inspired Star Wars.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
(01:10):
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
So let's get into it.
Another happy landing.
(01:31):
Another happy landing.
Alright, welcome back, sir.
Man, set in the mood with his music, holy smokes.
I remember watching Revenge of the Sith for the first time in the theater and it was glorious.
(01:52):
Music like this was a first to hear in a Star Wars movie.
To this grand scale.
I mean, if you don't count Duel of the Fates, that is also a great track.
That would have been my first version of this.
Yeah, but it was unbelievable.
And to this day, I feel like there still isn't a movie I've ever seen that has music like this.
(02:14):
More grand?
Yeah.
I feel like that's something that's really been missing lately.
Is it just me, or has music in movies gotten too, like, droney?
Stale?
Well, I mean, like, you know, like...
What was the first one to do it?
It's Inception.
Remember, like the...
Right?
(02:35):
You know, like that kind of droning noise?
I feel like that's just become, like, standard.
So you don't get a lot of this orchestral, kind of classic music.
I think...
Well, okay.
So, like, I'm thinking of other superhero movies and, like, I don't know, fantasy films and stuff like that.
It really has been less memorable, I think, in my opinion.
(02:59):
Like, there has been a few over the years that has struck me well and been like, oh, that's a memorable tune.
But I think for the most part, it's really, like, none of them have hit me so hard in the face.
Like, this one, that's just, like, a life-changing song.
You know what I mean?
It feels like part of the background.
Right.
I feel like with the original six movies, there's so much the case where the music, it felt like it was its own character.
(03:25):
Like, it had its own moments where it was in the spotlight.
Yeah.
Like, even all the way back to A New Hope with the twin sun setting.
Yeah.
Yeah, 100%.
Like, you know, it's definitely a part of George's movies that went absent from the later films.
Which is so bizarre to me because we still had John Williams.
(03:46):
Yeah.
I think what it comes down to, really, is just the director telling the story.
Like, sometimes directors don't want the music to overshadow the story.
But George's movies were visual stories.
Like, you know, you watch those movies and it's like, you don't need dialogue.
You can watch the movie with music and image alone and understand completely what's happening.
(04:10):
100%.
And I can think of moments, especially in The Force Awakens, where, like when we're first introduced to Rey.
I feel like there's a few moments like that.
Yeah.
And then, as well as the March of the Resistance.
But nothing to the same level as Duel of the Fates.
(04:31):
And Battle of the Heroes.
Battle of the Heroes.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agreed.
Well, that being said, Revenge of the Sith returns to theaters this year.
And, you know, we'll be there.
Wait, didn't they just do Phantom Menace?
They did.
Phantom Menace just celebrated its 25th last year with its return to theaters.
(04:53):
And, you know, sparingly, that is.
Like, not every theater around the world was doing it.
But we had one in our area.
I think, yeah.
Yeah, we made that happen and made the drive.
I believe we dressed up.
As is the custom.
Yeah.
But, wait, so Phantom Menace, now Revenge of the Sith.
What happened?
(05:14):
Yeah, so we were just talking about this off air.
Just as a small history here.
Beautiful poster that's come out with the 20th anniversary launch by Matt Ferguson.
He was the same guy who did the 25th anniversary poster for the Phantom Menace.
He's done posters for a variety of other films.
But in the years past, he also did one for Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
(05:38):
Each celebrating their 40th anniversary.
And when Dial of Destiny came out for the indie series, he did a poster for that, too.
So he's been involved with the Lucasfilm group for a while, you know, doing things.
And your question being, why not Attack of the Clones?
Like, where's Attack of the Clones, right?
What happened?
So, yeah.
So, you know, we were trying to dig through this.
(05:59):
Because I feel like within fandom, Attack of the Clones is generally considered the bottom of the three.
Yeah.
On average for most people.
So that could be one thing to consider, for sure.
The other thing being Episode 3 celebrating its 20th.
It seems like five years early that they should be celebrating this sort of thing.
But I guess maybe they're like, oh, well, we did 40 years for the other two.
(06:23):
So, like, maybe we don't need to care.
But, yeah.
It looks like 2022, when Attack of the Clones did celebrate its 20-year anniversary.
It was pretty busy.
There was a lot of stuff happening that year.
We had Disney Plus opened up with The Book of Boba Fett that year.
We also had Obi-Wan Kenobi, which returned and reunited Ewan and Hayden on screen again.
(06:48):
We had Andor Season 1.
There was a Disney Plus special called Light and Magic, which took us back in time to the birth of ILM.
Tales of the Jedi launched on Disney as well.
There was a Star Wars celebration that took place that year.
And that's not everything.
There was a Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation special that launched on Disney Plus.
(07:09):
There was a slew of announcements on Ahsoka, The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch.
There was also, of course, in the background, the 20 years celebration milestone for Attack of the Clones.
We had lots of merchandise come out for that.
Hasbro hot toys.
Lots of, you know, Marvel even did a few 20-year badges on things.
(07:32):
The High Republic celebrated its launch of Phase 2, which was the prequel phase that goes before Phase 1.
There was a few books and comics that year.
And most notably, The Princess and the Scoundrel, which was written by Beth Rivas, which we still have not read.
As well as the Yoda Marvel comic series.
And Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga launched as well.
Holy cain! That was a huge deal. That was a massive game.
(07:56):
Yeah, so, and this was, was this the game or was that the Galactic Edition? I forget.
I think it was, I think it is this game. I think the game did come out that year.
And it got delayed.
Yeah, it was 2022. Yeah, it did get delayed to that year.
And Lucasfilm Games also announced a sequel to Fallen Order.
(08:18):
The title was revealed for Jedi Survivor.
John Williams turned 90 that year.
And a few other, a few other things.
We heard about Acolyte that year as well.
And, oh, Star Wars Galactic Pals, whatever that is.
So, okay, so it was a busy year, right?
There's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff.
I don't think to date we've had a busier year.
(08:41):
No, I think you're right.
I think that was probably the busiest year.
And I believe, I believe, there's only one year that might compare.
But it was probably the busiest year if you count everything up.
It was like the year that was like saturated in Star Wars stuff.
Especially with shows.
Just the fact that they had those three live action shows come out.
(09:03):
And then Tales of the Jedi on top of that is a lot.
Right.
So maybe they thought, well, let's not celebrate the 20th and re-release the movie.
Let's celebrate the 25th and re-release the movie.
But I think maybe they only started to clue into this pattern of, hey, let's start doing this.
Let's start making this a thing.
Once Episode 1 turned 25.
Because that was when that got the nice special poster.
All that, even though they had gone to Matt before for the Episode 5 and 6 posters.
(09:28):
And those did have some re-releases in theaters and such.
But in general, those movies, I feel like are more commonly, because they're older.
I feel like they are more commonly re-screened at smaller independently owned theaters.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, we've gone to the VSO.
Indiana Jones and Planet of the Apes and a bunch of small independent theaters tend to do like.
(09:50):
Yeah, stuff.
Play like the whole original trilogy or trilogy of films all in one sitting sort of idea.
We've gone to a live concert, which has replaced the music in the movie and did the music live on stage.
You know, that's a thing that some symphonies do.
So, yeah, there's numerous, numerous releases for those movies.
And I'm glad that those got us a 40th anniversary nod of the head.
(10:11):
You're right, though.
You don't really see that for movies from the early 2000s yet.
Even though, as we were saying, they're 25 years old now.
Yeah, yeah.
Getting there, right?
And so, yeah, Attack of the Clones missed their 20th.
But I feel like time has gone by so fast that now we're rapidly approaching Attack of the Clones 25th anniversary.
So I feel like maybe we'll see it returned to theaters for the 25th anniversary instead.
(10:36):
I could see that.
Why would they do Revenge of the Sith for 20th and then play do them out of order?
Yeah, I know.
Because Phantom Menace was 25th, you said.
Yeah, it is.
So it's 25th Phantom Menace, 20th Revenge of the Sith, and now theoretically 25th Attack of the Clones.
Here's another reason why the pattern started with Episode 1 being like, OK, let's do 25th.
And then, you know, maybe we'll do Attack of the Clones for 25th, so on and so forth.
(11:00):
Is Episode 1, when it returned to theaters, did return to theaters with a preview of The Acolyte.
Which was the show that takes place prior to The Phantom Menace.
So I think maybe they thought it was also a way to promote the new show.
And it just sort of aligned with the 20th year, 25th year anniversary, right?
But Revenge of the Sith is such a, you know, well-liked movie that I think they just thought,
(11:22):
Well, you know, this is an obvious one to do in a year that we have less stuff coming out.
You know, this year we just have Andor Season 2.
And how far are we from Attack of the Clones 25?
What year is that?
Well, it came out in 2022.
2022 was the 20th anniversary.
27.
So 2027 is currently 2025.
So we basically got two years.
(11:44):
Two years in full and a few months.
And they don't want to wait that plus another three to do Revenge of the Sith.
Right.
Two years and four or five months.
Yeah, that's it.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And Revenge of the Sith, maybe it will come back for its 25th.
That's the thing.
It'll be weird if they do it.
I kind of wish that.
The posters are so awesome.
I do kind of wish it said 25 year anniversary on there, but whatever.
(12:05):
You know, it'll be cool, though.
It'll be cool to see.
I mean, heck, I'd celebrate those.
I mean, some people watch them every year.
I feel like most Star Wars fans do.
I mean, I do.
You watch them every year?
The prequels?
Yeah.
Well, is it all of them?
All the films?
I watched six of them.
George's?
George's films?
You know, I feel like I've seen them so many times, I find myself less.
(12:29):
Don't say it.
Going back less these days.
You know, I just don't have so much stuff.
It's just one of my go to feel good series.
I can play that.
Lord of the Rings.
I'll just put it on if I just want to have a chill day.
They just live rent free in my head and I love them to death.
Right.
That's why I don't need to like, you know, it's almost like, you know, when a loved one
leaves the house for work in the morning, you know, you're not torn up or anything that
(12:51):
bad.
You know, it's just like, you know, all right, have a good day.
See you later.
How long do you wait then between rewatches?
I don't know.
I think the last time I rewatched them was the last time that perhaps we did a commentary
track.
No, no, no.
I've seen them once.
Maybe more than that.
More recently.
I'm trying to remember if we did the commentary tracks before or after episode nine.
But it has gotten to a point where it's you can't watch all of them on repeat all the
(13:16):
time.
Right.
Yeah.
I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a little long to do a marathon these days.
But yeah, I I'm looking forward to going 20 years.
It does irk me as well that clones got snubbed, but I'm sure we'll see it return for its
25th.
I sure hope so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fingers crossed.
(13:37):
But it depends how busy it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this one returns to theaters on April 25th.
So not in May.
And I feel like there's in May.
Well, its original release was in May.
Yeah.
But I mean, the previous anniversary releases.
Oh, yes.
The Phantom Menace returned to theaters in May of last year.
(13:59):
So, yeah, unlike unlike its counterparts, which all the prequels released were released
in May.
Originally, you know, this year that that is not the case.
They're releasing it a little early in April.
But I feel like that is strategic on their part because Disney has a number of things
coming out this summer.
And in May, we have the release of Lilo and Stitch, which is, you know, also a semi return
(14:25):
to theater.
And, you know, it's a live action version of it.
It's a whole new movie.
But it's at the same time, it's like it's a title that also came out 20 years ago.
That's true.
Yeah.
This came out while the prequels were still being released.
Yeah.
That's right.
We also have Marvel's Thunderbolts coming out on May 2nd.
So I feel like maybe they just didn't want to compete with themselves.
(14:48):
Yeah.
I mean, Disney, they they definitely have like I'm sure they have like hundreds of people
coordinating and planning all this stuff to make sure everything comes out without overlap.
Yeah.
So last year in 2024, Disney didn't have any movies on the roster for May.
At least.
Sorry.
Correction.
They had I think is this one.
Technically, they own Fox.
(15:09):
So Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes came out that month.
And I think that was it, I believe.
So, yeah.
I mean, as far as this year goes, May is a bit tight.
So, you know, maybe they just didn't want to compete.
Yeah.
Because we know that Revenge of the Sith is going to overshadow Lilo and Stitch.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, a Star Wars episode three is playing in the movie theater again 20 years
(15:33):
later.
And Lilo and Stitch.
Yeah.
What you taking your kid to?
Right.
Like, I mean.
Better be AVX.
IMAX.
Oh, that's another thing.
It's not just returning to theaters on the screen, but it's returning to theaters with
those special seats that move and vibrate.
The D-Box seats.
They're called.
Yeah.
They're called D-Box here.
(15:54):
And other theaters are called like 4DX or something like that.
So.
So, yeah.
Trying to think.
That's pretty cool.
Maybe during the fighting over the lava, the seats can just.
All the seat warmers just turn on.
It says.
Get this.
So, it says 4DX experience features high-tech motion chairs that sync over 21 effects, all
(16:15):
designed to complement the narrative of the film.
I'm going to be honest.
Those things just take me out of the movie.
They're so distracting.
I did it once with.
I think it was Transformers.
I feel like I was on a roller coaster.
It was like a little crazy.
Bucks throws you into the next aisle of seats ahead of you.
(16:36):
I was screaming louder than Shia LaBeouf in that movie, I tell you.
Man, I would love to do it for like Fast and Furious or maybe like the pod racing scene.
Oh, man.
Fast and Furious would be pretty sick, actually.
But yeah.
Pod racing.
Harry Potter with Quidditch.
Just for that one tiny segment.
Yeah.
Sequence based.
But like, how do you do it for Star Wars?
Like, other than.
Okay.
(16:57):
I imagine.
You know what?
You know what?
The opening shot.
The opening shot of like when the camera tilts down into the battle.
Oh, my goodness.
The feeling you get on one of those seats.
It's going to feel so weird.
Make people nauseous.
Yeah.
Because you look like directly down into the battle.
Right?
So, yeah.
That would be a cool.
That would be a great movie to do this for.
(17:18):
I don't know if George is going to be there in one of those theaters.
Yeah.
He'll rent out the whole theater himself and sit in the D-Box.
Yeah.
You just hear him.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
Whoa.
Wow.
Wow.
Hey, Rick.
Check this out.
Rick McCallum's there.
All right.
Just them and Dave in D-Box seats together.
Exactly.
(17:39):
Yeah.
It says.
Oh, yeah.
And with this also comes.
If I forgot to mention this amazing poster.
Definitely.
If you haven't seen it, go and check it out by Matt Ferguson.
And it's one of the greatest posters I've ever seen.
So.
You should message him and request a 25th.
If you'll update it to 25th for you.
Swap out the numbers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(18:00):
I'll have to ask him for that.
If it ever gets released again.
Yeah.
For 25 years.
All right.
That it.
We're done to the Sith.
We can move on to our next thing.
We got five films that inspired Star Wars storytellers.
And this is an article from Star Wars dot com.
So thank you, Amy, over at Star Wars dot com.
We'll just read through this and we can talk about it.
So she says no filmmaker.
(18:22):
No filmmakers work has ever had more of an impact on Star Wars creators than Akira Kurosawa.
Whether you're heading into it to Tokyo or following Star Wars Celebration Japan news from home.
Watching some of Kurosawa's filmography that inspired George Lucas and countless other creators will give you a better appreciation for a galaxy far, far away.
Lucas first became aware of Kurosawa's work while he was at film school at UCS in an.
(18:48):
USC.
USC.
Thank you.
What's USC?
What's UCS?
Is that Halo?
That's Lego.
Lego.
Oh, yeah.
I've been looking at my Lego magazine too much.
In an interview with the Criterion Collection, he talked about the filmmaker's impact.
It's hard to really appreciate the true genius of Kurosawa until you've seen a few films and you've been able to see other films at the same time.
(19:11):
Be able to realize his visual style, said Lucas.
I think he comes from a generation of filmmakers that were still influenced by silent films.
The visual graphics and framing, just the quality of the images go a long way to telling the story and setting the mood.
You're not going to find a lot of filmmakers that have the facility quality with the medium that Kurosawa had.
Here are the five Kurosawa films that inspired Lucas in the modern generation of Star Wars creators.
(19:36):
Number one, just called Hidden Fortress, 1958.
That's the year it came out.
In Hidden Fortress, two peasants seeking fortune agreed to escort two individuals unknown to them, a princess and a general, across enemy lines.
There are obvious parallels between the two peasants and C-3PO and R2-D2, both fond of bickering with each other, and the princess and the general to Leia Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
(20:00):
But the inspiration goes deeper than that, evident in how Kurosawa and Lucas similarly framed the action in different shots throughout these stories.
You'll also see nearly identical wipe transitions where one shot travels from one side of the frame to the other to replace the next.
That's a very George Lucas, Star Wars.
Now it's remembered to be a Star Wars thing to do like wipes, but that was very much a Kurosawa thing, I guess.
(20:26):
I actually didn't realize that because I'm gonna be honest, these movies have been on my list to watch forever and I really need to get to watching them.
Yeah.
Because they were so influential to Star Wars and George.
I have seen one of them on the list.
Okay.
But that's it.
I didn't realize films from that era had wipes like that.
Yeah, pretty cool.
(20:47):
How do you even do it if it's not digital?
I think that's like, that's almost the magic of like old cinema now.
It's like it's old enough now that that's the thought is like, how did they do this without digital technology?
They literally like glue two different reels together.
Yeah.
Like how did maybe they had some sort of piece of cardboard that like they, you know, manually like slid over two different between two different reels or something.
(21:12):
I'm thinking if you, if you lay them on top of each other and then just have basically like a ruler and like an exacto knife and like cut them on an angle and then just like stitch them together.
Yeah, maybe.
Because then as the frames go by, you'll see it switch from one to the other.
But that would only be like a single angled wipe.
Someone in 1958 is just shaking their head like these two idiots.
(21:33):
Right.
Dang kids.
All right.
Next up on the list, Seven Samurai from 1954.
Seven Samurai is an action-packed tale of a village hiring a group of samurai to help protect them from the invading bandits.
Star Wars fans can similar, find similar echoes in Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 2 episode Bounty Hunters, where Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka partner with bounty hunters to protect a village on Felucia from pirates, which is Hondo and his gang, I believe.
(22:01):
And The Mandalorian Season 1 episode Sanctuary, where Din Djarin and Cara Dune fight off raiders threatening krill farmers on Saurigan.
So there's two episodes by Dave Filoni.
He repeated the plot, I guess, of Seven Samurai in Mandalorian.
But I guess when George was running the show in the writers room with Clone Wars, he probably suggested this as well.
(22:24):
And this is the one movie on the list that I have seen.
And it's a long movie, dude.
I think I sat there for like three and a half hours or something like that.
It was a long movie.
A little tough if you're watching it and you don't know Japanese.
I assume you're watching the subbed version.
I can't remember if I found it with subs or not.
(22:46):
It may have been.
But it's a long movie still to watch even with subs.
And I hate dubbed.
I know.
Me too.
It takes you out.
It just totally takes me out of the movie.
Subs it is.
But I don't know.
I find it really tough to go that far.
It's almost like a marathon because you're constantly reading and watching.
Yeah.
And listening.
(23:07):
For that long.
And I will say on top of that, older films have a much slower pacing.
Yeah.
And I don't know about the rest.
I'm pretty good about not getting distracted when I'm watching a movie.
I don't scroll on my phone.
I'm not a multitasker when it comes to movies.
If I'm watching a movie, you have my full attention.
But there was a few times where it's like, okay, I'm going to get up and get a glass of water.
(23:31):
And I can still see the screen from my fridge or whatever.
But you turn your head for half a second, you miss something somebody says.
Because you have to read the text.
Right.
You have to pause it.
Yeah.
So I do find it is kind of tough.
I found that with Squid Game as well.
And great show.
But at least you can do that 45 minutes to an hour at a time.
Whereas Seven Samurai is like a three-hour movie.
(23:54):
And I don't know.
Maybe I'm OCD about this.
But I don't like taking a break halfway through a movie and going back to it later.
I don't either.
You come back, you just lose a lot of the details and the momentum.
You lose the momentum.
That's my issue.
You lose the motive to finish it.
And it's like, meh.
It makes it less memorable.
Yeah.
Because you just don't have all that fresh in mind.
Yeah, it is.
(24:15):
Yeah.
Seven Samurai, though, great movie.
I feel like the plot has been so iconic.
It keeps getting ripped off because it's so good.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
It is.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
The Clone Wars episode was great.
And, you know, I feel like season one is well-remembered for Mandalorian.
So clearly it paid off well, you know, doing an episode like that in season one.
(24:36):
Because it's like classic get the band back together storyline, right?
Yeah, totally.
All right.
Third on the list, Yojimbo, 1961.
Yojimbo also centers on a small village in trouble.
But this time the hero of the story is a ronin, which is a samurai with no master.
Toshiro Mifune plays a ronin who uses his wits against two criminal warlords fighting over control for the village.
(24:58):
It's a simple plot that's a fantastically entertaining film.
All thanks to Kurosawa's talents.
Director Deborah Chow talked about the influence of Kurosawa's work while she was directing the series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
There's such a strong correlation for me between the Jedi and the ronin.
Particularly in this period where all the Jedi are being hunted.
I was really looking at what you do if you're the last samurai.
(25:19):
You're more than a warrior.
There's also an ethical code that goes along with it in a world that's vastly changed.
In the behind-the-scenes featurette focused filmmaker focus, The Duel, creators from the Star Wars Visions short The Duel spoke about how their story paid homage to several Japanese films, including Yojimbo.
Seven Samurai and Lone Wolf and Cub.
(25:41):
Junpei Mizusaki, founder of Kamikaze Duga, the studio that made The Duel, which is the Star Wars Visions animated short, noted that we really wanted a high contrast black and white cinematography style like the one from Kurosawa's monochrome era.
Which I feel like that worked really well for that.
I feel like that was taking Star Wars and moving it closer to the source material, which was super cool.
(26:07):
We're getting a third volume of that.
I hope so.
Has that been announced?
Yeah, it has.
I just forget when that's supposed to come out.
We're talking about this year being somewhat dry with only a re-release for Revenge of the Sith and Andor Season 2.
But I think maybe Visions Volume 3 does return this year.
Very appropriately, seeing as Celebration Japan is happening this year as well.
(26:32):
Not to snub that year, but that's also happening this year.
And yeah, I don't know when this comes out in 2025, but it's supposed to come out in 2025.
So I would imagine probably third quarter, fourth quarter.
Towards the end of the year then.
Yeah, because we had the tail end of Skeleton Crew in January and then the build up and lead into April being very busy with Revenge of the Sith, Celebration Japan and Andor.
(27:00):
All in April and May.
So it's a busy first half of the year.
So I would probably say look for it in, I don't know.
After summer.
Yeah, look for it in September, October.
So far away now.
I'm looking forward to that.
Yeah, there you go.
All right, Rashomon from 1950.
Rashomon tells the story of an assault and murder from multiple points of view.
(27:24):
The recollections of the events all have many differences, changing how the characters' actions are perceived by the audience throughout the film.
Rian Johnson's film, Star Wars The Last Jedi, also showed the audience different perspectives from the fateful night shortly before Luke's Jedi Academy was destroyed.
Rey first hears about this night and the fateful confrontation between Master and Apprentice from Luke's perspective.
(27:47):
When Rey hears Kylo Ren's version of events, the flashback changes to show Ben waking up to see an enraged Luke about to strike him, wielding a lightsaber that was notably not seen in the first telling of the story.
From this perspective, Ben's actions appear to be self-defense.
When Rey confronts Luke about the contradiction, he tells a third version of events where he ignited his lightsaber above Ben's bed, then hesitated, but not before Ben woke up to see his uncle and acted to stop him.
(28:14):
The audience is left to make their own decision about what the true events of that night really entailed.
The episode Destiny and Night from The Acolyte used a similar method of storytelling, showing a deadly encounter between a group of Jedi and a witch coven on Brendok from several different perspectives.
This change of viewpoint in turn alters the opinions audiences may have about the characters in the series, like Master's soul and their motivations.
(28:40):
As The Acolyte's showrunner Leslie Hedlund explained, it is a serialized story, so each episode gives you more information about the story.
We were obviously influenced by samurai films like Rashomon, where you see one story and then you see it a different way.
We were actually talking about those episodes just off air, like before we started doing the podcast.
Yeah, earlier tonight.
I feel like maybe that kind of thing does work better in a single event, like a single movie.
(29:04):
I think so too.
It's unless they can release the series in one go or you watch it on one sitting.
But if you're watching week to week, it's hard to remember those details to really understand all these different angles on the same event.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
I also have not seen this movie from 1950, but I do like I mean, I thought that as I mean, obviously, that is a big part of The Last Jedi, right?
(29:30):
Like the events that transpired between Luke and Ben.
Right.
And that's one of the least complained about things about that movie.
Like it's a very divisive movie, divisive, whatever the word, but like it's you know, I feel like some people like it.
Some people hate it.
Right. Sure.
And I've never been the biggest fan of the sequels myself.
But between the three of them, I found it the most interesting.
(29:53):
The Last Jedi was certainly the most unique compared to the prior six films.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't know.
It just it did kind of keep me engaged.
And yes, there was a lot of wasted screen time with other things.
But but at least the parts regarding Luke and Ben, I thought were were somewhat interesting to see that a Star Wars movie was willing to do a flashback like that.
(30:17):
Because because really, like other than Rey's vision, like that was never been done before.
It's true, actually.
Yeah.
Come to think of it, there's never really been.
We've talked.
I think it's been years now because there's been several flashbacks since then.
But for a long time, there was no flashbacks in Star Wars.
Right. It was a here and now.
Yeah.
Like what Qui-Gon says.
(30:39):
Ironically, the movies were in chronological order in the films, but not in the releases of the films.
The events were.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's it's I would like to do a whole like, you know, I would like to know more about when did flashbacks start in movies?
You know, has this always been a thing that's been used in movies before?
(31:02):
Obviously, this, you know, Rashomon movie has, like, played a big part in why it's in Star Wars.
But was that kind of a big turning point for movie storytelling?
Was was Kurosawa the first guy to do it?
You know, with with flashbacks and different perspectives or just flashbacks in general?
Maybe Hitchcock.
Is that before or after?
I don't know.
It's a good question.
(31:23):
Yeah.
He.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
No, he definitely made movies through the 50s.
I think they're on the same time, right?
Yeah.
So maybe.
I haven't seen I don't think I've seen any of his movies either, to be honest.
You haven't seen Hitchcock movies?
Oh, man.
I don't think so.
So many classics.
Birds.
Yeah.
I don't know.
All right.
Cool.
Last one here.
(31:44):
We got Cage Musha, the Shadow Warrior from 1980.
One of Kurosawa's later works.
Cage Musha features a thief recruited to be the decoy of an aging warlord.
Decoys, of course, played a large role in the storyline of Star Wars, the Phantom Menace
and Star Wars, the Clone Wars season four episode Shadow Warriors, where Jar Jar Binks
doubles for a Gungan boss in a nod to to Cage Musha.
(32:09):
Dave Filoni also pointed to Cage Musha's dreamlike sequences as an inspiration while
filming the reunion of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano in the world between worlds in
Star Wars Ahsoka.
So there you have it.
Well compiled.
So thank you, Amy, who is a lifelong Star Wars geek and author of several books, including
Star Wars Timelines, Star Wars, The High Republic, Character Encyclopedia and Star Wars.
(32:32):
I love you.
I know you can find her on Instagram and Twitter.
I think it's pretty neat that they threw this list together just because I didn't realize
there was new films that since George passed the torch, there's new samurai films from
the 50s that are still inspiring.
Yeah.
Star Wars going forward.
Because I think there's like the big ones, you know, Fortress, Ujumbo and the third one
(32:53):
I'm blanking on.
Seven Samurai.
Seven Samurai.
Thank you.
Those are like pretty notoriously known to be pretty big inspirations for Star Wars.
Yeah.
So it's neat to see that there is new ones.
Like we're still trying to keep to that route that George had of using theatrical films
of the past to influence what's coming out now.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
(33:14):
Yeah.
We got to watch some of these movies.
I know.
Yeah.
I think it'd be fun to do some episodes where we just chat about them and then kind of do
what we just did now, but like on a much deeper level.
Yeah, for sure.
Like per movie.
For sure.
Yeah.
Let us know in the comments if you want to see that.
Definitely.
Definitely let us know.
And other ways to reach us are in the description.
All right.
We got our final article here.
(33:36):
So 2025 celebrity guest confirmed for Star Wars Celebration Japan.
The final update.
Final update.
Yes.
So Hayden Christensen and Vanessa Marshall, also known as Anakin Skywalker actor from
Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, as well as Vanessa Marshall who plays the
voice of Harrison Doola on Star Wars Rebels, will be going to Star Wars Celebration.
(33:58):
And you know, as Star Wars Celebration goes, they pull them out onto the stage.
You know, they talk with them in front of a bunch of people.
And all these celebrities that go to these Star Wars Celebrations, they are treated like
rock stars.
They're not just like the smaller conventions where they just do signings and stuff like
that.
Like, yeah, they might do some signings, but you know for sure that, you know, if they're
(34:20):
going, they're going to be brought out on the stage and be appreciated and, you know,
be photographed.
And, you know, you'll hear them speak and whatnot.
So like, it's always it's always cool to be kept away in a tower.
Yeah.
Limited access.
Yeah.
Is there some open wounds here I hear?
Yeah.
There's some open wounds about this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(34:41):
I don't want to talk about it.
All right.
We also have Oscar Isaac who is, you know, plays Poe Dameron from the sequel trilogy
and voices Poe Dameron in Star Wars Resistance.
That's cool to see he's coming back.
I feel like it's been a number of years since the sequels were out.
Yeah.
So, like, it's been long enough that I would feel like a lot of these actors are like,
(35:03):
okay, time to move on, whatever.
So it's cool to see that they're still interested in coming back and seeing the fans.
It's been five years since episode nine, which blows my mind because I feel like five years
after Revenge of the Sith came out.
It didn't feel like five years.
That felt like way longer.
I don't know.
Maybe it was just high school.
Maybe.
Yeah.
I think that's maybe it.
(35:24):
Like, maybe time just was way slower back then.
Now time is like, just, you know, way, way faster.
Since COVID, I feel like time has just gone by faster and faster.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, Oscar Isaac, everybody.
All right.
Rosario Dawson, also known as Ahsoka Tano from the live action series, The Mandalorian,
The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka is coming to Star Wars Celebration as well.
(35:45):
So that's cool.
Ahmed Best, who plays Jar Jar Binks, as well as John Knoll, the VFX master.
You know, what else do you say about him?
Integral part from the special editions in the 90s, through the prequels, all the way
to current Disney era.
Very, very involved for Rogue One.
(36:07):
Yeah.
Definitely recommend anyone going to Celebration to go to his panel.
Usually it's a bit smaller.
It's not on the main stage.
But man, if you want to see a guy who's an integral part in the background of Star Wars,
definitely go to his panel.
Yeah.
That's great advice.
That's a guy who does all of the all the miniature ships and actually built the rigs and filmed
(36:28):
it himself to put in like Mandalorian and stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, to those listening who don't know who he is, he co-created Photoshop and he
has served as the VFX supervisor on several films, including The Phantom Menace, Attack
of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew.
So very important guy.
He's not in the forefront of Star Wars by any means.
(36:50):
But man, massive influence.
Definitely check out his panel if you get the chance.
For sure.
Also, Ahmed Best, you know, I say Jar Jar, but also Keller and Beck from Mandalorian
Season 3.
This is the Jedi who saved Grogu.
So some people might, I guess, recognize his face a bit better from that role.
Right.
Yeah.
But yeah.
(37:11):
No wonder the big rubber hat.
Yeah, exactly.
But also, you know, he is right next to Jon Nolan on this announcement here because he
is technically the first actor who pioneered motion capture in a feature film, full character
like for the whole movie.
You know, like before that, motion capture was significantly less, if not of a role,
(37:34):
if not absent from most movies.
And now after Ahmed Best, it's become integral to almost every movie, especially with roles
from large feature films from Marvel.
You know, Thanos being a big one.
So, yeah.
Smeagol.
Smeagol.
Andy Serkis.
Yeah.
Andy Serkis.
That wasn't too long after.
(37:55):
That wasn't.
Yeah.
That's very true.
Yeah.
Andy Serkis and Ahmed Best.
Filming around the same time.
I think they were.
Yeah.
Ahmed Best and Andy Serkis.
Both very integral to that industry.
Diego Luna and Sam Witwer.
Diego Luna plays Andor from Andor.
And Sam Witwer plays, you know, you might know him as the Secret Apprentice from The
Force Unleashed, but he also voices Darth Maul from Star Wars Rebels and the Son from
(38:21):
Star Wars The Clone Wars and Darth Maul from The Clone Wars and Solo A Star Wars Story.
So lots of roles.
Did you mention Starkiller?
Yeah.
From The Force Unleashed.
Yeah.
So like lots of roles.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Darth Maul from Star Wars Rebels.
And before that, he was an episode of Dexter where he was a weird, creepy guy who did taxidermy.
No, I do.
(38:42):
Before that, he was in Smallville.
Oh, yeah.
As as Doomsday.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Terrible season.
Maybe skip that part.
I love that show to death, though.
All right.
Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who portrayed the father of the Death Star and Jyn Erso's papa,
is also returning.
Mads Mikkelsen plays Galen Erso from Rogue One.
(39:05):
He's coming back as well.
Alan Tudyk, who plays K-2SO, is coming.
Manny Jacinto, who plays the Stranger slash Khmer from The Acolyte, is coming.
And Daniel Logan, who plays Kid Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones and Star Wars The
Clone Wars, is coming to Star Wars Celebration as well.
So three more great names there.
(39:28):
We have Anthony Daniels, the one and only, C-3PO.
Tamora Morrison, who plays Jango and Boba Fett.
Doug Chang, production and art designer on many, many things.
In fact, we just were talking about Doug Chang in our last episode, which dropped a few
weeks ago.
Another guy definitely worth checking out.
Oh, yeah.
As far as big people in the background.
100 percent.
(39:49):
Designed the Naboo Starfighter.
That's right.
Get it.
Bring an N1 Starfighter from, like, Lego or Hasbro or something.
Get him to sign it.
1999 toys.
Yeah.
Worth the signature.
And then Ashley Eckstein, finally.
The voice of Ahsoka Tano, who brought that character to life.
I mean, you know, Rosario Dawson might bear the face, but Ashley bears the voice.
(40:12):
You sound conflicted.
Without the two of them, we could not have the great stories that we have right now.
That's true.
You know.
Yeah.
There you go.
I sense conflictedness.
I was actually pretty heartbroken when they announced that Ashley would not be carrying
her role into live action.
I remember this.
Yeah.
(40:33):
But yeah, it is what it is.
I mean, I'm quite happy with Rosario Dawson.
She's awesome.
She did a really good job.
Fantastic actress.
Admittedly, a big part of our concern was before we even saw Ahsoka in Mandalorian.
That's true.
That's true.
That's very true.
All right.
Tickets for Celebration have been on sale for quite some time.
We've talked about it many, many times.
I think it's sold out, isn't it?
It's fully sold out.
(40:54):
I've checked.
Hit that refresh button every few minutes for two weeks.
Oh, yeah.
It's been gone.
Star Wars Celebration tickets are fully sold out.
This is everything.
Kid passes, adult passes, day passes, half day passes, full weekend passes.
It's all gone.
Kids in their church coat passes.
Yeah.
Those of you who are going Makarai, Messe, Japan, you'll be there April 18th through
(41:21):
the 20th.
And the rest of us will be tuning in online to see what we can catch the crumbs.
Because they don't put everything out.
No, they don't.
Yeah.
They just they often do the main like open room panel or they just interview people.
Yeah.
But as far as like specific panels, it's usually just like the opening panel.
And then maybe like one or two other big ones is kind of it.
(41:43):
Remember?
Yeah.
What's different this year?
What kind of advice would you give to someone who's going to celebrate based on our experience
at 20?
Sell it.
It's different.
Because when we went, you had to go super early and get in line for wristbands for wristbands
to go to specific panels.
Now they do a raffle.
Yeah, it's way better.
Now is every hour.
(42:04):
We just kept going earlier and earlier because we couldn't get them.
And so the last day, Bryce and I went.
You had already given up.
You and Ben, Bryce and I went.
We left at like three in the morning and we managed to get the Mark Hamill panel.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I hate to say it, but like I had an amazing day that day when I didn't go.
(42:26):
Yeah.
Ben, my brother in law and I, we it was the final day.
And this is so the Japan one is a three day thing.
But the one we went to 2017, that was a four day thing.
And yeah, that final day was the fourth day.
Most of the things had packed up.
It was way less to see.
We'd already seen the main hall a lot.
Yeah.
(42:47):
And we were pretty burned out, I think, with just the idea of not.
Long days, just getting up super early.
Yeah.
And not getting into convention halls and stuff.
And it was in Florida.
So it was super hot.
I was standing on concrete to get in.
Yeah.
So.
And then afterwards we went to Disney World every night.
Every night.
Every night.
Until they closed.
I feel like Ben and I were just like, we need some Disney magic.
(43:08):
Like we just, I don't know.
It was a really good time.
But we were like, I think we're just going to like roll the dice on having a good day at Disney World.
We had a great day.
I still don't regret it.
But you guys had some really cool stories that, you know, when we met up at the end of the day.
Heard what a great time it was.
Yeah, it ended up being the best day.
Yeah.
Go figure.
We got to do the most stuff.
Yeah.
(43:29):
So.
But yeah.
It was fun.
It was fun.
We did some cool coasters and got to see more of Disney World.
And that was awesome.
Yeah.
Great advice.
Raffle system.
I feel like Ian was telling us this year.
Because last year when we spoke with Ian, who we actually just spoke not long ago with the Living Forest Review.
But he went to the second England.
(43:51):
The one in London.
Which happened.
Just a few years ago.
Two, three years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he said that that was also a raffle system.
That's when they started it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is way better.
It gives everyone a shot.
Yeah.
To get in.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
I never would get there.
And people are just camping in line for days.
Oh, man.
And the 2017 one, I think, to this day, is still the largest one that they've had in
(44:14):
population.
I'm pretty sure.
We timed it pretty well, huh?
Yeah.
It's probably because it was in Orlando.
Yeah.
I think so.
Yeah.
I think so.
But yeah.
It was fun.
I do recommend bring a backpack full of bring some Gatorade or Powerade of water or whatever.
And bring some snacks.
Because those convention halls are weirdly absent of food.
(44:37):
That too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember being in that giant convention, the main place where you can see all the shops
and stuff like that.
It feels like you could.
It's like an airplane hangar.
You could walk for like.
It's huge.
Yeah.
At least when we were at.
It's like two kilometers across or something.
But yeah.
There was like no food in there.
Man.
(44:59):
You know, to get any food at all, you're walking a long way.
So, yeah.
Bring some stuff with you.
Bring some mandarins.
You know, hit the convenience store somewhere.
Mandalorian brand mandarins.
Yeah.
And every location where they host this event is always different.
But like, it's always better safe than sorry for your first day.
And you can always ditch the bag on the second day.
But like, definitely bring.
And that way, if you buy anything, like you can.
(45:20):
You got something to store it in.
Right?
That's true.
Yeah.
I feel bad for like people that wear like crazy costumes.
Because like.
Man.
Yeah.
There was a guy that had a Darth Maul costume.
He was like on stilts.
Gosh, dude.
He was trying to be with robot legs.
Those stilt legs were crazy cool.
But like.
He could barely walk.
Yeah.
He could barely walk.
And it was like.
You know.
Like, where's all your stuff?
Like.
(45:41):
He didn't even have a shirt on.
No.
He just.
He bought.
He's probably.
Because we didn't see him until the afternoon.
He probably spent the whole morning doing like body paint.
Yeah.
With Darth Maul.
Like.
It was that kind of dedication that like humbled me in that moment.
I was like.
Whoa.
Am I even a real fan?
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