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This Date in Star Wars History
Two big birthdays to celebrate today! From the movies, say “Happy Happy” to ex-Chancellor Valorum, played by Terence Stamp. From the cartoons and video games, Ewan McGregor’s official “audio double,” James Arnold Taylor, probably has a party waiting somewhere for him. Happy birthday, guys!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
#starwars7news It’s cool. I should be back in action soon. They gave me an Imperial Walker.
— HarrisonFord’s Ankle (@hfordankle) June 13, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
Princess Leia Beach Towel – click the pic!
Trivia Time!
Yesterday’s answer: His own death
Today’s question: Who discovered firsthand what it feels like to have your feet frozen to a ceiling?
Force Feature: Mistakes in Return of the Jedi
We’re talking movie mistakes this week, and closing up the original trilogy with Return of the Jedi. Now, of course, these are all visual things, so we’ll have the images linked from the blog post for this episode. I’m gonna share 7 of my favorites from MovieMistakes.com, and if you have others that you love, please add them to the comments for the episode post!
#1: Quick-change Lando. Some of these mistakes are blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but this one went on for long enough that even in the theater, I was like, “Huh?” But you can’t rewind in theaters, of course, so it wasn’t until I watched the VHS that I could see Lando’s shoulder strap and insignia switch places on his outfit. How does this happen?
#2: Acck! Creepy Ewok! Some people love ‘em, some people hate ‘em, but I think we can all agree that this one Ewok is downright weird looking. And why is that? Because he has no eyes! Well, no Ewok eyes, that is. Instead, you can see that it’s a mask, and you can see the eyes and the skin below them of the actor inside the outfit. In the right light, he looks like he has red eyes. Like a rabid Ewok. Ewwww.
#3: Look ma, one hand – no, two! I don’t know how he pulled off this stunt, but when Luke drops off of the plank of the skiff above the Sarlacc Pit, he grabs it with just one hand as seen from above. But when the camera shot switches to look at him from below the plank, he’s got both hands on it. Impressive! Most impressive.
#4: Which hand is it in, Wicket? When Leia tries to befriend Wicket the Ewok, she offers food with her left hand at first, and then with her right hand, but we never see her switch hands. Maybe she didn’t realize it either. Maybe this is how her Force powers manifested themselves for the first time, by making food jump from one hand to the other. Stranger things have happened in Star Wars.
#5: Another shot flip! If it weren’t for the fact that Jabba the Hutt has asymmetrical nostrils, you’d never notice this one. Of course, we all have asymmetrical nostrils, but his are more pronounced. It’s probably not polite to point that out to Hutts, so I’ll leave that be and just say that when Jabba’s hanging out on the sail barge, drinking his wine, and gives a tug on Leia’s chain to bring her close, Jabba’s nostrils switch sides. Otherwise, that’s a heck of a party trick.
#6: A ghost! Holy crow, are there ghosts on Endor? That aren’t Force ghosts, I mean? Oh, wait. That’s just a crew screw up. When Han’s running away from the shield bunker as it’s about to blow up, you can see a ghostly reflection of Han running with him. The theory? It’s that there was a Plexiglas barrier protecting the camera from the upcoming explosion, and the camera caught Harrison Ford’s reflection in the Plexiglas on film.
#7: Another Lando wardrobe mystery. I personally have trouble deciding when and where I want to be wearing gloves, so I guess I can’t give Lando too much grief about this one. But when he’s hanging off the skiff above the Sarlacc pit, sometimes he has gloves on, and sometimes he doesn’t. Heck of a time to be indecisive about them!
Again, these are just seven of my favorites, and if you want to go deeper, there are a few more photos, and dozens upon dozens more mistake notes, linked right here. Enjoy!