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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Youngling Edition

DigModiFicaTion

DigModiFicaTion

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Intention:​
To create a child friendly (6 and younger) viewing experience of the greatest Star Wars film that I can watch with my kids.​

I've shown the majority of A New Hope to my kiddos, but I just didn't feel like they were ready for Empire. We try to not watch shows with "pew pew"'s in them, so naturally Star Wars is a difficult thing to share. This edit looks to minimize the direct violence (person to person) by removing the majority of hand held blaster fire, all blaster fire that kills anyone, and scenes that may be extremely frightening to children. If you want to share your love of Star Wars with the younglings but feel the movies are a bit too much, this may be the version you're looking for.

Things cut:
  • Any direct/on screen deaths or dismemberment
  • Overly frightening scenes (Wampa, some Vader scenes, etc.)
Things NOT cut:
  • Vehicle to vehicle blaster violence
  • The majority of the duel
  • The reveal
Cut list:
  • Removed wampa attacking Luke by wiping straight to Han entering Echo Base
  • Removed Han's cursing when he is told his tauntaun will freeze; added wipe to
  • Cut wampa scene entirely
  • Retained wampa exterior scenes then cut to Han on his tauntaun
  • Rearranged Luke escaping wide shots to be right after R2 is using his sensor to find Luke followed by Luke's vision of Obi-Wan
  • Cut Vader chocking the Admiral Ozzel; now wipe cuts to echo base mission brief
  • Edited Hoth battle to remove some human level violence
  • Removed Dak death
  • Removed Rogue 2 death
  • Removed Walker stepping on snowspeeder; cuts when Luke opens the hatch and looks up at the walker
  • Rearranged scenes of Falcon escape to remove blaster fire with stormtroopers
  • Removed Vader in the cave
  • Removed death of Captain Needa
  • Removed blaster fire from Han when Vader pulls his blaster
  • Removed torture scene
  • Shortened hallway scene between Vader, Boba Fett, and Lando and removed the majority of background noise from Han
  • Removed Lando telling Han to shut up and his men hitting Han
  • Moved Lando's "I'm sorry I couldn't do more, but I've got my own problems" to when he walks out of the cell
  • Removed Han slamming to the floor in carbonite; retained the sfx but cut to Lando's face
  • Shortened up Luke chasing after Leia, Chewie, 3PO and Han
  • Removed some blaster exchange between Leia, Lando, Chewie as Slave I departs
  • Removed a few of the scenes where Luke is hit by debris from Vader
  • Removed Leia blasting the trooper before entering the elevator. Cropped image to remove dead trooper
  • Trimmed scenes to remove Chewie killing troopers
  • Removed 3PO calling R2 a stupid lump
  • Trimmed escape to remove trooper deaths
  • Removed Vader cutting off Luke's hand. Luke is knocked down, Vader says, "You are beaten" then cuts to scene where he says "Don't make me destroy you" Luke then retreats
  • Cropped image to remove seeing Luke's saber and added saber shutting down sound to imply that he either shut it down or lost the saber
  • Removed Luke yelling "NOOOOOOOOOO" now he looks down as Vader delivers his next lines
  • Added soundtrack back in to finish the Empire theme
  • Trimmed Luke getting a new hand as to not show that his hand is mechanical
Original Run Time: 124 minutes
Edited Run Time: 117 minutes

Progress:

Video Editing: ■■■■■
Audio Editing: ■■■■■
Artwork: ■■■■■

Current Status:
Edit Complete

Release:
MP4 1280x540 5.1 (8mbps)
 
That's interesting. I don't think I would  ever show my children a truncated version of such a glorious film; I'd rather just wait for them to mature enough to watch it. But I understand and admire the intent.

Another good way to hook them into the universe is through the animated shows. You can show them a bit of Clone Wars  since that doesn't really give away the big reveal from Empire!
 
That's a good idea, ESB is definitely one of the darkest SW movies out of all 10. Some of the darker scenes however show the progress of our characters since ANH, but I think for kids they won't understand much of it anyway. I'll get this just to wait maybe around 2-3 decades for my children. :D

Also, I have a feeling @"TM2YC" might not like the fanedit title very much... :P
 
Yeah, I'd rather not give a truncated version of this upon first viewing, but with a kiddo in school, Star Wars toys that they play with, Star Wars books, etc. I don't think I can preserve the reveal any longer (they probably already know). I watched through a test version this morning and there are a couple of shots of Luke sans hand that I need to crop and/or trim and a couple of transitions that I'm going to revisit. I should have a preview ready in the next day or two if people are interested in giving some feedback. These kid versions are pretty difficult for Star Wars movies due to the symphonic nature of the scenes.

At this time, and their age, I'd hesitate to show them The Clone Wars. That show gets dark really quick. I wish it could have channeled the feeling/presentation of Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars. That one was intense without being overly dark.
 
Well it looks like one of my vimeo accounts that hosted some edits was shutdown so I'll share this preview via google drive to let people know what to expect from this edit.

Edit complete
 
I feel awful. I was letting my kid watch Monster Squad when he was 6.  Predator, Army of darkness, and Terminator shortly after.  Now he's 10 watching Friday the 13th.  Just got to distract him and fast forward during nudity scenes, haha.
 
I wanted to complain that I don't support this, but considering that I've been planning out a similar edit, I suppose I should reevaluate. I could never even imagine what it's like to be a parent. I hope that your kids enjoy this  :) !
Also upon my initial reading about this, I didn't look closely at the cutlist, but you certainly didn't take anything out that would make the film less enjoyable or remove important things.
Maybe I'll check this edit out some time, if even just for the sake of watching a shorter version of the film (It's honestly my least favorite of the original trilogy, but that doesn't mean I dislike it). Heck, maybe this'll be the version I show to my kids in the distant future.
I support this and your efforts. This post is unnecessary.
 
Showed the kiddos the final product tonight and they loved it :)
I found out later that my oldest already knew about the big reveal from Star Wars books he'd looked at.....oh well.
Favorite moment was when one of kiddos freaked out when Yoda raised the X-Wing from the swamp. "What!?!?! Yoda is using the force!?!?!" They also said they didn't like Yoda because he had a creepy voice and stole Luke's tools.....Ha! Definitely made the project worth it :)

Happy New Year All!
 
Glad your intended audience got a kick out of it.

Showing kids IV-VI first is the mark of good parenting.

Happy and healthy new year :)
 
DigModiFicaTion said:
esb-for-boys-1-1.png
 
Intention:​
To create a child friendly (6 and younger) viewing experience of the greatest Star Wars film that I can watch with my kids.​

I've shown the majority of A New Hope to my kiddos, but I just didn't feel like they were ready for Empire. We try to not watch shows with "pew pew"'s in them, so naturally Star Wars is a difficult thing to share. This edit looks to minimize the direct violence (person to person) by removing the majority of hand held blaster fire, all blaster fire that kills anyone, and scenes that may be extremely frightening to children. If you want to share your love of Star Wars with the younglings but feel the movies are a bit too much, this may be the version you're looking for.

Things cut:
  • Any direct/on screen deaths or dismemberment
  • Overly frightening scenes (Wampa, some Vader scenes, etc.)
Things NOT cut:
  • Vehicle to vehicle blaster violence
  • The majority of the duel
  • The reveal
Cut list:
  • Removed wampa attacking Luke by wiping straight to Han entering Echo Base
  • Removed Han's cursing when he is told his tauntaun will freeze; added wipe to
  • Cut wampa scene entirely
  • Retained wampa exterior scenes then cut to Han on his tauntaun
  • Rearranged Luke escaping wide shots to be right after R2 is using his sensor to find Luke followed by Luke's vision of Obi-Wan
  • Cut Vader chocking the Admiral Ozzel; now wipe cuts to echo base mission brief
  • Edited Hoth battle to remove some human level violence
  • Removed Dak death
  • Removed Rogue 2 death
  • Removed Walker stepping on snowspeeder; cuts when Luke opens the hatch and looks up at the walker
  • Rearranged scenes of Falcon escape to remove blaster fire with stormtroopers
  • Removed Vader in the cave
  • Removed death of Captain Needa
  • Removed blaster fire from Han when Vader pulls his blaster
  • Removed torture scene
  • Shortened hallway scene between Vader, Boba Fett, and Lando and removed the majority of background noise from Han
  • Removed Lando telling Han to shut up and his men hitting Han
  • Moved Lando's "I'm sorry I couldn't do more, but I've got my own problems" to when he walks out of the cell
  • Removed Han slamming to the floor in carbonite; retained the sfx but cut to Lando's face
  • Shortened up Luke chasing after Leia, Chewie, 3PO and Han
  • Removed some blaster exchange between Leia, Lando, Chewie as Slave I departs
  • Removed a few of the scenes where Luke is hit by debris from Vader
  • Removed Leia blasting the trooper before entering the elevator. Cropped image to remove dead trooper
  • Trimmed scenes to remove Chewie killing troopers
  • Removed 3PO calling R2 a stupid lump
  • Trimmed escape to remove trooper deaths
  • Removed Vader cutting off Luke's hand. Luke is knocked down, Vader says, "You are beaten" then cuts to scene where he says "Don't make me destroy you" Luke then retreats
  • Cropped image to remove seeing Luke's saber and added saber shutting down sound to imply that he either shut it down or lost the saber
  • Removed Luke yelling "NOOOOOOOOOO" now he looks down as Vader delivers his next lines
  • Added soundtrack back in to finish the Empire theme
  • Trimmed Luke getting a new hand as to not show that his hand is mechanical
Original Run Time: 124 minutes
Edited Run Time: 117 minutes

Progress:

Video Editing: ■■■■■
Audio Editing: ■■■■■
Artwork: ■■■■■

Current Status:
Edit Complete

Release:
MP4 1280x540 5.1 (8mbps)
Click to expand...





Awesome edit!!! I saw Episode IV before it was Ep. IV, in a theater back in 1977 when I was 5 years old. I have a grandson who is now five. Being very cautious of what I allow him to watch, I sometimes wondered when he would get to watch any of the S.W. movies, more specifically one of the O.T. When I came across this one, and watched it, I was very happy not only with what DigMod had done in content, but also in quality. My grandson loved it!!! DigMod, your edits never disappoint, in fact they rock! (This coming from both me and my youngling). We can't wait to see what you do with RotJ.
 
CAL0901 said:
Awesome edit!!! I saw Episode IV before it was Ep. IV, in a theater back in 1977 when I was 5 years old. I have a grandson who is now five. Being very cautious of what I allow him to watch, I sometimes wondered when he would get to watch any of the S.W. movies, more specifically one of the O.T. When I came across this one, and watched it, I was very happy not only with what DigMod had done in content, but also in quality. My grandson loved it!!! DigMod, your edits never disappoint, in fact they rock! (This coming from both me and my youngling). We can't wait to see what you do with RotJ.
Click to expand...

I've wondered if anyone really ever watched this edit. Super excited that you enjoyed it. It was a labor of love to make it work. I actually did make a RotJ youngling edit that I share with my own little rebels, but I've not shared it on ifdb as it's more a workprint quality in my eyes. There are some narrative shifts and cuts that aren't as smooth as I'd like them to be. I suppose I could just promote that at my website and still share it outside of being an official IFDb entry. I'll dig around in my project files and see if I can get that up and ready to share. Thank you again for sharing your positive feedback! Feel free to add a review on the IFDb page if you have a moment to do so: https://fanedit.org/star-wars-episode-v-the-empire-strikes-back-youngling-edition/

Thanks again and super glad you two were able to enjoy it together!
 
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