@@DarkCornersReviews so doy still hsve thse acthion figurec I had the lightsabers of quik gons blade but it was two colors one gren snd ond blue I thought ghd blue one whad to b ed obi wan's ir lzt leastvsomdother jedi scus saber
Very refreshing to see a take on The Phantom Menace that wasn't filled with disappointment, anger, and hate; just love for the art and an appreciation for how the film influenced the future of entertainment media. This is the most detailed and knowledgeable retrospective yet from Dark Corners. Excellent job. My earliest memories of Star Wars was watching the original trilogy on VHS with my parents (the unaltered versions). It wasn't until when I grew up that I realized we had a copy of Menace as well. I actually watched the prequels in reverse order, so Menace was the last one I watched. While the prequels are not great films, they and the original trilogy helped me learn much more about how filmmakers brought such imaginative concepts to life.
Go back two months earlier and see THE MATRIX on the big screen with no spoilers... and then you'll know just another reason why Ep1 fell so flat in 99!
@@werideatduskThis. I knew very little about The Matrix going in and the cinema was half empty at the late afternoon showing. What an incredible movie. I never had any hate for Phantom Menace. I was well into my 20’s when I saw it and distinctly remember looking around during the showing thinking, what is this crap.
Why doesn't this docummentary have more views? The amount of work here shows and deserves more recognition. I was born in 2001, so this whole SW debacle is just insanely interesting to me, just right now am I learning all this wild ride of a franchise that I love with all my heart. Great work!
Brilliant video on the Phantom Menace! Even after reading and seeing behind the scenes footage and other retrospectives and breakdowns on the film, you still managed to give new information I’d never heard of. A real fantastic overlook at a unique event of film history!
Yes I agree I was 11 years old when this movie came out and I didn’t even know like 80% of this stuff I remembered going to Toys “R” Us to try to get a Darth Maul figure and I remembered us not being able to get it in us giving our name and phone number and then eventually they called us and saved us one
@@DarkCornersReviews and thank you thank you for all the contents that you make you do a very good job I hope you make more Star Wars stuff and I cannot wait to continue watching a horror videos
@@escottamezcua6814 Probably a little way off, the Star Wars vids don't do as well and we need to work out a unique angle to come at them. There is an idea for an Empire Strikes Back video, but just a nugget of an idea right now.
It is a remarkable bit of work examining a phenomenon that must seem kind of unbelievable these days to people who weren't old enough to remember it. Not the most disappointing film I've ever seen in the theaters, but that's mostly thanks to going to the D&D movie opening night. Last Star Wars film I've seen on the big screen, and honestly I don't regret it a bit despite having loved the original trilogy as a child.
I was at the midnight premier which was also the opening of a local cineplex (AMC). It was exciting. I defended it for a while; the soured some; and now haven't watch the preqs in years. Now, I'm convinced the Star Wars story ended in 1983.
I'm 52 and I still love this movie. It was also the first DVD I ever bought. The hype was unreal I kept buying the magazines that had tidbits of info. It was the first time I heard of Liam Neelson and the magazines just Saud he was playing a venerable Jedi Master.
This is FASCINATING. As a millennial I remember the marketing bullrush but this documentary really puts into perspective why and HOW this really changed things. I'm a historian now and I always tell people that a lot of the time, it's the context of an event that is far more interesting than the event itself.
I saw the original film several times in the theater as a kid and absolutely loved it. I saw the original trilogy in the theater and liked it. As a young adult I saw The Phantom Menace in the theater...and couldn’t have loathed it more. I haven’t seen a single minute of anything Star Wars since then. It was, for me, the end of quality storytelling and the beginning of digital special effects as a substitute. What’s amazing to me is how much I genuinely loved this documentary. I’ve always loved Dark Corners, but in absolutely every way this presentation was both more thought-provoking and entertaining than the film it’s focused on. You did a tremendous job on this.
I agree 1977 star Wars will always be the best star wars movie rip david prowse before it was called the new hope i remember when I Knew it as just star wars I hate that they renamed it
“The beginning of digital special effects as a substitute.” Yeah, about that. Half of the things you think are CGI in The Phantom Menace aren’t act CGI. This may come as a shocker but Stuckmann and Plinkett lied. Like, a lot.
American Graffiti was brilliant - as is your longer reviews, Robin. Every time I see this movie I think of Happy Days, Aloha Bobby and Rose, and Benny And The Jets. I am 57 years old and I THANK YOU for taking me back to my younger days.
Proud Prequels/Clone Wars kid here. Ep. 1 was my first introduction to Star Wars and I love it warts and all. You've done an impeccable job with this documentary, one of my personal favorites on TH-cam.
Yeah, depressing to live under Trump's boot; remember how he ... um, did something. I hope Darth Bezos can lead us into the Unicorn Candyland of Freedom.
It wasn't prescient. It was commentary on the run up to the Iraq war. After 9/11, George W. Bush positioned himself as a wartime president who was beyond all criticism, because to criticize the president was to criticize the United States. There was a lot of corny applause from congress whenever Bush addressed them, the media largely refused to criticize the illegal practices of his administration, and his obvious intellectual deficiencies were edited out of the clips of speeches we saw on TV, so if you didn't see them as they happened, you wouldn't see them at all. This didn't change until after the 2004 election, when he tried and failed to privatize social security, completely flubbed the response to Hurricane Katrina, and scandals related to the lies he told about the Iraq invasion, and scandals began to stack up related to attempted cover-ups of military abuses there.
Having been a Star Wars fan since the age of 5, I was sorely disappointed when I watched The Phantom Menace at the cinema. And I don't accept over hyping as the main reason for that movies failiure to deliver. I was also a fan of the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, and though there were aspects of the story Peter Jackson changed that I was not pleased about, the hype for the long awaited Lord of the Rings movies still didn't make us feel the movies were crap. They were simply made with better acting and better story telling than the prequals. At any rate, Dark Corners delivers tons of information without judging lovers and haters of the movie. Continue the good work.
This was an epic overview of the phantom menace.... My father who is not the biggest movie buff made a point a few years ago. He said that in the same way that Jaws what is the world's first true Blockbuster and set the tone for movies to come. Star Wars The phantom menace basically set the tone for modern blockbuster movies. The internet hype even though it was relatively new in its day... The fandom both good and toxic.... The feeling that hype will be bigger than the actual finished product.... The insane merchandising.... The desire to see the next film.... That all came out of phantom menace. Being said was it a great movie know but I still love it. The game honestly good job you're one of the best channels on TH-cam.
I saw Phantom Menace on the big screen, in Bangor North Wales ahem, and it washed through me like a dream. Thank you, Mr Lucas. Not seen it again because it wouldn't be the same. Who else can claim to making dreams outside of sleep?
I have many complicated memories and reactions to the prequel trilogy, but one thing remains constant: the trailer reveal of the double bladed lightsaber was the raddest thing my 14-year-old self had ever seen.
Yeah. I agree. I liked it too. His team or perhaps it's just only one person working on this video (unlikely) as the narrator and editor managed to find so much information that I couldn't believe. Like the old images and videos of those old website designs, being able to play the trailer on old software like Real Media Player and QuickTime Player. Oh, that took me back to that time. Haha.
TPM lowkey underrated as fuck. Its unique even amongst the prequels as sort of a bridge between “here’s normal boring space life” to “oh shit the Sith are back” Also pod racing was my hyperfixation as a kid
The world building in the movie is incredible as well. New planets, new ships, new aliens, and we get freaking Darth Maul and some of the best music in the franchise. The political plot of the movie can be slow to follow if you’re a kid but it shows that even in another galaxy, things aren’t always free
Im about to go and watch the film in the cinema for the 25th anniversary re-release! I saw it once in '99 again in 3D in 2012 and now for the third time in 2024.
Late 90s star wars hype - Well I know I had a few of the toys shown here, as well as the games! My best memory was using the new films to bond with my dad, who was a fan of the films before I was on the scene. We also put on some pounds getting those fast food collector mugs and toys
I don't know why but seeing how excited people were for this movie and Darth Maul makes me so happy. I hope everybody excited for it are prequel die-hards today!
Exactly what I was thinking. I know a lot of people hated it when they saw it, but there had to be SOME sizable percentage of them who came out happy and have kept up with that era!
I am not now nor have I ever been a Star Wars fan. But I am a Dark Corners fan. This was another fascinating video. A fascinating cultural history, you might say. Keep up the good work!
One element that always tends to get missed out in these histories - West End Games' "Star Wars: The RPG", a pencil-and-paper roleplaying system first released in 1987, was a major keeper of the flame in the late 80s and early 90s, and also began the process of codifying canonical knowledge about people, places, vehicles, technologies and lore in the Star Wars universe, in both the core game book, the first Sourcebook, and then other sourcebooks for the Rebel Alliance, the Empire etc. The kind of stuff we now take for granted on things like Wookiepedia - all of that really started with the Star Wars RPG. They invented many elements of it themselves, in consultation with Lucasfilm, who then awarded it canonical status. (It was also a really fun system to play with!) Watching "Andor" last year felt to me like watching a TV show based on the Star Wars RPG: rather than focusing on the grand luminaries of the saga, much of it was about the grubby business of being a mid-level operative in the resistance during the heyday of Palpatine's rule as emperor.
I watched with dread, as if watching a horror movie. A brilliantly done one. All that excitement and build up for a flop. Made me realize Lucas is probably the most frustrating pioneer in cinema history. And I LOVED the music choices, Mahler 2, Dvorak 9, Tchaikovsky 4, amazing. Missed a bit of Wagner perhaps.
It's a great work because it doesn't focus on big names and big studios, but also toys, merchandising and little events and all the energy generated by the phenomena. I was among the first French people to watch the movie. People were ecstatic. When I have seen the episode VII on screen, I realized it was done for me. New films and stories, it's something else, I'm not not into it. It was a moment in time, a great moment, but things go and pass and you've got to move up.
I was able to see the original 3 movies at the indian hills theater, in omaha, nebraska, the last Cine-Rama movie theater, featuring a circular auditorium and curved wide screen that filled the viewers peripheral vision. And the wrap around sound with speakers set up behind and on all sides. Quite an experience now lost to developers.
I remember seeing it in cinemas with my father as a 10 year old and even after 24 years it’s still has the problems the movie had and problems with fandom and division and hype
I've seen this 3 times. Each time I've fell asleep during the bit on Tatooine . I'm amazed that this hot mess has any fervent fans - of which it seems to have in spades according to various social media outlets. The thing, for me, where the prequel trilogy drops the ball is the deconstruction of Vader - "Oh Annie...."
The Phantom Menace blew holy hell chunks but even knowing that I would still buy a ticket to walk out of Waterboy if that was my only way to see the trailer.
I LOVED this. Thank you for one of most informative sessions on a film I have ever seen. You covered anything and everything I could have imagined. Thank you!
The clip you used at 55:01-55:04 is from my hometown in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and I knew that particular newscaster, his name was Max Keeping and he was a staple of this city for several decades. Great video overall too.
Great retrospective documentary - I hope it gets eventually all the views it deserves given the hard work that went into it! I remember back in the days in Italy there was surely a lot of hype but nothing that dramatic as weeks of queeing - probably because the US release had already happened months prior (we had it released in September) and some less than enthusiastic reviews had started circulating. I remember my parents and I being a bit underwhelmed: while amazed by the special and visual effects and the climatic battle, the movie seemed to be dragging and lacking that extra emotional punch.
Re special effects (16 minute mark): I used to have a book when I was a kid about special effects in the cinema, taking in Melies' camera tricks and O'Brien and Harryhausen's stop-motion, but it by the time it was published, some time in the early 70s, it admitted that there wasn't much going on any more and didn't seem to have much to write about, even in the 60s (I seem to remember it considered James Bond stunts, including a guy getting spear-gunned, as "special effects". Only a handful of years after the book was published, everything kicked into overdrive again, thanks to Star Wars.
People talk about the rise of geek culture, the "triumph of the nerd", but looking at Star Wars fandom it seems what actually happened was that geek culture was invaded and taken over by jocks and dudebros.
I went and saw it when it came out. This is how I would describe it: imagine there's this person that you're really into, and you've been dying to hook up with them forever. Finally, it happens, and you're so stoked that it's happening, you can't believe your luck. So stoked, in fact, that it takes a while to admit to yourself that the sex just wasn't that good. However, right after it happened, you swore it was the best sex you ever had, almost but not completely convincing yourself of it. That's why the early fan reviews were so glowing.
I'm a 52 years old Star Wars fan, and this amazing documentary brings back so many memories. Well done, sir. VERY, VERY WELL DONE!
Thank you, it took a while, but it was fun remembering a more carefree time.
@@DarkCornersReviews You tell me! Also, you made me buy a Hammer films bo set... and it's a blast! Cheers!
@@DarkCornersReviews dud you have the toys as kid
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Of course. But many of their heads were chewed beyond recognition.
@@DarkCornersReviews I have the two lightsabers with the qui gon hilt the green one and the blue one except the blue one is getting a little worn out
These longer documentaries are becoming your strong suit. Keep up the excellent work.
Glad you like them!
@@DarkCornersReviews so how oldvwre you when this came out
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 21
@@DarkCornersReviews so your 44 yers old acthuly you look wy younger than thst you lok mor like young to mid 20s than 40s
@@DarkCornersReviews so doy still hsve thse acthion figurec I had the lightsabers of quik gons blade but it was two colors one gren snd ond blue I thought ghd blue one whad to b ed obi wan's ir lzt leastvsomdother jedi scus saber
Very refreshing to see a take on The Phantom Menace that wasn't filled with disappointment, anger, and hate; just love for the art and an appreciation for how the film influenced the future of entertainment media. This is the most detailed and knowledgeable retrospective yet from Dark Corners. Excellent job.
My earliest memories of Star Wars was watching the original trilogy on VHS with my parents (the unaltered versions). It wasn't until when I grew up that I realized we had a copy of Menace as well. I actually watched the prequels in reverse order, so Menace was the last one I watched. While the prequels are not great films, they and the original trilogy helped me learn much more about how filmmakers brought such imaginative concepts to life.
Connor the Sam thing with thscmarkwting later happend with episode 3 with ths msrchrndise being kept scetert until once the film came out
Of all the videos I’ve seen that illustrates the period where the Phantom Menace was being built up, this is my favorite.
Thank you.
Man, if there was one pop culture event I could time travel to experience, it would be this one.
Agreed. Worked in a movie theater 98-99. The hype of Star Wars consumed most of our attention.
Batman 89 for me.
Go back two months earlier and see THE MATRIX on the big screen with no spoilers... and then you'll know just another reason why Ep1 fell so flat in 99!
@@werideatduskThis. I knew very little about The Matrix going in and the cinema was half empty at the late afternoon showing. What an incredible movie. I never had any hate for Phantom Menace. I was well into my 20’s when I saw it and distinctly remember looking around during the showing thinking, what is this crap.
Why doesn't this docummentary have more views? The amount of work here shows and deserves more recognition.
I was born in 2001, so this whole SW debacle is just insanely interesting to me, just right now am I learning all this wild ride of a franchise that I love with all my heart.
Great work!
Thank you it was a labour of love. Sharing the video will help it get more views.
Brilliant video on the Phantom Menace! Even after reading and seeing behind the scenes footage and other retrospectives and breakdowns on the film, you still managed to give new information I’d never heard of. A real fantastic overlook at a unique event of film history!
Many thanks!
Yes I agree I was 11 years old when this movie came out and I didn’t even know like 80% of this stuff I remembered going to Toys “R” Us to try to get a Darth Maul figure and I remembered us not being able to get it in us giving our name and phone number and then eventually they called us and saved us one
@@DarkCornersReviews and thank you thank you for all the contents that you make you do a very good job I hope you make more Star Wars stuff and I cannot wait to continue watching a horror videos
@@escottamezcua6814 Probably a little way off, the Star Wars vids don't do as well and we need to work out a unique angle to come at them. There is an idea for an Empire Strikes Back video, but just a nugget of an idea right now.
It's heartbreaking to hear what happened to Jake Lloyd.
And Ahmed Best. As much as I didn't like Jar Jar, Ahmed didn't deserve any of the bullshit and hate he had to endure.
Amazingly detailed and well researched piece.
It honestly deserves way more views that it's currently getting.
Thank you for this
Thing you can take from this is: Mark Hamill is a great guy
The guy is a legit mensch. I love him.
unless he is pressuring his son's ex to abort their child
Mmmm! Age like milk, this did!
@@Double-R-Nothing yeah.
The Internet never forgets.
Mark Hamill used to be a great guy
How this video is not hitting one million is beyond me
This is a fantastic documentary about the no man’s land of Star Wars history. Brilliantly done!
A fantastic late 90s media time capsule. Hope it gets the traction this great video deserves
Thank you.
It is a remarkable bit of work examining a phenomenon that must seem kind of unbelievable these days to people who weren't old enough to remember it. Not the most disappointing film I've ever seen in the theaters, but that's mostly thanks to going to the D&D movie opening night. Last Star Wars film I've seen on the big screen, and honestly I don't regret it a bit despite having loved the original trilogy as a child.
I was at the midnight premier which was also the opening of a local cineplex (AMC). It was exciting. I defended it for a while; the soured some; and now haven't watch the preqs in years. Now, I'm convinced the Star Wars story ended in 1983.
I'm 52 and I still love this movie. It was also the first DVD I ever bought. The hype was unreal I kept buying the magazines that had tidbits of info. It was the first time I heard of Liam Neelson and the magazines just Saud he was playing a venerable Jedi Master.
This is FASCINATING. As a millennial I remember the marketing bullrush but this documentary really puts into perspective why and HOW this really changed things. I'm a historian now and I always tell people that a lot of the time, it's the context of an event that is far more interesting than the event itself.
Red Tails was a passion project Lucas had for years! I once found a Lucas fan magazine/newsletter from 1994 and it was mentioned in it.
I saw The Phantom Menace ten times as well. I loved it.
I saw the original film several times in the theater as a kid and absolutely loved it. I saw the original trilogy in the theater and liked it. As a young adult I saw The Phantom Menace in the theater...and couldn’t have loathed it more. I haven’t seen a single minute of anything Star Wars since then. It was, for me, the end of quality storytelling and the beginning of digital special effects as a substitute.
What’s amazing to me is how much I genuinely loved this documentary. I’ve always loved Dark Corners, but in absolutely every way this presentation was both more thought-provoking and entertaining than the film it’s focused on.
You did a tremendous job on this.
Thank you. With these larger docs we do try to find a different story to the one other people are telling. Always good hear when people appreciate it.
I agree 1977 star Wars will always be the best star wars movie rip david prowse before it was called the new hope i remember when I Knew it as just star wars I hate that they renamed it
@@DarkCornersReviews do you rember the hype for this film
@@DarkCornersReviews rod you rember supershqdow
“The beginning of digital special effects as a substitute.”
Yeah, about that. Half of the things you think are CGI in The Phantom Menace aren’t act CGI. This may come as a shocker but Stuckmann and Plinkett lied. Like, a lot.
American Graffiti was brilliant - as is your longer reviews, Robin. Every time I see this movie I think of Happy Days, Aloha Bobby and Rose, and Benny And The Jets. I am 57 years old and I THANK YOU for taking me back to my younger days.
And yes, The Phantom Menace sucked.
Just rewatched this and it’s even better than I remember. Well done, chaps.
Proud Prequels/Clone Wars kid here. Ep. 1 was my first introduction to Star Wars and I love it warts and all. You've done an impeccable job with this documentary, one of my personal favorites on TH-cam.
This is a top-notch documentary and deserves far more than those 12.000 views. Very good work.
In awe the amount of work you put into this! But loved every minute. Especially the voice-overs. Well, one voice-over.
Your long videos are really becoming the last true shows on youtube
"So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause."
Probably the best -- and most prescient -- line George Lucas ever wrote.
Depressingly accurate.
Right? Oh boy, that line has simultaneously aged beautifully and badly.
This was such a good line I thought Lucas was quoting it from somewhere.
Yeah, depressing to live under Trump's boot; remember how he ... um, did something. I hope Darth Bezos can lead us into the Unicorn Candyland of Freedom.
It wasn't prescient. It was commentary on the run up to the Iraq war.
After 9/11, George W. Bush positioned himself as a wartime president who was beyond all criticism, because to criticize the president was to criticize the United States. There was a lot of corny applause from congress whenever Bush addressed them, the media largely refused to criticize the illegal practices of his administration, and his obvious intellectual deficiencies were edited out of the clips of speeches we saw on TV, so if you didn't see them as they happened, you wouldn't see them at all. This didn't change until after the 2004 election, when he tried and failed to privatize social security, completely flubbed the response to Hurricane Katrina, and scandals related to the lies he told about the Iraq invasion, and scandals began to stack up related to attempted cover-ups of military abuses there.
Dude your documentaries should win awards!
We did get nominated for one earlier this year, but didn't win. Maybe next year.
Your long form dissections are amazing. I've commented on several, and this continues the quality. Thank you.
Having been a Star Wars fan since the age of 5, I was sorely disappointed when I watched The Phantom Menace at the cinema. And I don't accept over hyping as the main reason for that movies failiure to deliver. I was also a fan of the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, and though there were aspects of the story Peter Jackson changed that I was not pleased about, the hype for the long awaited Lord of the Rings movies still didn't make us feel the movies were crap. They were simply made with better acting and better story telling than the prequals. At any rate, Dark Corners delivers tons of information without judging lovers and haters of the movie. Continue the good work.
Thank you.
Go-motion was co-created by Phil Tippet and ILM. The technique adds motion blur to make the movements seamless and take away the jitter.
Wow, those practical effects were super cool. I never knew all those sets and miniatures were there.
This was an epic overview of the phantom menace....
My father who is not the biggest movie buff made a point a few years ago. He said that in the same way that Jaws what is the world's first true Blockbuster and set the tone for movies to come. Star Wars The phantom menace basically set the tone for modern blockbuster movies. The internet hype even though it was relatively new in its day... The fandom both good and toxic.... The feeling that hype will be bigger than the actual finished product.... The insane merchandising.... The desire to see the next film.... That all came out of phantom menace. Being said was it a great movie know but I still love it.
The game honestly good job you're one of the best channels on TH-cam.
An incredible wealth of detailed information.
Thanks, it took a while.
I saw Phantom Menace on the big screen, in Bangor North Wales ahem, and it washed through me like a dream. Thank you, Mr Lucas. Not seen it again because it wouldn't be the same. Who else can claim to making dreams outside of sleep?
Seeing TPM first-run in May 99 washed through me like a dream and left me feeling drained afterward, too. Just like waking up in bed with diarrhea. 🤮💩
This must be a pinnacle for you! I projected it in 4K and it looks excellent! Well done!
It was great to relive the journey.
I have many complicated memories and reactions to the prequel trilogy, but one thing remains constant: the trailer reveal of the double bladed lightsaber was the raddest thing my 14-year-old self had ever seen.
This video deserves 100x the views it has.
Kudos. A very well researched article, objective and interesting to watch. That hour and 10 minutes flew by. :-)
Yeah. I agree. I liked it too. His team or perhaps it's just only one person working on this video (unlikely) as the narrator and editor managed to find so much information that I couldn't believe. Like the old images and videos of those old website designs, being able to play the trailer on old software like Real Media Player and QuickTime Player. Oh, that took me back to that time. Haha.
TPM lowkey underrated as fuck. Its unique even amongst the prequels as sort of a bridge between “here’s normal boring space life” to “oh shit the Sith are back”
Also pod racing was my hyperfixation as a kid
The world building in the movie is incredible as well. New planets, new ships, new aliens, and we get freaking Darth Maul and some of the best music in the franchise. The political plot of the movie can be slow to follow if you’re a kid but it shows that even in another galaxy, things aren’t always free
Thanks!
This is one of the best Star Wars retrospective that's on TH-cam! So detailed, just perfect in every way.
Thank you. It was a labour of love (of nostalgia).
Im about to go and watch the film in the cinema for the 25th anniversary re-release! I saw it once in '99 again in 3D in 2012 and now for the third time in 2024.
As someone who was born in 2000 and thus missed out on the hype for Episode 1-2, I adore videos like this. Had no clue the tone poems ever existed.
Late 90s star wars hype - Well I know I had a few of the toys shown here, as well as the games! My best memory was using the new films to bond with my dad, who was a fan of the films before I was on the scene. We also put on some pounds getting those fast food collector mugs and toys
I have the Batman Forever cups!
I don't know why but seeing how excited people were for this movie and Darth Maul makes me so happy. I hope everybody excited for it are prequel die-hards today!
Exactly what I was thinking. I know a lot of people hated it when they saw it, but there had to be SOME sizable percentage of them who came out happy and have kept up with that era!
I am not now nor have I ever been a Star Wars fan. But I am a Dark Corners fan. This was another fascinating video. A fascinating cultural history, you might say. Keep up the good work!
Saw it on the big screen a week ago. What a beautiful film, I never realized. Due for a critical re-evaluation.
What an amazing film you have put together - So much work must have gone into this , thank you !
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So well told and produced!! Just wonderful!! Thanks, A.
TROOPS is from 1997?! Holy cripes, that's a great looking and well made fan film for any age but utterly incredible for 1997!
Amazing documentary with a lot of detailed information. Subscribed!
Brilliant work! very enjoyable and unbiased. Which, with Star Wars is refreshing.
This really takes me back to the late 90s. Amazing documentary. Well done sir!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I never sit that long for a TH-cam video, you never disappoint!
Ditto, and I'm not even a Star Wars fan!
the phantom menace is actually one of my favorite star wars movies. i know people hate it but i like it
One element that always tends to get missed out in these histories - West End Games' "Star Wars: The RPG", a pencil-and-paper roleplaying system first released in 1987, was a major keeper of the flame in the late 80s and early 90s, and also began the process of codifying canonical knowledge about people, places, vehicles, technologies and lore in the Star Wars universe, in both the core game book, the first Sourcebook, and then other sourcebooks for the Rebel Alliance, the Empire etc. The kind of stuff we now take for granted on things like Wookiepedia - all of that really started with the Star Wars RPG. They invented many elements of it themselves, in consultation with Lucasfilm, who then awarded it canonical status. (It was also a really fun system to play with!)
Watching "Andor" last year felt to me like watching a TV show based on the Star Wars RPG: rather than focusing on the grand luminaries of the saga, much of it was about the grubby business of being a mid-level operative in the resistance during the heyday of Palpatine's rule as emperor.
I remember my whole department at Microsoft Press took the day off to go see Phantom Menace. It was fun.
I watched with dread, as if watching a horror movie. A brilliantly done one. All that excitement and build up for a flop. Made me realize Lucas is probably the most frustrating pioneer in cinema history.
And I LOVED the music choices, Mahler 2, Dvorak 9, Tchaikovsky 4, amazing. Missed a bit of Wagner perhaps.
There was nothing more hyped than this.
It's a great work because it doesn't focus on big names and big studios, but also toys, merchandising and little events and all the energy generated by the phenomena. I was among the first French people to watch the movie. People were ecstatic. When I have seen the episode VII on screen, I realized it was done for me. New films and stories, it's something else, I'm not not into it. It was a moment in time, a great moment, but things go and pass and you've got to move up.
I was able to see the original 3 movies at the indian hills theater, in omaha, nebraska, the last Cine-Rama movie theater, featuring a circular auditorium and curved wide screen that filled the viewers peripheral vision. And the wrap around sound with speakers set up behind and on all sides. Quite an experience now lost to developers.
I remember seeing it in cinemas with my father as a 10 year old and even after 24 years it’s still has the problems the movie had and problems with fandom and division and hype
I will always love ALL the six Star Wars films. I love the prequels! Thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. Lucas!
I've seen 'The Phantom Menace' maybe 20 times. I've watched the Obi, Qui-Gon, Maul duel maybe 50 times 😂.
One of the best things about stars wars is the excitement and build up around a new Star Wars movie. I hope it happens again soon.
An extraordinary documentary! Extremely well done! 💯🔝🏆
I've seen this 3 times. Each time I've fell asleep during the bit on Tatooine . I'm amazed that this hot mess has any fervent fans - of which it seems to have in spades according to various social media outlets.
The thing, for me, where the prequel trilogy drops the ball is the deconstruction of Vader - "Oh Annie...."
Robin is fantastic at these documentaries to give you all the background and hidden information
Thanks! But I feel obligated to say that this one was Graham's baby, I just turned up for the voiceover and checked the spelling.
@@robinbailes5236 oops! I often forget that this isn't entirely your show that there is another guy. I didn't want to insult anyone
@@tecumsehcristero Don't worry, I forget about him as well sometimes.
@@robinbailes5236 LOL
Really superb content, and I’m no Star Wars fan. This must have taken forever to make but I hope to see more stuff like it on this channel.
This brings back a lot of memories. Great job, man
The Phantom Menace blew holy hell chunks but even knowing that I would still buy a ticket to walk out of Waterboy if that was my only way to see the trailer.
I LOVED this. Thank you for one of most informative sessions on a film I have ever seen. You covered anything and everything I could have imagined. Thank you!
The clip you used at 55:01-55:04 is from my hometown in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and I knew that particular newscaster, his name was Max Keeping and he was a staple of this city for several decades. Great video overall too.
As always, Robin, a fantastic video. Thank you for your work.
Thanks. Although I should say, I was just voiceover on this one, Graham did all the writing and research (about 3 years worth!).
@@robinbailes5236 Yes, I should credit him as well. You are lucky to have such a great researcher and producer.
Great documentary. Even handed, fair and interesting. Well done. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love the use of Holsts the Planets throughout this.
Great retrospective documentary - I hope it gets eventually all the views it deserves given the hard work that went into it!
I remember back in the days in Italy there was surely a lot of hype but nothing that dramatic as weeks of queeing - probably because the US release had already happened months prior (we had it released in September) and some less than enthusiastic reviews had started circulating. I remember my parents and I being a bit underwhelmed: while amazed by the special and visual effects and the climatic battle, the movie seemed to be dragging and lacking that extra emotional punch.
This deserves more views.
Re special effects (16 minute mark): I used to have a book when I was a kid about special effects in the cinema, taking in Melies' camera tricks and O'Brien and Harryhausen's stop-motion, but it by the time it was published, some time in the early 70s, it admitted that there wasn't much going on any more and didn't seem to have much to write about, even in the 60s (I seem to remember it considered James Bond stunts, including a guy getting spear-gunned, as "special effects". Only a handful of years after the book was published, everything kicked into overdrive again, thanks to Star Wars.
We are thinking about doing a longer special on pre-computer special effects.
Very very very good one of this best documentaries on TH-cam an 8/10
Troops is still amazing thank you for this it brought back my college days
Thank you for this amazing documentary, my friend.
Fantastic documentary.
People talk about the rise of geek culture, the "triumph of the nerd", but looking at Star Wars fandom it seems what actually happened was that geek culture was invaded and taken over by jocks and dudebros.
Ah those were the days. Been a fan of Star Wars since I was little. Love all the movies... including the Sequels. Awesome video!
This is awesome work.
Great stuff. That one hour something of video is far more interesting than the two hour film it's about.
This was enjoyable! Thanks for making it. Brought me back 😀
well done,excellent documentary
Billy Idol had already rocked the Darth Maul look in his “Catch My Fall” video in the mid-80’s.
I still love Phantom Menace and the rest of the prequels (un-ironically) I didn't care what the naysayers said back in the day.
Good job, I know it didn't get the views expected, but I liked it. Now I wait the last trilogy documentary. You have till 2029, good luck.
Excellent video essay on the Phantom Menace.
Amazing documentary! 👍🏼
Apparently, this is a documentary for aliens who just arrived on Earth and who, for some reason, need Star Wars explained to them.
I went and saw it when it came out. This is how I would describe it: imagine there's this person that you're really into, and you've been dying to hook up with them forever. Finally, it happens, and you're so stoked that it's happening, you can't believe your luck. So stoked, in fact, that it takes a while to admit to yourself that the sex just wasn't that good. However, right after it happened, you swore it was the best sex you ever had, almost but not completely convincing yourself of it. That's why the early fan reviews were so glowing.
1:04:49 - His tweet is very clear. It's about MEDIA backlash, not from the fans.
Grim2 did you have the toys growing up I have the green and blu qui gon sabers
What you do is absolutely brilliant. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Incredible job. Didn't miss a thing.
Ive watched this video like 40 times in past few months
It's good man