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In a comment that is sure to start a war between traditionalists and CGI enthusiasts, Harrison Ford said that CGI is relied on too heavily in the modern action and fantasy films, to the point where the humanity of the film is lost to what amounts to a video game, which he called a soulless enterprise. The filmmakers alienate the viewers by adding too much visual stimulus that doesn’t need to be there. His example was the difference between six men and thousands of men. The six men represent an army that can be taken down by the hero, but thousands just seems impossible and even if they do make it, it seemed improbable. Scale is important in a film that the humanity has to be shown above the effects around the people. Ironically he stated his criticism at a movie that is filled with special effects called Cowboys and Aliens, which he is currently starring in. The film is set to be released soon.

While that one hasn’t been released to judge, I agree that...

Not sure if you knew this or not, but today is actually an unofficial holiday for Star Wars. The date chosen by a rather clever pun on the series’ most popular phrase, “May the Fourth Be With You.” While there are no specific plans for LucasFilms to celebrate the day, Lucas did release a statement that said that they are thrilled that people still enjoy the movies and have picked a day to express that enjoyment. After all, there aren’t many films that have a specific day named after them, even if you won’t find it in most calendars.

But besides the pun, why the fourth of May? Well it was actually a mistake by German TV when they translated an interview with George Lucas. They were quoting “May the Force Be With You” and actually misinterpreted the line as “We are with you on May 4th” or in German, “Am 4. Mai sind wir bei thnen” And the first Star Wars Day was born.

The date has given some local venues a chance to celebrate with some Star Wars fun. Since...

Yesterday, in our news from the galaxy, we talked about a new iPhone cover that would certainly be of interest to Apple and Star Wars fans. Instead of George Lucas or Harrison Ford preserved in Carbonite, it was Steve Jobs. The very realistic looking piece was very cool and it went for around $35.

Society6, who sells lots of different covers from Star Wars to Sesame Street to other fun and unique designs was selling the item on their website, but it was pulled and speculation began that there was some one out there that objected. Since they are still carrying the items from George Lucas, it seems to be that it was Apple or perhaps Steve Jobs himself that complained, once the news went viral. We’d mentioned about getting it fast before the legal eagles caught it. It was a cool idea, maybe they can get Jobs to okay it with a licensing agreement. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that products got scrapped and then came back with new agreements, right...

We reported on a man in Oklahoma who is on a mission to give America a common goal, which is to create a full size fully function Imperial Walker (AT-AT) from Empire Strikes Back. Mike Koehler is a father of three who after hearing about the Robocop statue in Detroit, decided to start a similar grassroots effort to create the massive vehicle. And he started raising money for it through a website called Kickstarter that exists to help inventors and ideas people get the funding they need to create a project. He has already raised over $400 from people who would like to see this work, even though he admits he has no idea how much such a beast would cost.

And that is where LucasFilms has a problem. They contacted Mike after the news of his intentions went viral and realized he was raising money. While they stated that they would truly like to see an AT-AT actually built and would appreciate the cooperative effort to do so, they objected to him raising money...

For those of you who had never been to Disneyland’s Star Wars events, they have this thing for the kids called the Jedi Academy. The idea is for the little kid go up and pretend they are a Jedi knight that has to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul to graduate. Usually the guy playing Mace Windu is there to tell the kids to activate their lightsaber and go for a few hits against Vader’s saber. But not this little girl. After Vader says to Windu “If you won’t turn to the Dark Side, perhaps she will.” Mace replies “I don’t think so.” The girl then says that she wants to join the Dark Side and kneels before Vader in the same way Darth knelt before the Emperor, much to the surprise of both of them and the crowd. The guy playing Windu, though, was pretty quick on his feet as far as a reply, but the scene is hilarious.


The girl, Sariah Gallego, was visiting Disneyland with her family...

Five years ago, LucasFilms opened an animation studio in Singapore that has been instrumental in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animation tasks, including animation, visual effects, and video game production. But the production facility has always been housed in various places, rather than in a central location. LucasFilms is planning on rectifying that by building a whole new studio that will be able to accommodate all of the divisions of the production house, making room for 1000 or more employees.

But this would not really be big news if it weren’t for the design. Buildings are built every day, but not like this. If you remember back to Star Wars Episode I: A New Hope with the scene with the Jawas, they travelled in a rather huge looking vehicle that looked a cross between a junk yard crusher and a tank. They called it a sandcrawler. Well now LucasFilm has taken that design and created a building blueprint for their new facility. The building will be...

Can a real AT-AT be built life size and fully functional? A man in Oklahoma wants to find out. Michael Koehler, a Star Wars fanatic is working up plans to build the monstrosity as a way to unite Sci-Fi fans and generally create a rallying cry from a national project.

For those of you not as Star Wars literate, the AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport) are also known as Imperial Walkers. They were the big dog like robots that towered above the rebels on Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back. They could crush anything with their massive feet, while shooting lasers out of their “noses.” A pilot would sit in the head portion and drive the tank with legs over the rebellion forces. Heavily armored, Luke and company found the only way to bring them down was to basically trip them by using a grappling hook and tow cable or to put a grenade in their belly, through a convenient bottom door.

The estimated 73 foot vehicle has already been created at Star Tours in Orlando...

We are sure you’ve seen the ads on TV that Windows 7 was everyone’s idea. The commercials start out by telling what their idea was and then how it was included in the operating system. It’s a cool ad to try to shake the all encompassing Microsoft reputation and put the OS in the hands of the people. Which I guess means that if your system crashes, you can blame your neighbor? That doesn’t seem fair to put the blame on him. He’s an elderly man that uses his laptop for getting email from his grandchildren. Just what is being implied here?

Like Microsoft, the other evil empire would also like to let other people take credit for their work. After all, the Death Star wasn’t built by people that were bent on world destruction. Well, okay it was, but why shouldn’t the end user of the fully operational battle station get some recognition to? After all, putting those guys right next to the beam that could destroy a planet was someone’s idea, right? Or that an...

You wouldn’t think of George Lucas as having a daughter that would be into something like Freestyle Cage Fighting, but she is and she’s quite good at it. In fact, she holds a record in 1-1 professional MMA fighting and beat her last opponent in a three round unanimous decision. Amanda Lucas, who is the filmmaker’s adopted oldest daughter, will be returning to the ring this Saturday in Shawnee, OH where she takes on Heather Martin.

For those of you wondering what this has to do with Star Wars, beyond being Lucas’ daughter is that Amanda was part of all three movies. In Phantom Menace, she played the voice of Tey How (a communications officer for the trade federation ship) and Diva Funquita (a dancer and assistant working for Gardulla the Elder). In Attack of the Clones, she was uncreditted as Adnama (a guest at the Outlander Club that Anakin and Obi-Wan visited while looking for the assassin) and in Revenge of the Sith, played Terr Taneel, who was the Senex...

A while back we talked about how Legoland California had joined in with George Lucas to create a new mini land for their park. You can find our preview article here. But Thursday marked the grand opening of the new 1400 square foot area and Star Wars fans are thrilled. While oddly placed within an area that is more known for its reality, than its fantasy, it sort of shows the series in a new light as if it is the future that could be.

The entire project sets out to chronicle the most memorable locations, scenes and characters from the six movies and the Clone Wars animated series. Guests will start on one side of the timeline and travel through the history of the series, enjoying some of their favorite memories, such as R2D2 and C3PO ducking storm troopers at Mos Eisley, the Ewok Celebration on Endor, and the Battle of Hoth which wouldn’t be complete with well modeled...

In 1996 three high school students were on a mission to bring the movie Star Wars to life on the stage as a musical. They took music from such Broadway hits as Grease and Les Miserables, rewrote the lyrics and presented the concoction as a 40 member rock opera, much in the same vein as Jesus Christ: Superstar and Godspell. The show was a huge hit, but only was seen for three nights before it was shut down by George Lucas with a court order. Mainly because the show was making money and even these days, Lucas doesn’t like that, even though he’s been more tolerant of fan based movies and creations based on the Star Wars universe.

The two videos that have been made available from the show are The Millenium Falcon (a send up of Grease’s Greased Lightning) and Use the Force (sung to the tune of Les Miserables’ One Day More). There is talk of releasing the whole video to the show, but its unclear when that would happen or whether it can, given Lucas’ hold on it...

If you haven’t seen Chad Vader, who is supposedly Darth Vader’s brother, on YouTube or his website, you are missing quite a bit. What started out as a web series about what if a Darth Vader like character (legal stuff, you know) was a day manager at a grocery store has turned into an internet phenomenon. He now has DVD’s of Seasons 1 and 2 (which will also be on YouTube in HD) and has come up with a whole bunch of skits beyond the series. He was even one of the funny commentators on the Rifftrax send up of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.

In his latest video, he takes on another internet sensation, Rebecca Black’s Friday. You may have seen the video, millions did, or heard the story about this girl. She is a teenager who’s parents put up the money to make a video of her song. They put it up on YouTube and it went viral and is now across the entire internet. The song itself has been charting now on iTunes where it’s gotten 2 million downloads, making her a...