This week we look at fan protests over blu-ray changes, darth, er dick cheney on Leno, and star wars toothbrushes.
Protests are breaking out across the internet as Star Wars fans react to the changes that Lucas has made in relation to new Blu-Ray editions coming out soon. Some are calling out for a boycott of the series, while others are just standing in disgust over why Lucas has to keep messing with his work. Many wonder if he cares at all about the fans or he’s just doing this to be vane or satisfy his own insecurities over the films. The biggest crime, as we reported, is adding dialogue to Vader’s destruction of the Emperor. The “Noooooo!” seems to be the same one that Vader yelled when he was told that Padme was dead back in Revenge of the Sith. And we can certainly see why there would be such a fuss about it. It literally changes the whole meaning of the scene and in the end, makes Vader look like a whining wimp instead of the bad ass that he’s supposed to be. Most people don’t care that Ewoks can blink or that Obi-Wan sounds like a wounded walrus in that scene where he scares off the Sand People. They can even forgive putting CGI Yoda in instead of the Jim Henson puppet, but Vader is one of the most well loved villains and turning him into a sudden crybaby does not sit well with fans. The Blu-Rays are scheduled to hit the stores on September 16. I wonder how much of an impact the protesters will have on sales. I’d like to think a lot, but in the end, it probably won’t even make a dent.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, as you know has been called Darth Cheney a lot, mainly because of his pushing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and his support of waterboarding to get information out of someone, much like Vader used that ball with the needles to “interrogate” Princess Leia. And since he’s always been seen as a rather angry sort of fellow, it seemed an appropriate comparison. But we always wondered how he felt about that reference until now. In an interview with Laura Ingraham, Cheney said that he loved Star Wars and that he was honored to be compared with Vader. Honored? Really? The comparison is really meant as a slight, not something to be proud of. Vader, throughout the course of the films, killed and tortured a lot of people just to make a point and Cheney had a soft spot for him? That’s like saying that you wouldn’t mind being called Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer. Roleplaying as Darth Vader is one thing, because it’s an escape and we’d all like to pretend we’re the villain, but in Cheney’s case, to me that’s just scary. Anyway, above is a video clip from NBC where Cheney appeared on Jay Leno to promote his memoirs. It has the former VP coming out of the bathroom in his dressing room wanting to dress up as Darth Vader for the interview. The clip itself is funny in context because of the absurdity, but after his previous comments, it doesn’t seem as hilarious.
And finally Star Wars may be making an appearance in your bathroom soon as Sunstar America has gotten permission from Lucas to produce movie and TV inspired manual and automatic toothbrushes. The manual ones will feature character pictures of Darth Vader, Captain Rex, Yoda and Anakin Skywalker. It’s interesting that they are not using any likenesses of the actors, only costumed or animated characters (such as from Clone Wars). Anyway, there is also a light up version that will be designed to be like a miniature light saber that ignites after one minute to tell kids to keep brushing. Then there are the power ones that will work as a regular powered toothbrush and will presumably also have character images although the press release wasn’t clear. You can expect these in a galaxy near you in February 2012 in manual form and the powered and light up ones two months later. Both will be targeted at children. By the way, the picture above is a previous attempt at the same thing, not Sunstar's.
And that’s the News of the Galaxy for now, thanks for reading…
