Digital Bits apparently got a preview of the disks and found that, yet again, Lucas has been tinkering with the original trilogy. Oh dear.
Below is a list of what to expect
Regarding the Original Trilogy films, I don't think it's quite accurate to say that these are simply the 2004 DVD masters recycled for Blu-ray. These films are NOT the 2004 versions. It would be more accurate to say that these are new 2011 Blu-ray versions.
significant additional dirt removal has been done, more garbage matte lines have been cleaned up and other little "fixes" have been applied as well.
The original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy are not included on these discs.
Once again, George has apparently added a few new "surprises" into these films. I don't know what they are and didn't get to see any of them on Friday, but I was assured that there will be "new things to notice" when we watch the films. I think we can safely assume that one of them will be the new all-digital Yoda in Episode I. Way back when Episode III was released on DVD, ILM digital effects supervisor Pablo Helman confirmed to me that the puppet Yoda in Episode I was replaced with a digital version to better match his appearance in Episodes II and III. In fact, the Episode III DVD extras includes a clip of the Episode I digital Yoda. However, this Blu-ray set is really the first opportunity we'll have to see it in full.
A few additional audio details were apparently "added" into the mix as well. I put added in quotes, because in many cases these elements - mostly very subtle background sound effects and voices - were recorded back in 1976-77 for the original film and were even used in the original audio mix, but because of the poor state of the art for movie soundtracks at the time, nobody's ever really heard these things before.
Some of you may recall that on the 2004 DVD, when the X-Wings begin their dive down to the Death Star, the familiar John Williams trumpet fanfare was buried in the mix so you could barely hear it. No longer! The trumpets ring true in the Blu-ray mix loud and clear.
But the scariest rumour that's been flying around, and the one that seems to be the most denied and ludicrous, is that Lucas has gone back to Episode V and VI and replaced the Yoda puppet with the new CGI one that is present in Epsiodes II and III. Scary stuff, but I don't believe Lucas can be that stupid. Can he?
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