When it first acquired Star Wars, Marvel Comics wasn’t sure how to handle the property but came to appreciate it, assigning some of its top talent to the book.That show of appreciation continues here. Beginning with one of the finest adaptations ever (if not THE finest), “The Empire Strikes Back” by Archie Goodwin and the legendary Al Williamson does an incredible job of capturing the movie. My only complaint is the hand lettering Williamson prefers to do.TESB ends with something of a cliffhanger (Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett), a fact which would give migraines to most scripters. Rescuing Han is a priority for Luke, Leia and Lando (sounds like a law firm). How do you deal with the fact that the book CAN’T let the heroes achieve this (an event reserved for the next film which won’t appear for a couple of years), although they must try, without making it look like one failure after another?The late Mr. Goodwin does an admirable
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First of all, this CD is clearly for kids. Especially the 2 – 7 year olds will enjoy the read along – style of the hughly coloured book accompanying the cd. Those who expect a high tech soundeffect – adventure will be greatly dissapointed – not only that the use of soundeffects and original dialog is very limited, unfortunately the old music from the elder movies was used…although the new score was already availabe. Nevertheless the quite complex story is vivdly told and any scary, for children unsuitable elements like violence and too dark descriptions of evil characters are left out. A little more atmosphere would have done alot to improve the overall experience! Good for kids, teenies and eager star wars fans – hands off! Get the audio book from EPISODE I – UNABRIDGED instead!
The CD consists of one track that lasts twenty minutes long – it could have been broken down into multiple tracks, but since it is so short, why bother?
The music is recycled from the previous Star Wars triology and contains none of John Williams newer music. The same appears to be true of the sound effects.
The dialogue taken from the movie is far too sparse, containing less than forty lines of short snipets that last but a few seconds (though this appears to be the only audio actually taken from the movie).
Pictures in the book are also sparse, but capture a few good shots from the light saber conflicts.
The style of the book is intended purely for children, but even my young nephew didn’t care for it – and he’s a huge fan.
In short, this read-along-book should only be bought by the most-desparate and least-discerning Star Wars fan. Otherwise, you will be disappointed.
p.s.- I did like the movie!
Having grown up listening to a 60 minute audio tape of Star Wars over and over, I expected the CD of Episode 1 purchased for my son’s 6th birthday to be of similar quality. I was sorely disappointed with length, quality and lack of significant movie dialog. The story is severly edited, probably less than one-half hour, and almost all narration with little in the way of sounds and dialog from the movie. Hopefully, someone will come out with a better audio version because this one leaves a lot to be desired.
This is the worst! 99% narration and all of that bad. I used to listen to my Star Wars story LP over and over (which is why, unfortunately, I can still tell you that Luke and the crew were trapped in trash compactor 3263827) and it was great. A narrator was used sparringly to make transitions and all the dialog and music was straight from the movie, this is completely opposite. Now I know the Lucas marketing strategy is to drip out products like frozen molassas over the next hundred and fifty years, but this, like JAR JAR, was just bad thinking. If you’re looking for a read along book, okay here’s a really bad one, go nuts. But if you want the MOVIE on a CD that your children can listen to without nodding off thanks to a voice-over guy getting paid scale (at least that’s what he’s worth — the editors and writers of the book too) pass on this.
I love this cd! In fact, I like it so much that I’m buying a second copy to replace the one that was scratched in my step-dad’s car stereo/cd player. While most of the music is from the Star Wars Trilogy, there are also songs from ET, Superman, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Star Wars, or even just great instrumental music. The Boston Pops Orchestra does a fabulous job with the music of John Williams!
This CD was just what I was looking for. I’ve owned the Original Soundtrack Recordings of the Star Wars Films for many years but I realized that often the concert arrangments and performances are of a better quality than the originals. In any case, this CD is a great collection of not only Star Wars music but also includes other classic Williams movie themes such as Superman, ET, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Superb!
*I thought this is a great album
As a huge fan of John Williams and Star Wars, you could say that I know my songs inside and out. Needless to say that when I saw this item, I felt the need to buy it. Some of the songs sound better than ever, but a few of them (Battle of the Heroes in particular) sound quite differently, and it bugs someone like myself. I realize that John Williams isn’t the be-all, end-all of music, but his versions are often superior.
Still, if you are a Star Wars fan, or even a music fan in general, you owe it to yourself to give this a shot.
This is better than I’d hoped since it isn’t John Williams and the London Symphony. There are several conductors, some better than others, but in all a pleasant surprise. I wish I could get the original music like is on the DVD included with the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack.
I followed the advice of the other 3 reviewers, and I’m glad I did! The City of Prague Philharmonic plays these works to the hilt. Their performances are slightly more spacious than the originals with Williams and the LSO, but tighter and equally full of fire. In the faster selections the rhythmic energy is astonishing, and the love themes are gorgeous. I recommend it highly!
I bought this for my 13 year old son who loves Star Wars. He also has the musical score for this and he loves them both. He said the music was really awesome. Great CD, not one song I wouldn’t recommend.
I didn’t grow up with these comics, but the minute I set my eyes on these collections of marvel comics, I’ve loved them! Volume three follows Luke, Chewie, Leia, Lando, and many other characters as they try to rescue Han solo and free the galaxy from the Emire! This collection starts with the comic book adaption of the Empire Strikes Back, then moves on to original stories. Some of my favorites include “Death Probe”, where luke must fight an advanced version of a probe droid on a blockade runner, “The Third Law”, where Leia encounters Darth Vader (who strangely makes no attempt at the end to capture her), and the two stories about the Tarkin, a new Imperial superweapon. overall, these stories are awsome for any Star wars fan!
Book 3 of the Dark Horse Comics reprints of Marvel’s Star Wars comics is a fine achievement in itself, and these books have never looked better! In fact, doing a back to back comparison with this trade paperback and the original comics will shock you as to how much improved these re-colored reprints are!
As for the issues covered in this volume (#39-53), there is a definite improvement in the overall quality: The art is getting away from the blocky (but well-liked by this reviewer) style of Carmine Infantino, which is still present, but the absolutely gorgeous art of Al Williamson and Walt Simonson is more striking and the characters look more like the onscreen actors from Star Wars. This is especially evident on the “Empire Strikes Back” adaptation featured in the first six issues of this volume.
The writing gets better with these issues, too. Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie have always been superb storytellers and they turn in some fine work here. I particularly enjoyed Michelinie’s 2-part “Tarkin” story which blew me away as a ten year-old back in ‘81. Mike W. Barr’s “The Last Jedi” is another story I liked as a kid, but it’s even better and more poignant through adult eyes.
The Dark Horse reprints of the Marvel Star Wars comics are definitely worth getting, especially if you’re wary of constantly digging out those old, yellowing copies from your original comic book collection. I’m so happy that someone saw fit to re-release these comics, which were so important to my friends and I as kids, almost as important as the movies! The Marvel books kept us entertained and inspired us to create our own characters that would inhabit our own small corner of the vast “Star Wars Universe.”
OH MY GOD> Finally come to american market. I am crazy about FFS for 20 years, GOT TO READ THE BOOK. MAMORU NAGANO, such a great musician, designer, artist also a writer. He has the all. If you love FFS, try find the music album, hope they will re-produce the old music album in US, because NAGANO is a great compsor as well.
It has been well over a decade since I first came across “THE FIVE STAR
STORIES” in the issues of Newtype Magazine.
I was totally unfamiliar with this manga series (created by Mamoru Nagano)
but what I do recall were these interesting looking manga characters with what I described as having triangle faces and thin bodies in violent battle scenes.I was so curious that I definitely had to do my research and learn how epic the manga series was and also how challenging it was to create the animated film.
Why is that? Well, unlike other animations based on manga series at that
time such as “Hokuto no Ken” (Fist of the North Star) and “Dragon Ball”, “The Five Star Stories” was not a story that focus on one or a few major characters, the manga series was so epic that it focused on characters from four different solar systems and over 400 characters.
When the film was created, it focused on one part of the “Five Star Stories” storyline and that focused on the characters of Ladios Sopp and Fatima Lachesis.
To take on the challenge of creating a film on “Five Star Stories” were Nobeteru Yuki (character designs), Akinoria Endo (screenplay), Tomoyuki Asakawa (music) and Kazuo Yamazaki (director) who were known for their works on other well known anime.
For those wondering what the epic of “The Five Star Stories” is about, the story revolves around the galaxys four solar systems, countless kingdoms that are vying for ascendancy with mortar heads, war machines of godlike capabilities.
The only people who can pilot these mortar headds are headliners along with a fatima, which are androids created to serve its master (usually a headliner).
Duke Ballanche, known for creating Fatimas created three fatimas (Lachesis, Atropos and Clotho) to subvert the oppresive system under which Fatimas are pressed into service.
Instead of being assimilated like other Fatimas, these three Fatimas have two new features that make them special and that is “emotion” and “free will”.
In the film, its the debut of the Fatimas as they must choose their master.
Many are vowing to become master and for Fatima Lachesis, she waits for the man that she wants to be her master, Ladios Sopp.
My first impression when I watched the film, I was a bit shocked to see the male hero, Ladios Sopp look like a beautiful woman and interesting enough, many of the characters that meet him, mistake him as one.
In reality, Ladios has a special secret which is revealed at the end of the film (or the insert, if you happen to read that first).
The anime is quite beautiful and even though its nearly two decades
old, it amazes me how beautiful the anime was created, frame after frame.
As for the DVD, the anime is presented in anamorphic widescreen. The
audio is presented only in Japanese and in 2.0. As for special features,
there are only the Japanese preview and ADV trailers but perhaps the best thing that the DVD comes with in my opinion is the insert.
The insert contains character information,anime synopsis and details that go into the challenge of creating this anime. The insert is very good in explaining things but also contains spoilers.
I really enjoyed “The Five Star Stories” but its one of those anime
films that require multiple viewings (like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell”).
In a way, it is a bit sad that this was the only animated production of this film but to definitely have appreciation for this film is reading the manga series.
Several issues were released in the U.S. and there is no reason why not to
bypass it.
If there is one thing that this film suffers is that its not necessarily the beginning nor the end of the popular manga series.
Its merely an anime created on the popularity of the manga series and to
see how it would look to be created on the big screen.
So, anime purists who expect more will be disappointed that they will need
to go to the manga to know more about the series.
This DVD was definitely long due and in my opinion one of the most important films from anime history that Im glad anime fans can experience today.
A cool film with s storyline that hasnt been duplicated. As the epic
manga series was unique, this film is unique as well.