Star Wars - Episode I: The Ridiculous Menace

Review by TomH1138 — April 20, 2012 @ 6:08 pm

I LOVED this version of the movie. I laughed myself hoarse.

It was a great idea to turn Phantom Menace into a comedy with the tone and feel of Airplane! and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And to be honest, I laughed as much watching this as I did watching those movies.

I don’t want to spoil too much for those who haven’t seen it yet, so I’ll stick to what’s in the previews.

All good comedies make use of running gags, and this film creates running gags beautifully where there were none to begin with. From Ric Olie’s constant “You catch on pretty quick” to the Nemiodians’ (?) “Now there are two of them!” to Anakin’s “Are you an angel?” to Obi-Wan’s endless falling – and so on.

Subtitling anyone that could be subtitled – from Jar-Jar to the battle droids to R2-D2 – allowed for new funny dialogue to be created where there wasn’t any already. And the dialogue was very funny.

I really enjoyed the stuff with Bender as TC-14. In fact, that stuff was so hilarious that I kind of wish 3P0 himself had talked like Bender for the rest of the movie!

The dubbed sound clips from other sources were used to great effect. Occasionally, a piece of dialogue wouldn’t fit the mouth movements, but then the film just seemed like a Godzilla movie, which made it even funnier. There were a number of times when the dialogue fit shockingly well, considering it wasn’t what the characters were actually saying!

And I really enjoyed the moments when the sound was integrated flawlessly, such as how “Walking on Sunshine” actually faded off into the distance the further away Darth Maul’s vehicle got.

This edit will test every bit of your pop culture know-how. You’ll find references to Superfriends, Rebecca Black, Spaceballs and everything in between.

Sorry if I’m gushing a bit here, but this film was exactly what I was hoping for. I haven’t laughed this hard since Red Letter Media’s review of TPM. This is, in fact, the most entertaining version of TPM itself that I could ever hope to watch.

This is the first fan edit I’m giving a 10 out of 10!

If you get the impression that I liked this edit . . . then you catch on pretty quick.

Bloody hilarious. Editing isn't seamless, but nor would you expect it to be. Many things throughout are a testament to Frinks skill as an editor, even if the audio makes you question it. Bottom line is: this is very, very funny.

Favourite moments: Qui-gon trolling people with the comm,and Obi-Wan misjudging the jump during the Maul battle. Priceless. Oh, and replacing "force" with "wookies"? Love it.

I recently realized that I had never left a proper review for this edit, even after seeing the footage so many times when Frink put out the edit originally. This was definitely something I needed to remedy, and I finally had some time this evening to give it another spin. After 5 years, I was curious to see how the gags would hold up. Nothing to fear there! Not only did they hold up, but this edit aged like fine wine. Well, maybe some halfway decent boxed wine. I forgot how many great gags were in this and I laughed out loud (loudly) at several points during the film. Some of the jokes are dated to pop-culture of 2011, but that somehow made them even more amusing (2016 could have used a lot more nyan cat).

Some of the audio editing is rough in spots, and while that is usually distracting or a deal breaker, it adds to the charm here. Some of the jokes will go over the viewers head, and others may overstay there welcome, but so many are ROFL-worthy.

I've really grown to loathe the prequels over the years. This is now the only way I intend on watching them moving forward. Thanks Frink!

The edit redefines classic characters
Little Anakin is now mentally challenged. Jar Jar is struggles to suppress the voices in his head. Obi-Wan’s spirit has become disconnected from his body and refers to itself in the third person and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How Frink has retained any narrative sense in this edit while tampering so heavily with the plot I will never know. Entire sequences are altered and rearranged yet I never felt lost. Running jokes constantly appear but never once did they overstay their welcome. Some attempts didn’t always land (generally due to not having any prior knowledge of the inserted material), however they didn’t come off as try-hard or cringe worthy. Once the credits rolled I realised my face was aching, there was hardly a moment I grinning in delight as I was bombarded with an absurd array of gags and jokes. The musical sequences in particular were hilarious.

Only a couple instances did the dialog chopping/editing become messy, the the ‘ipod’ sequence stands out, but for the most part the background noise/effects accompanying the dialog wasn’t troubling. Again, only once or twice did the tone of dialog placed upon characters feel out of place. Thinking of this edit as a foreign language dub allows you overlook mouths not matching the dialog.

This edit was fantastically funny throughout - my congratulations Frink, you created something special.

Apparently, I've rated this before. Now there are two of them.

Thus begins the Ridiculous trilogy. Off to a nice start! I'm always happy when editors take and implement our suggestions. They don't have to, of course, but it's great when they're willing to listen, as many minds can make a superior product in some cases. I could've done without some of it, but then, it's not my edit. (not crazy about some of the repetition and internet culture stuff, seeing as I'm not a 12-year-old girl) There is also some stuff that I thought was brilliantly done, both straight from Frink's damaged brain and from contributors.

The audio and video are quite good for the most part. I thought some things could've been taken a step further (I would have really tried to do more with pitch changes, even if it didn't seeeeeem to work upon initial tries), but overall, with this type of edit, it's about as good as it can get.

Overall, a must see. It's sort of a 'love it or hate it' type of movie now (like Kung Pow, for instance), as opposed to the 'hate it' movie it was as-is, but I would definitely recommend that every Star Wars fan check this out. You may even begin to—*gasp*—LIKE The Phantom Menace! At least a bit...