Star Wars - Episode I: The Ridiculous Menace

"Midichlorians, very dangerous."

That line made the whole movie for me.



This edit is a lot of fun. It features all the worst bits of Star Wars mixed with all the worst bits of youtube-hack jobs.

In short, it's hilarious, irreverent, and nonsensical. The fact that it goes on for the length of an entire movie, rather than the average three of four minutes, adds to the enjoyment. It drags on a bit here and there, but that is really to be expected with something of this nature. Humor, after all, is subjective, some bits work better for some people than the do for others.

On the whole, it is a lot of fun. It is, at the same time, a wonderful scathing parody of the original, and a beautiful homage. Hearing Bender's voice come out of a protocol droid, well... this might be my new favorite version of TPM.

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.

Just to echo what others have said I found a lot of the gags to be unfunny though comedy is a selective taste. The consent choppy to the dialogue soon became annoying to the point I just wanted the Phantom Menace instead. While the Phantom Menace was lacking in plot the edit to me removed any and all story, if I’d never seen the Phantom Menace before I wouldn’t had a clue what was going on and who was who.

There are some great moments within the edit the pod race, Yoda snoring and Darth Maul’s walking on sunshine sketch are among the highlights though for every gag that worked I found there to be 10 gags that didn’t work.

The end credits are also a highlight as it shows the number people that have contributed to this edit. TV’s Frink really captured something special and it’s great that the fanedit community were able to help in contributing towards the edit. I also see this as the first of many edits that spoofs a well known film.

Overall it’s worth seeing though I don’t have any desire to watch it again, would have preferred a more shorter 80min film instead as I found it to be a bit of drag 5/10

Trumps The Phantom Edit by chubby margins. This is now my definitive go-to version of Episold 1. Deal with that, Mr. Lucas.

Certain parts are brilliant and righteously nuts.

Bravo with thunderous applesauce, Frink!

Ever since The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, many fan editors (including myself) have sought far and wide to create the perfect edit of Episode I. Many have fought to fix the flaws and inconsistencies of the film, and some have even gone to the far ends of the earth to make just a simple line sing.

And then there's this edit.

TV's Frink's The Ridiculous Menace is the Airplane! of Star Wars fanedits! There is no oscar-worthy stuff here. There is no deep, brilliant or thought-provoking stuff going on. It's only purpose is to get you to laugh to the point where it hurts. And laugh I did! I laughed during the opening credits! I laughed at the constant repetition of lines and the constantly altered dialogue! I laughed at the extending of the films worst moments and the destruction of the film's best moments! I laughed!

If you're looking for the perfect edit of Episode I, see l8wrtr's edit or HAL9000's edit, or better yet, see my edit, because I'm a shameless self-promoter! But if you're looking for an uproariously good time, and a nice little primer on how NOT to fix Episode I, see The Ridiculous Menace and enjoy how phenomenally insane this edit can get!

Now, if I could only get my hands on Episode II....