Star Wars - Episode I: The Ridiculous Menace

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....

Haven't had a laugh this good in years! A lot of the subtitles jokes fell flat but this is a niggling point.

We need more fanedits like this!

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!

TV's Frink has made Episode I into exactly what it was from the beginning: a joke. Due to some clever editing to pretty much everything, I found myself enjoying and even laughing aloud at what must be one of the most creative edits I have seen in a while. Let me fill you in on what I did, and didn't, like.

Pros:
-All of the droids are absolutely hilarious. Seriously. They're awesome.
-Many of the conversations are refreshingly new, and they end up being really funny.
-TV's Frink has mastered the art of elongated repetition, having the same thing being said just long enough to be really funny without being annoying. Think of the opening scene of spaceballs for an idea on how this works.
-Really, most of the jokes were just funny. That's all this edit was aiming to accomplish and it did that.

Alright, onto the the bad stuff. Don't let any of this deter you from watching this edit, because they are, very frequently, a side effect of the silliness.

Cons:
-Some of the lines TV's Frink used to create new dialogue have the background music attached to them, which is an unavoidable side effect.
-There were a couple jokes that didn't really work, but I might just not have really understood them.
-The abundance of splicing he did ended up with (sometimes-distracting) visual and audio glitches.
-The storyline was damaged... but that is not too important to the edit.

That's it. I would highly recommend this edit and would watch it again. Heck, might as well replace Episode I with this beauty.

This has such good ideas in it. This movie was frankly ridiculous, so to just turn it into a full on joke was a great idea. I laughed many times in this edit. The level of repetition worked most of the time for me. I had a lot of fun watching this edit and would recommend it.