Star Wars: Rebels - Episode I: Spark of Rebellion

Wow! What a great edit!
I like this show but thought to much fluff to watch it again.
You have fixed it and I look forward to future episodes. Bravo!

An excellent edit of the uneven first season of Rebels, taking away the lousy humor and uncomfortable moments to leave a much more focused, interesting and fun experience.

The editor found the core of the story, through the force and the rebellion into something much more poignant and complex than originally seen in the unedited episodes.

I wholeheartedly recommend this edit and anxiously await the second part and more future installments.

If you've seen one of Smudger9's Clone Wars edits, you know what to expect from HarryBowls' Rebels edit: a fun, well-crafted TV-to-movie edit that occasionally shows its seams. This edit chronicles the growth of Ezra Bridger and the Ghost Crew through the first half of season 1 with all the fluff and saturday morning cartoon antics removed. The general arc of the film worked even if it did feel a bit "episodic" rather than a typical three-act structure. The only reason I don't rank this as highly as Smudger9's edits is because I found the audio editing a bit jarring, with a few segments where the dialogue was removed by the editor and sound effects cut out or the music changed volume. Ultimately though, these instances weren't as frequent or noticeable enough to ruin the experience for me. I do recommend this edit if you want to see what Rebels is about but you're sheepish about committing to the series.

Overview

I've been waiting anxiously to see if someone would take on a Rebels film series, and this first entry does not disappoint. The episodes are wisely chosen and narrative holds together very well as a film. Highly enjoyable and I'm very anxious to see your work on film 2. That said I have a few specific critiques.

Visual Editing

I'm going to echo TM2YC's comments here. The visuals looked very good and the editing was seamless. I was also grateful for the effort to correct the aspect ratio for a more cinematic feel. That said, there were numerous moments throughout the film, especially close-ups where it was obvious that the picture had not been adjusted for best fit to the frame, and I found these jarring at times.

Opening Crawl

It may be overly picky, but the wording "imposing harsh rules" seems childish. On the other hand "restore freedom and justice to the Republic" sounds a little cliche and also inaccurate as the Republic is now defunct. I feel it would have been better to say "to the Galaxy". Finally the end of the last paragraph alludes in large part to the "children of the force" subplot which is only addressed in the opening scene of the film, and was also awkwardly worded. I feel something like "The Empire's agents plot to ensure the Jedi never return to challenge their rule..." would have worked better.

Narrative

Very well handled. There is a definite momentum throughout the film, the pacing is great, balancing action and character moments. You've also managed to trim the dialogue and childish jokes in a way that retains the story's humor and treats viewers as more intelligent, despite the obvious leanings the story still has toward children and hard-core fans.

However I also noticed a couple references to events that happened off-screen (The stole TIE and Fulcrum), which due to the way in which those scenes are written, strike me in a, "did I miss something?" way. I appreciate your reasons for including these however, they're not a stand-out thing, and there is no way I can see of solving this with the footage you have available.

Enjoyment

Very happy with this edit, minus the aspect issues and the more jarring lines of the opening crawl. I had a blast watching it and I can't wait to see you further Ezra and Kanan's plotlines as Ezra walks the fine line between the light and dark, and Kanan becomes more sure of himself in preparation for their final clash with the Grand Inquisitor and encounter with Vader himself.

May the force be with you!

Audio/Video Quality: 9
The quality looks very decent but not quite as sharp as I think a 5.5GB, 720p, 98minute, 2.35:1 encode should look IMO.

Visual Editing: 7
The conversion to the classic SW scope aspect-ratio worked a lot better than I thought it would. Overall there were quite a few awkward looking crops but it was worth it for the more "movie" feel. However there are just a few really badly cropped shots where half of people's heads go AWOL (e.g. Ezra at 01.03.56 and Sabine at 01.23.35) that could and should have been dealt with better. This thing needed to be carefully re-framed shot-by-shot, for every single one, which would have been time consuming but nobody said Fanediting had to be rushed.

The actual editing of scenes was close to perfect though. I've watched this show a number of times, but I still was never sure where some of edits had been made to splice episodes together.

Audio Editing: 9
Almost all seamless. I thought the musical transition from the opening crawl to the Star Destroyers sounded a bit rushed but that was one of the only flaws I spotted. Also the ending credits music just ended, bam and sudden silence. It was the end though, so not much harm done there.

Narrative: 8
The blending of the multi-episode material was seamless for the most part. I knew Ezra was a strong through-line but I didn't think it would gel this much. Great job! Clever choice to end on the pull-out shot of Ezra like you did. However there were a few narrative goofs...

00.43.24 - Mentions Ezra and Zeb stealing a Tie. An event that doesn't happen in this edit.
01.24.58 - Mentions Clone Base from events that didn't happen in this edit.
01.30.08 - Maybe I missed it? But is this the very first and only mention of "Fulcrum", right at the end? It's just kinda dropped in there with no explanation.

Enjoyment: 9
I loved this. 'The Force Awakens' aside, this is the closest thing I've seen to a real honest-to-goodness Star Wars movie in feel and tone, since the Original Trilogy. Check this out everyone!