ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER
The streets of Mos Eisley are now populated with new digitally created creatures in the updated and enhanced ``Star Wars.''
WARNING! If you're the kind of person who never peeked at your Christmas gifts as a kid - DON'T READ THIS!
Culled from fan magazines and from folks on the Internet who have seen sneak previews, here's a list of some of the more than 300 new and restored scenes and effects you can expect to see in the ``Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition:''
``Star Wars''
* Stormtroopers riding computer-generated lizards called "dewbacks" on Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine. Twenty years ago, George Lucas' special-effects team built a giant moving robotic lizard for this scene, but its controls failed when it was filmed on location in the arid deserts of Tunisia. It stood motionless in the original movie.
* Small creatures that scurry out of the way of Luke's landspeeder.
* New Mos Eisley spaceport scenes include droids arguing on the street as well as a computer-generated dinosaur-like creature called a "Ronto" that throws off the two Jawas riding it when a speeder bike careens across the screen.
* New monsters in the famous creature cantina, and a longer scene in which the bounty hunter Greedo shoots first at Han Solo, instead of the other way around.
* A restored scene cut from the original movie, in which Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, is confronted by space gangster Jabba the Hutt. It was first shot with a Scottish actor playing the Hutt as a human. Twenty years ago, Lucas intended to replace the actor with a live-action puppet, but couldn't get the effect to work. Now, Lucasfilms has restored the scene with a computer-generated sequence starring the wormish Jabba familiar to fans of "Return of the Jedi."
* Improvements to the garbage compactor scene on the Death Star.
* All-new space scenes with X-Wings and TIE fighters.
* Bigger, better Death Star explosion.
``The Empire Strikes Back''
* New footage of the Abominable Snowman-like monster called a Wampa who attacks Luke on the ice planet Hoth.
* Expanded views and new spaceships in the cloud city of Bespin, as well as a newly filmed sequence of Darth Vader exiting his shuttle.
``Return of the Jedi''
* New aliens in Jabba's palace and a longer musical number with the palace band and dancers.
* The end of the movie, in which the Rebels party on the forest planet of Endor after defeating the Empire, now includes celebration scenes from other locales, including Bespin, Tatooine and Coruscant, the Imperial home world.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Han Solo confronts Jabba the Hutt in an enhancedby CNBscene from the ``Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition.'' 2. Logo of
"Star Wars Trilogy. color.