CELEBRATION V: CHEERS and JEERS!

Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill make guest appearances at George Lucas's THE MAIN EVENT talk. Image: STARWARS.COM

And so the pilgrimage began again, as 40,000 STAR WARS fans across the world travelled to LUCASFILM's version of Mecca in Orlando, Florida, for the biggest, greatest STAR WARS Celebration  convention of them all, honouring the upcoming third season of THE CLONE WARS and the Thirtieth Anniversary of the much beloved THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

The very fine line between severe commercial over-exploitation and creative fulfilment, combined with personal and professional enjoyment delivered to the fans by LUCASFILM (working in tandem with its many affiliates) was just about kept in balance over the four days, thanks primarily to the warmth and camaraderie shown by the actors and creative personnel from THE CLONE WARS, alongside the charm and mighty presences of George Lucas and Original Trilogy veterans Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (pictured above at THE MAIN EVENT talk).


Overall, the event was great fun. Though despite many STAR WARS related pleasures personally achieved to my great satisfaction at CV, there was still so much to see and do that I was very much aware, as from previous Celebration experiences, that I couldn't possibly see and witness everything, and yet I really wanted to!! With these feelings of need running rampant in my mind, do these Celebrations actually have the power to turn me over to the Dark Side in my quest and power lust for everything convention-related??!!
Will I be the next Anakin Skywalker, and will my next generation be the only chance of redeeming me? "Noooooooo!"

As usual, here are my convention cheers and jeers...

Thats no moon, its a space station balloon! All CV images: Curtis Reynolds.

CHEERS to the ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTRE-an excellent venue to host Celebration V. And CHEERS to LUCASFILM and REED for a mostly well organised and efficiently run event, far bigger than ever before. But JEERS to LUCASFILM and REED for deliberately placing the event in the middle of the August holiday tourist season, so as to make, in the nicest way possible, maximum profit and exploitation of both the fans and the holiday makers (who would go to the event for a day or two with their families out of interest and curiosity). And JEERS to them for putting it in August in 107 degrees heat every day when most of the fans didn't have cars and had to walk everywhere. So far, I have five painful blisters and am still suffering from heat exhaustion! Next time its in Florida, in the interest of STAR WARS fans health and happiness, please don't put it on in Summer!

JEERS to DISNEY for their greedy and sneakily raised theme park admission prices the week before CV started. They knew we'd all want to see the INDY STUNT SHOW and STAR TOURS one last time, and we had to pay even more for that privilege!

CHEERS to George Lucas and Jon Stewart for THE MAIN EVENT talk. Despite die-hard fans listening to, and being upset, by what they believed was history re-visionism being discussed by the STAR WARS creator, it was nice to see George Lucas look so relaxed and at peace with both the audience and his STAR WARS universe during the one hour talk (which also basically acted as a blatant plug, in a crowd pleasing way, for THE CLONE WARS and the Blu-rays!).

CHEERS to Jon Stewart for proving that he is a knowledgeable STAR WARS fan and knew his stuff! I hope he enjoys his personalised HASBRO Stormtrooper figure, whether it has a bearded face or not!

Republic Commandos at the Endor Bunker recreation!

CHEERS for the incredible digital projection screenings of the six STAR WARS films. Of the films I saw, ATTACK OF THE CLONES was the stand-out visually in its pure digital state, whilst STAR WARS, EMPIRE and JEDI's LOWRY 2004 re-mastered copies looked superb on the big screen. Why, oh why, are these films not being shown on the big screen worldwide more often. The screenings were all pretty busy audience wise, especially EMPIRE, whose anniversary screening was a fitting tribute.

JEERS for the digital projection screening of THE PHANTOM MENACE. The projector/copy screening continually broke down, and numerous times STARWARS.COM's Pablo Hidalgo had to come into the audience and entertain the crowds whilst the faults were being sorted out. Hidalgo did a good job, and the crowds were happy if a little frustrated, but when it broke down one further time, a new copy of the film, which wasn't quite as good-and certainly bit darker in picture quality places- worked fine. One thing's for sure, when released on Blu-ray, the extended DVD release version of THE PHANTOM MENACE, with its new cgi Yoda scenes, will need a lot of re-mastering work picture-wise to get it in line with the digital visual beauty of ATTACK and SITH.

JEERS to the STAR WARS fans who nastily booed the inclusion of Hayden Christensen's face over Sebastian Shaw's body as Anakin at the end of the revised 2004 DVD print of JEDI, which was shown in the Digital Theatre. Poor old Hayden doesn't deserve that. Whether we like it or not, in all likelihood this version of JEDI is the one we're all going to have to live with for the upcoming Blu-ray release!

AFICIONADO contributor Curtis Reynolds mingles with the Slave Leia's. Its a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

CHEERS to Anthony Daniels and Jay Laga'aia for coming into the immense fan entry lines and saying hello on Day Two of the event.

JEERS to Anthony Daniels for periods of unpleasantness and superior aloofness he showed to some of the American fans that lined up to meet him inside his autograph tent. Though he was entertaining and informative with/to the fans in his talk and in walking the convention floor, his treatment of some of them in his little signing arena was just plain rude at times, and it upset me as a fellow Brit.

A brilliant General Grievous fan costume.

CHEERS to Dave Filoni for all his work in the talks and panels. I'm totally jealous of his position as Supervising Director of THE CLONE WARS but that doesn't hinder my beliefs that he is the best man for the job-the perfect hybrid of fan and creative talent that helps George Lucas bring the series to life. You couldn't get a better champion for the saga and its viewers and he was terrific to hear and see out and about, full of wit and good humour, and a love of STAR WARS that helps give the behind the scenes of LUCASFILM, often feeling to me as being too cold and shut off in secrecy, a bit more of a human face.

CHEERS to Mark Hamill for signing nearly 3,000 autographs at the event. Yep, his autograph price was very steep at $125 but when you see him and the way he's sooo nice to the fans, especially the younger ones who, like us adults, are in awe of him as Luke Skywalker, then you realize that he's actually worthy of the price tag.

A great recreation of the Rebel's Echo Base command centre.

CHEERS again to Mark Hamill for telling off, in a vocally strong way, the behind the scenes people running his one hour talk (this will probably be his one and only fan Celebration appearance and yet he's on stage for just one hour! C'mon schedulers, it should have been two!) for putting on a lengthy clip, without his foreknowledge or prior permission, from his 1980 appearance of THE MUPPETT SHOW that reduced his time to converse with the fans who were eager to ask him questions. Well done, Mark!

CHEERS, and our best wishes, to Robert Watts, who, as ever, was a superb guest and had lots to say about the making of the STAR WARS and INDY films. Sadly, I was informed that he fell and hurt his head towards the end of the event, resulting in his having to be rushed to hospital. We really hope he's okay and that he's on the mend quickly.

The enjoyable MASTERS OF THE EMPIRE Panel.

CHEERS for the EMPIRE panel talk with Gary Kurtz, Ben Burtt, Lorne Peterson and Jon Berg. A very nice hour of behind the scenes recollections, with Kurtz's behind the scenes memories as invaluable as ever.

More of those Mandalorian troopers hit the dealers room!

CHEERS to the fan costume makers for braving the painful, tiring heat to wear their incredible STAR WARS outfits throughout the event, like the incredible Bossk, Cad Bane, Power Droid, the excellent children dressed as Jawas, and, of particular note, the little girl dressed as a pre-cyborg General Grievous.

CHEERS to Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams for their heart warming video messages of support and best wishes to the fans during Celebration V.

CHEERS to HASBRO for their great life size Boba Fett action figure card which you could go into the plastic hold section and have your picture taken inside. Their new 12 inch figures line based on the original classic figures, especially the 1978 Fett, are quite superb.

JEERS to Carrie Fisher for cancelling her talk on the last day of the convention but also CHEERS for her in doing this, as it meant that THE MAIN EVENT could be re-screened for all those people, like myself, who weren't able to see it the first time. And DOUBLE CHEERS for Carrie for coming out onto the stage for ten minutes, alongside Jay Laga'aia, for a standing ovation introduction and quick chat with the fans.

Take a little break with Jabba and friends!

CHEERS to Ben Burtt for his excellent talk with Pablo Hidalgo for the SOUNDS OF STAR WARS book, which Burtt has co-written with J.W. Rinzler. The talk had many great sounds heard and Ben, one of STAR WARS best and longest running behind the scenes talents and raconteurs, had lots of stories to tell. He also does a great Sylvester Stallone impression. Why has it taken five Celebration's to get Burtt as a guest!!

Did anyone out there go to the Burtt/Matthew Wood talk on the last day? Can anyone confirm whether Burtt showed his RETURN OF THE JEDI home movies footage from 1983? If anyone saw it can they PLEASE get in touch and describe the footage?

CHEERS to the incredibly talented artists in the Art Gallery-the quality of the work, especially linked to EMPIRE, was incredible this year-I just wish that I'd had some spending money to buy a piece!

JEERS to the organisers of the Art Gallery for their incredible short sightedness and lack of organisational ability on the first day. The lines were horrendous, the fans very unhappy and the artists must surely have lost some of their livelihood sales-wise that day.

Darth Vader - Ralph McQuarrie style!

CHEERS to the 501st for their superb fan costumes and props area, and to the always impressive R2 rooms. And kudos to the German 501st for their incredible TIE Interceptor craft-worthy of anything built for the Classic Trilogy back in the day at ELSTREE. Brilliant stuff!

CHEERS to the people behind the Echo Base Ice Bar- great idea, and I loved that Wampa statue!

JEERS to REED and LUCASFILM for the greedy idea of extra profit making VIP passes. This was unfair-all STAR WARS fans should be treated equally and I didn't like having four people in the VIP line walk in front of me for an autograph after I've waited for an hour. My blood was seething numerous times watching these very opportunistic fans at work, many of whom would have lots of autographs and posters to sign and would hold up the regular line in stopping people from getting autographs. VIP passes are for amusement parks and airplane travel not Celebrations!

The incredible German 501st built TIE Interceptor.

JEERS to the autograph dealer who blocked the Jon Berg line and had the ex-ILMer sign nearly 200 autographs which held up regular STAR WARS fans -y'know those regular fans who wanted an autograph for their own collection and not for profiteering!- for up to an hour and a half! These dealers should do their signing sessions after the show and liaise with the autographer and the exhibition organisers beforehand. In the end, with the added nuisance of the VIPs butting in, I didn't get an autograph when I had to leave the line, and MAJOR JEERS to the steward handling the line who stopped me from coming back into the capped line even though I'd already waited quite a while and had been chatting to him previously. Not fair!

JEERS to OFFICIALPIX for having a lousily organised sales area for their generic photos. No one seemed to know what was in stock, many new and great rare images were in (probably deliberate) too short supply, images that were in the catalogue were not available, and some members of their hired-in staff had clearly not watched a STAR WARS film or knew its characters at all! Not a great situation when you're dealing with hundreds of fans who do know the characters and know what they want to buy! In all four days I never once saw manager Ben Stevens on the floor talking to the people who buy the images, and I was at the OFFICIALPIX area a lot over the four days!

The Empire strikes back at CV!

JEERS to the over-priced food and liquids provided at the event by the convention centre. $2.75 for a packet of crisps!! Really over-priced for maximum profit.

CHEERS to the Celebration Store for its efficient organisation and layout.

He may not be my favourite event host, but CHEERS to Jay Laga'aia- Captain Typho himself!- for being an all round nice guy and great supporter of all things STAR WARS. And it was very cool seeing him as the leader of the 501st Stormtroopers at the start of THE MAIN EVENT!

CHEERS to all the members of THE CLONE WARS voice cast for being so nice and accommodating during every part of the convention. BIG CHEERS to James Arnold Taylor for being such a nice guy, enthusiastic and committed to STAR WARS, and for giving me a couple of lines as Obi-Wan Kenobi during my autograph chat.

Is Curtis the Rebel's New Hope?

CHEERS to all the really nice people I met in and outside of the convention-of all ages and walks of life- whose love of STAR WARS remains undiminished. Special hello to Mike and the gang at the VOICE OF THE REPUBLIC podcast and blog-a fresh and funny new look at STAR WARS that's well worth a look.

CHEERS to the panel of WHY WE LOVE THE PREQUELS, and especially FANBOYS Kyle Newman, alongside James Arnold Taylor and a late arriving Dave Filoni, who gave some very valid and nicely presented reasons and arguments as to why we should like and appreciate these Prequel films more-that they can't just be summarily dismissed because of a few scenes or characters that die-hard fans don't like. It was nice to see so much good reaction from the packed audience, and things being said that were similar to my own comments in the recent STAR WARS AFICIONADO "THE PHANTOM MENACE" TENTH ANNIVERSARY tribute edition (its still available on PDF if you're interested!).

JEERS to George Lucas and LUCASFILM for not allowing Dave Prowse to attend Celebration V. He may not be popular at Camp Lucas, but how could you not have the man who played Darth Vader at an event celebrating THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-Vader's greatest film! And JEERS to OFFICIALPIX for having so few Vader images from any of the films at their booth. One of the Stewards there told me they had been told not to sell Vader pics by LUCASFILM!

CHEERS to the Belgium STAR WARS fans for their incredible TIE fighter prop and the Millennium Falcon hold, and to all those other great talents behind the numerous terrific fan props situated across the entire event.

CHEERS to all the builders of the Hoth dioramas. Splendid work, people!

CHEERS to LUCASFILM for that surprise showing of the deleted scene RETURN OF THE JEDI clip. Awesome and incredible! The world is anxious for those Blu-rays even more!

And so, the teaser video announcement has now come onto STARWARS.COM revealing that Celebration VI will be happening- date as yet unrevealed. Further vindication, as if proof was ever really necessary, that the Force, STAR WARS fandom, and merchandise profit growth, is stronger than ever!