ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: ANIMATIC HEROES!

"Get alongside that one!"

It wasn't just the kids who liked playing with the large-size Kenner figures created for the first two Star Wars Classic Trilogy movies, the ILM team did too, using them for key animatic sequences choreography, like this one, concocted by Dennis Muren and Joe Johnston, for the upcoming filming of the exhilarating Endor speeder bike chase showcased in Return of the Jedi. With even a cameo from Boba Fett as a Stormtrooper thrown in!

ILM Legend Thomas G. Smith on the Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi | StarWars.com

Staging the animatic filming at ILM in Autumn 1982.

Dennis Muren and Joe Johnston get paid to have this much creative fun!

Also using the small scale Kenner figures.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: BEWARE THE GROUND POUNDERS!

The battle to buy time for the Rebel evacuation is over, and now the cause's valiant survivors must retreat from intense enemy fire in this great and very early ILM animatic moment conceived in pre-production for The Empire Strikes Back.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: A TIME FOR RETREAT!

The Sith's revenge on the Jedi and the galaxy is almost complete- as even the powerful Master Yoda is forced to retreat from the omnipotent wrath of Darth Sidious, in this great animatic shot created by ILM for EPISODE III circa 2004.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: BACK TO BASE!

A great image from an early stop motion animatic placer guide of Han Solo and his Tauntaun entering one of the hangar bays of the Hoth Rebel base, from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

As seen in the film.

CLASSIC IMAGE: FORCE BATTLE!

Deep below the Senate Chamber, Master Yoda is temporarily rendered immobile from the Dark Force energies of a gloating Darth Sidious, in this tense moment from EPISODE III.

The 2011 Blu-ray Prequels deleted scenes disc had some fun animatics from this sequence that sadly never made the final cut, including more physical action of Yoda fighting Sidious, his throwing two Red Guards into the path of his foes Force lightning, then making a frog-like leap onto the wall and running the stretch of its upper circular width so as to avoid more dark lightning.

The Royal Guards had an even worse time from Yoda in this animatic.

Yoda run, run, run!

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: A JEDI DROWNING POOL!

Obi-Wan Kenobi is feeling the squeeze underwater, threatened by a Super Battle Droid within a flooded area of the Invisible Hand, in this deleted animatic scene from EPISODE III.