We most likely will be getting the CGI Yoda in Episode I for the Blu-ray release:
MovieWeb wrote:
Are you going to go back and make Yoda completely CGI for the first prequel?
Rob Coleman: We've actually have gone ahead and done that. We did that between Episode II and III. It was really an exercise to get the team back into the character. On Episode II I was really stressing living up to what my friend here created. So a lot of our focus was on that final battle sequence between Yoda and Count Dookuu. We'd nver seen Yoda do that before. But in the process we were learning about acting as animators. So it was really exciting for me to have the team back again, between Two and Episode III. We used Episode I, as a test bed, because we really didn't know what was gonna be in Episode III, and got the team back up to speed and really honed in on our acting. And using that as springboard we went right into Episode III.
Don't you feel that by going back and digitizing Yoda in Episode I that you're losing 50% of Frank's performace? (Note: Frank Oz provided the puppeteering for Yoda in every film until he went completely CGI.)
Rob Coleman: We don’t lose 50% of his performance because not only we have his voice which stays across of course, but we also have what he did in that movie and that was our touchstone. And we used it absolutely, exactly. It wasn’t my desire to do what he did. It was focusing my animators on what he didn’t do, and just bring that over into the CG world. It was a fantastic exercise for us to get a little bit inside his head, but very specifically to how Yoda moves and interacts with the actors.
This interview came from a press event held for the DVD release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005, where Lucasfilm confirmed plans to replace the puppet Yoda in Episode I with the CGI version known from Episode II & III for the eventual release of the 6-DVD collection (obviously that DVD collection was delayed and it's now a Blu-ray collection). As much as I hate Lucas tinkering with these films, I just never felt the puppet in Episode I was as well done as the ones in the original trilogy and that the CGI Yoda would fit perfectly in the prequel universe.
If Lucas insists on using his "Special Editions," then I hope he touches up the CGI Jabba again in A New Hope (as while he looks better than in theaters, he still looks bad). I personally feel that scene with Jabba is pointless and should be left on the cutting room floor (it's the only part of the Special Edition that bothers me). The Special Edition of Empire is actually not that bad and Jedi is only bad with the CGI Max Rebo Band (the changes to the ending are annoying but I can live with them).
You never know what Lucas will be giving us.
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- Ichabod
