Yoda Puppet Gets Digitized in ‘The Phantom Menace’ on Blu-ray

Don’t act so surprised, fellow nerdlings. As reported on /Film and a myriad of other movie sites, Lucasfilm and the folks at Industrial Light & Magic have made additional visual tweaks to the Star Wars films in preparation for the saga’s first-ever Blu-ray release on Sept. 16. Chief among these cosmetic alterations is the appearance of a completely computer-animated Yoda in The Phantom Menace, replacing Frank Oz’s Yoda puppeteering in the 1999 prequel.

Now, I’m certainly not the only person to note that the bug-eyed, creepy and out-of-place version of Yoda in The Phantom Menace was downright ugly, so I’m sure we’re all glad Lucas and his team made the change to at least make the look of the character consistent with the other prequels. However, it’s disheartening that Oz’s final performance as the wizened green Jedi has been excised from the films forever.

If you watched the special features on the Revenge of the Sith DVD released in 2005, you’ve known that a digital Phantom Menace Yoda has been in the works for quite some time, and was probably completed years ago. However, this Blu-ray release will be the first time we’ll see the CGI character in the actual movie.

Head over to /Film to watch The Phantom Menace’s CGI Yoda in action.

'Star Wars' Blasts onto Blu-Ray in September

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced that Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray—the highly anticipated high-definition release of all six films—will hit store shelves this September. The seminal space opera is now available for pre-order with online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Because Star Wars fans are a finicky lot, three distinct sets will be released. The premier collection is The Complete Saga, a nine-disc set that includes all of the films and more than 30 hours of special features that delve into the Lucasfilm archives and unearth never-before-seen alternate footage and deleted scenes. This set will retail for $139.99

This nine-disc collection is clearly the definitive Star Wars package (for now), but for all of you scruffy-looking nerf herders out there who scoff at the price tag, two three disc sets of each trilogy will also be available, which baffles me. I can understand purists just wanting the original trilogy, but does Lucasfilm honestly think Star Wars fans are going to buy the prequels by themselves? Really? There’s going to be enough prequel product lining store shelves this fall to choke a space slug.

In any event, the three-disc sets will run you $69.99 each. Oh, and those purists I mentioned earlier should probably note that the unaltered versions of the classic films will not be included in this release. Greedo’s trigger finger remains itchy (but his aim’s not so good).

To watch a video preview of the Star Wars films on Blu-ray, click here.

The Lord of the Rings Hits Blu-ray in April

By Gandalf’s beard! Peter Jackson’s breathtaking Lord of the Rings trilogy is finally making its way to Blu-ray on April 6. But, Den of Geek reports, the six-disc set will only include the theatrical cuts of the films. If you want high-definition versions of the Extended Editions—the only way to watch these films, in my opinion—then you might need to wait until the first installment of The Hobbit hits theaters in 2011. A smart move by Warner Bros., but a cash grab nonetheless.

Since I’ll likely have a Blu-ray player of some sort by April, I’m tempted. However, I already own both versions of these movies on DVD, and I’m not about to make the same mistake on a new format. I’ll pass for now.