thinking back to ROTJ

**oranthal** · 05-11-2001, 05:40 PM

when i first saw the unedited part in ROTJ about "our family memories," i was actually disturbed seeing robin getting tortured and laughing hystercially without control. afterwards, i actually thought that the movie would not be too bad for the younger crowd; i thought they would be able to take it. thinking back on that now, this movie is a little too extreme for the little tykes.

remember that one idiot (i think he writes for fandom) that said that showing ROTJ to kids is equivalent to showing mickey mouse doing pornography. i have never heard such a worse analogy before. if the dude actually thought about what he was saying, he wouldn't have said it.

**Salvor** · 05-12-2001, 04:59 AM

Well after talking to some "animated pals", I've learned to disapprove of the high level of violence in the original version as well. It's was a bit too extreme indeed... for kids of course! Personally I loved it but you never know what might happen in a young kid's head... seeing robin get tortured and brainwahed can be very unsettling in a way.

I like to think of the uncut version as a good movie for "older" viewers (I mean older than 6 or 7... it's not that old!).

**Fish** · 05-13-2001, 11:41 AM

I showed ROTJ uncut for my cousins and the youngest is 5 years, a 7 year old girl, then a 9 year old boy and the oldest 11.
I was very excited to see how they would react to the torture scene and Robin with the very scary laughter plus the Jokers death.

The youngest (5: Watched with very big eyes at the screen while those scenes were on. When the Joker was killed he asked " is the Joker dead?" and " Why is the boy crying?"

7-year old girl: Seemed to understand how cruel the Joker was and felt really sorry for Tim. Said that the Joker was a really bad person

The 9 year old: he laughed at the Jokers "funny" antics. When the torture scene came up, he said " oww that must hurt alot!!!!"
he also comented the rough fighting scenes with expressions as "cool, awesome, ouch, wow" and that kind of stuff

The 11 year old: Didn't laugh as much as the 8 year-old boy, but was in awe over the scenes and the plot. He thought it was an awesome movie

Conclusion? I don't know!!! But as always there will be certain things that small kids don't get. Like...if they go to a puppet show ´they really think that the puppets are alive. They believe in the illusion where the older kids know how to separate the two worlds. I guess that's what the issue is about.
Where we " adults" understand the dillemma in the scenes the small kids see; a mean Joker, I scary laughing boy, a lotta beating, anger and sorrow.

I remember I watched "who framed Roger Rabbit" when I was 7
The scariest scene in my eyes was when that guy was all flat as a pancake and blow himself "normal" with the airpressure machine. His Eyes popped out and got red!!! Damn that was scary! My mother waches Fantasia when she was a kid and she will never forget the scene with the brooms walking up and down the stairs. That was scary for her.

<>< F I S H ><>

**DR. BELCH** · 05-13-2001, 12:10 PM

--it's mental age. (And if you're older than me, just disregard the "junior" bit.

)
I've personally heard a girl of 18 get so scared during The Exorcist that she...well, I can't describe what she did precisely in mixed company, but let's just say I never realized a simple horror classic could have that effect on a woman. Nearly in tears from terror at one point, she got upset with me for laughing when a possessed Linda Blair mimicks Father Damien's mother, and confessed to being scared that Satan himself would jump out of the TV to grab her!
My mother told me this one from her college days: after seeing Psycho, the girls were afraid to take showers around the dorm.
Ironically your 11-year-old sounds more mature than most high-school girls.

Orenthal:
remember that one idiot (i think he writes for fandom) that said that showing ROTJ to kids is equivalent to showing mickey mouse doing pornography.

Well, in that case, I figure what I'm about to do is equal to showing ROTJ twice with a very violent Three Stooges two-reeler in between. Those who are weak of heart, stomach, or mind, do not click aqui!
http://www.funnywebsite.com/disney.shtml

**redDragon** · 05-13-2001, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
Well, in that case, I figure what I'm about to do is equal to showing ROTJ twice with a very violent Three Stooges two-reeler in between. Those who are weak of heart, stomach, or mind, do not click aqui!
http://www.funnywebsite.com/disney.shtml [/B]

heh heh heh...interesting...don't ya just love the stuff people make?

**James Harvey** · 05-13-2001, 02:50 PM

I guess diferent things effect diferent people. The Exorcist was a scary movie, but I also chuckled here and there when I shouldn't have. But I did freak out during the 'Spider-Walk' seqeunce. I can understand the Psycho thing totally. I mean that's make me a bit paranoid, too. But this is just a cartoon...

(I may get crucified for that comment)

**Fish** · 05-13-2001, 02:57 PM

Hehe..I guess I must be Junior then

I know that sometimes maturity isn't a question of age, but when people rate a movie they don't write "disreguard this warning if you kid is more mature than a 7 year-old"

Yeah I think my 11 year-old cousin is more mature than most 11 year-olds. He's really got the smarts - plus he likes Batman too :P
What was ROTJ rated? it wasn't, am I right...I think they should have PG'ed it.

<>< F I S H ><>

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
[B]--it's mental age. (And if you're older than me, just disregard the "junior" bit.

)
[...]Ironically your 11-year-old sounds more mature than most high-school girls.

**James Harvey** · 05-13-2001, 03:42 PM

ROTJ was unrated becuase it would cost WB money to submit it to the ratings board. That's why that vast majority of direct to video flics are unrated. BUT, In Canada, it's free to sumbit movies to the ratings board.

**Nightwing** · 05-13-2001, 09:12 PM

That's a smarter idea. If it didn't cost anything extra to get the movies rated, simply put, you'll have more movies with ratings on em. Sure I often don't pay attention to ratings. With me personally it's the movie, do I want to see it? But it couldn't hurt.

**Frozen** · 06-12-2001, 07:20 AM

Fish wrote:

remember I watched "who framed Roger Rabbit" when I was 7
The scariest scene in my eyes was when that guy was all flat as a pancake and blow himself "normal" with the airpressure machine. His Eyes popped out and got red!!! Damn that
was scary! My mother waches Fantasia when she was a kid and she will never forget the scene with the brooms walking up and down the stairs. That was scary for her.

Wanna know what scared me to death when I was a kid? Michael Jackson's "Thriller". It absolutely scared me to death! All those zombies lurching down the road, and the bit were they break into the house and corner the girl... ugh... it still kinda makes my skin crawl - even now, I don't like Zombie flicks. Funny how child-hood experiences can affect you even as an adult...

**Bird Boy** · 06-12-2001, 09:32 AM

I think the edited version is a little to intense. I won't show my cousin the entire thing till she's at least 10. Maybe it's just me..but I got freaked out at that tim laughing part...in the edited version..

-BB

**Frozen** · 06-12-2001, 10:10 AM

Please forgive my ignorance - but what are the main differnces between the uncut and cut versions of ROTJ?

**Calhoun07** · 06-12-2001, 12:29 PM

Amityville Horror scared the bee-jesus out of me when I was a kid. I remember having to go to bed after the movie, waking slowly up the stairs, half expecting the walls to bleed blood!

Yeah, my mother was (and still is) quite a enthusist for horror movies. So I got to see some dandies growing up, including Xtro, with that scene where a woman gives birth to a full grown man...now that was graphic! But over all, inspite of being a little scared my walls were going to bleed blood or that my bed would start shaking uncontrollably (after I saw the Exorcist), I don't think the movies I watched harmed me emotionally or mentally. And it wasn't like that's all I got to see. It was in moderation, to be sure.

As far as the effect ROTJ might have on kids, I just can say I've seen worse and grew up ok.

**The Mad Hatter** · 06-12-2001, 01:53 PM

Weren't around for the ROTJ disaster, Frozen? At least your blood pressure didn't go through the roof like everyone else's did.

Anyway, there were over 50 edits (yes, 50) made in ROTJ. Many fight scenes were trimmed. Pretty much every character had a few lines changed... they even changed the Joker's wonderful taunt of "bat-fart" to "bat-kook."

But the biggie was the flashback sequence. (If you don't know what happened in the original, for God's sake stop reading now!!) Instead of shooting the Joker, Tim (as JJ) drops the gun and tackles the Joker while Bats grins like an idiot. The two tussle, and eventually the Joker slips on some water and electrocutes himself on the shock clamps he used to torture Tim. That wasn't too bad of a change since Joker still gets paid back for what he did to Tim... if only they didn't also edit out the shock torture of Tim as well!

No wonder we're all bitter toward WB execs, eh?

**DisneyBoy** · 06-14-2001, 07:29 PM

I would never show this movie to anyone I didn't think was ready. I was sixteen when I saw the movie and it really freaked me out! Seeing Tim grinning like that...it affected me instantly! Ok, I didn't go out and do something nuts!...but I found the entire flashback to be too intense. Even though I knew it would be. The Joker in the film really freaked me out! I find violence isn't the only way to scare an audience. For example, at the end of The Blair Witch Project, I got nightmares from the last sequence of the movie. Seeing those hand prints, hearing the screams. I thought I could handle it, but I woke up in the middle of the night screaming!
Yet...I'm waiting to buy an unedited version of ROTJ, simply because I thought the Joker's death in the edited version was stupid. We're talking about a guy who falls in acid on a weekly basis - How can he be so stupid as to trip and electrocute himself?
I was really surprised to see how many people also got freaked out at the same things as me! That guy in Rodger Rabbit scared me sooo much! And I ran from my parents room after seeing Thriller! Does anyone remember a movie called "the BoogyMan". I recall seeing a film that ended with a guy flying up into the sky and I've always thought it was a movie called the Boogy Man. Anyone heard of it? Also, did anyone get freaked out by BeetleJuice?

**oranthal** · 06-15-2001, 12:14 AM

yeah, back in the old boards, anti WB sentiments was at an all time high when news of cuts being done to ROTJ. all the posts were people screaming in outrage for at least two archived boards in a row. those were great times.

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
Weren't around for the ROTJ disaster, Frozen? At least your blood pressure didn't go through the roof like everyone else's did.

Anyway, there were over 50 edits (yes, 50) made in ROTJ. Many fight scenes were trimmed. Pretty much every character had a few lines changed... they even changed the Joker's wonderful taunt of "bat-fart" to "bat-kook."

But the biggie was the flashback sequence. (If you don't know what happened in the original, for God's sake stop reading now!!) Instead of shooting the Joker, Tim (as JJ) drops the gun and tackles the Joker while Bats grins like an idiot. The two tussle, and eventually the Joker slips on some water and electrocutes himself on the shock clamps he used to torture Tim. That wasn't too bad of a change since Joker still gets paid back for what he did to Tim... if only they didn't also edit out the shock torture of Tim as well!

No wonder we're all bitter toward WB execs, eh?

**nightwing_38116** · 06-16-2001, 08:25 AM

Those were the good ole days. Remember when they initially delayed the release and WB kept saying that it was not being cut, then it was for "minimal" edits and it ended up being a shredded mess? They'd better get on the ball and release an UNCUT version, I'm getting impatient.

**freakboy86** · 06-20-2001, 10:23 PM

I don't understand WHY they didn't leave the original uncut. It's not like it was shown on TV first (like 'World's Finest' or 'Rebirth') and was too much for the TV7 rating. But it would be nice to see it in it's original form AS LONG AS IT IS ON BOTH DVD AND VHS! My video library is WAY too large to switch over to DVD's at this point, and it will be very upsetting to only have the choice of seeing the uncut version on DVD. Ah, well...

"That...that's not funny at all..."

**Calhoun07** · 06-20-2001, 11:55 PM

Originally posted by freakboy86
I don't understand WHY they didn't leave the original uncut. It's not like it was shown on TV first (like 'World's Finest' or 'Rebirth') and was too much for the TV7 rating. But it would be nice to see it in it's original form AS LONG AS IT IS ON BOTH DVD AND VHS! My video library is WAY too large to switch over to DVD's at this point, and it will be very upsetting to only have the choice of seeing the uncut version on DVD. Ah, well...

"That...that's not funny at all..."

Dude, all I gotta say, if you don't get a DVD player soon, you will regret it. I had a lot of VHS tapes too, but I decided I was just going to replace many of them on DVD when I got my player anyway (and you will, even if you think you won't. Trust me, the difference is that much better that you will want to get those movies on DVD and eventually you won't want anything to do with VHS) so I felt I would be saving money if I got a DVD player instead of waiting because my VHS libary was too big. And I think in the long run, I have saved a lot.

Another motivation to get a DVD player soon...DVDs do go out of print and out of print DVDs tend to go for more...sometimes much more...than the original list price.

I just can't recommend the format enough. To say your VHS libary is large...I feel for you, I really do. I had the same apprehensions when I switched from LP to CD, and I had alot of LPs! But I never regretted it once I switched.

AlexPower · 06-21-2001, 05:57 PM

I think this movie is totally wrong for the kids. It's more like anime for us older people. We can take it and enjoy it, not use it for violence. I am glad they cut a version for the younger ones but need an uncut for us.