July 13, 2006 - Star Wars Weekends are one of the best events at Walt Disney World and occurs annually at the Disney-MGM Studios over the span of at least four weekends. Jeff Lange, a columnist at JimHillMedia.com, puts out a series of DVD's that chronicle Disneyland and Walt Disney World special events and attractions and Lange attempts to fully record what goes on for those who either couldn't be there or weren't able to see everything.

The DVD starts out covering the first weekend of Star Wars Weekend and starts out showing one of the best (and not-so-known) events, the Storm Troopers "spiel" before the park opens. It's a funny introduction that reminds us not to take the event too seriously (despite others insistance to the contrary) and sets the tone for the entire weekend.

The disc continues with the Star Wars parade that features the Star Wars characters, Mickey Mouse (of course), the 501st Storm Trooper Garrison (that's a bunch of fans that dress up as Storm Troopers, some of which may question the Empire's physical fitness program for it's finest) and the celebrities for the first weekend. The parade is filmed from a pretty good angle and allows a clear view of everyone coming down the parade path. There are also random kids dressed as Jedis and princesses (the Star Wars variety, not the Cinderella kind) which are cute to look at.

Following the parade, the DVD continues and walks around different areas of the Studios, capturing things like Wicket's Warehouse which was a glorified merchandise shop as well as housing a pretty cool 3/4 scale X-wing replica. Lange also has a full recording of the Stars of the Saga show which is a "talk show" that features the celebrities of the first weekend, Peter Mayhew(Chewbacca) and Rick McMallum (produce of the prequel films) and is hosted by Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok). The banter here is partly scripted and a little corny at times but it is funny, especially with Warwick who has some real fun with it (be sure to watch the "shooting gallery" that Mayhew endures as it's quite hillarious). There are also character interactions between guests and the assortment of Star Wars characters that walk the parks. The storm troopers are the funny ones to watch as they tend to have the best guest interactions.

The second disc features the second weekend of the event and starts out again showing the morning parade. Basically the same as the parade we saw on Disc 1 but features different cute kids and the different celebrities of Weekend 2 (Jake Lloyd (Anakin Skywalker) and Mathew Wood (voice of General Grievous)). The Stars of the Saga show for Weekend 2 follows which has its moments just like the first weekend (Obi-Wan Kenobi "calling" is also quite funny). Davis who hosts it again does have a flair for entertaining even if everything is fairly scripted but keeps the event entertaining. The disc concludes with the Hyperspace Hoopla event that happens at the end of every day and is a funny celebration of the conclusion of the day's events.

The third disc chronicles (Yep, you guessed it) the third weekend and starts out again featuring the morning parade with more cute kids and new celebs (Jay LaGa'aia (Captain Typho) and Oril Shoshan (Shaak Ti)). It then introduces the weekend and then showcases one of the more fun events for young ones, the Jedi Training Academy where young kids (of the cute variety) are "trained" to be Jedis and eventually fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. It's a pretty fun event to watch and the kids (some of which are quite young) do a great job. Before the Stars of the Saga show begins, it shows the Storm Troopers interacting with the audience and it's pretty funny and again makes fun of themselves. I almost wish Lange had a DVD just of the Storm Troopers throughout the weekends as they clearly are the best part of the event.

Score: 6 out of 10

Video
The video quality is quite good with no graininess or "blockiness" and the picture looks good on TV's and on the computer. Lange usually sets up quite close to the action so you usually have a good shot of what's going on. Lange did not use a tripod (or the Studios is suffering from some serious seismic activity) so there is a bit of jerkiness to the video. Not quite Blair Witch but it is noticable. I'm not one to be put off by it but I know some people don't enjoy that sort of video). The video looks better outside where the colors come through nicely but the colors indoors, especially of people tend to be on the orange side of things. Again, a minor gripe by someone trying to remain unbias in the review.

Score: 8 out of 10

Audio
The audio is pretty good considering Lange didn't hook into any sound systems. Again, outdoor events tend to be better than indoor events although when someone is talking on a microphone, there tends to be a noticable delay (think Godzilla movies). This isn't Lange's fault but to me it's annoying to listen to someone talk and their lips not line up with what their saying. Aside from the synching problem, the rest of the audio is good and no major pops, hisses or times where you'll jump because the audio comes in really loud. I believe Lange did the best job editing he can.

Score: 7 out of 10

Comments

Overall it's a fun disc to watch, assuming it interests you. I can see a few groups of people enjoying this: anyone who is a Star Wars fan and enjoys the Star Wars Weekends and anyone who may have been featured in the video (such as those who may have been in the parade). Unlike Lange's other DVD's of special events, the scope can be somewhat narrow. I personally was not able to go to the event this year and did enjoy watching it and being able to see most of what transpired from the comfort of my (air conditioned) living room.

If you're wondering what happened to the 4th disc (or at least copy of the 4th weekend) Lange did not cover that. I'll give Jeff a pass on this as I talked to Jim Hill (Jeff's boss) and he needed Jeff for something else that weekend so Lange was unable to film the events of the last weekend of the event. Truth be told, I would have liked to have seen video of the fourth weekend as that weekend the special guests were the celebs that portrayed Bobba and Jango Fett and I'm sure the Stars of the Saga show would have been interesting to watch.

If I have one gripe I can't get over (as everything else I've mentioned is mostly minor gripes aside from the Weekend 4 missing) it's the price of the DVD. On Jeff's website where he sells his DVD's, this DVD goes for $39.95 which is a bit much in my opinion. If it were somewhere in the $15-20 price range, I could see spending the money. But $40 is alot. To Jeff's credit, there is 314 minutes of video over the span of the 3 discs.

So should you buy it? As long as the price is fine with you, and you have sort of affinity for Star Wars Weekend, I would recommend it. Going purely on what's on the discs, it's some good stuff and does a good job of chronicling the event. Jeff does an amazing job of filming it all and at times really shines. The Storm Trooper scenes are worth the price of the DVD alone. This would be a great tool for someone who has never been but is interested to see if the event is something they'd be interested in.

Overall score (not an average): 7 out of 10

Link to buy this DVD