The Story of Star Wars
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Original Vinyl Album
The Story Of Star Wars was a 1977 record album presenting an abridged version of the events depicted in the film Star Wars, using dialogue and sound effects from the original film. The recording was produced by George Lucas and Alan Livingston, and was narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne. The script was adapted by E. Jack Kaplan and Cheryl Gard.
The original film became a hit in the days before home video, so for many fans, this album was the closest to owning a copy of the film they could revisit whenever they wanted. The album was a hit as well, reaching Gold Record status, and was also released on cassette, 8-track tape, and even 4-track reel-to-reel audio tape.
VideoNow & DVD
In 2004, the title was used again for a three disc set produced and released for the VideoNow Color personal video player. The first two discs are an overview of the first five Star Wars films released: The Story of Luke Skywalker (Episodes IV, V & VI) and The Story of Anakin Skywalker (Episodes I & II). These two features were hosted by the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO utlizing pre-existing footage and new voiceover work. They contained no footage from Revenge of the Sith, nor did they have the changes contained in the 2004 DVD Special Edition releases. The third disc was Entitled Behind the Scenes and featured the following:
- Episode I - Fights, a featurette on Lightsaber Duels in The Phantom Menace
- Episode II - Action, a featurette on action sequences in Attack of the Clones
- Episode III - General Grievous, a featurette on the creation of the Droid General in Revenge of the Sith
- Making the Game, a featurette on the creation of the Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith video game
- Revenge of the Sith, featurette on the nature of the Sith
- An Original Trilogy DVD commercial
- An Episode I DVD commercial
- An Episode II DVD commercial
- A Yoda Electronic Lightsaber commercial
In 2005, Lucasfilm repackaged the content from the first two VideoNow discs for a bonus DVD that was included in a special 2-pack with the Revenge of the Sith DVD at Wal-Mart stores. The DVD was presented in full screen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound and runs 1 hour in total. The sticker on the cover describes it as "R2-D2 and C-3P0's chronicles of Luke and Anakin Skywalker".
In 2006, the VideoNow release was re-issued with new packaging and disc artwork, proclaiming "With Updated Episode III Footage". Other changes included the numbering of the discs themselves (which the first release lacked). In addition to these cosmetic changes, the third disc was re-worked. The Fights, Action and Revenge of the Sith featurettes were retained, as was the Episode I DVD commercial. In the place of the other material was the following:
- Revenge of the Sith "Saga" trailer
- Revenge of the Sith "Dark Side" trailer
- A different Episode II DVD commercial
- PVD game playable on the VideoNow XP.