Star Wars: The Last Jedi Fan Offers Up Perfect Tribute to Classic DVD Menus

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the first entry from the Star Wars franchise to land on DVD, and it wasn't until 2004 that the original trilogy earned a technical upgrade for the burgeoning format. Star Wars: The Last Jedi landed on a variety of home video formats in 2018, but with streaming platforms being the go-to viewing destination for many audiences, one fan offered up their own take on what it would have looked like for the movie to earn an animated menu that replicated the style that both the prequel and original trilogies earned when they landed on the stagnating format. You can check out the tribute in the post below.

"The Last Jedi DVD Menu (If it was 2007) Supremacy (Final)," Twitter user CT-Cire captioned their post.

The Last Jedi DVD Menu (If it was 2007) Supremacy (Final) pic.twitter.com/In0ziOR8p5

— CT-Cire (@CireSW75) September 11, 2023

The video resonated with a select group of Star Wars fans who have specific memories of these animated menus, as those first six films all had a similar formula of incorporating scenes into the film's logo and ultimately showing menu options being integrated into an environment from the movies themselves. The post even gained enough traction that The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson shared the post, as he added the caption, "MY GOD IT'S BEAUTIFUL."

As compared to other franchises, Star Wars has a long and complex history on home video, which includes igniting backlash among audiences.

Both The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones earned impressive DVD releases, as they delivered not only the most advanced transfer from film to digital video possible, but both releases included comprehensive behind-the-scenes features. Fans were then excited by the release of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD in 2004, as it not only offered similarly exhaustive behind-the-scenes features, including the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, but it included a tease of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

This DVD also marks the last time the original, pre-Special Edition version of the original trilogy of films was released, as limited-edition versions of the trilogy included both the early '90s laserdisc transfers of the original trilogy, as well as the 1997 Special Edition trilogy.

Despite pleas from fans over the last two decades, Lucasfilm has confirmed that it has no plans to release the pre-1997 versions of the original trilogy, as George Lucas (despite having sold Lucasfilm to Disney) claims his tweaks are considered the definitive visions of the films. Additionally, the films' debuts on Blu-ray, on 4K Ultra HD, and on Disney+ have seen even more (albeit minor) changes be made to the original films, further distancing themselves from the original, theatrical releases. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, and it is currently streaming on Disney+.

What do you think of the animated intro? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!