Blu-ray Review: 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' (2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Reissue)

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Slipcover (and Blu-ray jewel box) art for the 2019 Multi-Screen reissue of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

 Twenty years after its initial theatrical release and nearly three months before the December 20 premiere of Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the first installment of George Lucas's Star Wars Prequel Trilogy was reissued on Blu-ray disc (BD) as part of Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Limited's 10-film Star Wars Multi-Screen Edition collection. This marks the first Disney-era reissue of Star Wars material that was originally distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment since The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox and the distribution rights to the first six Star Wars films earlier this year.



This promotional photo depicts the slipcover art for the Multi-Screen Edition reissues of the Skywalker Saga films. Rogue One and Solo (not shown here) also get the Multi-Screen treatment. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

  As part of the marketing campaign to herald the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Buena Vista is using Fox's strategy of offering consumer existing home media content in new packaging: this Blu-ray of 1999's Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace presents the content of the original 2011 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 2011 release in newly redesigned packaging and with new disc label art.

What's New...and What's Not

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, along with the other five Star Wars films of George Lucas's Tragedy of Darth Vader films, debuted on Blu-ray in September 2011's Star Wars: The Complete Saga box set. Over the next four years, 20th Century Fox re-released The Phantom Menace and the rest of the Skywalker Saga at least three more times, tweaking the packaging ﹘ but leaving the content unchanged ﹘ for each reissue. The final Fox Star Wars reissue was the Limited Edition Steelbook series, which dropped in November 2015, just a few weeks prior to the premiere of the fist Disney-era film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. 

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment reissued the 2011 Blu-ray release of the first six films in the Skywalker Saga several times over a four-year period. This promo photo shows the 2015 edition of the nine-disc Star Wars: The Complete Saga box set. This variation came in an Imperial-themed Blu-ray case (with matching slipcover). Some sets came with Blu-ray discs (BDs) with new "character" labels, while others contained the discs with simpler, unillustrated labels. © 2015 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 


In all of those pre-2015 reissues, Fox focused primarily on the marketing/collectibles aspects of the Blu-ray release, starting with the DigiBook Star Wars: The Complete Saga nine-disc set. Over a four-year period, consumers saw a plethora of variations in packaging and bundling; in addition to the nine-BD  The Complete Saga set, Fox issued two smaller box sets, one for the Prequel Trilogy, another for the Classic Trilogy. This was followed by "bundling" the films in repackaged BD/DVD sets, then the 2015 "Imperial-themed" reissue of Star Wars: The Complete Saga and the Limited Edition Steelbooks. 

The main issue that fans have with any reissues of the pre-2015 Star Wars films on Blu-ray is that both Fox and Buena Vista Home Entertainment keep on trotting out the same editions that came out on BD eight years ago without adding new extras. Many fans have said they want Lucasfilm to release the pre-1997 versions of the Star Wars Trilogy on high-definition home media, even though the company and its corporate parent are apparently contractually bound to respect George Lucas's wishes that the Special Editions of Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi are the official - and therefore only - versions available to the public. 

Apparently taking a page from Fox's playbook, Buena Vista has reissued Star Wars: The Phantom Menace for the first time since The House of Mouse acquired the distribution rights to all of the six Tragedy of Darth Vader films in the larger Skywalker Saga. The Disney home entertainment subsidiary has taken the existing 2011 BD, repackaged it in a new slipcover/Blu-ray jewel case, and slapped on a disc label with a still that features Darth Maul facing off against Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). 

See The First Fateful Steps in the Journey of Anakin Skywalker

Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn rescue Queen Amidala, ruler of a peaceful planet invaded by dark forces. On their escape, they discover nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, a child prodigy who is unusually strong in the Force. ﹘ back cover blurb, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (2019 Multi-Screen Edition)

The cover art is a reimagined photorealistic riff on Drew Struzan's 1999 poster for Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The dominant characters depicted are Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, the elaborately costumed Queen Amidala and, his face obscured by a Podracer's helmet and goggles, Anakin Skywalker. Looming menacingly in the background is the tattooed and yellow-eyed visage of Darth Maul. Off to one side, a less-prominent Jar-Jar Binks can be seen, while two Podracers ﹘ the villainous Sebulba's and Anakin's "fastest racer ever" ﹘ add an action element to the cover art. 

In keeping with Lucasfilm's post-Lucas marketing strategy, the film's title is presented as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace without the "Episode I" attached. However, this is only on the poster art and home media packaging; in the movie itself we see Episode I: The Phantom Menace as part of the traditional title crawl sequence. 

Content-wise, the 2019 Multi-Screen reissue of The Phantom Menace is exactly the same on Blu-ray as the original 2011 The Complete Saga. If you put this disc in a Blu-ray player and start playback, you will see the same "disc is loading" R2-D2 animation, as well as the "20th Century Fox Home Entertainment" logo, main menu, and audio/subtitle options, including the audio commentary tracks. 

The only new feature that Buena Vista brings to the table in this reissue is that each disc in the 2019 Multi-Screen Edition series now comes with an insert that has the code for a digital copy that can be redeemed on Movies Anywhere, Vudu, or iTunes. Before George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company, none of Fox's Star Wars home video releases offered a digital streaming option. It wasn't until the spring of 2015 ﹘ and after a complicated three-way negotiation between Disney, Fox, and Lucasfilm ﹘ that The Phantom Menace and the other five Star Wars Episodes were released in Star Wars: The Digital Collection. 


When I learned, back in September, that Buena Vista was going to reissue all 10 of the existing Star Wars live-action films on Blu-ray, I was not enthusiastic. I already owned both iterations of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, as well as the steelbooks of the eight Skywalker Saga films. The Multi-Screen Editions didn't come with new in-disc material, nor did they include the Holy Grail for many fans ﹘ the original theatrical release editions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. 

The only reason that compelled me to change my mind is that while I have digital copies of the newer Star Wars films, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Solo: A Star Wars Story, I did not have any for the Lucas era sextet of movies. So, after holding off for two-and-a-half months, I recently purchased only those Multi-Screen releases for which I didn't have streamable digital versions and skipped the rest. 

From my perspective, the Buena Vista Home Entertainment 2019 Multi-Screen Edition of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is only a must-get if:

  • You are new to the Star Wars franchise and don't already own the films in this set on any home media format
  • You have the Lucas-era Star Wars Trilogies on Blu-ray (or DVD) but don't have the digital codes for Movies Anywhere, iTunes, or Vudu
  • You are a completist-type of collector who must have every iteration of the Star Wars saga on home media even if you're just getting it for the snazzy new packaging



Point of Interest: If you stream the digital copy of  Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on any compatible device (PC, tablet, or smartphone), the opening logos sequence is not the same on every streaming service. For instance, on Movies Anywhere, the iconic 20th Century Fox "Searchlights" logo appears just as it does in all pre-2019 home media versions, as well as the theatrical release version. On Amazon Prime, though, the Fox Fanfare by Alfred Newman and the famous logo are absent. In its place, the movie starts with the Lucasfilm logo, accompanied by a brief riff from The Empire Strikes Back score.

Bottom Line: If you are new to the Star Wars franchise and have not yet bought any of the movies either on physical media or digital format, by all means, get the Multi-Screen Editions. However, if you already own them in either format and aren't interested in yet another re-issue, you can skip this reissue.

Blu-ray Specifications:

Video
  • Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (30.59 Mbps)
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
  • Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
  • English: DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
  • French: DTS 5.1
  • Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
  • Note: DTS 5.1@768 kbps - DD 5.1@448 kbps
Subtitles
  • English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Discs
  • Blu-ray Disc
  • Single disc (1 BD-50)

Digital
  • Movies Anywhere, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu
Playback
  • Region A

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