Saga Tatooine: difference between PT and OT

In my opinion, the Tatooine from the PT feels different than the Tatooine from the OT.

In the OT, Tatooine really is depicted as a typical Outer Rim planet.
The planet feels much more darker than in the planet does in the PT.
Tatooine = decay
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" - Ben Kenobi
And he was right!

In the PT, Tatooine just feels more cheerful to me.
Podraces are held. People sell fruit at the market.
Anakin and Padmé take a taxi.
It all seems cosy to me!

Personnally, I prefer the Tatooine we see in the OT.
Do any of you feel the same?

 

I don't think it was cosy at all.

TPM:
Slavery
Sebulba chokes out Jar Jar
Sand Storm
Pod Racing kills more than half the field (at least thats the way I saw it)
Maul

AotC:
Waddo is now a bum basically (deserved)
Clieg Lars
Shmi
Sand People get murdered by a Jedi

That's a fair amount of bad things to happen in one place in two films IMO.

 

I think he meant aesthetically. I would agree that the whole PT was a lot "cleaner" than the OT. Everything had a new feel to it, less "lived in".

We do live in a digital age so a lot of the PT was shot against a greenscreen and was mastered digitally. The OT feels very analog. Warmer, if you will.


“I'm just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe.” – Jango Fett

 

AFAIK, the Lars homestead in AOTC was made to look *slightly* less lived-in than it did in ANH (because it *was*).

Apart from that... no, not really.

 

Not really, no.
Tatooine looks consistent to me throughout the Saga.

 

I think any difference you perceived has more to do with the tone of the films than anything else. TPM and ANH utilize the Tatooine setting in very different ways, and they are very different films.

Not to mention, TPM is supposed to represent a happier time. That's kind of the point.

 

I felt that it was portrayed consistently throughout in terms of what was going on there. The feel of the place changes when CGI becomes more and more of a factor. In ANH there was a sparse, starved feel to Tatooine, but I don't think that's what GL intended. He wanted more of a bustling, active environment.

 

I can't say I noticed any real difference either.

 

Bear in mind, the 'Tatooine' of the PT is the larger city of Mos Espa, while in the OT it's Mos Eisley, Jabba's Palace and the Lars homestead (and Anchorhead in the deleted scenes).

All totally different settings as far as the populace and the goings-on are concerned, they just happen to be on the same planet, much as New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Bangkok are all on Earth.

 

I agree. As Darth_Nub had pointed out, the larger city of Mos Espa was featured in the PT, whereas the smaller city of Mos Eisley was featured in the OT. There was no Jabba's Palace in the PT. However, the Lars' homestead had the same or a similar vibe in both trilogies.

 

The big difference between the Lars homestead in the PT and OT is that the tombstones are not shown in the OT

 

Yes, indeed! Tatooine is one of the few planets to appear in both trilogies, so that would most certainly explain a lot.

That is also true.
The planets we see in the movies, however, mainly consist of one particular aspect (in terms of landscape and fauna and flora) of Earth.
Tatooine = desert
Mustafar = lava
Kamino = see
Endor = forests
Earth consists of all those aspects, not just one of them.

 

I think Mos Espa and Mos Eisley are meant to be the same type of city/spaceport, including size and scope. We just see it differently because it has more variety and is much more populated, something that we don't see in the OT due to the Imperial presence and respective regime. I think it reinforces the feel and need to defeat the Empire, even on places full of "scum and villany" like Tatooine.

As far as the "lived in" and "worn" feel to it, no. It's pretty consistent throughout the movies. In fact, that's present on almost every place in all six movies. Some say the PT doesn't have it, but apparently they just fall in some kind of misconception where "curvy/modern design" equals clean.

 

Tatooine would have faired better under the Empire than under the Republic, wouldn't it?
At least, the Empire tried to implement law and order on the Outer Rim planets.
The presence of the Republic was not felt at all. It just was another Hutt controlled planet.

 

I think Owen removed those so Luke didn't ask questions... right?

 

I agree that the different parts of Tattooine that were featured between the PT and OT make a difference as far as how they look and feel. But that's perfectly logical in my mind.... Mos Espa is a much larger city than Mos Eisley, and the Lars Homestead it's out in moisture farmland, And Obi-Wan's hut is beyond the sand dunes, and I would imagine Jabbas palace is in a completely different part of the planet-

As opposed to the location of the pod race course, or where the sand people were encamped. I would imagine those things are in a very different part of Tatooine. so the different feel is fitting, in my opinion...

 

True

 

I was wrong. Mos Espa wasn't the larger city. Mos Eisley was. I had assumed that Mos Espa was larger, due to the podrace area located in the area.

 

I agree with some of the posts above, about how we're having to different eras here.
During the time of the Republic, Tatooine was more or less untouched by intergalactical government, so (criminal) life could thrive almost unhampered.
Even though the Empire didn't seem to be too involved into Tatooine politics (compared to other planets) it had its grip on the planet and things like podraces, gambling and all the "nasty" illicit stuff had to move to the underground...

I think that time makes the difference in how daily life is displayed in both trilogies.
PLUS: We see a LOT more of Tatooine's social life in TPM than we do in any other movie...

 

The difference between Mos Espa and Mos Eisley can basically be boiled down to the description. Mos Eisley is a space port, Mos Espa is the closest thing Tatooine has to a city. Mos Espa has a large stable population. Mos Eisley has the work in the spaceport and transient ships crews. If you are familiar with the Northeastern US. Mos Espa is Tatooines New York City and Mos Eisley is Elizabeth, NJ.

 

Both Mos Espa and Mos Eisley are spaceports with apparently similar size.

 

Interestingly, Wookieepedia calls Mos Eisley "the largest settlement on the planet".

 

Do they have a source?

 

The article doesn't mention it. Star Wars: Complete Locations might be the source that goes into Tatooine's settlements in the most detail- but I don't have that one.

 

Or maybe that one RPG guide-Geonosis and the outer rim or whatever it was called. I recall that having population figures in it.