PT Your Thoughts On: Otoh Gunga / Planet Core Sequence

Sorry, but does anyone else love this part of TPM as much as me?

We're going to see the Gungans, mommy! Going to see the Gungans...!

Well, maybe you don't -- maybe you even HATE it -- but the colours, the music, the sound design, the art direction ... it's all FANTASTIC in this bit, for me.

I also find it very interesting, from an aesthetic / symbolic point-of-view, that this is the only time, barring a brief reprise in ROTS (Obi-Wan on Utapau), we see the Jedi UNDERWATER (though Obi-Wan very nearly plummets into a vast ocean in AOTC). In a sort of "Aladdin's Cave" adventure. It's fun, surreal, trippy. Wonderful how Lucas worked in a sort of vignette-style homage to early B-movie Harryhausen(/-esque) horror flicks like "Mysterious Island" and "Fantastic Voyage", too. The "inner workings" of the saga -- in a (inner) way.

I know some people have vented displeasure with this part of TPM, in particular, charging that it is a waste of time -- or at least the "planet core" part -- but I just love the brash "storybook" design and all the subtle dynamics and interweavings here. You know what I mean? Just look at the little spark that seems to pass into Qui-Gon's features when Jar Jar quietly pleads for help, formerly remaining silent, his hands cuffed together, and Qui-Gon becomes this freer of bubbly innocents (innocence) -- a sort of magical "jinn" ... releasing the "jinn" (Jar Jar) of others .... while Obi-Wan sort of sighs and sulks (a kind of "there my master goes again" exasperation) as they leave the city in that final shot of the motley three sharply exiting "stage right". I love the happy, chirpy, quasi-magical music in that part, too. And with Jar Jar visually juxtaposed -- superimposed -- over the human actors, there's such a beautiful sense of playful levity, too. TPM is very nearly a sort of "comedy of manners" film in places.

I know it might sometimes seem I'm being ironic, but I'm not. TPM becomes a lot more enriching, for me, when the Jedi follow Jar Jar underwater. I love the underwater setting and I think what happens "down there" (Nute's phrasing -- again, symbolic) is most peculiar and enriching. It's quite weird and unexpected (Obi-Wan's journey in ANH skews, by comparison, to the dry and almost-dessicated next to this Fantasia-like transitioning) and I like how that sets up the epic journey of the entire saga: that, once upon a time, this was how the Jedi once (or at least once) conducted (or were forced to conduct) business. It provides such a strong contrast with the more "documentary fantasy" approach that is, in a way, more tangibly evident in the original film / trilogy. I think it was a little tough for people to imagine this sort of slightly abstract way of showing the galaxy "before the dark times, before the Empire". And I dig it loads.

I suppose I also like the idea of hidden enclaves, hidden dwellings, and hidden things. Nestled down here -- in a LAKE, or accessible through a lake, no less! -- is an entire alien (or fish-like) civilization that builds its cities according to the principles of art nouveau and organic membranes. It's very different. And that planet core sequence: the monsters, the music! Ah! Our own oceans, rapidly being assaulted on a number of (man-made) levels, hold many wonders and treasures much more valuable and exotic than sunken ships, and I like how the planet core sequence plays tribute to that. There is so much, still, that we care so little for, and are rapidly engaged in the relentless process of destroying and stamping out, chopping up, burning away, irradiating and acidifying forever. Lucas concocted a thoughtful paean for nature in TPM: an allegory with a chiasmic character. Nature is both celebrated and countenanced; as, perhaps, is the saga that both circumscribes and inevitably emerges from (and is beholden to) it.

I just love what was achieved here.

 

I think it is a great scene. It shows how cool and confident Qui-Gon is when in danger. Fully trusting in Obi-Wan's ability when Jar-Jar is going nuts because their about to be fish food. The underwater entrance and Gungan City are extemely scenic. I think even though it is a small part of the film it is a huge part of TPM. The kind of image you remember when you think of the movie.

 

The city via a series of bubbles was always cool, especially how all it took was gently pushing against the membrane to enter. Though my favorite part in the underbelly of Naboo has to be the voyage through the core. The underwater passages really created a claustrophobic feel in such a large body of water. The lighting was also top-notch here, as was John William's complementary score. In short, Naboo is a great planet.

 

Well, it's hard to forget seeing the reveal of Otoh Gunga on the big screen and that big sense of wonder that only Star Wars can give... And I always appreciate how Otoh Gunga and its inner workings (as with all "alien" cities, species and planets) were thought out to the tiniest detail.

Also, the whole "monster" chase, Qui-Gon putting Jar Jar to sleep through the Force (this one always makes me smile), the small details like the mother protecting her young...

Overall, a great and iconic sequence.

 

In the book it says jar jar fantied but I don't know that Qui gon did did anything to him in the movie.

 

Not the biggest fan of the Planet Core sequence but the introduction to Otoh Gunga ist fantastic. The reveal of the city is one of the most iconic scenes in the saga, imo, which rivals the birnary sunset or the opening minute of ROTS. I remember when I was watching TPM 3D with a friend (she was probably the only person in the cinema who hadn't seen the film before) and she just said "Wow" when they approached Otoh Gunga.
I also loved the bit of humour that Obi-Wan's brought into the part: "Don't worry, this has not been our day for warm welcomes". For some undiscovered reasons I also always smile at Obi-Wan's "They banished you because you're clumsey?". Seems far-fetched but you're yet to know Jar Jar bettter



The following Planet Core sequence is not bad. Jar Jar's sarcastic comment on the force is rather funny. I just don't feel enought tension to rank it higher.
However, I love the cut from the blue water to the Invasion army at the end. That little action scene is over yet instead of a really quiete scene you get to see that massive army with one of John Williams's best themes fpr the movie for a few seconds. It's one of the few scenes in the film where the CGI is a bit too obvious for me but I don't really mind it.

 

I've since described The Phantom Menace as the biggest Exploratorium installment of the saga. I stand by it. The narrative is ripe with...exhibits, the scene in question being a perfect example. It's a very curious natured film; sphere-like. It's also got me thinking...

The digital effects boom that was Jurassic Park is what convinced Lucas that a prequel trilogy backstory to his original could at last be pursued with potentially limitless scope in fantasy-planetary-otherworldly depictions. Along with said conviction, I suspect there was a degree of inspiration and influence as well, a kind of residual high that carried over most potently into the first film of the prequels. More than ever it seemed that Lucas was enthused with a similar, childlike wonder reveal of dino-biodiversity: vessels traveling through cavernous, aquatic prehistory and giant, warm-blooded fauna stomping through jungles and over lush green grasslands.







Of course, this Smithsonian sense of diorama storytelling etched its way throughout the Tatooine and Coruscant segments as well, as no other Star Wars film gives us quite the in-depth view of Anakin and Luke's homeworld or the grand cosmopolitan/senatorial tour of the Old Republic capital; the speeder chase in Attack of the Clones is of a decidedly different tone, less pageant and more sinister as a kind of 'Streets of Coruscant' crime-thriller.

​

Bingo! Dino DNA!​

 

You can see in the movie that it was his doing.

 

Now, trust YOU to bring home the bacon!

http://starwarsverses.tumblr.com/post/44270613540



And tell me if The Man
Who is ploughing up your land
Has got the war machine upon his mind


More:

http://starwarsverses.tumblr.com/post/47228989553/objects-in-mirror-may-be-closer-than-they-appear

"Dino, dino droppings?"
"Icky, icky goo!"

In AOTC, the "Younglings" scene is like the raptor-hatching scene: the training helmets in Lucas' version replacing the broken egg shell in Spielberg's. Even the music by John Williams is virtually identical (etheric notes being sung by an angelic choir).

These scenes are further linked by the theme of "life will find a way" as a counter-balancing force to masculine arrogance around simple binary societal structuring ("How do you know the dinosaurs are all female?" / "Just being around her again is intoxicating").

"Now, some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female in a single sex environment."
"I think he's a she. And I think she's a changeling."


But back to TPM:

Firstly, the whole look and tone of "Jurassic Park" -- right down to the rich, clear-eyed Douglas Slocombe-esque cinematography, capturing an exotic clime in a crisp, methodical manner -- gives the film the feel of a deferred Indiana Jones adventure. You see this same quirky, "National Geographic" aspect in TPM. I think your screencaps show that quite nicely.

Secondly, the name of the company behind the park is "InGen". Short for "International Genetic Technologies, Inc.". But one could equally claim it is short for "ingenuity". Or even "disingenuous" (given the specific nature of the dinosaurs it has engineered and the whole theme-park quality of the attraction: less nature preserve, more zoological circus). The "world" of the film is, by and large, a bit of a "con job", basically, not unlike the way the Janus figure of Palpatine/Sidious is manipulating events in TPM. These are enchanted, controlled islands.

Thirdly, Jar Jar obviously looks a bit like a theropod. In production notes, he is even said to have the gait of an emu, while the "gallimimus" stampede scene clearly portrays these fictive film beasties (though gallimimus was a real dinosaur species) as "flocking" like ostriches or emus. And both JP and TPM -- again, as your screnshots neatly show -- have a stampede scene.

Fourthly, I just want to point out that the helicopter which transports the characters over water at the start and end of the main movie notably has a blue decal, as some of the later ships in the prequels do (see ROTS), while Padme dresses in a mix of grey and blue on Tatooine (upper half) and Artoo has a silver and blue dome: a very strong co-ordinating colour scheme which seems to evoke the mystique of aerial transport (again, over water) -- Qui-Gon, in fact, specifically mentions "moisture farmers" in a face-to-camera view of these characters as they cross the threshold of Mos Espa. "InGen" / "Injun". "You turned Injun, didn't ye?"


And finally:

While Spielberg's synth-mythic blockbuster was, undoubtedly, a HUGE influence on the middle-aged Lucas, looking for that epochal moment when his prequel trilogy could become reality, one must also look to James Gurney's "Dinotopia" and acknowledge it as a significant source of inspiration -- so much so, in fact, that a case could be made that Lucas actually plagiarized his work, or at least had something approaching a guilty conscience when he called Gurney up, personally, the day after TPM was officially released, according to this provocative article which outlines the controversy pretty concisely:

http://www.echostation.com/interview/gurney.htm

"Dinotopia" adds further shading to TPM as some kind of fantasy isle / not-really-real landscape and slice of made-up galactic time: an anachronistic-prehistorical-ritualistic-morality-play with some degree of leakage into the other five. Here, it's more innocent, and more bizarre, as our Jedi protagonists seek refuge in a hidden, subterranean dino-enclave, then take one of their "clumsy" natives with them on a planet-hopping excursion on a royal yacht as they're stalked by a demonic assassin being guided by a holographic ghost. Compared to blowing up a grey gamete / disco ball, this, in some senses, is far, far wackier.


* * *


Dinosaurs. One way or another, it all goes back to dinosaurs. In 1992, a UK outfit by the name of Orbis Publishing began a series of magazines called "Dinosaurs!", which was music to my ears at the time, and I collected more than fifty issues (alas, not the full set -- I started with the first one when it came out and was pretty diligent for a long time, but eventually slipped and lost track). I'm sure British members know what publication I'm referring to. Like a lot of kids growing up in the 1990s, dinosaurs have been on my mind a lot. Maybe it's no surprise I like TPM and Jar Jar -- and the wonderfully chimerical underwater sequence -- as much as I do.

 

It was pretty interesting.

 

Nice.

Naturally, me being me (i.e., see my avatar pic) Doug Slocombe is my all-time favorite cinematographer. However, the DP for Jurassic Park was Dean Cundey, who ALSO happens to be one of my favorites, right up there near the top, maybe even at No. 2. Perhaps you knew this already but were simply stating the similarity regardless, which I can understand. Jurassic Park remains Spielberg's most colorfully vibrant looking film to date; all those tropical greens, sky blues, red dirts, pink & amber hues, ruddy flesh tones and a production design that replicates the feel of 'safari adventure' artifice. Without a doubt, The Phantom Menace is the most florid, day-lit installment of the Star Wars saga, with the sun (or a sun) at it's zenith over multiple settings. Both films are very earthy.

Fifthly, there is also the elephant in the room: clones. Even though the premise doesn't show up until Episode II, the very idea of midichlorians infamously established here in the first prequel gives Star Wars its first real quasi-micro-science perspective. The Force ...reinterpreted by Crichton.

Just a few days ago I posted a thread over on IMDB listing my Top 10 sci-fi/fantasy artist. Gurney made the list (as did Chiang and McQuarrie). Yeah, that one struck me way back over a decade ago during the first few viewings of my Episode I VHS. I later surfed the web looking for discussions on the matter but I never found that article, or website. Thanks for the link. Quite interesting. I hope there was no bad resentment that followed, though it sounds as if Gurney was quite Zen-like at the time. At least Lucas showed some good form by calling the guy and offering acknowledgments. I never knew a Dinotopia film was ever in the works. That's a new one on me.

I was 12 in '93. The perfect age when Jurassic Park came out; practically exploded my boy-brain. I was also reading Dinotopia at the time and, of course, The Land Before Time was by then a cherished, prepubescent establishment.

 

Otoh Gunga was amazing!

 

Yes, I think that scene was beautifully designed. All the 'bubbles' in the underwater city softly lit as the Jedi and Jar Jar swim past the fish look awesome to me. In fact, I think all the Gungan visuals were amazing, especially some of the creatures from the plains battle at the end.

 

Definitely one of the parts of Ep 1 that I enjoy the most. I'm not a huge fan of the Gungans, but I do like Otah Gunga and the journey through the core. The journey through the core is quite reminiscent of some of the Millennium Falcon cockpit scenes in ESB. It's definitely one of those scenes you watch and think to yourself, "There's no way this could have existed in the original films" just because of how stunning and alien it is.

 

Hope to see an underwater battle in the ST.

 

me too i love the underwater battle in the clone wars. I think the scenes are beautiful down there but I remember thinking in the cinema, whoah this is different territory...maybe one of the first things the haters hated first especially as it rates to Jar Jar who i can take or leave, always loved Boss Nass

 

The Mon Cal arc was amazing! Hope to see Mon Cal in the ST. Boss Nass was awesome.

 

I don't have anything to say as sophisticated as what Cryo and Ingram have said, but I have always enjoyed this sequence, on every watching. I've never not enjoyed this sequence, regardless of mood. Even as a twelve year who sorta thought he was too cool for school/Star Wars seeing it in the theater I thought it was cool. I remember my mom, who has never been into Star Wars, leaning over and whispering "that was cool". I just whispered "yeah" and zoned right back in. TPM definitely still had me at that point.

Didn't know there was any significant criticism of this sequence, I thought it was generally agreed to be one of the more entertaining sequences in the movie. I didn't know it was a waste of time for cool stuff to happen, especially in... THE PLANET CORE. (you're not allowed to just say "the planet core" like it's no big deal, you have to put Brian Blessed's emphasis on it.)

Opinions vary, however. I know Jar Jar can be a bit much, but Qui-Gon takes care of that.

*shrugs*

 

GooberFish... ​

​

​

​

​

anyone?​

​

 

Well I love the idea of a 'hidden city'. It is like discovering Atlantis or something similar. So yes it does bring a thrill to me as well.

 

It reminds me of my sense of wonderment at seeing it in the cinema in 99. I wasn't a Star Wars fan at that stage (and much more impressionable as a 13 yr old) and what I loved about this, and TPM generally, is that you had no idea where it was going. I mean, I had seen the OT, but I didn't really connect this until much later. The music and the visuals say it all. Particularly the approach to the city, and the effect of the "squeegee" bubble as they enter, which I hadn't really thought about the function of until hearing it mentioned on the commentary.
The planet core sequence is iconic. The metaphor of the bigger fish (which actually happens twice, the first time symbolically transitioning to Sidious adressing Gunray), Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan nicely contrasting Jar Jar (their lack of worry of course reminding us of Luke in ROTJ), the dialogue such as... "The force will guide us", the look and feel of the scenes are different to anything we had seen so far, while not being too detached to detract from the Star Wars vibe (I guess you could draw a parallel to "This is no cave!"). Also when they emerge at Theed you can kind of get a sense of the difference in lifestyle of the two Nubian races, going from the dimly lit Otah Gunga and planet core to daylight on the other side.

 

I liked the city, though I wish the movie had been structured to have more action take place in the city. Only going there for 5 minutes did/could have given it a kind of....tacked on.

The planet core I'm not a big fan of, espically since they repeat the same gap/action sequence. Its always felt tacked on to me.

 

I always really enjoyed the Otoh Gunga and core sequences. They're a whimsical diversion in a film, being the set up film, that can get away with it.

I like the lighting, the music, all of it.

They should have had more of it later.

 

Personally I prefer seeing it just the once. Seeing it a second time would remove the whole 'hiddenness' of it for me. I'd rather marvel in my thoughts about its discovery by the droids than see it happening on-screen.

 

There's always a bigger fish