 |
|
Episode 5: Lori is Missing
I watched the original version of this episode yesterday and must admit that it was funnier than I remembered. Of course, having seen all 13 episodes, I have the luxury of being picky with favorites, so maybe you'll like this one more than I did. (This episode was the last that I saw of the bunch, if that explains anything of my ratings.)
Minor changes made in the Fox version:
- They used a transparency to incorporate the episode title into the first shot of the story, which may in fact be an improvement.
- I think they added more echo to Lori's fantasy sequence.
- Changed Lori's dialogue from "some kinky chick" to "...kooky...". From the lip movement, I suspect that "kinky" was itself a replacement to "sexy".
- Cut the tail end of Jose's car going over the hill into the sunset, and the lead-in for the scene where Lucas confronts Adrian on the bridge. (You can hear a slight skip where it was spliced.)
- Cut a minor snippet of dialogue from Lucas at the end: After he rescues Lori and she compliments his looks, he says "Great, now I have to run!", in reference to what he had told Adrian earlier about handling student crushes. It's actually more confusing in the original because his emphasis is all wrong, so it comes across as "...I have to leave now."
Yes, that's about everything. Wow! Between the minimal editing on this one and that red stuff on today's Escaflowne, I must be dreaming!! 
So what is the fate of the lost episode 4...? There is nothing about it that would prevent its being shown out of sequence at a later date. The Japanese characters are thoroughly likeable, with a parodied kung-fu showdown at the end. If we give Fox the benefit of the doubt, it could just be a matter of their not being ready with the edit on time, since it had some fairly tight pacing. The only readily expendable scenes are tidbits of comedy relief with Jose, and you can imagine the serious tone that would result if Fox removed those... More likely, action sequences would befall Fox's speed-edit remedy, similar to the tragedy that occurred with episode 1.
Or again, maybe they did indeed give it a stinky p.c.-paranoid thumbs down. After all, you know what they teach you in those fables: Never trust a Fox... 
|
|
|
|
| |
