The original 1977 version of Star Wars began with the painted 20th Century Fox logo, which was updated in 1997 to the new digital logo that identified Fox as a News Corporation company.
The plain green Lucasfilm Limited card was replaced in 1997 with an animated presentation, though the 'new' logo had been in existence since before 1977.
The composite shot of the probot floating across the frozen plains has been reassembled to better retain the translucence of the smoke, and to raise the probe droid to a height that better fits the perspective of the background plate.
The bluescreen shot of Han's tauntaun was recomposited, and the shot was also cleaned up significantly.
The miniature tauntaun is digitally recomposited into the hangar bay, allowing it to better match lighting.
New shots of the wampa were created practically, as a man-in-a-suit creature effect, for the 1997 Special Edition release.
The new wampa was digitally composited into this shot.
More new shots of the wampa, including its rising to its feet, and its staggering from a lightsaber blow.
Almost all of the composites against the white snowy background were redone to better preserve the color quality of the model and its blurred edges.
In the original composite, models such as this snowspeeder were printed with less-than-full opacity to minimize the harsh black matte lines. With digital compositing, the model can retain its full opacity.
Another digital recomposite, now including a redone shadow that better matches the perspective of the background plate.
Another digital recompsite, benefiting the blur of the moving snowspeeder.
When the snowspeeder is recomposited into the hangar, the glare of the entrance light is taken into account to "blow out" the image of the model.
Garbage matte artifacting around the Star Destroyers and TIE fighters has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the distant Star Destroyer and the harsh edges against the edges of the TIE fighters have been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the TIE bombers has been cleaned up.
The edge of the matte painting originally had heavy black seams surrounding the viewport that Darth Vader stands at; the redone composite cleans up these edges.
A large garbage matte artifact surrounded the Super Star Destroyer in this shot.
Digital compositing has cleaned up the blurred edges of the X-wing in this shot...
... as well as the Rebel transport.
More edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing.
In the original shot, Luke was translucent (note the speeder visible through his helmet). The other speeders also had heavy matte lines.
Digital compositing has resulted in more realistic blurring on high-speed models; also, in recompositing this, the sync of the the turning turret has been altered.
The exact sync of the overhead speeders has been changed in the process that has cleaned up their matte lines.
More edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing, as well as improved animated shadows.
The opacity of the speeder cockpit has been bolstered, and the edges smoothed on the background speeders.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing.
The smoke trail behind the distant speeder was originally hand-animated, before being replaced by a more realistic plume.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. Note that the path of the second speeder on the right has been altered in the composite
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. Note that the animation of the laser effect has been retimed
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. In the original footage, an animated shadow is scribbled in the ceiling of Luke's canopy.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. The order of the speeders' approach has been altered in the composite.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. The tow-rope has been thickened, and the speeder's shadow redone to better match the color and contour of the land.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. The tow-rope has been thickened.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. Originally, the speeder element was misaligned so that it did not properly go behind the walker legs.
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. The speeder on the right now goes behind the explosion.
The speeder that flies through the explosion on the right originally had a hand-animated glow applied to it.
AT-ST walker opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing
More snowspeeder opacity and edge-fixing thanks to digital compositing. The practical smoke trail is greatly enhanced in the new composite.
The AT-AT feet and surrounding miniature ground are more smoothly integrated into the background.
The AT-AT foot is more smoothly integrated into the live action background. It has also been repositioned to better match the perspective of the shot.
The AT-AT feet are more smoothly integrated into the background.
The Rebel transport is better matched to its surrounding, and its hand-drawn shadow is redone to better match the lighting of the scene.
Another shot with the recomposited transport.
The X-wing fighter's opacity and blurred matte edges have been improved through digital compositing.
Aside from cleaning up the garbage matte surrounding the foreground element, the new shot also colorizes R2-D2's panels to be blue instead of black...
The black version was used in bluescreen shots in the original trilogy.
Garbage matte artifacting around the TIE fighters has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around all the ships has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the larger asteroids has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the Falcon and some of the asteroids has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the Falcon has been cleaned up.
The composite of the bogwing pterodactyl-like creatures has been improved to have a more natural blur.
The original Emperor has been replaced by Ian McDiarmid in makeup for the 2004 DVD release. Also, the seam between the matte painting and live action set has been softened.
The original Emperor has been replaced by Ian McDiarmid in makeup for the 2004 DVD release.
The composite of the Millennium Falcon has been improved to reduce its harsh matte edge.
The composite of the bogwing pterodactyl-like creature has been improved to have a more natural blur.
The composite of the bogwing pterodactyl-like creature has been improved to have a more natural blur. Its timing has also been slightly altered, so that Luke is in a different position while it crosses frame.
Garbage matte artifacting around the most distant TIE fighters has been cleaned up.
Garbage matte artifacting around the Star Destroyer has been cleaned up.
The edge of the matte painting originally had heavy black seams surrounding the viewport that the officers stand at; the redone composite cleans up these edges.
When Captain Needa original stood up, the edges of his image trailed a blue fringe, the result of "bluespill." This has been cleaned up.
The blue buttons in Captain Needa's rank badge have been colorized; they were originally black in this bluescreen shot.
The matte painting originally had sunlight streaming through the trees, which did not match the lighting of previous shots. Also, the new version has a shadow added beneath the X-wing fighter.
New all-CG shots of the Millennium Falcon and the Slave I were added in the 1997 Special Edition
The composite of the cloud cars has been improved to reduce its harsh matte edge.
The shot has been zoomed in on, to provide a closer view of the principals. The background sky plate has also been replaced with one with a more tranquil flight path.
This shot has been zoomed in on, though the sky plate and model elements has remained the same size.
The composite of the Millennium Falcon and the cloud cars has been improved to reduce their harsh matte edges and better incorporate them in the color of the sky.
The shot has been zoomed in on, to provide a closer view of the principals.
The Falcon is recomposited, some new cloud cars are added, and the sky is slightly altered to better match previous shots.
A new cockpit shot added balloon-like floating spas to the skyline, and the all-digital fly-in sends the Falcon and its escorts through Cloud City.
The new Cloud City skyline includes the apartment building where Leia will later be seen in.
The background skyline has been changed, though the foreground platform and Falcon elements are reused from the original. What was once hand-drawn retro rockets have been replaced with composited steam elements.
This shot has more sky traffic, including a commuter tram that zips below the platform.
This shot also has more sky traffic, and now has a slight camera move added to it.
The view from the circular window now has the proper sky to match the previous shot, as well as buildings that move properly through perspective, as opposed to flat artwork.
The distant staircase now leads to an open-air concourse, digitally added.
The composite of the X-wing has been improved to reduce its harsh matte edge.
The original establishing shot of Cloud City had a cloud car fly towards camera. In the new version, introduced in 1997, the car is gone, but now the camera moves in towards the city, while a refinery platform floats nearby.
These new all-CG shots follow a cloud car through the Cloud City skyline.
Though much of the original matte painting was retained in the new shot, the main apartment building has been changed.
The original architecture did not portray a penthouse apartment, so the view out the windows had visible spokes, as opposed to open sky with a cloud car.
The end of this hallway has been opened up to provide a view of the exterior buildings.
This wall has been opened up to show the exterior buildings and even a moving elevator.
This recomposite also recolored R2-D2 to give him the proper blue panels instead of the black ones.
Though Han is wearing his white shirt in the original version, the lighting created the illusion that he was wearing a vest. Solo's shouldered were lightened in the 2004 version.
This shot has been transplanted outside, thanks to extensive rotoscoping and a digi-matte painting. Since the whole shot was reframed, moving the characters to the right, the right-side of R2-D2's corridor was closed in, to keep it in frame.
The outer wall has been turned into a window looking at the Slave I.
These two new shots were added in 1997 as part of Lando Calrissian's public address.
The outer wall has been turned into a window in this shot.
The composite of Luke has been improved to reduce his harsh matte edge and preserve the color of his photographic element.
The composite of Luke has been improved to reduce the harsh matte edges.
The sky background has been redone to better match the rest of the shots.
The composite of the Falcon has been improved to reduce the harsh matte edges.
A new series of digital shots tracks Vader's progress from a Cloud City landing platform to the skies above Bespin, added in the 1997 Special Edition.
Vader continues his voyage to his Super Star Destroyer, ultimately landing in its spacious hangar. These shots were added in the 1997 Special Edition.
The composite of Luke has been improved to reduce the harsh matte edges. Also, a large rectangular garbage matte artifact that surrounds Luke's element has been eliminated.
What was originally a blank white space has been replaced with a second set of hatch doors above Lando.
The composite of the TIE fighter has been improved to reduce the harsh matte edges.
Unused footage from Return of the Jedi stands in for the Super Star Destroyer hangar, resulting in a surprise cameo by Moff Jerjerrod.
The garbage matte artifacting around the pursuing TIE fighters has been reduced.
Because only one half of the Star Destroyer set was built, flopped footage represented the other half; the backwards image resulted in rank badges worn on the wrong side, which have been corrected in the 2004 DVD release.
These rank badges have been digitally moved to the correct side, and they have been colorized blue (they were originally black in bluescreen shots).
These rank badges have been digitally moved to the correct side.
The garbage matte artifacting surrounding the Super Star Destroyer has been reduced.
This officer's rank badge has been digitally moved onto the correct side of his uniform.
This shot originally had a flat image of the window as the cruiser turned away from the camera, resulting in a very flat image. In the Special Edition, perspective was added to the shot.
The size of Executive Producer title was reduced to match the other titles.
The Special Edition credits run longer than the original theatrical edition credits.
