Monkey Island
Oct 2, 2014 5:53:07 GMT -5
Post by Gendo Ikari on Oct 2, 2014 5:53:07 GMT -5
Necro-posting! I recently and finally played the two Special Editions. Second one is miles better than the first (i was particularly impressed at how most backgrounds are practically painted over the originals, in every little detail), but both were still worth my time (I still managed to finish the first game quickly by memory, and had little trouble with the second episode).
Since the article mentions than in the MI1SE, the Sam & Max idol in front of the Giant Monkey Head is changed to a Purple Tentacle in the new graphics, it may have mentioned that the same happens in MI2SE, in the costume shop in Booty Island: in Classic Mode you see a Max costume there, while the new grahpics have the Tentacle.
The most interesting tidbit the article may add is the fact that, around the early 2000s, an actual Monkey Island animated movie was being planned at ILM but ultimately cancelled. For years the only source about the project having existed was Dominic Armato, but only in 2011, with a compilation rerelease of the two SEs, something more surfaced: among the extras is an entire storyboard of that movie.
Now, in itself and to an unknowing public, it may have been fine, but it probably would have disappointed fans of the games the most, since it takes characters and themes from the games and reuses them for a new story. Among other things; Guybrush begins as an humble young fisherman with a pet monkey, made a pirate by events, composing a ragtag crew called "The Scumm Bar Pirates"; Elaine is the captain of a government fleet that constantly fights LeChuck; the latter would spend a lot of the screen time as a human before he and his crew are turned undead by a voodoo spell gone wrong; a literal Monkey Island (i.e. populated by a lot of monkeys) is involved; at the end, LeChuck is swallowed by a sea monster.
One can only speculate the reasons the project didn't go on: fear of negative buzz generated by fans of the games, belief that the Monkey Island name wasn't too marketable anymore, and the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie during those same years (with ILM heavily involved, by the way) which may have made executives believe it would have been redundant.
Since the article mentions than in the MI1SE, the Sam & Max idol in front of the Giant Monkey Head is changed to a Purple Tentacle in the new graphics, it may have mentioned that the same happens in MI2SE, in the costume shop in Booty Island: in Classic Mode you see a Max costume there, while the new grahpics have the Tentacle.
The most interesting tidbit the article may add is the fact that, around the early 2000s, an actual Monkey Island animated movie was being planned at ILM but ultimately cancelled. For years the only source about the project having existed was Dominic Armato, but only in 2011, with a compilation rerelease of the two SEs, something more surfaced: among the extras is an entire storyboard of that movie.
Now, in itself and to an unknowing public, it may have been fine, but it probably would have disappointed fans of the games the most, since it takes characters and themes from the games and reuses them for a new story. Among other things; Guybrush begins as an humble young fisherman with a pet monkey, made a pirate by events, composing a ragtag crew called "The Scumm Bar Pirates"; Elaine is the captain of a government fleet that constantly fights LeChuck; the latter would spend a lot of the screen time as a human before he and his crew are turned undead by a voodoo spell gone wrong; a literal Monkey Island (i.e. populated by a lot of monkeys) is involved; at the end, LeChuck is swallowed by a sea monster.
One can only speculate the reasons the project didn't go on: fear of negative buzz generated by fans of the games, belief that the Monkey Island name wasn't too marketable anymore, and the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie during those same years (with ILM heavily involved, by the way) which may have made executives believe it would have been redundant.