Our review and package preview of the new “Never Give Up, Never Surrender” Edition
Galaxy Quest 20th Anniversary “Never Give Up, Never Surrender Edition” Blu-ray Steelbook hits shelves October 22 from Paramount Pictures. [update: some sources including Amazon and blu-ray.com are reporting that this release date as been pushed to Nov 5.]
In celebration of the 1999 film’s 20th Anniversary, Paramount is re-releasing Galaxy Quest on Blu-ray in a shiny new Steelbook edition.
While the film did moderately well in its initial run, the passage of years has given it far more clout as new fans succumb to its charms thanks in part to the real life franchise success of Star Trek and Star Wars, and a hip ensemble of actors.
The film’s cast of oddballs has yielded many familiar faces; emerging supporting actors like Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, Rainn Wilson, Justin Long, Missi Pyle, and Corbin Bleu have become recognizable film and TV stars, lending to the film’s cult credibility.
But beyond such factors, it’s just a really great film with a lot of love for its characters. The in-movie cast of Galaxy Quest is a group of washed-up actors who are legendary in their sphere of influence but feel insignificant in the bigger picture, reduced to commercial and convention appearances that cash in on their one big success. The aliens who enlist their help, the Thermians, are hilariously awkward but noble and honorable people, and their goodness is key to reigniting the can-do attitude of our cynical protagonists as they take them across the galaxy for one last — and their first real — adventure.
But most of all, Galaxy Quest is a love letter to fans, embodied in Justin Long and his pals. The dorks who scour the Internet searching for every scrap of trivia and obsess over minutiae of their favorite science fiction franchise and even create their own fan theories. In the end, they’re the unlikely heroes who save the day.
I won’t go too deep on the movie since this is a repackage and most of you already love it and are just here to see this new edition unboxed — so here it is!
The text on the back cover is a shiny texture that catches the light differently based on your angle — I tried to capture that here:
Special Features and Extras
Aside from the Steelbook packaging, the 20th Anniversary is, as best as I can tell, identical in content to the prior releases. The special features are the same and the disc itself even bears a 2017 date.
Galactopedia — a trivia experience that goes deep on geeky lore, explorable on the screen as the movie progresses. I couldn’t screencap this so this is actually a photograph of what it looks like in action (the curve is my TV, not the image).
Historical Documents: The Story of Galaxy Quest (18:13) — Making of featurette
Never Give Up, Never Surrender: The Intrepid Crew of the NSEA Protector (23:27)
By Grabthar’s Hammer, What Amazing Effects (7:02)
Alien School: Creating the Thermian Race (5:22)
Actors in Apace (6:09)
Sigourney Weaver Raps (1:59) — as she explains in the intro, the rap was actually a birthday greeting to her agent, but with several cast members jumping in, it’s a fun extra for fans (interesting to think that today this content would probably be a social media post)
Deleted Scenes (7:36)
Trailer (1:55) — An HD trailer is also included on the disc (though not listed among the features on the packaging).
Thermian Audio Track — A novelty track. You can watch the film the same way the Thermians watched their historical documents (which is to say, in high pitched squeaks and squeals).
A/V Out.
Further reading:
A/V Out.
Get it at Amazon:
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Galaxy Quest 20th Anniversary Steelbook: https://amzn.to/31H15jX
Further reading:
https://cinapse.co/galaxy-quest-two-cents-bids-farewell-to-alan-rickman-c1d1e6b83208
Except where noted, all 16:9 screen images in this review are direct captures from the disc(s) in question with no editing applied, but may have compression or resizing inherent to file formats and Medium’s image system. All package photography was taken by the reviewer.
https://cinapse.co/galaxy-quest-two-cents-bids-farewell-to-alan-rickman-c1d1e6b83208