PT Child Anakin to appeal to children?

Get rid of all that prophecy stuff and marathon podrace scenes and devote some more time to the tumultuous events rounded off at the end of ROTS in about five minutes.

 

I LOVE the podrace scenes... I want more... and I know I shouldn't.

 

I don't mind the podrace per se, even if it is a bit long, but if GL is going to stick to pretty much 6 hours for the trilogy, I can think of better use of 20 minutes or whatever it was.

 

The whole point of the podrace was to set up Anakin's skill as a pilot, because Obi-Wan tells Luke about it later. If Lucas had just used the ending scene with the droid ship, it would've come off as coincidence.

 

Wrapping up climactic events is usually fairly challenging when you have stories as expansive and dramatic as SW, Harry Potter or even LOR. The journey itself is where the interesting portions of the story lays. And the pod race is part of the journey.

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Well, regardless of child Anakin appealing to children, TPM was the ROTJ of the PT, the kid friendly one of the trilogy (no coincidence those are my least favorite in each trilogy); when JJ Binks showed up, it felt almost as out of place as dropping Dumbo into Dune. Don't get me wrong, I like all of the SW movies, and respect that they are designed to appeal to all ages. I just felt TPM went to far with the kiddie characters; they were just incongruent with the movie.

Others in this thread have made good points about why it was a good idea to show Anakin's origins beginning at an early age. And really, it wasn't the child Anakin that bothered me; so as far as my personal preference, I guess I could go either way in terms of Anakin's age in the first movie of the PT.

So to answer the larger question of whether TPM was put together to appeal to kids, I am going to say yes, but I don't think Lucas necessarily put Anakin in as a child for that purpose; I wouldn't assume that he changed his original vision of Anakin's age just for that purpose. He made it plenty kid-friendly aside from Anakin.

 

I had a lot of problems with Ep1 when I first saw it, but boy-Anakin was never one of them. I really enjoy the dialogue between Qui-gon and Anakin which was a uniquely adult-child dynamic.

 

Yes, I know he was 25 when they filmed ANH, but he looks very young. He has that Michael J. Fox pretty boy quality -- a high voice, pretty hair, short, small build etc. When I said he looked like a young teenager, I didn't mean he looked like a 15 year-old. I meant he looked young for his age in the film, which was 19. There are some 19 year-olds who look 24-26, and some 25 year-olds who look 18, even younger (Justin Beiber looks 15 to me and he's 19; that "Call Me Maybe" singer looks about 18 or so, and she's 27). Plus, when you take that films always use older actors to play high school students, then it seems to me that Luke in ANH really looks totally like a teenager, and not like a man, which is not true about many 19 year-olds who already have some more manly characteristics.

 

Yeah I have to agree, when I saw ANH for the first time I initially thought Hamill was in his late teens. That one scene where he discovers his aunt and uncle corpses, he really looks a young kid and played it brilliantly. even in the post crash he still looked very young, esp in ROTJ he could pass for someone in his early 20's.

 

Obi-wan never said that he found Anakin. He just said, "When I first knew him", not, "When I first discovered your father..." which is not a mistake.

Which fits the Darth Vader portion of the story, in that Vader and Obi-wan had marked tension between them which set them on their path towards the duel. I believe Lucas even indicated as much that there had been tension between the two, when Vader was still separate from Anakin.

 

That's true, and don't get me wrong, I don't hate the podrace. But when this came up once before I remember going back and having a look at the time apportioned to some of these things.

From memory, from the time Qui gon hatches his scheme to wager with Watto over a podrace to the time he collects on the deal is about 25 minutes of film time. Granted, that's not all race, but you could say that including the build up and immediate resolution, the pod race section of the film takes about that long. If you track back about the same time span from the end of ROTS you land part way through the two duels if memory serves, so between then and the end we see the duels conclude, Anakin immolated, Yoda fleeing from Sidious, Padme giving birth to the twins, dying and having a funeral, Yoda and Obiwan discussing and deciding what to do with the twins and discussing Quigon's special force abilities, Vader being rescued by Sidious from Mustafar, built into his suit and screaming nooooooo, the twins being delivered to their new homes, gasp for breath, roll end credits. I may have missed something.

So yes, I agree with what you say in principle, but aren't some of these elements part of the journey too, and fairly crucial ones to be dealt with so quickly?

 

Just seems like a pointless change imo. Yeah I'm not Lucas and he can do what he likes (and he does obviously) but not setting a firm foundation for Anakin and Obi-Wan in TPM was a waste. Anakin and Obi-Wan being tense with each other would be fine if they had more than 30 seconds interaction in TPM. Biggest wasted opportunity of the PT by far followed by the Rebellion not being shown being created in ROTS or Bail Organa and Alderaan featured more in the PT.

 

You see I love the dynamic between Anakin and Obi-Wan. For me their relationship come off straight from a typical kung fu movie. The master (Obi Wan) always warning his student being stern and having discipline. The student (Anakin) having this unique talent but is arrogant, impulsive and believes his own hype. Their Bickering is something that friends do and despite the tension you can really see they care for each other. Yes Obi wan is a pain but he does not to it annoy Anakin, but because he truly cares for him and has his best interests at heart. Anakin like a lot of teenagers always have that love/hate relationship, but under that facade he truly cares for him and would do anything for him if he was in danger. That's why I love the ending at the end of ROTJ. For all the **** they've been through, they can stand beside each other and finally restore that lost friendship and even strengthen it through the afterlife.

 

I think making Anakin a teen would be just as marketable when appealing to kids. I can understand people wanting to see an older Anakin be more effective in the Starfighter, but the emotional impact (to me, at least) is more important to the overall story. Having a younger Anakin just happened to work out with podracing since its mainly small species that race pods.

 

Anakin just flying around in the battle of Naboo unlike Luke at the Battle of Yavin is lame.

 

A firm foundation of what, exactly? Animosity? Friendship? The story never said how they felt about each other at first.

Why?

 

Exactly. By showing Anakin with Qui-Gon and Padme but leaving out Obi-Wan was a missed opportunity.
All Anakin did was spin, go left and fire a torpedo. I couldn't care about that battle. Luke at Yavin was so much better.

 

It wasn't about being exactly like Luke. It was about showing how Anakin was unique among the pilots. He followed his instincts and it lead him to victory. The Force was guiding him.

 

I don't think GL decided on Anakin being a child for the purpose of appealing to children. He wanted Anakin's attachment to his mother to be the starting point of his fall. I think the problem is that this would have worked just as well with a teenager of a similar age to ANH Luke. The choice of Anakin's age really starts to fall apart when we get to the romance with Padme. Had he been a little older in TPM, his reintroduction to Padme in Ep II would have been way more believable.

 

I was 8 myself in 1999, and didn't really find Anakin the most appealing. At the time i loved the film, but saw Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon as the leads. The idea that kids need kids in a work to be interested is really flawed. Granted i had seen and was largely in love with the OT, but even so.
Really, kid anakin is fine, but should have had a smaller role in order to really let the movie be about Obi. I don't mean a 'small' role, i just mean not a 'save everyone out of what seems like pure luck at the end' role. Then AOTC could have been even more from Anakin's point of view, to make up for that.

 

Not too late for that, you know.

 

The thing about Lucas is that he's kind of big on creative surprises. So like, you do get brilliant twists like "No, I am your father" which have never really been done in fantasy before.

But with all creativity...sometimes the coin lands tails.

TPM could have been a solidly good film if only--

Anakin were Luke Skywalker-age.

Jar Jar...wasn't there.

Midichlorians weren't in the picture.

There are some very good elements to it. The special effects probably are the best ever done in any star wars films. I'm including the OT and the subsequent PT. Many more real models are used in TPM than in the next two films. It is hands down superior to AOTC and ROTS.

But, let me explain...

Anakin being Luke-age would have set up an interesting parallel with Luke. So when you hit the OT, you worry, "OMG, it could happen again"

Jar Jar simply should have been toned down a little. At least replace the voice with something else.

It would have been far more interesting if Qui-Gon had simply intuited that Anakin was strong in the Force and on this feeling alone strove to have him trained. Just a feeling.

 

Except there is a parallel with Luke. Anakin and Luke both face the dark side because of their attachments to someone that they care for. With Anakin it was Shmi and Padme, with Luke it was Obi-wan, Han and Leia. The differences in age is important in that it sets up why Anakin fails and why Luke succeeds. Anakin have a strong attachment to his mother, due to being separated for ten years from when he was a boy, makes him more emotionally vulnerable compared to Luke, who is legally an adult when he is forced to leave home. Anakin wanted to stay to protect his mother, while Luke was staying out of obligation to his family.

AOTC and TESB parallel each other in that both Skywalker men suffer from visions of their loved ones in danger, which leads them both to leave their sanctuary and go out into the world and become tempted by the dark side of the Force. ROTS and ROTJ raise the stakes by having a scenario in which the Skywalker men are forced to make a choice, in order to protect their loved ones.

Why?