PT Making My Day! - Pro-Prequel Articles

"Star Wars isnt' intended for kids!" Please explain the original Clone Wars Microseries, the Clone Wars and Rebels to me, those cartoons are for kids. The only carotons for adults are like Family Guy and South Park and King of the Hill and The Simpsons.

If you want a PG movie that's not for kids, that would be Raiders of the Lost Ark. Never heard of that being a childhood favorite.

 

TRACE....ON!

 

I think what George means when he says the films have kids in mind, is that GL makes the movies through the audio and visual medium. This is something children readily grasp. GL also likes to personify concepts in characters or in their visual/audio style. Children also grasp this. Young people in general don't get their undies wrapped in a bunch over dialogue or plot technicalities. Instead, frequently, they greet fantasy universes with eyes and ears wide open and are receptive to everything within it. They don't compare with our world and poo-poo the fantastic -- often times, kids and teens get what the movies are about and they love the whole thing because they soak it all in. When kids see Attack of the Clones, they don't see Hayden Christensen. They see Anakin Skywalker. As they should! Most adults are tremendously cynical and prefer instead to be critics, enjoying their own tastes while denigrating everything outside. By contrast, young people have fewer developed tastes, so they are open to learning about the world and accepting new things on their own terms. As long as it is noticed, the open mind will feel the thematic material rather than just think about it. Adults who keep that sense of openness, heart, and wonder are receptive to these films partly for that reason.

Also, when people say they can't believe, or don't believe, that George makes the movies for kids, they point to the content of the films. However, I would say this is direct evidence of one of Star Wars' greatest assets -- it doesn't talk down to young people. Most children or teen movies talk down to young people and just moralize at you simplistically. GL doesn't. Many old fairy tales, before the Disney era of kids movies, could be quite brutal. In a way, the darker moments of Star Wars adhere to that. GL doesn't treat the audience like they are delicate flowers; he respects young people and, like I said, doesn't treat them like they are stupid. Unfortunately, many movies for kids do that, so I kind of get why people would wonder about it, considering so many adults enjoy the films also because they hold a level of maturity throughout. I think the concepts are timeless and apply to any age, kids are just most open to receiving it.

And, in the case of characters like Anakin, going through the painfully awkward and difficult teen years, GL doesn't look down on it -- he presents it straight to you. I think that makes some people uncomfortable, as it is perhaps too reminiscent of their own teen awkwardness and emotional insecurity they'd prefer to forget. For this reason, I think it's the reason many people [primarily men] will go out of their way to denigrate Anakin and call him whiny, annoying, stupid, etc. Same thing with Luke. Same thing with Jar Jar. But a) those traits are seen less in the films and are instead more projections from uncomfortable audiences, and b) even if they were in the characters, that doesn't make them inherently bad. And this is tremendously healthy to show to children and young people, especially if they relate; GL doesn't judge, he just shows the circumstances, choices, and consequences in people's lives. I think young people can relate to characters like that, when it's not looked down upon in the films. It's why I think some people express disappointment and hurt when they run across PT haters for the first time. They never previously thought to judge Anakin or Jar Jar or anyone -- the films didn't indicate for them to -- but instead they run into many people, often emotionally disconnected from themselves, who absolutely destroy or make fun of the PT and the emotional honesty within them. Instead they replace it with cynicism and sarcasm and I think for some fans that's just a huge shock. The movies don't talk down at the characters or the audience. It lets you see what you want to see, and what you can relate to. And that's great. Unfortunately, for many people, especially older, they have little space or time for going outside of their emotional, philosophical, or artistic comfort zone, so if they see something truly different or honest like the PT, standing out amidst such Hollywood cynical, moralistic, and sarcastic films, they don't know how to react except with cynicism and sarcasm. The less imaginative types also have trouble with Star Wars.

Fortunately kids and young people -- and the adults who retain their youthful mind and spirit -- aren't like that. They can appreciate what is there. And that's the audience GL was going for. Not the 70's Dirty Harry or 90's Fight Club and Matrix audience. Hardened cynicism is not in GL's DNA, though critics love that stuff. That's not the audience he's shooting for. And it's probably that, in essence, which provokes GL's comments regarding making movies for young people -- they are for people who haven't completely become cynical and who have retained their inner youth and imagination. And this, I think, regardless of age is the group of people GL shoots for, and who can appreciate his movies.

 

xezene
Fantastic post - really get's to the heart of the matter.

I'm old enough to have been there at the beginning and I must say that everything can be explained by what you have just outlined about Lucas - who he is and what he is about.

I look back at films like E.T now with astonishment. Speilberg shares much with Lucas and a film like E.T. - made for kids but with the panache and maturity of a master filmaker at his peak just couldn't be made today. When George Lucas started with TPM he didn't think "mmm, what's hip now?", or "well I guess I better bring back the magc of Star Wars", he just picked up where he left off in 1983. Watch ROTJ then TPM and as you would expect TPM seams more like a 'sequel' to ROTJ than TFA. Which of course in a circular way it is. Why? Because it shares that similar none cynical spirit of the fantastic.

Lucas didn't give a cr@p about looking cool or having a kid in a film about racing space karts or whatever - he wasn't going to fundemnetally change his personality because in the interim a load of stoner nerds had grown up, and having shed thier awkward childhoods / adolescent years were expecting Alien crossed with Blade Runner filtered through the modern techno aestethic of the 90's.

Nope. Ironically Lucas was going to reboot Star Wars - not in a self conscious fan pandering way, but simply by presenting another one for a new generation.

He succeded admirably, and ironically unlike the younger supposedly with it kidults, he pushed the envelope of modern film making techniques to breaking point just as before, never for a second thinking everyone would end up in tears "but George we wanted rubber things and old looking films -- waaahh".

How embawessing.

But yeah you are spot on, and though it pains me to admit it there is and always was more Anakin in me than Han Solo.

How times have changed for me from the 70's. I don't know if the interenet has simply revealed everybody as being so cynical, bitter and full of self entitlement, or created that atmosphere, but whatever the kidults won in the end and now can watch Star Wars without embarrasment because "it's dark gritty and has no teddy armies in it anymore".

Well done. What a victory, why not solidify it by hiding the PT from your kids and really be proud of how finally melting your brothers stuff and putting the wrong heads on the wrong soldiers all these years drove the guy so mad he had to finally say - "here here, have my toys then - make you own War thing"

 

Sadly, some people actually do that.

 

i don't know if i ever heard of kidults before this thread, but

 

Yeah I have come across this issue many times. One guy seamed really worried because the kid loved TCW's and he realised he was going to want to see Anakin and Obi-Wan 'for real' so to speak, so that meant he would want to see the PT, obviously not ROTS until old enough, but the tone of the discussion was to me quite disturbing. This guy had genuine problems about it. It was if he was worried about his kid getting a computer and suddenly being bombarded with porn or the horrors of the wars in the middle east.

Nope. Just some fun films about space soldiers and robots he is probably going to love. Ironically of course it was the fear of that love that was the problem - obviously if he thought the kid would just say "these suck dad" there would be no reason for anxiety.

 

Like if I never get enough news like these shaking my faith towards humanity and wondering where everyone is going, and making me more depressed...

Some people really need to consult a doctor...

 

xezene Great post above, I finally had some time to read it. I agree with everything you said: Star Wars has always been addressed to a large audience. Not just children.

 

his kids liking something he doesn't.....i have this feeling that will probably happen quite a few times

 

I'm sure this article has been linked before, but I'm too lazy to scour this thread to make sure. It's also hyperlinked in my signature.

http://www.brianonstarwars.com/2014/05/star-wars-prequels-are-just-as-good.html

 

http://www.retrozap.com/beyond-good-and-evil-in-the-prequels-moral-ambiguity/

 

that article brings up a good point. If you hate jar jar: channel it towards Bieber

 

I don't agree. People don't need to channel their hate towards anyone, much less towards some young celebrities that weren't prepared for life in the media spotlight. If you must, hate murderers, thieves and rapists that have the death sentence in 12 systems.

 

i was a joke

 

Actually it's PG because at the time of it's release, PG-13 was not part of the rating system.

It was another Indiana Jones movie, The Temple of Doom (as well as Gremlins) that forced the creation of PG-13. They were both given PG ratings, but, many parents were shocked at the blood and violence of the movies, relying on the PG rating as guidance that the movie was good for smaller kids. Thus PG-13 was created to better guide parents in their decision making.


Edit: It's important to note that no such outrage was levied against the Star Wars movies of that same era...

 

Not an article, but I'm watching the new The Flash episode and Cisco made a prequel trilogy reference with a straight face. He mentioned Anakin and Midichlorians without even an attempt at making snide remarks about them. I'm very pleased about that.

 

Which episode was that?

 

https://clonecorridor.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/star-wars-art-authors-acting-audiences/
Has this already been posted? It’s about Lucas’s six movies and not about the prequels only, but I thought it was an interesting read.

The gist of the article is that Lucas’s movies are art, not products whose sole purpose is to please the consumers. The article focuses especially on the acting choices of the films, and criticisms of “wooden” acting.

 

Versus Doom, the one that aired this week on Tuesday.

 

An another article comparing Anakin and Othello. And also both as Aristotelian tragic heroes

http://www.lonestar.edu/18163.htm

 

http://nilbogsstorybookland.blogspot.ca/2014/06/without-computers-redux.html

 

It's not exactly a pro-prequel article, but it's an interesting fact:

And some people keep saying that the prequels are universally hated...

 

Empire is #5

 

...but...but it is da best Star Wars EVA!