Who do you feel that Star Wars is primarily "for"?

Just your own opinion here... because a bunch of different people seem to have different ideas who it's targeted at.

 

None of the above. No, wait, all of the above.

 

I feel that SW is made with a target audience of 7-12 in mind. However, it's themes and characters appeal to those of all ages, adults included.

The EU is adult-leaning, however.

 

George Lucas is oddly absent from that list.

 

I don't think there is a specific age group that it would be directed to. Just like Harry Potter. All kinds of people love it and it's good that way.

 

The thing with Harry Potter is that it started off very kiddie, and got darker and more mature as the books came out over a series of years. So if you started as a kid reading the first one in 1997, you'd be an adult, or at least in your late teens, by the time the last one came out in 2007. The subject matter of the books matured along with you.

Of course that only worked for first generation readers. Anyone starting now can read all the HP books right after eachother. Or more likely, watch the movies and then maybe read the books... but most likely not.

 

I've always felt that, as a whole, Star Wars is—and as a vast multi-media franchise revolving around a larger, unified universe, should always be—accessible to people of all ages. Everyone of every age should have some manner of Star Wars which they can enjoy, whether it be in film, in print, on television, or via gaming. The scope of this universe is literally too big to have to narrow down the demographic focus to such a degree that anyone need feel alienated, either from content that is too mature or not mature enough.

 

Disney shareholders.

 

To put it bluntly, I feel George Lucas as aiming to do something incredibly difficult with SW77, that is, harmonizing a message which purposefully targets many different age groups (running the gamut from child to adult) into a successful, cohesive work of commercial art.

As I said in the other thread the OP hints at, when I watch the first film, for me, the proof is all right there, expertly woven into the film's narrative. And as I also said, I think George knew exactly what he was doing. Incidentally, I believe that a big part of the reason it worked was because of the way Lucas deftly played the monomyth, striking at the foundation of people's understanding of how story works (though that's a topic for another thread).

The only real surprise for George was probably that he actually pulled it off. He made it work, we all bought it, and the template was laid for Star Wars' future. Certainly, I feel other projects - novels, video games, comics, children's books - seem to be clearly aimed at particular demographics, but this original blueprint was closely followed for the remainder of the films, anyway (though not always with as subtle a touch - the cracks sometimes show - the characters and situations aimed directly at the kids in later films being one example). This aiming for a broad appeal is something I'd certainly expect not to change for at least Episodes 7, 8 and 9.

 

Everybody. Star Wars is one of those movies that can appeal to somebody in every setting, poor or rich, young or old, regardless of race, nationality, or gender.

The only one I felt seemed to lean more on the young audience side was TPM. Despite the child main character which was written to appeal to children, the child-orientated humor seemed heavy in this one, even moreso than the Clone-Wars cartoons (TCW alone appearing on TNT and Spike for a while, and on Adult Swim every now and then). Jar-Jar (as said so many times now) is unneeded added humor. Silly, floppy movements, and an accent that can be seen as clownish and funny to younger viewers. Then there's the pit droids that Jar Jar screws around with that seem to be there for even more childish humor. There's a serious lack of verbal banter that was in the OT and the rest of the PT. TPM just seemed like Lucas trying to needlessly cash in on the younger audience, as Star Wars had seemed to appeal to a teenage audience back in '77.

Because Disney is a company built around marketing to children, more TPM styled humor is what I fear for the upcoming SW movies.

 

How rude!

 

Is that a screen cap from a game or was the CGI in TPM way worse than I remember it being?

 

^ +2

I've been a Star Wars fan since I was 5, my parents had no trouble finding me content then and I have no problem finding more mature content now, with the bulk of it being fun and safe for all ages.

 

And therein lies its beauty.

 

8-14 year-old children of all ages.

 

I believe it was Stan Lee, in referencing his writing of The Fantastic Four, that said that he wrote a comic book that HE would enjoy, and that he did not believe in writing in a dumbed down manner for kids. He didn't want to do it and he didn't feel like kids wanted to be talked down (or written down) to.

I feel like it's the same for Lucas. He drew upon sources that he liked for inspiration to create a story that appealed to him, and that however many years later - until his retirement - he still enjoyed playing in. In that way the films are "for" him - an x year old man (however old he was in 77). He made a story with basic archetypes in a universe derived from a hodgepodge of inspiration, and at least not until Jar Jar (or maybe the Ewoks), I didn't feel like he was dumbing anything down for kids. They could enjoy it, adults could enjoy it, people of all ages could.

Having said that, there are definitely instances of targeting kids with things like Lego Star Wars, the presence of fart and poop jokes in TPM, etc. And Lucas in more recent years has insisted that Star Wars was always meant for the kids. And Star Wars has grown so big that it doesn't only carry with it a single tone, but definitely has niche products in the EU that target specifically older or younger audiences. But back in 77 and at least through to ESB, I would say that Lucas had the same basic philosophy as Lee.

 

I would say that overall Star Wars is for all ages. Some individual aspects of the franchise may appeal to younger kids, some may appeal more to older kids and-or teens, and some may appeal more to adults. However, I generally consider Star Wars to be a franchise that everyone can enjoy.

 

I think the words that make all the difference here, though, are "made for."
That doesn't mean "Who can appreciate it now?" but "Who did Lucas actually have in mind?" We know all ages can appreciate it, because we're here right now. But it certainly wasn't made for adults, and there were many people who were adults in 1977 who were immune to the seeds of nostalgia that it planted, and it shows. I tend to think there are relatively few people over the age of 65 (so, in their late 20's in 1977) who really genuinely love Star Wars. Those who do are probably the most young at heart.

So, my point is, most of us love Star Wars because we grew up with it, and I think almost anybody would say, "Made for younger people, but older people can enjoy it." Still, there is a qualification to the word "can." In a way, the very nature of something made for everyone is that there are those who will inevitably exclude themselves from that (or, conversely, exclude others who are not like themselves).

Not that any of it really matters to this precise degree, except for using this data to tell off dumb tweens on the SW Facebook page who actually try to say that Star Wars is supposed to be for adults (yes, I have seen this A LOT, disappointingly enough).

 

I agree.

I disagree.

I feel that Lucas purposefully and skillfully crafted the original film for the widest possible demographic. Everyone. Kids, but by no means just kids. And then when it proved an historic success, the dye was cast for the future of the franchise. But you know this. We've discussed it elsewhere.

And it's okay that we disagree. A good thing, even. I'm only disappointed that it "disappoints you" that some people feel SW was "supposed to be for adults" (though I can understand frustration with know-it-all tweens).

I'm by no means disappointed that we disagree.

 

The idea that demographics have anything to do with the enjoyment of a film is absurd. It's the same set of thinking that implies that children are stupid and therefore must be talked down to in films made for them.

 

I meant there's no part of it that is exclusively for adults. It's easy to answer broadly, but think about this: how precisely does one go about making something for everyone? All I mean is, I feel like certain questions would have been asked on set, and the question "Is X going to alienate children to the detriment of the greater film?" and if the answer was "Yes," then X would be struck from the film (though remember, I said "to the detriment of the greater film," meaning something that would push it over the edge as a whole). On the other hand, I think there are things about it which could easily alienate adults (particularly the "adultiest" of adults) which were left in anyway. To me, that means it's child-leaning, which means that it is, for all intents and purposes, made for kids.

I'm talking about kids saying things like "this Jedi youngling stuff is B.S., Star Wars is supposed to be for ADULTS!" which is almost an exact quote.

But I'd be interested to hear, what do you think about the lack of a senior fanbase? As in, what that says about nostalgia factoring into our viewpoints on Star Wars as adults, since on average, people who were adults with their own kids in 1977 seem to make up a fairly small part of the Star Wars fanbase.

My whole thing is, there are individual perspectives which one might come across, wherein a person doesn't want to think of him/herself as an adult enjoying something that is for kids, so he/she tries to say that it's just as much for him as it is for kids. Then, when something "kiddy" pops up in Star Wars, that individual loses his/her **** bigtime. To me, there's something off about that.

That's fair as a viewer, but I don't know how one would expect a TV producer or an exec at a kid-directed TV network to be run without a basic consideration of these ideas. I mean, it's proven that demographics exist... and maybe we're not talking about individuals here, but neither are networks.

 

It's for ages 1 to 100. Get out, all you 100+ year olds.

 

That is a very good point. When Star Wars, as in the original Star Wars, I very much believe that the film was targeted at the teen/young adult crowd. At the end of the day, I felt like it was a series meant to mature with it's audience. That's really what the OT was - a coming of age story that is a product of the 1970's Youth in Rebellion era. It starts out with a young farm boy with really no conflict to deal with who wants to run off and do bigger and better things. Once he does, he starts off with things like "sticking it to the Man" by blowing up The Man's expensive space station, but in the end has to deal with returning home and eventually with familial issues and Luke now having to deal with serious issues beyond merely living a life in youthful Rebellion.

 

Star Wars is meant for all ages.