They handled everything just fine. They’re smart kids and we’ve always been open and honest about life and death and whatnot. But we’ve also been very clear about reality vs tv and movie magic. They are very aware that what they’re seeing onscreen is not real no matter how convincing it looks. (In fact, my five year old was incredibly excited about the fact that what he was going to see was “all real and not pretend!” when I took them to see the Apollo 11 documentary at a local theater earlier this summer. I suppose that’s another important point; I’ve exposed them to a lot of stuff like that that many young kids might not sit through these days).
As for the PT, nah. I’m not interested in sitting through those any time soon. They can watch those on their own time in a few years if they want. Regarding the newest films, in short: not yet. I feel like there’s some things in those that are still too intense, scary, or otherwise just not appropriate for kids so young. I mean, all the Disney era films are PG-13 and I feel each warrants that rating for one reason or another.
Incidentally my five year old was asking me about the other Star Wars movies as I tucked him in tonight. I explained that some weren’t appropriate for children his age (something we’ve told them about many things before, not just movies). I also told him how when I was a kid, the three he’s now seen were the only Star Wars movies there were and that they are still the best ones (a little white lie since I actually like R1 and TFA a bit more than ROTJ). I’m not sure he’s totally convinced but that at least satiated him for bed time. I suspect he’ll keep asking about watching the other Star Wars movies…