“You can make this picture for teenagers, late teenagers, early twenties, or you play it for kids, and that’s what we’re going for, eight- and nine-year-olds. This is a Disney picture.”
- George Lucas, quoted in Dale Pollock’s Skywalking
Sounds to me like GL considered more than one audience for which to tailor the film. But I’m sure this won’t do anything to convince you that SW wasn’t always intended as a “Disney picture” from the get-go.
It won’t, because there’s nothing in that quote to convince me that he ever intended it for a different target audience. He was heavily inspired by the old adventure serials of his childhood, and that’s the feel he was going for. I’m not saying it’s just a dumb Disney movie, there’s still plenty of stuff for adults to enjoy, but it was mostly intended for a family audience.