Originally posted by: CO
Text
But Adam you proved my point, because the kiddiness of the ewoks hurts the seriousness of ROTJ. The great thing about ANH & ESB is the characters were funny, but they were not made just for comic relief. They were funny in the situation bickering at each other, and it doesn't come out as forced or just for a laugh. The PT Jar Jar was made just for comic relief and it just sticks out of the scenes.
Look at Back to the Future, I love that movie, probably right behind SW in my book, but it is a damn funny movie, but they didn't have any characters in there just to get laughs. Zemeckis used Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, who had great chemistry, and made it funny that Marty McFly's mom had the hots for him. There was nothing forced where you knew the director said, "OK this character is just for humor, that is his job."
That is what Jar Jar was for, and it failed. But there was a bigger issue that TPM really went too kiddy than it needed to, and I am telling you alot of fans who are younger than us who loved it, in 10-15 years are going to cringe at the humor. Trust me, I LOVED ROTJ at 10 years old, 20 years later, I still like it, mostly for Luke, Leia, and Han, but I realize this movie is alot more kiddie than ANH & ESB, and that is one of the reasons it doesn't hold up well. It isn't about just a dark movie, cause ANH is a great movie that isn't dark, its just about not catering to a younger audience that makes the movie juvenile at times, and that is my big beef with TPM.
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi[/
It's the same thing with the Ewoks in ROTJ. Lucas used ewoks because he thought it would be good for the story. He needed a primitive race. He knew he couldn't use wookiees, so what was he to do? If he made a species similar to wookiees, everyone would say it was a copy of his idea of wookiees. So... to paraphrase Lucas "he chopped the wookiees in half, and they became ewoks." I don't think it was for marketing purposes. Yeah, I know kids loved them, but I just can't see Lucas sacrificing his "vision" for cash.
It's the same thing with the Ewoks in ROTJ. Lucas used ewoks because he thought it would be good for the story. He needed a primitive race. He knew he couldn't use wookiees, so what was he to do? If he made a species similar to wookiees, everyone would say it was a copy of his idea of wookiees. So... to paraphrase Lucas "he chopped the wookiees in half, and they became ewoks." I don't think it was for marketing purposes. Yeah, I know kids loved them, but I just can't see Lucas sacrificing his "vision" for cash.
Text
But Adam you proved my point, because the kiddiness of the ewoks hurts the seriousness of ROTJ. The great thing about ANH & ESB is the characters were funny, but they were not made just for comic relief. They were funny in the situation bickering at each other, and it doesn't come out as forced or just for a laugh. The PT Jar Jar was made just for comic relief and it just sticks out of the scenes.
Look at Back to the Future, I love that movie, probably right behind SW in my book, but it is a damn funny movie, but they didn't have any characters in there just to get laughs. Zemeckis used Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, who had great chemistry, and made it funny that Marty McFly's mom had the hots for him. There was nothing forced where you knew the director said, "OK this character is just for humor, that is his job."
That is what Jar Jar was for, and it failed. But there was a bigger issue that TPM really went too kiddy than it needed to, and I am telling you alot of fans who are younger than us who loved it, in 10-15 years are going to cringe at the humor. Trust me, I LOVED ROTJ at 10 years old, 20 years later, I still like it, mostly for Luke, Leia, and Han, but I realize this movie is alot more kiddie than ANH & ESB, and that is one of the reasons it doesn't hold up well. It isn't about just a dark movie, cause ANH is a great movie that isn't dark, its just about not catering to a younger audience that makes the movie juvenile at times, and that is my big beef with TPM.
Too true, all too true.