Well, I dont know about these young kids idolizing Anakin. However, when i was little, during the time of the OT, my favorite character was Darth Vader. Plus I was a girl, so I don't know what I was thinking exactly, but I think it may have to do with little kids wanting to be powerful. I've heard it described before too. From the age of around 3-5 I liked Darth Vader the best, then after that I moved on to Luke, Leia and Han being my faves. Little kids desire power because they don't have any, and are dependent on everyone else for everything practically in their lives.

And I recently rediscovered Superman. I watched 1 and 2 when they came on tv as a kid, and enjoyed them, but they never really got to me, I think. Now after watching especially 1, I feel like it's a treasure I never realized before. I consider it one of the great blockbusters, and there really are so few of those ever made.