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Was star wars truly meant for children?

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Lucas now more than ever claims star wars  is meant for little kids and he usually says that as a reason why their is a jar jar and other childish antics in the PT films. He says  "kids love them"

I have a hard time  believing he started star wars with little kids in mind.  When you watch a new hope. Which is the only OT films that truly has lucas stamp on it in the same fashion as the PT films. He wrote it. He directed it. The only  real difference is with a new hope unlike the pt films he had talented people  surrounding him. Kurtz especially.

When you watch a new hope  you do not  see any jar jar type creatures that clearly play to the little kiddies. You do not have the  3rd grade humor that the PT films have. It is a fantasy picture but it  has adult elements and it is a serious film.  It is not dumb downed. More than that when you  look at the long lines  around the theaters back then and  the hundreds of people stretched around the block you see mostly  adults. You see adults getting married in star wars shirts, adults dancing to  star wars disco.  Sure star wars appealed to kids  just as much as adults but the point is with the OT films you could be either a child or adult  and they appealed to both. With the PT films they appeal to mostly children while  adults look at them and shake their head at all the childish and silly scenes and childish screenplays. The OT films had a sense  or  seriousness about them. It was a galaxy suffering under the rule of an evil empire. With heros struggling to restore freedom. That is not childish  in anyway. THe PT story arc was suppose to be about the rise and fall of a republic. With the guardians and heros of that republic being hunted down and killed all the while a WAR was suppose to be going on. (the clone wars)  how did lucas get childish immature ideas  out of that back story?

Now all lucas wants to say is  'these  pictures dont have to be good or serious they are meant for children.

That is what he says now but those of us who are old enough to remember  how he us to be and have access to old magazine interviews know the truth. he was lucas comment on that topic back in 1980

 

"Star Wars was done with all the energy and intelligence and thought that I could muster. it was not done like "Oh, this is just a kids movie , so we don't have to worry about it" it was done like  "this is going to be the best movie that can possibly be made under the circumstances" I think that because of that attitude, star wars shines among all the other films that are done in the science fiction genre." - George Lucas circa 1980 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Quite so, quite so.  My dad was 22 when Star Wars came out and he went to see it three times in less than a week.  The youngest of my aunts was 12 at the time and became utterly obsessed with it.  She was the one who later got me into it, when I was 7.  It really is a film for all ages.

Now 7 may have been a bit young for Empire, because I was utterly freaked out and dismayed by it, but I suppose I was probably a bit oversensitive back then, and at any rate it had such gravitas and depth that it really stayed with me regardless.  Jedi is a bit more of a kid's movie than the other two, but still has enough weight to be worthwhile.  But the prequels, by contrast, are easy to grow out of once you're able to see past the shiny surface to the nothing underneath (and get bugged by the contradictions).

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"Rather than do some angry, socially relevant film," he answered, "I realized there was another relevance that is even more important--dreams and fantasies, getting children to believe there is more to life than garbage and killing and all that real stuff like stealing hubcaps--that you could still sit and dream about exotic lands and strange creatures. Once I got into Star Wars, it struck me that we had lost all that--a whole generation was growing up without fairy tales. You just don't get them anymore, and that's the best stuff in the world--adventures in far-off lands. It's fun.

"I wanted to do a modern fairy tale, a myth. One of the criteria of the mythical fairy-tale situation is an exotic, faraway land, but we've lost all the fairytale lands on this planet. Every one has disappeared. We no longer have the Mysterious East or treasure islands or going on strange adventures.

"But there is a bigger, mysterious world in space that is more interesting than anything around here. We've just begun to take the first step and can say, 'Look! It goes on for a zillion miles out there.' You can go anywhere and land on any planet.” - George Lucas April 1977

"It was made for kids. It was made for twelve year olds, in fact." - John Dykstra July 1977

I think the problem is that we're so used to today's entertainment for children which is incredibly dumbed down and shallow.

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Lucas dismissing critiques because the films are "for kids" is insulting to kids' films.

Star Wars is a family film that appeals to adults just as much as it does for children. Well the original trilogy at least.

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Quackula said:

Star Wars is a family film that appeals to adults just as much as it does for children.

This.

@ hal: And no, the OT is not more serious than the PT, and vice-versa.

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Quackula said:

Lucas dismissing critiques because the films are "for kids" is insulting to kids' films.

Star Wars is a family film series that appeals to adults just as much as it does for children. Well the first two at least.

Digitally enhanced for greater clarity.

The PT seems to be a really patronising film for toddlers who like poop jokes, a really dull film for lovers of crepe clothing and futurist furniture and perfunctory cut scenes from a Star Wars video game all jumbled up.

Nice music though.

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In an earlier draft Annikin [sic] pinched a girl's ass then had sex with her in a closet. With that in mind it's kind of hard to believe Star Wars was intended to be a kids' movie first and foremost.

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George Lucas said in an interview, April 1977:

Fox hates for me to say this, but Star Wars has always been intended as a young people's movie. While I set the audience for Graffiti at sixteen to eighteen, I set this one at fourteen and maybe even younger than that.

George Lucas in an interview in the New York Times, published on the 12th of September 1976:

It's for young people. 'Graffiti' was for 16-year-olds; this is for 14-year-olds. Young people don't have a fantasy life anymore, not the way we did. All they've got is Kojak and Dirty Harry. There's all these kids running around wanting to be killer cops.

So..

George Lucas: Fourteen

John Dykstra: Twelve

 

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I believe there's something in SW for people of all ages.  Although I think Luca$ deliberately aimed for small children in TPM and made the PT primarily for selling toys more than anything.

"There's no cluster of midiclorians that controls my destiny!" -Han Solo, from a future revision of ANH

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If they were aimed at children he missed the mark. My 3 year old son finds C3PO and R2D2 amusing but he doesn't laugh at Jar Jar at all.

I can see that Lucas probably thought Jar Jar was funny but he is just plain annoying.

The comedy which even children get comes in the form of 3PO and R2 bickering.

It doesn't need slapstick.

Battle droids the robotic incarnations of Jar Jar Binks.

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He even said in the making of phantom menace the whole sucess of the film hinged on Jar Jar, hilarious.

As was his comment that you can destroy these things, and that more american graffiti made ten cents.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Filthy Pierre said:

I can see that Lucas probably thought Jar Jar was funny but he is just plain annoying.

The comedy which even children get comes in the form of 3PO and R2 bickering.

I don't know. Personally, I don't have any problem with Jar Jar or C-3PO. But back then, 3PO was criticized by many as being annoying. And we all know how he's seen today.

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"In an earlier draft Annikin [sic] pinched a girl's ass then had sex with her in a closet. With that in mind it's kind of hard to believe Star Wars was intended to be a kids' movie first and foremost."

Is this True DuracellEnergizer?

If it is this would be the coolest thing ever! I always imagined Darth Vader/Anakin being kind of a sex crazed pervert before the prequels. I interpreted Anakin as being guilty about Padme's death because he cheated on her. The way it plays out in ROTS, he is partially responsible but it doesn't work because it doesn't make any sense why he choked her or lost the will to live or why they even loved each other to begin with. I wish Igrew up during the era that the Star Wars Trilogy was released in theater orginally. I would have collected all the articles I could find on it. It would be so cool to go back and look at them today. Not to mention they're good proof against George's claim today that "Star Wars is for kids."

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Alexrd said:

Filthy Pierre said:

I can see that Lucas probably thought Jar Jar was funny but he is just plain annoying.

The comedy which even children get comes in the form of 3PO and R2 bickering.

I don't know. Personally, I don't have any problem with Jar Jar or C-3PO. But back then, 3PO was criticized by many as being annoying. And we all know how he's seen today.

I see your point. Let the wookie win.

I can't abide those Gungans. Disgusting creatures.

Battle droids the robotic incarnations of Jar Jar Binks.

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Alexrd said:

Filthy Pierre said:

I can see that Lucas probably thought Jar Jar was funny but he is just plain annoying.

The comedy which even children get comes in the form of 3PO and R2 bickering.

I don't know. Personally, I don't have any problem with Jar Jar....

Sorry, didn't see the point in reading the rest of your post.

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TV's Frink said:

Sorry, didn't see the point in reading the rest of your post.

But you still read it. I have forseen it.

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There is only two things I don't like about Jar Jar.

1) Everything he says

2) Everything he does.

 

 

 

 

Battle droids the robotic incarnations of Jar Jar Binks.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

In an earlier draft Annikin [sic] pinched a girl's ass then had sex with her in a closet. With that in mind it's kind of hard to believe Star Wars was intended to be a kids' movie first and foremost.

Wow. I'm gonna need some proof here. Not because I think you're lying, I just wanna see for myself.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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Well remember that in the earlier drafts, Annikin was the main character (ie. the Luke character) and had a father named Kane Starkiller and a mentor named Luke Skywalker.  So which "Annikin" are we talking about here?

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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ray_afraid said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

In an earlier draft Annikin [sic] pinched a girl's ass then had sex with her in a closet. With that in mind it's kind of hard to believe Star Wars was intended to be a kids' movie first and foremost.

Wow. I'm gonna need some proof here. Not because I think you're lying, I just wanna see for myself.

From the Star Wars rough draft ... 

Kane puts his arm around his son, who has been making eyes at one of the cute young female aides. He bows before the General.

GENERAL

He takes after his mother! (They laugh) It’s so good to see you.

KANE
It’s wonderful to be with another Jedi again. There are so few of us left.

The cute aide goes back to her duties, flirting with Annikin as she passes. The young warrior pinches her on the ass, which startles her, but she goes on like nothing happened. 

And later ...

Captain Prue retreats to a computer station. The general looks around for Starkiller.

GENERAL

Starkiller!

Everyone near the general turns, but Starkiller doesn’t show.

GENERAL

Where is that boy? Montross!
Montross rushes to the general and snaps to attention.

GENERAL

Page Starkiller.

Montross goes back to his station and a few moments later, Starkiller is paged over the P.A. system. The general waits, watching the big board. Eventually, Starkiller stumbles out of an enclosed computer closet, fastening his pants and tucking in his tunic. A moment later, the cute female aide rather sheepishly exits the computer closet. She is also in the process of putting her uniform back together. Starkiller rushes up to the general and snaps to attention.

You can find the entire draft here: http://starwarz.com/starkiller/2010/03/the-star-wars-rough-draft/

 

 

 

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Crap as that scene sounds it's certainly got more life in it than any two minutes of the PT.

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You got that right. Even the love story between Annikin and Leia in that draft in more well developed than the one between Anakin and Padmé in the PT - though it still blows chunks.