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What order would you show the Star Wars movies to your kids?

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Rules: You have to include the PT, but alternate cuts of any of the films are allowed.

Me? I'd go like this, using the '04 OT:

A New Hope
The Holiday Special
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
"Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II" cutscenes

The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Clone Wars: Volumes One & Two
Revenge of the Sith

As for how they would vary from the official releases, the PT and ANH would have all the deleted scenes reinserted (my own custom edits) and the Clone Wars cartoon would be rearranged into chronological order (again, my own custom edit). Naturally, I would use the KCCI version of THS and would show them the light side ending for JK.
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4,5,6,1,2,3

Now I am not obsessed with the 'I am your father' spoiler, as that is not the reason I say watch the OT first, cause essentially I think whatever trilogy you watch first, the other one is pretty much spoiled, so either way, the drama from one trilogy is drowned out by watching the other one first.

The reason I say the OT first is simple: ANH should be seen as a standalone movie. If the kid loves it like we did, then you show him ESB & ROTJ, and tell him this is more of the story of the adventures of Han, Luke, and Leia. If he loves those movies, then you say there is a backstory of how Darth Vader came to be, how ObiWan was a young jedi, how The Emperor came to power. You have to fall in love with one movie to fall in love with a movie series, and I am banking ANH still appeals to the masses in that respect.
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Well spoken, CO. When/if I have kids, that's thes ame way I would do it. Only, I'd have to pull out my original SE VHS or the GOUT. The new McDiarmand (spell?) dialogue is god awful.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Wow, I don't think I'd be cruel enough to make a child sit through the Holiday Special. That thing is just torture.

I guess if I HAD to include the PT, it would be 4,5,6,1,2,3 but 1,2, and 3 would be the ADM edits (well, at least 3 would be the ADM edit, since I actually found ROTS to be pretty tolerable with that edit).
F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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Actually, I've been showing them to my 7-year-old sister like this, and she enjoyed the Holiday Special more than ESB. The same gag-inducing childishness that makes us want to french kiss a pistol is actually entertaining to those who don't know any better. Imagine that.
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Here is one order that I would find very interesting to show a new SW fan, and I think they would have to be older to really understand the details of the 6 movies:

1. Episode IV
2. Episode V
3. Episode VI (Then stop it after ObiWan/Luke talk on Dagobah about Anakin.)
4. Episode I
5. Episode II
6. Episode III
7. Episode VI (After Luke leaves Dagobah and the 2nd act of the movie begins)

The reason I would split up ROTJ is it is essentially telling 2 stories that relate to each trilogy. The first 40 minutes are about saving Han, so you are in OT mode after watching Episode IV & V and you are concentrating on those characters. Then popping in the PT after Luke/Obiwan talk can be a huge flashback almost like Obiwan is finally telling Luke EVERYTHING that happened up to his birth, including his mother. Then after that, the viewer is in PT mode, so they can follow the Luke/Vader/Emperor throne room scenes which relate more to the PT, and the rebels trying to defeat the Empire which relates to the overall story of good vs evil.

Just a thought......
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I'd show them the OOT, and if they really liked those maybe I'd show them the PT one day. Actually I'd probably just show them TPM. But I don't think there will really be any moment where I'll sit them down and "unveil" the films, I watch them regularly so they will probably just grow up with them. That was how it was with me; I have no memory of first watching ANH because I was under two years old, its just kind of "always" been there. The only film I might go out of my way to play for them is TPM because I think thats a really good film for young kids but I doubt I'd watch it a whole lot myself.
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Original versions of Star Wars, Empire, & Return. If they want to see anything else, they would have to do that on their own. I won't participate in the advancement of the prequels.
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The original 77/80/83 versions. Followed by the prequels, the way MILLIONS of people saw them. This revisionist "tragedy of darth vader" saga thing can suck it.
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I would show them the OOT (in order, of course) and that's it.

If they wanted to see the PT they'd have to do that at some point on their own.

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There are a lot of good ideas here! I don't have kids yet, but I love CO's reasoning and suggestions.

I'm still debating whether to just let my future children grow up absorbed in the movies as I was, or should I hold back and wait until they have one clear memory of their first time. I'll probably just absorb them in it, because if I hyped up this movie to my own children and they turn out not to like it, I'd be REALLY bummed.

As for versions, Adywan's ANH is great, and I'm hoping that the rest of his edit of the saga will be just as awesome. Then that will be the versions I'll show my kids.

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Ideally, I would just show them the OT, and maybe throw in the clone wars cartoon series because it's quite better than the PT. But I would probably show the saga starting with SW, then the rest of the OT, and then show them the PT, just to get a historical perspective. I really wouldn't show the saga in numbered order because Lucas hadn't though of the PT until way after ROTJ
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If I'd HAVE to show them the PT, here's what I'd do:

first, show them ANH (Original version)
then ESB (2004 version)
then RotJ (Original version)
then sit back with them and watch Walt Disney's "Fantasia", the ending of which I consider to be a much more fitting companion to the OT.

then, about two months later, show them the PT and introduce it as an AU.

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I showed my kids the original Star Wars movie first (A New Hope), and then onto Empire, ROTJ, and they came along with me to the prequels. We sat down one night since they hadn't seen them in awhile and I played them in that order again. By the time AOTC started they all had lost interest and went to do other things.
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Blackjack said:

If I'd HAVE to show them the PT, here's what I'd do:

first, show them ANH (Original version)
then ESB (2004 version)
then RotJ (Original version)
then sit back with them and watch Walt Disney's "Fantasia", the ending of which I consider to be a much more fitting companion to the OT.

then, about two months later, show them the PT and introduce it as an AU.


I've not seen Fantasia. Am I missing something important, or just an inside joke?

And why ESB 2004? Is it because its changes aren't as "blasphemous"?

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The final segment of Disney's "Fantasia" Is Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" paired with Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria", another tangle between good and evil, albeit on a religious scale, with good triumphing yet again. Since I allready find many Religious parallels in Star Wars, (Particularly Christian) it augments the uplifting feeling the undestroyed RotJ ending provides me, (as well as calming things down and solemnising it) making it a perfect coda to my ideal Star Wars veiwing experiance.

as for ESB 2004, exactly, the changes aren't as blasphemous. the only thing about it that annoys me is the re-hash of "Search your feelings, you will know it to be true." in the new emporer scene, but the explanded cloud city and the surround sound more than make up for it.

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When I do get kids, I'll show them the originals first (the OOT) then the Prequels. It was the way I saw the movies, and I feel it is the best order as well. I do not intend to show them the SE unless they really want to see it. I say this especially for the ANH SE with Greedo firing at all, added droid + jawa slapstick in Mos Eisley, and Jabba scene and ROTJ's Jedi Rocks and that stupid crappy Hayden force spirit image. ESB SE was more tolerable than the other two. In my opinion the original prints of the OT and the PT are really the only absolutely necessary Star Wars films necessary to see. It is just my opinion and I do not mind if you disagree at all.
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Lan Hikari said:

In my opinion the original prints of the OT and the PT are really the only absolutely necessary Star Wars films necessary to see.


This is exactly why I continue to hope that Lucas will remaster all of them for the box set.
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4-6, 1-3

But this is a bit of an unrealistic scenario you've set up. It implies that the child has no exposure to Star Wars until one day, when you sit them down and they suddenly have the patience to watch a 6-movie marathon. Even if you break it up across 6 days, you're assuming that they don't know anything about these characters and their origins yet. In my house, that's just not possible.

With my oldest son (now 5) I never really had a plan to indoctrinate him into Star Wars, and so he's just picked up bits of movies along the way. The first one he actually sat all the way through was ESB when he was 4. (Which speaks volumes to me about how a great story doesn't need "kiddie" elements to appeal to a child). Now his two favorites are the clone wars cartoons (the best part of the prequels if you ask me) and ROTS. But in my household, ANH (formerly Dr M's version, currently Adywan's Revisited) gets the most play.

(My youngest son, now 2 years old, is fascinated by Darth Vader. He does the trademark breathing and sings Darth Vader's theme. He even asks to watch "sawas".)

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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The only time I've ever shown the movies to anyone was back in Summer of '05 when a couple friends of mine decided to watch the OT since one of them had never seen it. I brought over my '04 set and we literally watched the entire thing in one sitting.

Now, when it comes to showing kids the OT for the first time, I think it's kind of pointless. I never had a "first time seeing the movies," not really anyway. I echo the sentiments of those who say that it will be hard to keep them away from seeing it until you decide it's suddenly time to show it to them.
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My son is about to turn 5 and this is the age we've talked about for a long time that he be able to watch Star Wars.

Unfortunately it'll be the OT only, because Ep II and III are WAY to intense for him. It's a bit unfortunate that the prequels were so dark, though I can't imagine them being any lighter.
I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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I would show my younglings the original versions of Star Wars, Empire and Jedi in that order.

There's nothing else to show...

If they discover anything else after that, that's their business. I will not be the one to show them any of the shit that came afterwards.
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Cable-X1 said:

I would show my younglings the original versions of Star Wars, Empire and Jedi in that order.

There's nothing else to show...

If they discover anything else after that, that's their business. I will not be the one to show them any of the shit that came afterwards.


Bitter, much? So you would stick to your own OT fundamentalism instead of introducing your kid to three movies (just movies, mind you) that they might potentially enjoy? If they don't like the PT either, just shut it off, but to not show it to them just because of your own aesthetic tastes is disturbingly extreme.
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Guys, you have to let your kids watch the PT movies, and don't be afraid of whether they like it or not. When I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's as a kid, the days before VHS, I watched so many movie series out of order, cause you were married to whatever came on HBO or cable, you couldn't just pop in a DVD when you wanted to watch it.

I saw Rocky II before Rocky I, I saw Temple of Doom before Raiders, I saw Jaws 2 before Jaws 1, and I saw Superman II before Superman I, and considered the sequels all better then the originals as a kid, cause I saw them more times on TV. As I got older, I started to smarten up as to what is a great movie, and what is average, and after I got to see them all on VHS, I realized the originals of all those movies series are classics.

Kids are going to see the PT, just like they are going to see Batman & Robin(1997) sometime on TV, you just have to let them enjoy what they want, and trust me, in the end quality will ALWAYS win over.

Although I do agree if you can show your kids the OOT first, that is fair because they did come out first.