Have you found Mace Windu's? / journal / hicksdesign

05/06/05

Have you found Mace Windu's?

It all started with the Muppet Show. It’s their fault.

A while back we let S & D watch our Muppets DVD with the Stars of Star Wars special. They absolutely loved it (just as we hoped – anything that keeps them away from chuffin’ Barney) and Samantha couldn’t stop talking about Luke Skywalker, Derth Nader (Gonzo as Darth Vader) as well as ‘Mr Elton John’ (another episode).

This was really good timing, as Revenge of the Sith came out a couple of months later, and its everywhere, especially in their cereal. All the cool kids at nursery have their Kellogg’s pocket-sized lightsabers, and S & D are no exception. Samantha now knows a lot of the names of the characters, and has even drawn me a picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi for my office. A moment that brought a tear of pride.

You’d think for a Star Wars obsessed daddy, this would be a dream come true, but I do have reservations. First of all, I don’t want to be a dad that imprints his likes/dislikes on my children. If they like Star Wars, fine, but as long as its their choice. More importantly, S & D are only (nearly) 4 and 2 respectively – too young to be watching the films. Samantha has already had a nightmare about Darth Vader, and as for Daniel, he cowers at the sight of Ronald McDonald (mind you…).

I’d love to show them the attack on the Death Star in Episode IV, or meeting Yoda for the first time in Episode V. I have a box full of all my Star Wars toys, and I’m literally bursting to get them out and let them play with them. Alas, I think I must wait patient.

Playing with the wee lightsabers is great though, especially when Samantha rushes past me excitedly, shouting “Have you found Mace Windu’s?” in a high pitch voice. Thats my girl!

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Nell said 1223 days ago:

How cute!
My boyfriend’s niece (10 years old) asked him to take her to see Episode III. She had never been interested in Star Wars before, but she loved the movie. She knows the name of the characters, even if she says “Canderel” instead of “Chancellor”, heh.
Yesterday, she asked my boyfriend for the DVD of episode IV. We are proud :)

Douglas Anders said 1223 days ago:

My son is 3, and while he’s too young to see the movies (we keep him away from all gun stuff), he is nuts about every kind of vehicle, so I let him watch the pod race sequence from Phantom Menace. He loved it, and can’t watch it enough.

You should have seen the wonder in his eyes when I told him there were six Star Wars movies.

Dave said 1223 days ago:

Derth Nader.. ha! It’s a classic! not as good as Lord Tader though.

Anthony Williams said 1223 days ago:

Heh… all the kids at our karate class were talking about Revenge of the Sith. I don’t have any kids myself, but it was cool to hear them talking about the movies.
Such a pity that their parents hadn’t told them about 4, 5 and 6 – they were quite shocked when we told them about A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Hehehe…

David said 1223 days ago:

Hah. I was sooooo beside myself when I found that mini lightsaber thingie in my Smacks box the other day. Awesome. By now, I have a green and a blue one. And I was full of envy when I was sitting at the Burger King and the lil’ boy at the table next to me was playing with that small R2D2 that came with his menu. I’ve always loved that Star Wars merchandise… :)

Magnus said 1223 days ago:

bq. [...] he cowers at the sight of Ronald McDonald (mind you…).

Is that strange? That clown still scares the life out of me!

Kate Bolin said 1223 days ago:

I know I watched most of A New Hope when I was around 4—although my mother always made me go to bed before the Death Star run, which meant it was until I was around 7 before I saw the end of it. Yay!

Matt said 1222 days ago:

After a great deal of back-and-forth, and thinking way too hard about all the angles, we let our 5- and 2.5-year olds watch a heavily edited version of Ep.4. We gave them the option to skip through anything that freaked them out, and they fast-forwarded all of the scenes where various Death Star functionaries yak at each other. Fine by me.

Now my daughter refers to me as “Han Solo,” which might be the most paternal respect I ever get.

Brent O'Connor said 1222 days ago:

We just had our first child 6 weeks ago, a boy. I’ve been thinking along those lines. I love Star Wars and I’ve thought about how sweet it will be to share my love of Star Wars with my son. However, I then become sad when thinking I will have to wait awhile before he will be mature enough to watch it.

I like your idea of introducing them to Star Wars with Star Wars Lite (Muppet Star Wars)! I’ll have to remember this for when Joshua (my son) is old enough to watch the Muppets.

I guess until then it’s just more poopy diapers! sigh

#10

Josh Williams said 1222 days ago:

As Rachel and I walked out of Episode III, mostly having enjoyed it, I realized-~~as a couple who looks forward to having children~~-that even before they are born, George Lucas has screwed up our children’s lives.

Someday the kids will wonder why Episode I is crap, and why Episodes 4-6 have really pathetic lightsaber coreography. Gratefully, the Speciel Editions did a little for the effects of 4-6, but…

Then, we’ll have to explain to our kids that George made 4-6 first, when their Grandparents were just out of college. And our kids will be like, “What the heck was George smoking?” And we’ll be like “We don’t know…” And then they’ll be like, “What happened to Obi Wan? Did he lose the force in Episode 4, cos his lightsaber skills suck! And Darth looks like he has arthritis…”

Basically, we’re all screwed as parents when it comes to Star Wars.

#11

Josh Williams said 1222 days ago:

Really, I didn’t mean to strike that line above. Textile does some funky things on occassion. We really do want to have kids someday. Really. ;-)

#12

Trenton Boyd said 1221 days ago:

Samuel Jackson’s lightsaber? Isn’t that the one that says “Bad Mother Fscker?”

[insert rimshot or lame comedic “wah wah wah” here]

#13

Matthew said 1221 days ago:

I’m likely in the minority here. I hated Episode III. Hated Episodes I and II as well. But I grew up on the original trilogy and love it to bits. For what it’s worth, Jon, I was probably close to your oldest’s age when I started watching Star Wars films, and I’ve grown into a pretty well adjusted adult. You probably needn’t wait too much longer to expose him to the old films.

I’m also a huge fan of the Muppets (grew up on them too), so kudos for that. I’ve got the DVDs because I love them and because I plan on having children someday.

And lastly, not sure how you feel about video games, but if ever you should find a PlayStation 2 in your household, I’ve heard that LEGO Star Wars is one of the very best Star Wars games in existence, blowing most of the official film games out of the water. It follows the storylines of Episodes I, II and III and would probably make an ideal introduction to the Star Wars universe for your children, being that it’s a quality game, supposedly very fun and as harmless as LEGOs.

On a completely unrelated note, I picked up the Starflyer 59 album after seeing it here on your site. I’m loving it. I even wrote it up here if you’d like to add your own two cents to the comments. In any case, wanted you to know you’ve made a fan of me.

Cheers!

#14

Gord Fynes said 1221 days ago:

My four-year-old, at his request, had a weekend crash course a few weeks back in the old Star Wars (New Hope – Jedi) via an old VHS boxset. He’s had a keychain lightsaber for a while (complete with sounds) and now “gets it.” Nowadays, Stormtroopers and lightsabers are giving SpongeBob and GameBoy a run for their money.

#15

Ryan Nichols said 1221 days ago:

well I hate to say it but, naner – naner – naner.

Every kid is different, and hardly anything scares my 3 year old, he’s really unshakable. He’s been watching the star wars since he was 2 and loves them.

In fact the pround moment was the other day when we were having ‘wrestle-time’ and he raised his hands and shot lightning at me like the emporer. I about died laughing. Then he ran out of the room and came back with his blanket over his face like palpatine and gave me another round. I about lost it!

Episode III was way too dark so he’ll have to wait a while before he sees that one, but it’s a lot of fun to share with a kid.

#16

goodwitch said 1218 days ago:

ahhhh…the joys of parenthood, being able to mold your children like play-doh…and pretending you are buying all these toys for them (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

while i held back on Star Wars and Harry Potter with my first child (making sure he was ready)...my little Benny has already seen them all! i usual preview the movie…and sometimes choose to wait for the dvd so I can “edit”...example, i wanted christopher to see Indiana Jones…but knew that the scene with the ark of the covenent (evil people melting) would give him nightmares…so i excercised parental guidance.

you’ll know when the time is right!

#17

Denis said 1218 days ago:

!!! It’s a pleasure seeing that the youths are grasping Star Wars. I wasn’t even born when the first movie came out but saw it at 5 and loved it. Now 20 years later the star wars commotion is being passed and accepted by my brother and sisters. Whom mind you were only interested in some bi0nicle type of figurines. (i think i got it right)