Today I introduced the girl to Star Wars. She's a little younger now than I was when I first saw it, but I know many of per peers have already seen it and enjoyed it, so I figured it was time.
I tried her on Star Trek last a fortnight ago, but she was having none of it. At first she was It's got rocket ships! Yey!
and then she realised it was people standing around on a spaceship talking to each other, which made her very bored and she demanded I turn it off.
That made it much harder to convince her to watch Star Wars. She refused at first, saying It's not for children. I want to watch something for children
It is. Don't you remember all the toys you played with at my parents' house?
Those were toys. I want to watch something for children. Not something with
Grrr Argh
at the end.
That's Firefly. Star Wars is very different. I'll show you.
There's robots?!
Yes. And aliens.
Ok. Let's watch it
The movie had the right combination of action and exposition to keep her entertained throughout, as I suspected. Fortunately I remembered all the bits I found confusing has a child and was able to explain things before she hit bewilderment. We also had the advantage of being at home, not a cinema, so I could answer all the many many questions she had.
They're called Jawas.
What are they doing?
They're doing their job
Carrying robots?
Collecting. They collect robots.
What are they doing with them?
You'll see soon.
Are they aliens?
Well, sort of. I mean they don't think they are 'cause they live on that planet. But, let's just say
yes
, they are aliens. For us.
Unfortunately the sister-in-law already ruined the big reveal of Luke and Leia and Vader. The girl kept mentioning how she'd seen them as kids living together with the black thing in the book at her auntie's house. Oh well. Jeffrey Brown!
Some other selected highlights
Every now and again while watching she'd pipe up with the random punctuation of You have that toy!
She kept calling Chewbacca Chihuahua
. Eventually she gave up and just called him the fluffy thing. You have that toy too.
I'd forgotten how surprisingly reasonable Leia is as a female character for a sci-fi movie from the 70s.
This. This is the kind of princess you can emulate.
How old is she? I think she's 10.
Ummm... about 20 I'd guess. About the same age as Luke, but she's clearly done much more with her life.
But she's bigger than Luke in [auntie]'s book.
That book is a bit... hyperbolic.
Yes his name is Jabba, not Jawa. He's not a Jawa. Not the same thing at all.
What did yo like most?
Running. jumping. running jumping.
What did you not like?
Stormtroopers.
On seeing Alderaan destroyed: Oh no! Her planet broke!
On the Mos Eisley cantina scene: That's an alien. And that's an alien. And that's an alien (repeat × 8)
What's the empire?
They're an evil political organisation that keeps the population in line using fear, intimidation and violence. Kind of like Tories.
All in all I think we both really enjoyed the experience. I think I'll try her on some of the other films. And probably some of the less intense episodes of the Clone Wars series as well. I'm mostly looking at it as something I liked from my childhood that I still like that we can both enjoy an get excite about together.
