“The reason you don’t like the new Star Wars movies is that you aren’t twelve,” or some variation is often the defense for the new movies. Whether they mean it or not the direct implication of this statement is that you only like the Star Wars movies because you were twelve the first time you watched them, and if you watched them now you would have a similar opinion of them as you do of the new movies.
I would like to say this is absurd on its face and move on, but there is a point here. I am bias towards the Star Wars movies. I enjoyed these movies when I was a kid and it is possible that has tainted my opinion of them. The solution of course is to have someone who is unbiased watch the movies and tell me, so if anyone knows an adult about the age of most Star Wars fan, who likes the genre of Science Fiction and hasn’t seen Star Wars let me know and we’ll run an experiment.
Since that solution seems unlikely so instead I go to comparisons. If Star Wars is just a kids movie I like now because I enjoyed it when I was a kid then this should be true of other movies. I am young enough that the cartoons and movies I watched were in the 80’s so I will list them. (Please no judgment I was a child)
The Smurfs- I loved this show as a kid. I’ve tried to watch it as an adult and the nostalgia wears off about the third time someone uses Smurf to replace a word. There are bits that are OK but I wouldn’t buy the DVD.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I used to watch these cartoons all the time, and I watched the first movie when it came out. I just watched some clips on youtube and I have to wonder if the people making it meant it to be funny, I’m not sure how else you could explain using pizza as an analogy for everything, and horrible accents. If they did then I can’t say I got it, then or now. The nostalgia is pretty much limited to the music and that’s only a few beats long.
The Transformers Movie – I watched this as a kid and loved it. Watched it as an adult and I really can’t get past the scale issues. Things are constantly changing size in this movie for no reason. They are inside of Orson Wells Unicron one minute and the next they are fighting him. Also , was the Matrix of Leadership in the movie for any reason at all? Finally, they killed Optimus Prime.
The Goonies – What can I say? I was 9 when this came out. Still there’s a decent cast here and I believe it may be the only time that Corey Feldman and Joe Pantoliano were on screen together so that has got to be worth something. I can still chuckle at moments in this movie and even understand why I enjoyed it as a kid but I wouldn’t put it on the level of Star Wars.
There is certainly room to argue that Star Wars is a superior film to any of these and I would agree, but that isn’t the argument which is being made when you say that I like Star Wars because I watched it as a kid.
None of this is saying that I hate the new Star Wars movies. I am mostly ambivalent. I do not feel that George Lucas did anything to my childhood by making them and if they are on I don’t run away screaming but give me the option of watching Ewoks or Jarjar and there isn’t much of a choice to be made.
What do you think, are the original Star Wars movies for kids?
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