14 January 2007

Lightsabre Dreams

Despite never having seen Star Wars (we think it's not for very young kids, which may be provincial but after Star Wars, how could you go back to Bob the Builder?), Ross has been enamoured of the whole concept for years. He plays Star Wars (with and without actual Star Wars toys). He idolizes Yoda. He checks out every book the library has on the subject, over and over, memorizing the contents. He plays Lego Star Wars on xBox whenever he's allowed to turn the game console on. His Halloween costumes have been assorted SW characters the last two years and he has a line-up of several more planned. His writer's workshop stories are frequently about new droid adventures.

We figure Ross has been ready to see the movie for about a year now but Lars is still a bit young and, since what one watches at home the other sees also, Ross had not been able to see Star Wars. Enter our friend Rob, who has an amazing entertainment setup in his living room. Yesterday, Rob hosted a three-episode Star Wars marathon for Ross, complete with snacks, drinks, and some darned good Chinese take-out (I adore cold sesame noodles in Brooklyn. They're just not the same anywhere else). We watched Episodes IV (original version), V, and VI. Amusingly, Ross gave most of Episode IV a detailed play-by-play, "Next he's going to...!" and, "This is where they...". He was mildly confused at the beginning of Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader did not come down the ramp from the ship couging, as he does in the Lego game movie clip, and after that settled in to watching more than narrating. Ross pressed for another episode but Rob and I agreed three was enough for one sitting and we'll go back for the remaining parts on a different day. Ross voiced a bit more disappointment about not getting to see another episode on the way to the car but was asleep before we hit Manhattan and my guess is there were Lightsabres in his dreams.

6 comments:

Fraukow said...

or of Princess Leia in the gold bikini !

Anonymous said...

lol...like on that "Friends" episode! what a fun movie day for an almost 8 yr. old...i want to eat cold sesame noodles in Brooklyn ;)

Anonymous said...

I wish I could have been there!

Now, I've got to get my box set out - see you in about 10 hours!

Anonymous said...

doesn't this ruin episodes 1 (the only one i ever saw), 2, and 3? are the plots sequential?

karen said...

The plots are sequential, although the movies were released in cinemas like this:

IV: Star Wars
V: SW The Empire Strikes Back
VI: SW Return of the Jedi
I: SW The Phantom Menace
II: SW Attack of the Clones
III: SW Revenge of the Sith

George Lucas couldn't figure out how to manage the special effects required for the first three episodes back in the 70's, or so they say. So, since the plot had originally been spoiled for all humanity, we didn't see why Ross should be any different. There was some debate about the viewing order, though. We thought it should probably go 4,5,1,2,3,6, as there is a surprise in 6...but it turned out that he already knew the surprise (darned kid actually reads the library books he takes out) so we watched in the originally released order.

Anonymous said...

and just why did you ever teach him to read, anyway? I mean, who needs to read anything beyond subtitles? I learned everything I know from tv & the movies, and I turned out to know a lot of things. About tv.

tv tv?

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