How to introduce your kid to Star Wars..

[SolkaTruesilver]

Hi there, I was thinking. Having kids is still quite some time ahead of me right now, but it's never too soon to start considering moral dilemma.

If I want to introduce Star Wars to my kids, should I begin in the order I was actually introduced? (IV, V, VI, I, II, III), or should I begin with the Episode 1?

If I begin with IV, should I take the re-digitalised version, or should I show them the sci-fi effect of those times? (just so they can appreciate what they'll have!)

Comments/questions are welcomed!

[Kaelaroth]

Start them on IV, with the re-digi stuff. It's unfair to sit them through graphics they'll laugh at.

[LordVader]

Yes, IV.

The original trilogy, as well as being better, is more "kid-friendly"- it's a lot more light-hearted and ends happily, as opposed to the prequels...


RIP Mace Windu. :smallfrown:

[Callos_DeTerran]

I'd seriously start them at Episode I. May have to make them wait a wee bit longer, but if they start with the way all of us grew up with and THEN want to see the prequels...well you already pretty much know how things end, don't you?

[LordVader]

If you want to introduce them with the prequels, I suggest holding off until they're a little older, as the prequels are darker and more violent than the original SW. IMO, at least.

Callos makes a good point, though: It'll make things more fun for them.

Although after the ZOMG GRAPHICKZ of II and III, IV, V and VI (even the remasters) may be let-downs.

[factotum]

I'd seriously start them at Episode I. May have to make them wait a wee bit longer, but if they start with the way all of us grew up with and THEN want to see the prequels...well you already pretty much know how things end, don't you?

But on the other hand they get to watch three decent films before Jar Jar Binks is inflicted upon their fragile little minds... :smallwink:

[Rare Pink Leech]

When I have kids, they will absolutely begin with Episode IV.

If I'm recommending a movie/book series to someone that was written out of order, I usually tell them to watch/read it in the order they were made, not chronological order. In general I think it's better that way.

With Star Wars in pariticular I truly believe you have to see the original first. You have to experience it the way generations of others experienced it, and see the movies that have influneced so much. Also, one of the greatest experiences I've had is that moment near the end of The Empire Strikes Back when it was revealed that Darth Vader is Luke's father. The shock, the surprise, the amazement that I felt is such a great moment, and I can't imagine depriving anyone of that just because they've seen the prequels first.

[konfeta]

To be fair, if his children are capable of speaking English and socialize like normal people, they probably have had "I am your father" spoiled to them already.

Both trilogies are a trap though. You watch one, the big surprise of the second one isn't there. You watch the other one, the and you basically know exactly how the first one ends.

I still agree on watching the 4-6 first, though. Those 3 are the quintissential fairy tale. The first three are basically a tragedy story expounding on the original. You shouldn't think of it as 1-2-3-4-5-6, you should think of the series as 4-5-6 (+1-2-3). The difference in art detail, CGI, story mood, story elements, etc. is too impacting; it's two very different movie sets.

And most importantly - if the children have a lowish attention span, the three standard movies will bore the TEARS out of them after seeing all the fancy light shows of the prequels. They will be asking too many questions that will break immersion for them (Where are this? Why is this like that? Who the hell is that and why do I care?).

[Muz]

I'm not a parent so I've less of a feel for what kids like, though I do remember loving it when I saw them all at about age 8 or so, even though Vader scared me a bit. (Okay, so I was a wuss.) :smallsmile:

You might consider ANH and ESB, then pull the flashback thing after that and play all the prequels, THEN show ROTJ. So it's 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6. That way they don't get immediate verification on whether or not Vader's telling the truth in ESB. (I had to wait two YEARS to find out, and I thought he was lying, so I say kids can wait six hours--or more like five, I guess.) :smallbiggrin:

And yeah, go for the updated versions. They didn't grow up with the older ones so there won't be any nostalgia for the original FX.

And believe it or not, I understand that a lot of kids actually LIKE Jar-Jar. (Kids're stupid.) :smallwink:

[Tom_Violence]

When I have kids, they will absolutely begin with Episode IV.

If I'm recommending a movie/book series to someone that was written out of order, I usually tell them to watch/read it in the order they were made, not chronological order. In general I think it's better that way.

With Star Wars in pariticular I truly believe you have to see the original first. You have to experience it the way generations of others experienced it, and see the movies that have influneced so much. Also, one of the greatest experiences I've had is that moment near the end of The Empire Strikes Back when it was revealed that Darth Vader is Luke's father. The shock, the surprise, the amazement that I felt is such a great moment, and I can't imagine depriving anyone of that just because they've seen the prequels first.

Definitely. Seriously, the films have to be watched 4-6, then 1-3, otherwise Episode 5's revelation is meaningless, and you're completely disrupting how things should be. Watching them in order has no impact, especially when one realises that 1-3 were made knowing that an audience had already seen 4-6.

[Midnight Son]

I would start them off with IV and finish with VI. Those are all the Star Wars movies ever made. Anyone tells you different is a dirty liar.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/Dwarf71/Smileys/incognito.gif

[SolkaTruesilver]

hum... IV-V-I-II-III-VI has potential. I like it. You first see the universe as the darkness won, and you get introduced to every characters. Then, you leave everything at a cliffhanger, and you got to the prequel to explain Darth Vader. Finally, you get the final showdown that ends it all with Return of the JEdi..

now, if only we could get out the ewoks...

[Rare Pink Leech]

To be fair, if his children are capable of speaking English and socialize like normal people, they probably have had "I am your father" spoiled to them already.

Both trilogies are a trap though. You watch one, the big surprise of the second one isn't there. You watch the other one, the and you basically know exactly how the first one ends.


It's possible a child would already know Vader is Luke's father, true, but as far as I can tell this fact is only going to be brought up in geek circles, so it's also possible that a child wouldn't know this if they haven't discovered the Internet. When I first saw the films 10 years ago I was 10 it still hadn't bee spoiled to me. I guess it comes down to luck, really.

I do agree that there is a trap no matter which trilogy you watch first, but then again the prequel trilogy is just that - a prequels. Often with prequels you already have at least a vague idea of how it's going to end, since you already know what happens in the "main" story - prequels are there to provide additional information, fill in the blanks, or even just give you an idea of how things were before.


hum... IV-V-I-II-III-VI has potential. I like it.

You know, I wouldn't be against watching Star Wars for the first time in this order. My biggest thing is seeing Episodes IV and V - clearly the best films, at least in my opinion - first. In fact, I wouldn't care what order someone watches them in after that, as long at it's Episode IV first and Episode V second.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

While I doubt I'll have kids, I can offer my own experiences. I was pretty young when I was introduced to the Star Wars series, but I didn't start with IV. No, sir. I started with Return of the Jedi, the last one in the series. This was back in the days before the Special Edition was released. My younger brother and sister had watched the first two with my dad, but I declined. I had thought that the pictures on the movie boxes looked scary (I mean, sure Darth Vader looks cool and all, but to a 6-7 year old he's pretty intimidating. And the Stormtrooper on The Empire Strikes Back was even scarier!). My brother Ryan excitedly gave me a synopsis of the movies when they were done, and finally my curiosity was piqued enough to join them for Return of the Jedi. I was blown away. I quickly caught up with the rest of the story by watching the other two films, and have been a Star Wars junkie ever since.

[Muz]

My younger brother and sister had watched the first two with my dad, but I declined. I had thought that the pictures on the movie boxes looked scary (I mean, sure Darth Vader looks cool and all, but to a 6-7 year old he's pretty intimidating. And the Stormtrooper on The Empire Strikes Back was even scarier!).

I had the exact same experience. My dad offered to take me and my sister to see ESB when it came out, and I was 7 at the time, too. My dad had the Star Wars soundtrack album, and there was a really scary picture (to a 7 year old) of Vader's helmet on the back that had me thinking I didn't want anything to do with those films. A year or two later I came around, though, mostly after all the other kids were talking about it at school and I was feeling left out. :smallsmile:

[Fri]

I'm not a parent so I've less of a feel for what kids like, though I do remember loving it when I saw them all at about age 8 or so, even though Vader scared me a bit. (Okay, so I was a wuss.) :smallsmile:

You might consider ANH and ESB, then pull the flashback thing after that and play all the prequels, THEN show ROTJ. So it's 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6. That way they don't get immediate verification on whether or not Vader's telling the truth in ESB. (I had to wait two YEARS to find out, and I thought he was lying, so I say kids can wait six hours--or more like five, I guess.) :smallbiggrin:

And yeah, go for the updated versions. They didn't grow up with the older ones so there won't be any nostalgia for the original FX.

And believe it or not, I understand that a lot of kids actually LIKE Jar-Jar. (Kids're stupid.) :smallwink:
Why I didn't thought that before!

That is definetely the right way to introduce star wars to kid. Actually, recently I had introduced star wars to my 9-years-younger brother. I gave him 4-5-6-1-2-3 and he actually liked the prequel better, but that's because of the flashier lightsaber battle (I haven't asked him about the story).

[Jerthanis]

When I have kids, I will definitely start with Episode 4, 5 and 6. These movies are the ones with the story which is really worth telling. The others are just barely good enough to watch if you liked the originals enough that you desperately want more Star Wars.

Once they've seen the real Star Wars, I will read them the novelizations of the prequel movies in installments over a series of nights before they go to bed, and if they ask me when they're older if they can see the prequel movies I will let them. I haven't read the Phantom Menace Novelization, but Clone Wars and Revenge were about 10 times and over 9000 times better in book form respectively. (Of course, my opinion of Revenge of the Sith novelization could be colored by the fact that it was written by Matthew Woodring Stover, my favorite author)

[Mewtarthio]

I actually read the TPM novelization before seeing the movie. The book's a lot better. They cut out that stupid "reactor core right in the docking bay that Anakin accidentally shoots" scene and replaces it with one in which the Force guides Anakin to trigger a Death Star-esque chain reaction. It's still horribly cheesy, but everything's relative.

[Freshmeat]

My first reaction was actually just to sit them through from I to VI, because it wouldn't end up confusing your kids. Despite all the hatred for the prequels (not necessarily unjustified, mind you), I don't think most kids would really be bothered by the 'less than stellar' plot and ditto acting.

Still, watching the old trilogy first has some merit, as one poster mentioned earlier: if you watch the prequels first, the defining Star Wars moment ("Luke, I am your Father!") pretty much loses all meaning.

Personally, I wouldn't show them VI though, as I absolutely loathe that movie, and think it's the worst in the series by far.

[NerfTW]

I'd say at least watch IV and V first. The prequels were clearly made for someone who's already seen the original trilogy. Yoda has no introduction at all in the films, and his entrance in Episode II before his fight with Dooku relies heavily on fan's thinking he's just as old and slow as the Episode V version.

There are other works like this. A good example would be Chronicles of Narnia. They were written out of order. The "origin" book, The Wizard's Apprentice (Might have the name wrong), was written assuming that readers had already been introduced to Aslan through the first two books. It also takes away the mystery of what the Wardrobe is, who Aslan is (They don't really know what he is in the first book), and who the witch is. I could have a few details wrong, I haven't read the books in 15 years, and only caught up through story synopsis. But the basic point is, they were written to be read first out of order, and then in order on a second readthrough.

So I'd go with "original written order", just like with Narnia.

As for the special editions, I'd go for it. I don't see how crappy special effects make the film better. The only thing that's iffy is that Greedo shooting first scene, but seriously, you can just say "Han shot first, by the way" and keep going.

Oh, and the lightsaber duels will look like crap after the ones in the prequels.


-edit- I hate when I leave out key sentences.