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Author Topic: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?  (Read 15449 times)

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Offline Luis88

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #30 on: October 06, 2011, 12:10:44 AM »
I think star wars is fine for a kid of any age. it seems that children arent as decensortized as they used to be.

check this out

http://dailypop.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/starwars_padawan.jpg
lego star wars the padawan menace

Offline C-3P0

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #31 on: October 06, 2011, 12:26:49 AM »
Yeah I saw that on Blu ray and was gonna get it. It's only 20 mins long though  :-\ anyone here seen it?

Offline WEDGE ANTILLES

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #32 on: October 09, 2011, 12:35:01 AM »
I've seen it. its hilarious. C3PO picks up a LEgo(tm) instruction booklet from one of the SW kits: " I am fluent in over six million forms of communication.. but there are NO WORDS!"  my face hurt from smiling by the time it was done.  I think the damage might be permanent ;) thats always a good thing
"The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story.
Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned, and Luke doesn't get married..."
- George Lucas

Offline Onli-Won Kanomi

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #33 on: October 09, 2011, 02:57:35 AM »
Interesting that the only concern anyone seems to have about the suitability of SW for younger children is the violence.

Maybe thats because the OTHER major aspect of human life [and the fundamental biological function/purpose of life in general] is almost completely ABSENT from SW.

[Apparently life reproduces somehow in the SW Galaxy but no one there ever ever talks about 'It', and not only prudish Jedi monks - nobody.]

Which if anything makes it more suitable for younger children than teens, and almost unsuitable for adults by that glaringly inhuman unrealism.

Maybe there ought to be a "what is the maximum age to watch Star Wars?" question because I suspect that the studio aiming the first part of a trilogy at 12 year olds who will be 18 when the third comes out means that in the meantime they will discover something else in life that most humans find more interesting and that a simple appearance of one metal bikini won't be enough to satisfy nor disguise the otherwise near total and suspension-of-disbelief-breaking highly unrealistic absence of by the third film to a 18 year old 'adult' in the audience.

Thats a bigger problem with ROTJ than Ewoks...I was 13 when I saw Star Wars in 77 so by the time I saw ROTJ it seemed 'childish' to most of my 19 yo peers who couldnt understand why it excited me. Admittedly I was a 'late bloomer' [ok actually I never bloomed at all LOL] but most of my 'young adult' peers had and told me it was "immature" to still be interested in SW, as did older adults.

They still do but since I never grew up Star Wars is one of the few 'places' that reflects what is absent from my offscreen real life just as it is absent from the characters onscreen fictional lives...but I suspect many other more 'normal' people 'outgrow' Star Wars because of its 'immaturity'.

Aging the audience starting with [kids of the original audience?] 5-7 year olds may seem sensible MARKETING-wise for TPM if the threequel ROTS is intended to be targeted to PG-13 but that means that Unca George is dooming Star Wars ARTISTIC-wise to NEVER being 'taken seriously' by most adults because it ignores and is in semi-denial of half of the nature of mature adult human existence.
To DREAM the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. To FIGHT the unbeatable foe. To BEAR with unbearable sorrow. To RUN where the brave dare not go. To RIGHT the unrightable wrong. To LOVE, PURE AND CHASTE, FROM AFAR [-sigh-]. To TRY, when your arms are too weary; to REACH the unreachable Star!... This is my Quest; To follow that Star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far...

Offline WEDGE ANTILLES

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #34 on: October 09, 2011, 12:22:56 PM »
anakin had no father and boba fett had no mother.  the only 2 child-characters in the PT (the only 2 iconic SW characters we actually see as children), were apparently hatched from an egg.  :P hehe   (not including luke and leia, of course. they weren't really 'characters' in the PT).
« Last Edit: October 09, 2011, 12:26:22 PM by WEDGE ANTILLES »
"The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story.
Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned, and Luke doesn't get married..."
- George Lucas

Offline nartules

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #35 on: October 09, 2011, 02:47:43 PM »
off topic rant;

Why do we have to outgrow the magic we enjoyed as children?  There is a reason we want our children to believe in magic, because we want them to know that anything is possible in this world.  So why do we push ourselves to shove off this idea when we get older. 

As a Teenager I decided to abonden the things that I enjoyed because my peers decided they would pretend to be mature.  The easiest way for them to pretend to be mature was to cast off the things they had adored as a child.  Soon celebrating Halloween was no longer acceptable, as was watching cartoon's or believing in magic.  Too often I would hear, "Why do you still do that, thats for babies."

No it is not.  It took me awhile to realize this.  I want to belong to a world where magic is possible.  As a parent and a human being, I have been conscious of far too many things that cannot be coincedence and seen things that border on the realm of the magical.  I've saw a unicorn as a child, danced in a rainbow.  As an adult, I've encountered a ghost, heard spirits speaking in the woods, and left for work just because something felt wrong to save one of my children from a deadly encounter.

If I had closed my mind off as most of fellow classmates and adults did, I would have missed out on several of these wonder's and mysteries.  So I'll keep enjoying the things I did as a child, and try to remember the reason we celebrate certain season's and celebrations.  Things do go bump in the night and magic does exist.

End Rant.



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Offline Darth Methodious

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #36 on: October 10, 2011, 09:11:14 AM »
All these opinions we are sharing really put things into perspective in some ways.
I think as a society in general, we have become too sensitive. We tend to focus a bit much on what the masses may think. As well as dwelling to long on our opinions before we express them. We are children of the FCC  ;D  We tend to censor ourselves a bit much.

A huge emphassis is being placed on the notion of political correctness as well. Dont get me wrong. I'm not saying lets just act like animals. But I think we should relax. Ultimately parents have the biggest influence and their children.

Although I just have one wish.....

Mr. Lucas. PLEASE make three more movies based on The Old Republic. Or even just one more? I beg of you sir!!!!  ;D Thanks
MTFBWY

DM

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."
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Offline Darksaber 3

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #37 on: October 10, 2011, 09:31:09 AM »
Just thought I would post this for those who haven't seen, since it has something to do with this discussion.. :D

[ Invalid YouTube link ]

Offline boshuda21

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #38 on: October 17, 2011, 09:04:28 PM »
My son is 3 1/2 right now. I am on the fence regarding letting him watch the whole movie. I show him clips of 5-10 min. here and there and he is fine, but I think his attention span is not quite there for a 2hr movie, though he is close. Despite the fact that we only let him watch about 0-2hr of movies a week, he has an amazing attention span.

I'm not too concerned about the content of the OT. He knows so much information that it blows my wife away that he hasn't seen the movies yet. We just talk about Star Wars so much that he picks up a lot of information. Toys, books, music, he knows a lot.

I think by December I am going to try ANH and see how he reacts. My son is very mature for his age, but you never know how kids will react. When I was about 6 I was scared to death watching the ear bug scene from Wrath of Khan.

Offline Machinimax

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #39 on: November 11, 2011, 09:01:12 PM »
My parents told me they first showed me Star Wars when I was two. I had a big thing about robots when I was a little kid and they figured I would love Star Wars because of R2 and 3P0.



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Offline Sa`vage Archanas

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #40 on: November 14, 2011, 06:52:36 AM »
in my opinion. parents shelter their children entirely to much these days and that is why our country and the world in general is going down hill.. instilling way to much fear into childeren by sheltering them from such inconsequential things is rediculous..

Offline COUNT DOOKU

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #41 on: November 14, 2011, 07:32:15 AM »
When I was about 6 I was scared to death watching the ear bug scene from Wrath of Khan.

That scene still freaks me out as an adult.   :P there is just something disturbing I guess about bugs goinginto the human body... (the matrix and the modern star trek come to mind.. ;) )

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Offline RoHan Solo

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #42 on: May 19, 2012, 04:40:45 PM »
NECROPOST.....  ;D

When Star Wars came out in cinemas I was 7 and my brother was 5. We were both SW fanatics after that...  ;)

I had twins in November 06 and have been waiting until they were at least 5 to show them the OT. At this stage I have decided to show them the entire saga in the following order:

Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 1
Episode 2
Clone Wars Vol1 & 2 (Genndy Tartofsky)
Close Wars TV series
Episode 3
Episode 6


I always wanted to introduce them to the trilogy with ANH, given that it's the least complicated story-wise and lends itself well to easy comprehension by a child of 5. So I showed them Episode 4 when they were a tad over 5, they absolutely LOVED it and it was their favourite for a very long time.

I chose this order of viewing because I wanted to up the ante for them a little and try to maintain the mystery of who Darth Vader is. They've only seen Episode 5 once, some of the thematic elements went over their heads a little but they were a bit concerned with the intensity of the Vader/Luke battle at the end. We talked about it together and they each came to a different conclusion about Vader's bombshell:
Twin no2 thought that Darth Vader was telling the truth.
Twin no1 reasoned that becuase Vader is a bad guy, he could be intentionally lying in order to confuse Luke. (Impressive reasoning for a 5 year old, IMHO.)

So with that in mind, and knowing that Luke's father was mentioned in ANH and was a great Jedi, we decided to go back and watch the story of Luke's father... so they could get more involved in the overarching plot elements. Development wise it's actually a good thing as a parent, because we get to sit down after watching each Star Wars movie and talk about motivations, making good choices vs bad decisions, selfish vs selfless, helping other people etc etc. I would much rather use something like Star Wars as a tool for personal growth now that they're old enough to understand some of the themes.

So then we watched TPM and it has become their favourite of the entire saga. Being that it's more squarely aimed at children anyway (child protagonist for a start... and say what you will about Jar Jar but my 5 yo kids dig him) it's not surprising. They've only watched AOTC twice because twin 1 gets a bit scared when Anakin gets his arm cut off. We stopped the movie at this point and also after the Tusken Raider slaughter to talk about Anakin's thought processes and why he does the things he's doing and how he appears to be beginning to make some questionable decisions.

After this we have rolled into the Clone Wars cartoons as well as the TV series. Currently if given a choice they will watch either of the Genndy Tartofsky cartoons... they love watching Yoda, Obi Wan... and are particularly into the scene where Mace Windu destroys a whole army of super battle droids virtually singlehandedly.

They each got given a Hasbro UFX lightsaber around Feb this year, got some Star Wars lego for Xmas and they are little Star Wars nuts. I mean, padawans.  ;)

Ideally I'm going to wait until they're a couple of years older before I show them Episode 3, I watched it again recently and Twin No1 won't handle the immolation scene at all. Everything apart from that would be ok... they've actually watched the space battle at the beginning of ROTS and were fine with Dooku's decapitation. ;) They have started noticing in various other bits of unavoidable promotional material that in Ep3 Anakin is fighting Obi-Wan (!!!) and have begun asking questions about it. I'm going to try to maintain the mystery for a while longer... as long as I can I guess.  ;D

Anyways, that's my story... I take my responsibilities as a parent seriously and am enjoying introducing them to some more adult concepts over time, whether through Star Wars or other medium.  From that standpoint, between 4 - 6 seems like an ideal time to immerse them in something that can both help them grow as people...

...plus there are robots and spaceships and lightsabers!!! :D



And if you got this far, thanks for reading.  ;)




Offline Kenobi2185

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #43 on: May 19, 2012, 05:06:18 PM »
Three years old. 

Star Wars: A New Hope is my first memory of watching any movie.  My brothers and Dad were watching it and I remember walking in and seeing the burned bodies of Luke's Aunt and Uncle.  I remember not being scared but feeling sad for Luke.  Star Wars has stuck with me everywhere I go.   

My kids will be introduced to the Original Star Wars flicks at age 3.   ;D     

Offline Professor Huyang

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Re: What is the minimum age to watch Star Wars?
« Reply #44 on: May 19, 2012, 05:18:39 PM »
NECROPOST.....  ;D

When Star Wars came out in cinemas I was 7 and my brother was 5. We were both SW fanatics after that...  ;)

I had twins in November 06 and have been waiting until they were at least 5 to show them the OT. At this stage I have decided to show them the entire saga in the following order:

Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 1
Episode 2
Clone Wars Vol1 & 2 (Genndy Tartofsky)
Close Wars TV series
Episode 3
Episode 6


I always wanted to introduce them to the trilogy with ANH, given that it's the least complicated story-wise and lends itself well to easy comprehension by a child of 5. So I showed them Episode 4 when they were a tad over 5, they absolutely LOVED it and it was their favourite for a very long time.

I chose this order of viewing because I wanted to up the ante for them a little and try to maintain the mystery of who Darth Vader is. They've only seen Episode 5 once, some of the thematic elements went over their heads a little but they were a bit concerned with the intensity of the Vader/Luke battle at the end. We talked about it together and they each came to a different conclusion about Vader's bombshell:
Twin no2 thought that Darth Vader was telling the truth.
Twin no1 reasoned that becuase Vader is a bad guy, he could be intentionally lying in order to confuse Luke. (Impressive reasoning for a 5 year old, IMHO.)

So with that in mind, and knowing that Luke's father was mentioned in ANH and was a great Jedi, we decided to go back and watch the story of Luke's father... so they could get more involved in the overarching plot elements. Development wise it's actually a good thing as a parent, because we get to sit down after watching each Star Wars movie and talk about motivations, making good choices vs bad decisions, selfish vs selfless, helping other people etc etc. I would much rather use something like Star Wars as a tool for personal growth now that they're old enough to understand some of the themes.

So then we watched TPM and it has become their favourite of the entire saga. Being that it's more squarely aimed at children anyway (child protagonist for a start... and say what you will about Jar Jar but my 5 yo kids dig him) it's not surprising. They've only watched AOTC twice because twin 1 gets a bit scared when Anakin gets his arm cut off. We stopped the movie at this point and also after the Tusken Raider slaughter to talk about Anakin's thought processes and why he does the things he's doing and how he appears to be beginning to make some questionable decisions.

After this we have rolled into the Clone Wars cartoons as well as the TV series. Currently if given a choice they will watch either of the Genndy Tartofsky cartoons... they love watching Yoda, Obi Wan... and are particularly into the scene where Mace Windu destroys a whole army of super battle droids virtually singlehandedly.

They each got given a Hasbro UFX lightsaber around Feb this year, got some Star Wars lego for Xmas and they are little Star Wars nuts. I mean, padawans.  ;)

Ideally I'm going to wait until they're a couple of years older before I show them Episode 3, I watched it again recently and Twin No1 won't handle the immolation scene at all. Everything apart from that would be ok... they've actually watched the space battle at the beginning of ROTS and were fine with Dooku's decapitation. ;) They have started noticing in various other bits of unavoidable promotional material that in Ep3 Anakin is fighting Obi-Wan (!!!) and have begun asking questions about it. I'm going to try to maintain the mystery for a while longer... as long as I can I guess.  ;D

Anyways, that's my story... I take my responsibilities as a parent seriously and am enjoying introducing them to some more adult concepts over time, whether through Star Wars or other medium.  From that standpoint, between 4 - 6 seems like an ideal time to immerse them in something that can both help them grow as people...

...plus there are robots and spaceships and lightsabers!!! :D



And if you got this far, thanks for reading.  ;)

Applause*

I dunno. I grew up on Star Wars. I only had ANH when I was growing up, so my brother and I watched it constantly. We had no toys, really, because we lived in Germany for the first few years, and when we got state side, we were more into comic books and Batman the Animated Series. Star Wars legos didn't come out til my big brother was 12 or something. Then we got the special edition on VHS and pretty much wore out the tapes. I always remember that first tape though. It was like something sacred, when my dad would put it on. I am a huge Clone Wars fan, so I think when my kids are really young, I'll have that on all the time. The movies will be a 'special occasion' kind of thing, where we dim the lights and pull out the sabers. We'll see.
"Many years I have been on this ship teaching many a Jedi before you, and I will continue teaching many a Jedi after you. Call me what you want, but inside my memory banks I contain a record of every lightsaber ever made, and the Jedi who fashioned it."
―Huyang


 

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