Jan
26
I’ve been thinking about Star Wars lately. Specifically our friends’ 6-year-old son’s obsession over Star Wars. All of the movies, and now the “Clone Wars” cartoon series. The problem? He and School Girl have been friends for quite some time now. When we went to Boo at the Zoo, and all 3 of the boys were insanely excited over seeing the Imperial Stormtrooper’s Guild (and Boba Fett), she had no clue what was going on. I felt badly about that. I did.
Then I decided to watch Clone Wars. Just to see if it would be okay. Simply put, she’s not ready for that level of violence in her entertainment. I’m not sure if I want her to be ready for that right now. She’s not even 7 yet, for heaven’s sake.
I’m also feeling more than a little guilty over allowing/making her watch the first Star Wars movie (I think they call it Ep. IV or some such nonsense now, but it’s the first one from back in the ’70s) when she was 5. We watched it twice, I think. She has never asked to see it after the second viewing. Never. Now I’m afraid I’ve turned her off of SF/space cowboy stuff for good.
I’m sure I’m just old-fashioned, and that I shouldn’t worry so much about what School Girl watches. But it was nice to see last week that at least one parent out there agrees with me that not every movie should be seen by everybody. At any age.
I should say that multiple viewings of a movie are not uncommon here. By contrast, we’ve watched The Nightmare Before Christmas roughly…oh, at least 100 times over the years. At least. We’ve seen My Neighbor Totoro almost 100 times. School Girl’s latest obsession is Scooby-Doo; she loves all of them, but Evil Dad and I prefer the older ones, mostly because all of the ghosts are people in suits. And she’s watched Star Wars “IV” twice. Never expressed any interest in watching the others at all.
On the other age-appropriateness front, I suspect the Hannah Montana craze has run its course here. We allowed her to watch some of the series because her two best friends love it so. In fact, one of them told her that “every girl LOVES Hannah Montana”. As she told me the other day, “(Lil’ A, one of her classmates) is a girl, and she hates Hannah Montana.” I guess that’s what got the wheels turning in her head, because not long after that we stopped watching the show. Not that she’s not listening to pop music, mind. Her favorites? Duffy, Not Montreal and Emilie Simone.
Edited to add: I can’t believe I forgot Jill Tracy. D’oh!
I absolutely agree right age – right movie. You’d think that with my Star Wars crazy kids they’ve seen the actual movies. But nope they haven’t. Jr. tried watching Return of the Jedi (finished) and Empire Strikes Back but only made it about a quarter of the way through Empire. He’s not asked to watch them again. But not Lil’B at all.
What they do watch is the cartoon Clone Wars which is filled with cartoon blow them up affects but I think in the “safety” of a cartoon it doesn’t feel real. But even with that Lil’B is very particular about which disc he’ll watch. They’ve also read the Star Wars books for kids. Lots and lots of Star Wars books. To be honest I do not see introducing them to the live action films until they much older.
Hi Evil Mommy,
I wouldn’t worry about turning her off to Sci-Fi Space Cowboy stuff. Most of us associate the movie from our past with the times and experiences around us at the time. If good family times are had around Sci-Fi then she will remember them fondly and go back for more in her later years.
As to age appropriate viewing: I’m with you on that one.
Sincerely, Euphoria
MamaB: I tried getting her to watch “Clone Wars”, but she just didn’t seem interested. I thought the girl Jedi-in-training would draw her in, but no. On the other hand, she loves Yoda; she’s gotten a couple of Yodas from BK and has begged me to make an amigurumi for her (her birthday’s coming up next month
), so maybe someday.
Lady Euphoria: I hope so. We might try watching it again in a couple of years, maybe after some older SF movies. Evil Dad and I were going to try the original “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and see how that goes.
I was going to leave a comment over @ Wired, but man… Wired isn’t as bad as YouTube, but it’s getting there.
We’re all about age-appropriateness. For instance, we noticed that The Boy had an easier time dealing with violence and/or suspense in animated films than live action. Over this last year, however, he’s really developed a much better tolerance for suspense and violence in live action – for instance, he’s seen the first two (real
) Star Wars movies, as well as the Lord of the Rings cycle. He still isn’t ready for Raiders of the Lost Ark, though – he can’t sit through the opening cave scenes.
Yikes! Commenting at Wired is a little intimidating for me…
I thought I had remembered that the Boy and School Girl are similar in that way; she can handle things better in cartoon form too, except (it seems) for Clone Wars. I think the Lord of the Rings movies and the Raiders movies will wait until she’s at least in “intermediate school” – another couple of years, at least.
So, Star Wars is out, but The Fine Art of Poisoning is in?
Something like this is hard to gauge for each child handles things differently. Luckily, we haven’t had either of our daughters want to see anything that we would definitely say no to, save for maybe Clerks. “No, you get to wait a few years for that one!”
You know, I can’t explain it. I wish I could. Then again, there’s nothing quite like hearing School Girl sing along with “Evil Night Together”.
She is asking to see “Coraline”, which I’m not sure about. I think she’d be okay with the movie, but it’s got a bit to do with our family situation and my own discomfort…which might be another blog post for another day.
“Clerks”? Um, yeah, probably not.
We’ve had surprising success with re-runs of old TV series (Sesame Street, the Muppets, the Flintstones, etc.) on DVD.
I saw Star Wars like ten times when I was seven and loved it, but when my daughter was in 1st or 2nd grade, we saw the Incredibles at a free preview, and she was so upset by it that we had to leave early, and my son also had little stomach for action until at some point he was fine with it.
We’ve had problems taking School Girl to movie theaters; the sound level’s just too much for her, and we inevitably have to leave the movie early. In fact, The Tale of Despereaux was the first movie she’s sat through without any problems. We rented The Incredibles and she really seemed to like it; but I think she’s better with cartoon violence than the “real thing” on screen.
Do your kids like the old “Scooby-Doo” series, the one from ’69 or ’70? School Girl just loves those; right now it’s her favorite viewing.