Don't Force us to Watch

This Christmas, Number One Son received a Star Wars DVD from his golfing Grandma and Grampa. He was very excited when he opened it.

"Oh my gosh! Do you know how much I've wanted this!", he rejoiced.

A couple weeks later, N1S came home from school a little run down. He wasn't very attentive at piano practice and didn't want to build a snowman with his sister. Sometimes kids have tough Mondays too, I guess.

So we had an early supper and while I was cleaning up, I thought it might be a good time to watch Episode I, The Phantom Menace.

I secretly put the disc in the player and and started it up. Sweet Pea excitedly asked, "Are we having a movie?"

"It's a surprise."

So they both sat on the floor and waited for the FBI warning to finish. Then the Star Wars logo came on with the loud music. SP dejectedly moaned, "Awww, not Star Wars."

N1S had the opposite reaction.

"Yes! This is Episode I, The Phantom Menace, this is where it all started, I like the cool ships and pod racers and the destroyer bots and Darth Maul and Qui Gon Jin and Obi Wan, but Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are not in this one, they start in number III and this is so cool and.....jibberty, jabberty, flibberty, flub........."

I had to throw a bucket of ice water on him to calm him down.

SP was still a little disappointed until she learned that Queen Amidala was in this one.

This was all before the movie even started.

Once the movie progressed to, Long Long ago, in a galaxy far away..... both kids turned their full attention to the film.

SP then complained to N1S, "How come they always have all those words at the beginning?"

I thought, "Oh boy. You are asking the wrong person for a Star Wars explanation." Unless you want a half hour thesis about both sides of the force.

N1S surprisingly kept it under 500 words and explained the introduction.

After a while I heard SP exclaim, "Yes!" I wondered if she was finally getting into Star Wars.

Then I heard, "Finally, those words are done."

After a while she did somewhat get into some of the action scenes. She really likes Darth Maul, but who wouldn't like a cutie like that?

The kids both enjoyed the rest of the movie until bedtime. We only had one other incident before bed. Toward the end of the movie I paused it to allow both kids to get PJ's and brush their teeth. While they did that I thought I would fast forward just a few of the slow scenes to get to bedtime quicker. When Sweet Pea came down the stairs and saw that the movie wasn't still paused, she started to wail.

"Waaaaah! I wanted to watch the whole movie!"

No amount of consoling would do. She literally only missed one scene where everyone was walking into a space ship, buckling up and opening their complimentary peanuts. Even though they opened their peanut bags with light sabers, it wasn't that important of a scene to miss. But I rewound and she got to see the whole movie. I used to be able to advance the movie and fool the kids better when they were younger.

I guess I should be happy that I have two other Star Wars fans in the family. I just need to start the movie earlier. May the force be with you.