Thursday, January 17, 2008

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.

7 comments:

Darren said...

Excellent! I wish Clare was that into watching it. I'll have to try her with Episode I.

And, by the way, isn't it "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."?

Marla said...

I love any movie that keeps M's attention till bedtime! It was only recently I saw any of the movies. I must say I found it difficult to get through them. My husband was not pleased with my lack of enthusiasm.

Dad Stuff said...

Of course, you are right Darren. I should have had N1S proofread for me.

Don't feel bad Marla, Lady Di has yet to see any of them all the way through.

dennis said...

My imps are that way too. Happily I am able use the threat of putting in Dr Who (ok they love the scenes with the R2D2 robots on steroids [re: Daleks]) but there are two episodes that will drive them out of the room before I even get the CD's out and they consist of a boy running around in a gas mask and statue angels that try to catch you blinking...

Creative-Type Dad said...

I tried showing my daughter the Return of the Jedi, she liked it - well enough not to ask for Little Mermaid.
I refuse to show the new Star Wars trilogy (1,2,3) just because I cringe at the thought. I had a hard time sitting through them the first time.

DJ Kirkby said...

Hahahahah, great post. Thanks for the warning though, N3S will never get to watch Star Wars if I can avoid it...

Anonymous said...

I was never a Star Wars fan, but did watch the films if they were on TV. However, somehow my youngest (5) is 'crazy' about it. he has all the toys, watches one of the films daily and knows the names of just about every character. He also goes around humming the Star Wars theme ALL DAY!
He now has Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga for PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS. As I type he is runing around as Anakin with a light saber.

Would you like to adopt him??

Gail

Stuff About Me

My photo
I'm a 40 year old dad of two. My wonderful wife, Lady Di, and I try to keep the kids from blowing things up here in central Minnesota.