The Three Stages of Jar-Jar Denial, By George Lucas

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George Lucas sat in at The Daily Show yesterday promoting his book (well, he more commissioned it than wrote it), George Lucas's Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success. Host Jon Stewart began the interview with an impassioned tirade about some logical lapses in a Star Wars plot-point, which was greeted by the director's most earnest, "I'm too old and rich for this shit"-look. Then Stewart launched right into the theme of disappointment, as it pertains to, say, people who cherish the original films and hated the sequels. It's the kind of thing poor George must get a lot; here's how he justifies it.

Step One: The Generational Divide

Lucas explains that just as some people like boys and some people like girls, and some people like chocolate and some people vanilla, some people like the three good movies from the series, and some people prefer the three terrible ones. And believe it or not, those people are divided along generational lines:

"We now have three generations of Star Wars fans. The first generation saw Episode IV, and the next two. Then when the next three came out they hated it, couldn't stand it. And that's when we first discovered that there was a whole new group of kids out there that LOVED it. And they didn't like the first three. They said Episode IV is boring, we don't want to see that. We love Jar Jar Binks."

Step Two: Movies Are So Over. It's All About Animated TV Shows!

The next step involves distancing from the filmic medium altogether, and pointing out that Star Wars currently exists on TV, in CGI cartoon form, and it is very popular! So looking backwards is counter-productive to all.

"Now we have a show on Cartoon Network, Clone Wars, and there's a group of kids that are very young, and some teenagers and some older people, who can't get enough of Star Wars, and that's their favorite show, and some of the kids haven't seen any of the films. That's all they know -- is Clone Wars."

Step Three: Realizing That Long Ago You've Really Painted Yourself Into a Corner Somewhere Deep in the Ablajeck Sector

Finally, acceptance.

"At the beginning I thought it was going to be one little movie. It's not all what I expected it to be -- I expected to turn out great. But you take what you can get."

[via /Film]



Comments

  • SunnydaZe says:

    George, kids are still fascinated by poop and snot bubbles....

  • snickers says:

    That thing around his neck is controlling his mind.

  • urgh says:

    Remember when this guy was an artist, who made movies like THX and American Graffiti?
    Please, please, please no more Star Wars...this time

  • butt toucher says:

    actually, no, i don't remember when george lucas was an artist. because he never was.

  • BatNips says:

    I think people who grew up with the first trilogy just can't stand the idea of the new trilogy, which is the same mindset whenever something cherished get's a reboot years later (which isn't the case with SW, but the principle is the same). Now I haven't got grey hairs and I don't need to get up at night to go the loo, so I've grown up with original SW on telly and prequels in the cinema and for me Revenge of the Sith was the best of the lot. I think the only poor SW film was Ep2, just pipping Ep4; sorry but I felt like Luke needed a lot slaps to the face which began with him whining about going to Toche station tp pick up some power converters.

  • Matt says:

    Batnips, its not that we hate the new trilogy just because its new.
    The first movie, episode 4, was a brilliant new idea at the time, a sci-fi fantasy adventure with excellent special effects and aimed at young adults. A few years later the second movie, The Empire Strikes back, was a continuation of the story, with more mature and darker themes. Then a few years after that Return of the Jedi came along. It was a fairly good sequel, mature and dark in places. And we were fans so we loved it. We even managed to overlook the fact that the entire second half revolved around walking talking teddy bears.
    Then we waited TWENTY YEARS for the next episode of a story we loved. By this time we were also twenty years older. Foolishly we thought the prequel movies were being made for us, the fans.
    We were expecting a series of dark movies, written for adults, about a good man called Anakin and his tortured transition to a servant of evil, the fall of a great civilisation and the rise of a cruel dictator, a story of murder, treachery, genocide, fear and failure.
    And what we got.. Episode 1... was a kids movie!
    With a too cute little boy called Anakin with magic powers, a cartoon character called Jar Jar, and droid soldiers programmed by the three stooges. The following prequels tried to recover, but just never managed to convincingly explain how adorable Anakin could become the embodiment of evil called Darth Vader.
    The feeling we have is called betrayal.
    Imagine waiting 20 years for a sequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, then finding out its called "Lord of the Rings 4 : Shrek saves the Shire."