Saga

We recently decided to let our kids watch the original Star Wars Trilogy. It all started when Anthony convinced me to get Lego Star Wars for the Wii. "Its not violent!" he said. "When you hit a Lego character it just falls apart..."

Although it is more aggressive than I thought, it is a clever game, with bits of all 6 movies told silently with animated lego figures. I do not regret it, since it is the supreme motivator for Colin. "You want to play Star Wars? First, you have to do your homework, practice piano, and pick up ALL YOUR TOYS." I've never seen him do all these tasks so quickly, and without a single complaint.

Still, the wordless re-enactment is not the same. (The soundtrack on the game, however, blessedly is. Such heroic background music!) We had to show them the movies. I was 7 when I saw the first one, same as Anna. The great epic story lines loomed large over our childhoods. Of course, we decided to start with the 1977 original, A New Hope, aka Episode 4.

Which only led to more questions:

How did Darth Vader choke that man with the force?
Why did Darth Vader kill Obi Wan Kenobe?
How could Luke still hear Ben Kenobe's voice after he died?
Why did the Death Star blow up that planet?
Why did Darth Vader escape?
When can we watch the next one?

At first I told them they'd have to wait three years for the next chapter, like we did. But really, we watched The Empire Strikes Back the following weekend. More questions:

Where did they get the TomToms?
How did the snow monster freeze Luke's feet to the ceiling of his cave?
Why did they fly the Millenium Falcon into the monster on the asteroid?
Why Darth Vader cut off Luke's hand?
and,
Why did Anakin Skywalker turn to the Dark Side?

My dears, be glad you don't have to wait 15 years for that answer...

This totally made me laugh: