One night, while I was in the middle of my swing shift, I got a call on my cell phone from a close friend of mine. “Did you hear the news?” he asked me somberly. Immediately, I thought perhaps some tragedy befell a mutual acquaintance.
“What’s up?” I asked, bracing myself for anything.
“Disney,” he told me, “they bought out Star Wars.”
Yes, in fact, I had seen something about it on the internet, and had planned to do a bit of investigation before I got caught up in...well, work. I wondered if he was having nightmare visions of Mickey Mouse making an appearance in future films, or being digitally implanted into the existing films. I assured him that Disney has not interfered with Marvel since they bought them out. “But...wow,” I said. “And they own the Muppets, too.”
I remembered reading an article in old issue of the now folded magazine ToyFare, which described an episode of The Muppet Show I remembered from my childhood, one that featured Mark Hamill and several other characters from Star Wars. At the end of the show, the guests, along with the Muppets, sung a round of “When You Wish Upon a Star” before a backdrop of Disney’s Magic Kingdom (a concession, I assume, they had to make for the right to use the song.) The result, the article read, was nothing short of a pop culture meltdown. And now, thanks to a billions-dollar deal, that gaudy dream has been fully realized. Plus, they have Spider-Man, too.
Like most men my age, I was raised on Star Wars, and still love it. Yet as the years have worn on, I’ve come to look at the Star Wars phenomena with a touch of mirthful apprehension. Many of my fellow Gen-Xers, it seems, take it way too seriously. (Refer to certain episodes of the great BBC comedy Spaced to know what I mean.) Control of Star Wars being relinquished to one of the world’s biggest corporations could cause consternation among the fanbase, already jaded by their disappointment in the prequels, which, in their minds, was to be a Second Coming.
Okay, let me digress and elaborate on this a bit: somewhere in the 1990s, when the kids weaned on Star Wars in the early ’80s were growing up, they began confessing a deep love for the film franchise, even though by then the series was considered passe. Once we became aware that others shared our love, it became easy to envelop ourselves in a communal, nostalgic bliss. And why not? They are quality shows, among the best fantasy films ever released. New books, comics, and toys were released that, despite our age, we waited in line for. This built up to the re-release of the beloved films, followed by the inevitable new films.
Though we were blown away by the spectacle that was the long-awaited Episode I, something about it seemed, I dunno...not quite right. After some goading from the cynical press, we realized the film, which we assumed was destined to be a classic, just wasn’t that good. This forced the fans to acknowledge a fact that had beforehand been blasphemy: George Lucas was not God. For all his vision and innovation, he was a sub-par director and a lousy screenwriter. Did those fans ever bother to analyze what about the original films worked so well, or did they just bow and scrape at the nostalgic bliss that they induced? Didn’t they know that the brilliant stories that Lucas told were modern versions of ages-old, culture-crossing archetypes lectured about by Joseph Campbell, of whom Lucas was a number-one admirer? Or did they just think Boba Fett was a badass and Leia was hot when dressed up like a slave?
My generation seems to be one has trouble growing up (I’m certainly no exception.) We grew up in the golden years of awesome toys for boys: Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, Thundercats, and so-forth. It’s no surprise that even the franchises created for toys have since turned into, or are planning to be turned into, blockbuster films that wow new boys and offer that old nostalgic bliss to we grown-ups. While the target audience is still children, publications like ToyFare and shows like Robot Chicken wouldn’t have existed without a substantial market for that kind of nostalgia.
Okay, I’m digressing a bit too far here, but the point is that these franchises, especially Star Wars, have become our pop culture religions. Is it any wonder that people considered Jar-Jar Binks to be the Anti-Christ? He, along with everything else people didn’t like about the prequels, rendered the Star Wars universe imperfect, and, when woken up from our crazed devotion, we saw that even the beloved originals ARE just movies. Alas, some couldn’t cope with that, and they lost themselves in venomous spite for the treacherous films, blights of their beloved childhood memories to be dismissed and, more satisfyingly, to be bitched about. The disappointment attached to those films persuade people to wrongly consider them among the worst movies ever made. They’re not just disappointments to those people, they’re betrayals. I guess that’s what people get for deifying something as earthly as a movie franchise, top-notch though it may be.
So after hearing the news of Disney’s purchase, I admit there was a disturbance in my force that has continues to linger. That they wasted no time in announcing Episode VII, long suggested by Lucas, shows that either they are more efficient, or that Star Wars has now become more of a product to churn out (if that’s even possible.) But while Star Wars itself has become an American empire over the past thirty years, Lucas had remained its emperor, and all creative choices came down to him. Though his choices were often questionable, this at least led to a unity of the vision. Back in the mid-70s, Lucas was doggedly determined not to cooperate with a corporation, as he knew his own creative freedom would suffer for it. Now, taking to heart the negative response generated by the prequels, Lucas has evidently said, “Fuck it,” and handed it over.
The good news is that, with other people helming sequels, chances are they’ll get better screenwriters and directors (consider: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were scripted and directed by people besides Lucas.) I only hope that, for the next three episodes, he writes the stories.
In the meantime, we still have the often excellent TV series, The Clone Wars, to keep it real. I’m honestly a little excited to see what Episode VII will look like: if it feels like an honest continuation, or just enjoyable product, like Marvel movies can sometimes be.
I’ll just be bothered by a Star Wars movie not opening with the 20th Century Fox fanfare, but rather opening with the sweeping pan over the Magic Kingdom. Now all we need is Kermit the Frog playing banjo in the river before the castle, and maybe Spider-Man swinging from the spire.
