Star Wars for a 4-year-old? Help!

Cafe Society
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Background: So, it might be an understatement to say I’m a Star Wars fan. It’s been part of my DNA since age 7, which was 1983. I’m also a somewhat obsessive collector (with a very accommodating wife) so there’s A LOT of SW stuff around my house. Figures, Legos, games, posters, stuffed plush, statues, etc… So my kids have grown up steeped in this stuff, without much choice in the matter. My first two kids were content to play with “Daddy’s toys” on occasion, making up their own stories, and not really caring about the movies until my wife and I deemed them old enough to watch them. (at ages 7 and 8, last year. They loved the OT and TFA, but got bored halfway through TPM and haven’t gone back yet. ah… that’s my girls!)

The Problem: My youngest. He’s 4. And he’s nuts for Star Wars. (Actually, anything with “bad guys” that the “good guys” can “get”, but particularly SW). He can play for hours with our bin of “Galactic Heroes,” setting up all the Stormtroopers and assorted Darths and then knocking them over with anyone with a non-red lightsaber. This of course, warms my heart to no end. BUT, now he really wants to watch Star Wars. He knows there are shows/movies, and he’s begging to watch.

IMHO, even ANH (or, gulp, TPM) is too violent and scary for a 4-year-old, but surely there’s something he can watch. Ideally, without spoiling too much for when he eventually can watch the Real Thing. So I tried the original Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon, and that sort of satisfied him for a bit. But it also confused him, because he kept insisting the Stormtroopers should be “bad guys”. And, there’s not much story there, just a bunch of battles. The 2nd season has more story, but also more spoilers, as does the later Filoni Clone Wars series (which also can be kind of boring, IMHO).

We watched a bit of the Lego Starwars, Freemaker Adventures at grandma’s house via On Demand, and that seems close to what we’re looking for. (although it was rated Y7, so I’m pushing it a bit…) I’ll have to pick up the DVD for it, since we don’t have On Demand at home.

tl;dr:
Is there anything else out there like that? Something Star Wars (or even similar to SW) geared toward someone whose most “grown up” shows prior to this were PAW Patrol and PJ Masks?

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Disney has a newer cartoon series, “Star Wars Rebels,” which is currently in its third season (it runs on the Disney XD channel, rather than the “original” Disney Channel). It builds off of the second Clone Wars series (with several characters from that series making appearances), and it’s set a couple of years before ANH (so, you definitely have “stormtroopers are bad guys”). I think the violence level is likely OK for your son, and even as an adult, I find most of the stories to be pretty good. It also has a lot of nods to the movies (both the original trilogy and the prequels), which should make your inner SW nerd happy. I’d highly suggest giving it a try with your son.

The Wikipedia entry on the show: Star Wars Rebels - Wikipedia

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First off, IANAParent, so I’m asking this more as a question of the masses, but it could pertain to your situation.

Is the level of violence in a Star Wars movie, any of the originals or the prequels…or even the cartoon series, any more violent than the way he plays with the toys now?

I always attributed keeping young kids away from violence is to shield them from things that could be imitatable. You don’t want your child mimicking a torture scene or a curb stomp or something obviously. But you said he already sets up the stormtroopers and knocks them down with the lightsabers, isn’t that what they essentially do in the movies? So what’s the difference between him using a toy to take out another toy, and Mark Hamill doing it to “random actor number 9” in a stormtrooper outfit?

Does he to the “pew pew” with the guns? Because I can definitely forsee wanting to stay away from them if you don’t want him to learn about guns or imitate that, to which I would say you probably aren’t going to find anything SW that would prevent that.

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You have a point to some extent. and it’s possible I’m being overprotective of “my baby.” But here’s my thinking:

  1. It’s one thing to see a plastic figure fall over. It’s another to see real actors fall over, screaming, with smoke and flames from exploding squibs on their chests. The films aren’t Saw, but it’s a step up in realism from the cartoons, which in turn are a step up from playing with the toys.
  2. 20 minutes or so into ANH, a dude gets his arm chopped off, by the good guy. and the camera lingers on the severed limb for a moment, complete with blood spatter.
  3. the charred corpses of Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen.
  4. Obiwan’s “death” scene, which has got to be confusing for a child who doesn’t really even understand what death is quite yet.
  5. Nightmare-fuel creatures like the dionaga (the thing in the trash compactor), or even the denizens of the cantina. The figures he’s playing with are “cutesified” versions of the characters. Even the scariest looking bad guys are still cute and chubby: http://bit.ly/2iz7l6U He’s not old enough to understand special effects and prosthetic makeup. Seeing even Chewie or the cantina band walking around in “real life” may cause sleepless nights. Once again, cartoons may be a good middle ground for this, which is why I originally went with the Clone Wars cartoon.
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Last December(2015), I watched all three originals with my 5 and 7 year old.

I watched with them and it was fine. Scary a little, but doable. And our kids are super sheltered in many ways.

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My boy’s five and has seen most of the movies. I think about this quite a lot and he hasn’t seen Rogue One yet as I decided it was quite dark and that seeing it at a cinema would be overwhelming. I think context is quite important - once RO is out on the small screen, I think he will be fine with it. Similarly watching characters die or monsters on a smallish screen during the day with family is different from an immersive cinema experience.

It is also about your knowledge of your own kid, but also realise that experience is how they learn about the world. Kenobi’s death, for example, is a shock, but he’s almost immediately ‘around’ again. It’s not a bad introduction to death and memory. It’s a bit like giving kids pets that you know will die - they will be upset, but they will learn.

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And most importantly, he’s your son - you must do what you fell is right, of course.

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I’ve watched and enjoyed the 1st season. Waiting for the 2nd to come in at the library. I had discounted this one for some reason, though I can’t remember why. It’s good. I like it better than Clone Wars. Just not sure if it’s the best first intro. Maybe…

Yeah, I think he’ll be ready for the Real Thing probably before his sisters were, but there’s still a big difference between age 4 and 5. Based on his personality, I’m guessing he’ll be watching the OT by no later than 6. But I’m looking for something to tide us over until then.

Yup. I don’t think my older kids are ready for Rogue One yet, or even ROTS, so I haven’t let them watch those. (Well, like I said in the OP, they didn’t get to ROTS yet, but if they do make it through the first 2, I’m going to hold off on that one for another year or two.)

Just happened to be at the library and picked up this:

I’ll give it a look first, and maybe let him watch it, but it looks like it’s got the prequel problem. (Clonetrooper good guys, Yoda in action, etc.)

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The second and third seasons are even better – bigger stories, better graphics (I suspect that their budget was increased). But, a few darker moments, too, esp. at the end of Season 2.

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If he’s OK with the Lego shows and you want the Stormtroopers to be the bad guys, The Empire Strikes Out is your best bet.

Maybe even see if you can find the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars special Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars - Wikipedia

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I don’t know about that… I was born in Sept. of 1972, and saw ANH with my dad at the first Houston showing in May of 1977, so I was a little over four and a half when the movie came out.

It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I wasn’t scared or anything- maybe a bit creeped out by Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s burnt skeletons, but not really scared.

And… FWIW, I took my 5 year old son to go see Rogue One yesterday, and he wasn’t scared or freaked out, and it’s considerably more scary and dark than any of the initial trilogy. As a matter of fact, he proclaimed it “the greatest movie ever!” right after the lights came up in the theater. He’d already seen ANH, ESB and ROTJ, for what that’s worth.

He’ll be fine, and he’ll remember it for the rest of his life as a fun, positive memory with you.

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How about starting him with the Clone Wars series?

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FWIW, here’s a 3yo girl reviewing ANH: Star Wars according to a 3 year old - YouTube

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I was 4 when I saw ANH in the theaters in’77. My older brothers were 6 and 7 at the time.

I don’t remember being frightened. We all loved it enough that we had to be Darth, Luke and Leia the next Halloween.

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As others have said, my kid and your kid are individuals with different sensibilities. But …

We gave our daughter the original trilogy on DVD for Christmas when she was 5 (IIRC). During ANH, if there wasn’t an active chase or some light sabers on the screen, she kept complaining, “This is boring. Can’t we watch something else?” The scene in Obi-Wan’s home, any scenes on board the Millennium Falcon that didn’t involve shooting TIE fighters, etc.

She laughed when the training-drone-thing zapped Luke in the butt. She thought some of the cantina aliens looked cool. But she didn’t seem to be frightened by any of it.

Also, I second everything Sir T-Cups said in his (?) post.

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If and when you decide to expose him to SW, make sure you do it in the proper order.

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FWIW, our daughter began watching the original trilogy movies at 3 years old (she especially loved RotJ, of course) and has seen the last two in the theater. If you feel it’s too much for your kid, so be it, but maybe it isn’t?

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I won’t worry about spoilers. At 3 and 4 years old my brother obsessively watched **Short Circuit **and Flight of the Navigator. I mean, he’d watch them, rewind the tapes, and watch them again if my parents let him. By the time he was 12 he forgot the plot to Flight of the Navigator until we watched it again, despite the fact that he’d seen it dozens of times as a preschooler.

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Eh… just lay hands on the original releases, and you’re fine. No stupid BS like a ghostly Hayden Christensen in ROTJ or anything like that.

Then release order works just fine, although I think I’m going to show my son TFA before I start eps I, II and III with him.

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Born in '75. Saw it in the theater in '77. You know those parents you hate who take little kids into shockingly age-inappropriate movies?

Sorry.

Anyway, I say let him see it now. But I say that as someone who A) has no kids, and B) saw Alien in the theater when I was five.

So, grain of salt?