r/MadeMeSmile • u/moonpies4everyone • 27d ago

This letter from Ron Howard to Newsweek after they grilled 9 year old Jake Lloyd’s performance in The Phantom Menace. Favorite People

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u/54sharks40 27d ago

It's been a long, long time, but if I recall, the kid's performance was not the issue with that movie

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u/Sepof 27d ago

Fuck all the haters, that movie was what got me into Star Wars... I couldn't appreciate the older films til I was older, but this movie came out when I was like 8. I remember the lightsaber battles friends and I had and all the darth maul costumes that halloween.

Was it a cinematic masterpiece? No, but it ignited a love for the genre and the principal story in many kids. The movies today certainly aren't catching the attention of kids, but this one did. Ironic that it gets all the hate, when the prequels are a big reason I think we even got to see more content. Those things made $ and proved it wasn't a niche genre.

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u/majornerd 27d ago

This is lovely. It’s the 25th anniversary and the movie is back at the theater. You should go see it and be a kid again. There aren’t many opportunities to do that as we get older. Try to grab one when you can.

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u/thaddeus423 27d ago

Me and the fam did last night. Little decked out in her Star Wars dress (a dress!)

I was grinning ear to ear.

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u/ZippityZooDahDay 26d ago

I went last night! It was amazing. TPM came out before I was born so I never got to see it in theaters. The pod racing scene just hits different on the big screen.

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u/AkameEX 26d ago

I did this over the weekend with my friend. When people in the theater lit up their blue and green lightsabers during duel of fates, I lit up my two reds. Theater went livid LOL

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u/ghostytot 15d ago

Definitely this. The Lion King was one of my absolute favorite movies as a kid. I watched it countless times during that period of childhood where things were safe and happy and innocent. When you’re blissfully unaware or the hardships you parent(s) are facing to make sure you’re sheltered and fed, and loved.

Time passed, situations changed, and those feelings went away pretty quickly. So when The Lion King was showing in theaters (also for an anniversary I think), I immediately got tickets for my mom and I to go see it.

I expected the feelings of nostalgia, but I didn’t expect to be crying literally at the opening scene lol

All that to say, yes, definitely go see it. Take any opportunity to revisit those feelings. It can be kind of magical sometimes

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u/_dontjimthecamera 27d ago

TPM came out when I was 8 and I was completely enthralled. Today I put it on with my 3yo daughter and she freakin loved it. Queen Amidala and Jar Jar were her favorite characters and she was entranced by the pod racing.

Even though I grew up with the prequels as a kid, it made me appreciate even more that they made and continue to make Star Wars accessible to kids.

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u/peteroh9 27d ago

Man, I was 8 and I loved Star Wars more than anything and I was so confused because it was the first time I'd been disappointed by a movie.

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u/Fzrit 26d ago edited 26d ago

continue to make Star Wars accessible to kids

I'm assuming that for your 3-year-old daughter you skipped over all the lengthy senate scenes, the creepy "romance" scenes between Anakin/Padme, and all the scenes where arms/heads/etc were chopped off?

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u/AsheLucia 27d ago

I still love that movie. I love all of Star Wars. Not every movie needs to be a masterpiece. Sometimes a movie just needs to be fun and entertaining, which these movies are.

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u/EGGlNTHlSTRYlNGTlME 27d ago

I mean yeah but people buy (bought) magazines like Newsweek to read critical film reviews.  It’s how harsh they were on a 9yo actor that’s the problem, not that they were harsh on a movie that other 9yos liked lol

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 26d ago

They were only fun and entertaining if you were a small child. Which, I guess worked well enough but it didn’t have to be that way.

Sources: The original trilogy and Avatar: The Last Airbender

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u/dumb_commenter 27d ago

I loved that movie. I remember the surprise I felt to learn years later the amount of hate it gets. I watched it the first time at a young age and still get excited for the pod racing scene

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u/flaschal 27d ago

this is the same for me. I prefer episodes 1 to 3 not because they‘re better films but because the first one came out when I was 7 and they were PERFECT to me when I watched them in the cinema with my dad and my own bag of popcorn

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u/Aristophanes771 27d ago

I put on our DVD of Attack of the Clones every weekend for months when I was about 8. I loved the scene where they were escaping the droid factory. And the bit where R2D2 drags C3PO's head next to his body and he's like "oh I'm quite beside myself" was the funniest joke ever. I really wanted to eat the fruit that Anakin and Padme had on Naboo, the slice that he sent floating with the force.

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

George Lucas has been consistent in stating star wars was always made for kids. They wanted to capture the imagination, and they were quite successful at that. 

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u/Fzrit 26d ago edited 26d ago

Fuck all the haters

this movie came out when I was like 8

The thing is that most people who disliked the Prequels weren't 8 when they came out. They were much older...and while watching the Prequels most of them were genuinely baffled by what they were seeing, what the tone was supposed to be, who these movies were even aimed at, etc etc.

Prequel fans were mostly age <10 when those came out, and basically all they remember are the cool lightsabers and spaceships. It's a fond childhood memory, which they converted into Prequel fandom. Of course older Prequel fans exist, but they are in a minority.

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u/Sepof 26d ago

The movies were aimed at the next generation of potential Star wars fans.... Obviously.

And by pretty much any measure of success, they worked. We got more games, movies, and TV shows in the decade that followed the prequels.

People who rag on the prequels are just the type of fanboys who will never be happy with anything.

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u/Fzrit 26d ago edited 26d ago

Financially, the Prequels greatly succeeded due to IP/brand recognition + marketing + pushing merchandise. By that point Lucas was motivated primarily by profit, and as a businessman he succeeded.

As films the Prequels mishandled basically every aspect: Tone, shot composition, editing, dialogue, cinematography, script, etc. George Lucas neglected all of these aspects. Film students can basically use the Prequels as case studies to learn the basics of what not to do when making a movie.

It's like Batman v Superman. The movie was an absolute trash fire by every filmmaking metric, but it still made almost a billion dollars at the box office due to brand recognition and marketing. Financially successful =/= good movie, and inversely financially unsuccessful =/= bad movie.

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u/UnlikelyPlatypus89 27d ago

The first one is my favorite because of the pod racing. So cool!

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u/PsykoSmiley 27d ago

The pod racing sequence with a quality sound system is just fucking superb.

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u/land8844 27d ago

Seriously. Our friend group (preteens at the time) would get together and watch the extended podracing scenes for hours.

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u/PompousDude 27d ago

You know a comment is gonna come off rational when "fuck all the haters" is the first sentence. Lmao

God forbid people not like something.

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u/Sepof 26d ago

Lol. In this scenario we're talking about people who basically drove a young kid to quit acting because they didn't think the movie he was in lived up to their expectations.

Don't love a movie? That's fine. Star wars hate for the prequels is something people passionately cry about 20 years later.

Greatest movies ever? No. But a big reason we got anything more at all? Yes.

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u/1madethis4porn 27d ago

Dude are you involved with kids? I work with them. They fucking love Star Wars.

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u/darwinsidiotcousin 27d ago

I was about your age when it came out and I conversely grew up loving the original trilogy. I was so jazzed to go see this movie and I remember loving every second of it.

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u/Der-Wissenschaftler 27d ago

proved it wasn't a niche genre.

Star Wars was already huge, there was insane demand for a new movie for years before the prequels came out. I am glad you have fond childhood memories of those movies, but man, those prequels are gigantic pieces of shit. So i guess i am a hater to you, so fuck you too i guess.

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u/tafinucane 26d ago

You're right. The first three were also movies for eight year olds, but everybody forgot this because of nostalgia. Jar Jar, dumbass pod racing, and the submarine journey were for the kids, that's fine. The problem is the adults had to watch some tedious plot about trade disputes, bad acting and stilted dialog.

At least we got a 20 sec clip of Darth Maul and his double light saber scored by Dual of the Fates.

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u/TheBuzzerDing 26d ago

"Fuck the haters, I watched it as a kid!" 

Pretty much sums up all love for the prequels lol

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u/Sepof 26d ago

Do you think we'd still be getting content without them?

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u/spacewarp2 26d ago

Yes because Hollywood has an unhealthy obsession with rebooting shit from that time period like ghost busters or Indiana jones.

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u/TheBuzzerDing 26d ago

Nah, george Lucas wouldve let it die if the expanded lore didnt pan out and make him shit tons of money

He was already unwilling to do anything with the brand until the disney sale since episode 3 because people kept ragging in his inability to direct. Had all the 3rd party additions to the clone wars not happened, Disney wouldnt have ever offered enough money for George's baby

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u/TheBuzzerDing 26d ago

I personally think that if the expanded content was just as bad, star wars would've died regardless of who liked the movies

Whenever a "are the prequels shit?" Debate shows up, defenders always talk about expanded lore as if it appeared in the movies. 

Shit, without the expanded stuff, the Republic being corrupt would still be entirely predicated on Palpatine tricking them  and the CIS saying they hate the republic's trade laws lol

The republic being genuinely corrupt and stupid came from the Dark Horse comics, (Grievous's origin story to be exact)and yet, most of the prequel's plot  revolves around it

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u/embee1337 27d ago

Compared to the reboots it’s a regular fuckin citizen kane