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/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