Ranking the SW Films as Kids' Movies

What a great idea!

Here's what I thought of them as a kid-


The Phantom Menace (funny it was so high for both of us!)
A New Hope
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
Return of the Jedi
The Empire Strikes Back

If I were to try to get back in that mindset to add the new stuff, it would probably look more like this:

The Phantom Menace
Solo
A New Hope
The Force Awakens
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
Return of the Jedi
Rogue One
The Empire Strikes Back
The Last Jedi


Note that this is drastically different than my current outlook!

 

The best Star Wars movies for kids are definitely:
Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menance and The Force Awakens (even though they may not understand that much)

The worst Star Wars movies for kids:
Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One and The Last Jedi

As a kid I loved Return of the Jedi and in my opinion it was the best Star Wars movie. This changed while I got older. Now The Empire Strikes Back is the best one for me. Funny side fact: Already as a kid/young teen I disliked Attack of the Clones. Haha!

 

Maybe I'm a kid because I liked the Phantom Menace

 

I wonder what it is about TPM that makes it so popular for kids.

It might be simply when it came out (I was seven, and so excited!)

Or maybe because it's one of the more self contained stories (notice how my second favorite as a kid was A New Hope, also relatively self-contained).

Maybe it's because it's so full of hope and optimism, especially compared to the other prequels?

Or because it just has a lot of simple fun- podracing, great music, and that multi-tiered battle. To be honest, I don't think the multi-tiered section at the end of the film gets nearly the praise that it deserves. I think it's far better paced than any other battle in the series, though I personally still enjoy Scarif and Endor slightly better.

Maybe compared to the other prequels- it just felt more human? Jar Jar and the gungans were the main CGI good guys, the most of the rest of the cast were practical effects. Compare the gungans/Naboo police force to the disposable clones, and it just kinda feels like more is at stake. Even Maul as a villain is more interesting seeming than Dooku (though I love Dooku now) and maybe a bit more believable than Grievous.

Or maybe it's because AotC was a bit too romantic, and RotS struck a weird cord with being too silly at times and extremely dark at others. For me, the tone of of TPM still feels the most consistent. And even though I'm not sure a child could articulate that, I definitely felt when I was young and first saw Revenge of the Sith that the tone in the beginning was really, really strange.

 

TPM is the best of the prequels.

I think that about....80% of the time. It probably works as a kid's space opera outside of maybe 30 minutes right in the middle where...nothing really happens (imagine if Furiosa and Mad Max sat around and traded stories for 30 minutes during the 'not-so-Green-Place' before deciding just to go back and solve the problem on their own).

As you said, AotC is awkward to get through, even for kids, and ROTS is a bit complicated with so much plot stuff happening in the background, as well as the "yeah we don't really know what the prophesy is....sorry".

 

Maybe because the hero is a kid

 

That might definitely help, too.

Loyd gets a lot of flack for his Anakin, but I feel bad for the dude.

He was just a regular child actor trying to read Lucas's clunky dialogue (seriously... "Yippee!"?).
I honestly think, all things considered, he didn't do all that bad.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack this thread with TPM praise, I just thought it interesting that so far it seems to be a popular one for kids- especially given how it's often cited as being too politically heavy (I'll concede that I really didn't actually understand much of the politics as a kid).

 

For me, Jake Lloyd is playing innocence with much natural and I think it was what was asked.

I've no problem with this kid.

 

Here is my ranking for Star Wars and kids.

TPM
ANH
ESB
ROTJ
AOTC
SOLO
TFA
TLJ
RO
ROTS

Everthing after ROTJ is basically the same, but ROTS takes the cake for least kid friendly seeing how there is disfiguration and children who are killed.

 

SW and kids? I will start with:

- TPM (pod race, young Anakin, battle droids and good visuals)...Maul cut in a half not recommended...haha
- ROTJ (Ewoks!!!!...hundreds creatures at Jabba's palace, speeder bike chase, great space battle of Endor)
- TFA (Bb-8!!...cool creatures in Jakku and Maz's castle, cool villain and protagonist.)

The others movies are too dark, sometimes too slow and also boring for kids. I chose the top 3.

 

Kid friendly list live action canon. Most to least.

TPM
ROTJ ( Ewoks trump Slave Leia)
ANH
TFA (BB-8)
TROS
SOLO
TLJ (Keep your 13 year old daughter away from Ben Swolo!)
AOTC (To much Romance 4 kids)
TESB (Luke's hand traumatized me as a kid)
R1 (war is not 4 kids!)
ROTS

 

Kids films? I saw John Carpenter's The Thing when I was 12, Sleepy Hollow when I was 8, Hellraiser at 13, Jack Frost the Mutant Killer Snowman when I was at Primary School age and Tokyo Gore Police when I was 14. I developed an interest in horror (psychological horror, supernatural horror, cosmic horror, body horror, creature features (Anaconda, Spiders, Piranha) and slasher horror) at an early age and had a great disdain for children's films that dumbed down these elements.

If your child likes horror, I would recommend:

• Abarat (similar to Terry Pratchett but darker)
• Carmilla
• Deadworld
• Judge Dredd/Judge Anderson
• Ampney Crucis
• Edgar Allen Poe complete works
• HP Lovecraft's works and any material from Weird Tales
• Twilight Zone

If you want your child to develop some taste, get him or her to watch classic thrillers like Rear Window or The Sting as well as classic operatic films like Ben Hur, or Cromwell. Also, I would also recommend introducing him or her to classical plays as well as books on world mythology. Such books I would recommend are:

• The Tain
• Lebor Gabála Érenn (Irish Book of Invasions)
  
• Volsunga Saga
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Kalevala
• Gawain and the Green Knight