First Impressions | Star Wars: Episodes I-III

Hello there.

I never thought I’d be here to discuss anything to do with Star Wars, but here we are!

As of May 10th, I have completed five movies, and I needed a way to express my feelings out loud because Nolan isn’t, technically, old enough to watch the films yet. I’d like to say he was the reason I decided to watch them, but I can’t. I’ve always been curious about the newer movies and since Disney+ has a few series about the past and present stories of this drama–plus the mania that surrounded the “Baby Yoda” a couple of years ago!–I realized I needed to see what all of the fuss is about once in for all.

So, with this being sad, let’s get into my top five impressions from, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. I’ve recently watched Rogue One but will not talk about it in this post. I hope to do another on the next three films and finish with the latest movies as well.

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5. My Love for Jar Jar Binks is Infinite

When I started my SW journey, I knew any character(s) that were quirky in some way, would capture me almost immediately, and when Jar Jar Binks was introduced in the middle of the first film, I knew I was a goner! I really wish he was around the third film instead of that one little scene that he is walking in Padme’s funeral. I enjoyed his bubbly personality and in an odd way, he, R2-D2 and C-P30 reminded me of Hagrid in the Harry Potter series, because despite his big appearance, he is such a lovable guy, who has a different way of speaking to others.

4. Tatooine Looked Like Bedrock from ‘The Flintstones’

As I was watching all of the scenes that feature the desert planet Tatooine, I was always thinking in my head of how much it looked like Bedrock from the live action versions of The Flintstones! I didn’t understand my thinking about it at first, but then I started to pair different things up like the usage of little handmade huts, giant weird creatures, and the angry alien versions of Fred Flintstone.

3. Master Yoda Can Really Move

This one really threw me for a loop. but you’ll (hopefully) understand in a minute.

Ever since the “Baby Yoda” craze erupted all over the world, I did know he was sort of portrayed as an older character, whenever I did see scenes of any of the movies, I would notice he was either propped up by a crutch or sitting in a levitating chair of some kind, so imagine my reaction in the third film and he is just running around like crazy, I was very shocked but I know when your adrenaline kicks in, you can do almost anything with your body and mind. So, as he was fighting Count Dooku, I was taken back by the spirit of Yoda’s abilities.

Master Yoda is like every elderly man out there, and that includes my papaw, because even though he wasn’t the strongest–physical wise–he had a restless mind, and he definitely did not like to be told ‘no’ about anything. We knew he shouldn’t bend over to pick up a tissue he dropped on the floor when I was around, but I think he did it because to give us mini heart attacks, so Yoda basically abandoning his cane altogether was somewhat familiar to me. As a newbie to the universe itself, now I am wondering if he is merely hiding this on the account of being an older creature to the Jedi council or what actually happened to earn that type of battle wound, so I’m hoping as I continue on with my list, I will finally get my answer to this burning question.

2. Anakin & Padmé

Okay, let’s start at the beginning, where we meet a young Anakin Skywalker in his cute chubby cheeks and inventive mind on Tatooine. I absolutely adore this little cute from the start of the whole thing. I vaguely remember seeing promos from “The Phantom Menace” and thought he was adorable, but it wasn’t enough to check them out along with my peers. I thought superheroes were cooler for me!

Anyways, when you are introduced Queen Amidala, you automatically think “she looks like a geisha!” because that’s exactly what she looked like and then before heading out to Tatooine, we meet her most trusted handmaiden Padmé and she obviously looks young, I’d say around 14-16 years but compared to this little boy that seems to be around 10, you would hope they would be able to keep up with each other as friend, but then “Attack of the Clones” comes on and Anakin definitely has a crush on her and acts on it, kind of bothered me at first. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to see happen between these characters, but I did not believe they should be a couple throughout the entire film.

1. The Origins of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia

I am still reeling by the events that happened in third film. Despite my feelings against the union, I did warm up to them and I didn’t realize how much I felt for Anakin and Padme as individuals until I got to the moment Anakin attacks the younglings at the Temple. I am surprised I didn’t believe in that change to Darth Vader after he killed Master Windu but once he walked into their room, my mind didn’t want to believe he’d kill them. This has happened before, and it was when it was revealed on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. about which side Agent Ward was really working for, and I had the same exact reaction where I didn’t want to believe it until I saw the person mentally and physically change into the enemy.

Sadly, it wasn’t until Obi-Wan was fighting Darth Vader, and he couldn’t allow himself to kill him, even though he saw the evidence of execution of the younglings and Master Windu, although there wasn’t footage of that scene, but it was absolutely heartbreaking hearing him groan and wail in pain as he’s being burned alive and seeing Padmé lose all hope for her little Anakin and the life they both desperately wanted for their little family, At the end, and Padmé gives birth and it is revealed to be two babies, who turn out to be Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, the former Queen dies, but while this is going on Anakin is essentially reborn as Darth Vader, and it really pulls at your heart and you can’t quite understand how it all went to hell so fast for them.

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I couldn’t believe how much I adored these early characters so much. You get a chance to see the beginning of the whole world that makes STAR WARS so special. However, since I chose to watch the films in order, and seeing the special effects between the original three movies against what CGI can do to films, might’ve been my downfall because I am currently at a crossroads because I cannot stand to watch anything past the mid 1990’s movie magic, so I’m not exactly going through the group as I was when I started this list. I’ll get there, but I wouldn’t exactly hope for another update until possibly the start of July!

If you are a fan of the STAR WARS franchise, do you have a favorite film and/or characters? I’d love to hear what everybody enjoys about the pandemonium below in the comments, but please do not tell me any spoilers, it’s bad enough I know Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker have heck of a meeting so, please be considerate of this newbie, okay?

Non-Disney | Hanna-Barbera

Howdy!

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a few months now, as I have been trying to generate new ideas for this specific series, Hanna-Barbera has been at the top of the list! The cartoons that came out of that production studio in the late 1960’s until sometime in the 1990’s, they merged with Warner Brothers, was at the heart of my mom’s childhood. Once Blondie and I were allowed to watch something else than besides Barney (shut up!) she basically showed us a number of animated shows she used to watch a child, and what’s funny is now that we’re much older, we still like watching a couple of those shows!

I had to look up all of the shows I’ve seen since I was about seven years old, and I literally counted up 11 different series! For this post though, I’m only discussing the ones that I currently watch on TV right now, and unfortunately Cartoon Network no longer shows the good stuff, but in light of that, there’s another channel specifically for the older animated shows like the ones below and some that came out in the early 2000’s that are over, and it’s called Boomerang!

Scooby-Doo

I absolutely love Scooby-Doo! I still get excited whenever I see the gang all over stores, on children’s clothing, food, watches. It’s nice to see that it is still alive and well for the newer generations. My mom used to tape the marathons on TV while we were at school, so when we came home, we’d sit in the living room, eating our snack on the floor while watching old school Scooby-Doo! I think she was happy that we were interested in something she loved as a young girl too.

My favorite series are the actual “Where Are You” series, honestly because I like the early 70’s getup, and fake laughing audience in the background. If you’re a true fan, you know Shaggy was a stoner and it wasn’t the name that gave you that realization; between the fact that he and Scooby were ALWAYS hungry but the way he was dressed, he was the definition of a 1970’s world peace, free love, weed loving, dude! Now Fred looked the part with mainly the bright orange scarf or whatever was around his neck, but you could never tell whether or not, he liked to smoke a few blunts too! You just wished that he’d come out and say that he and Daphne were a couple! For anyone who hasn’t watched the most recent remake of the show, apparently they’ve made Velma and Shaggy into a couple. How do you feel about that?

I also enjoy the movies, mostly the ones that came out in late 90’s and early 00’s, so like Scooby-Doo, and The Witch’s Ghost, Scooby-Doo, on Zombie Island and Scooby-Doo, and The Alien Invaders. There is one film that came out in 1988 called Scooby-Doo and The Ghoul School. It is about Shaggy, Scooby and his little (brave) nephew Scrappy-Doo become volleyball coaches at a spooky ghoul school full of young daughters of different and infamous characters, like Dracula, Werewolf, and a Mummy. I love it dearly, but I think my favorite feature about is the fact you can tell that it’s an old film, despite only coming out roughly 29 years ago!

Tom & Jerry

Tom & Jerry is another beloved show by my mother and I, we can still watch certain skits and laugh our butts off! Poor Blondie can’t watch it, and it’s not because she doesn’t have cable TV, it’s because our first cat Oliver, killed her first hamster literally a week after we came home from Florida in 2003.

Boomerang actually plays more Tom & Jerry than any of the other shows. The older series will air like two hours worth of the show in the middle of the afternoon and if you need a good chill out moment, it’s a nice show to kick back and watch for a while. One of the interesting things is that back in 1990, they did a remake but creating the main characters in their younger selves. What was even cuter though was they dressed Tom in overalls and stripped shirt with a little hat, while Jerry only had a medium sized red bow around his neck. They were so adorable, but I’ll be honest I don’t think we ever watched these episodes, because as I’ve been watching them now as an adult, my joy is genuine! What’s even better is that my little nephew Nolan enjoys watching it too.

The Smurfs

They’ve started playing an hour worth of The Smurfs in the mornings, so whenever my mom goes to work, I usually try to stay an hour afterwards to watch the episodes. They began airing the show I think at the beginning of August and either they’re only allowed to play a small selection or they never really created more than 10 episodes, because I’ve seen the same ones more than twice.

I have tried to watch the live-action movies, but I’ve never really been interested in them. They look the same and the adventures seem fun, and using Hank Azaria for the villain, Gargamel was brilliant! I do like the fact that they’re trying to get younger generations into the characters as well! The smurfs themselves are adorable, I love their names and how they all act around each other. I feel bad for Brainy everytime he tries to take center stage on certain things, the rest of the clan just throw him out.

The Flintstones

These last two are also new additions to the channel’s daily schedule. I was very happy to see that they were going to put The Flintstones back on the air, they were also another family favorite for my sister and I. We, like every other child, took the Flintstones vitamins before getting to school in the mornings, and everybody usually wanted a “Dino” or “Wilma” because they tasted the best and didn’t leave a chalky taste afterwards. I feel sort of to the kids that get to have the gummies now and don’t have to endure the grape-y taste of rock pieces throughout their mouth.  Oh, and I enjoy Cocoa Pebbles and milk in the mornings now as an adult…

Since both The Flintstones and The Jetsons are much older than the others on my list, my mom and her siblings, watched the original and a couple of the remakes, especially The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show. This was the one time I remember watching the squeals and loving it just as the first one. I actually love watching the movies too! I feel like my favorite is The Flintstones (1994) when John Goodman played Fred Flintstone, which I thought was just perfect casting!

The Jetsons

Something that I thought was weird is that the creators at Hanna-Barbera productions obviously had a fascination with both the future and prehistoric times. Both The Flintstones and The Jetsons were aired in the same year so that has always made me giggle in a way because you have to think one is about having flying cars and robots, and cars made out of rocks, logs and animal skin and using dinosaurs to help you do the simplest of things!

I do love the show! And I have enjoyed the crossover episodes and movies. Everybody freaks out when the Arrowerse collides the week before they go on their Christmas break, but as a kid of the 80’s or 90’s, seeing these two shows mixing their realities was very cool!

I know Hanna-Barbera created a few more other shows, one of which was The Adventures Of Popeye and I do remember watching some of those specials but not as much as I would have put them on the list above. Honestly, we were encouraged by everyone in our families to check out something on television that was aired before our time, most of the time we had grown to enjoy them, but I actually took them pretty easily.

If you can think of any others that were made by HB throughout the 60’s to 80’s, let me know I’d like to know what you enjoyed as well.