I was about ten years old when I received my very first Star Wars action figures. One was a Death Star gunner, and the other was Luke in his black Jedi outfit from Return of the Jedi. For me, that’s where it all began. At the time, I didn’t know much about the films and the characters. I was mostly a fan of other stuff at the time, so the idea of sitting down and watching the movies in their entirety just never entered my mind.
After receiving those action figures, though, my dad and brothers showed me the films and I immediately became a fan. I fell in love with the story, characters, and wanted to absorb myself in the films even more. I found myself enjoying Episode IV the most, but enjoyed the other installments as well. The effects in each of the films also caught my attention and I wanted to learn how they were made. Then in other media, I loved the video games that were released on the Super Nintendo, despite the fact that they were… maddeningly difficult.
Games, you’re fun and all… but you’re harder than Dark Souls.
One of the things I loved doing was getting more of the action figures. I don’t know how many I had, but I had a lot and was able to fill a few shelves with them. I always loved taking them out of the package, putting them on display, and acting out scenes from the films. I was often told to keep them in the packages so they’d be worth something, but I was a kid, so I’d look at someone and be like, “Why would I sell these years from now? I wanna play with these things and I’m going to do just that. I’m never parting with them!”
Flash-forward to now and they’re in a box collecting dust and rat poo. Some devotion huh?
Heh well anyway, I had fun playing with those and, meanwhile, the films were getting re-released in theatres as the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. The hype around it was really cool and I did see Episode IV in theatres, so that was a fun experience. In hindsight, the Special Edition films felt like they didn’t do much with the newer effects when I really think about it. Cleaning and restoring the films was a good idea, but the added CG elements do feel out of place. I think they’re more effective in smaller instances as opposed to the scenes where they’re more prominent and in-your-face.
It’s neat story-wise, but the Jabba CG looks very out-of-place.
Still, this was a fun time to get into the franchise and I’m glad I watched the films. I loved talking about them with my friends and I kept getting the toys for a while, even playing more of the video games that were coming out. I wanted more films, but that wouldn’t happen for quite a while. It was fun, thinking about what could be done in the future. I once had a weird creepy dream where I was watching a movie in which Anakin Skywalker was suffering from his burn wounds and he was swimming around in a dark mysterious place before getting the Darth Vader suit. Then there was another dream I had where I was watching a movie version of Shadows of the Empire.
One thing I found myself enjoying a lot were various making-of documentaries. The first one I ever saw was this one on VHS that goes into the making of Return of the Jedi. It was one of the first making-of specials I ever watched on anything, so it holds a special place in my heart. It’s easily one of the reasons I want to make movies.
Then there’s this one made in 2005 called Empire of Dreams that goes into a lot more. It touches on George Lucas’ early films, goes in-depth on making each installment of the original Trilogy, and it talks about all the developments it had in visual effects. You name it, it covers it.
Except for that lovely little Holiday Special people seem to overlook.
Why doesn’t this get a re-release? C’mon now it’s a masterpiece!
All joking aside, I love the franchise and its great seeing kids get into the films now with the recent & current installments. I’ll go into that more in a later blog entry, but for now, this has been a fun little overview on how my love for Star Wars began.
Until next time, remember to never let Greedo shoot first. See you next week! o/
Kasey Lewis - Actor, Writer, Creator 
Nope, not doing it. I know what you’re thinking, but enough people have talked about the prequels and I don’t have much else to add. Nope. Not one little thing. Nopity nope. Nope!