Cool things

It's a tough time to be a parent of young boys. The full media blitz has been unleashed for Star Wars Episode III, working them up into a lather of longing, and of course they can't see it. I hear the PG-13 is the MPAA being generous; it could just as easily be an R. I presume it's just because they kept the language clean. On the upside, they have new episodes of the Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network to tide them over, and perhaps when the DVD comes out we can play an edited version. That's the true beauty of DVD. When Aidan was three, he was mad about Moulin Rouge, although the version he was familiar with was only about an hour long.

I'm excited to see the movie anyway, although I'll feel a little weird dropping the boys off with a babysitter to see a film they're so excited about. It's not as bad as when Aidan was just past one and we left him with a babysitter to go see Disney's Mulan, or maybe it's worse because it's not like he knew then that he was missing anything. Mostly I'm excited because it seems like someone finally tipped Lucas off that a certain demographic likes to see women in movies. Honestly, when I was a kid it was always irritating that the only woman in the first three films was Princess Leia. If you were playing Star Wars and there was more than one girl there, someone had to be Mon Mothma. Now there are Jedi women, and they're cool! Oliver even likes them. His favorite character to play on the Lego Star Wars is Shaak Ti.

On a not-very-related note, I found another movie they both quite like called Shaolin Soccer. It's from Stephen Chow who made Kung Fu Hustle (rated R, of course). Aidan and I saw a trailer for Shaolin Soccer when we went to see Spy Kids 3D, and Aidan and I both agreed it was something we really wanted to see, but it never came in theaters and I eventually forgot about it. I only remembered about it when Kung Fu Hustle came out. I found the DVD on Amazon.com and it was waiting for us when we got back from Arizona. It is such a cool movie; we all really enjoyed it. The main character in the movie wants to teach people that kung fu isn't just for fighting, it can help you do just about anything, and he ends up using soccer as a way to prove this to people. It's very warm-hearted, which seems to be a quality in short supply these days.