I do my best to be positive and optimistic these days. So when I heard about Disney buying Lucasfilm and planning to make sequels, I started looking on the bright side of this.
But I realize not everyone is as sanguine about the possibilities as I. There have been many who express outrage and fear about what a company like Disney, with its foundation in children's entertainment, might do to such a beloved franchise.
There are plenty of directions I could take in order to assuage such fears. I could bring up Disney's track record with stewardship of established franchises by pointing to their acquisition of Marvel a few years ago, when many of these same complaints were made ("the comics will all be kids titles! They will cancel every MAX title and make the Punisher use Nerf guns!") I don't think anyone can say what has happened with the Marvel Universe has been anything but awesome (in film and TV at least, the comics themselves suffer the same problems they have for years.)
I could point out that the Disney Corp is, first and foremost, in the business of storytelling. No matter how cynical you may be about Disney's movies, there is a reason why we have given them our money over the years. They make stories that resonate with audiences of all ages. Disney makes good films, period.
But many of those complaining are older fans, the rabid fanbase of obsessive true believers who fear that Disney's sequels, though fine films they might be, won't be Star Wars films. They won't have the right feel of the universe. They will try to make a brand new, Disney version of the Star Wars Universe.
And I understand, because I am that rabid fanbase of obsessive true believers. I was five years old when Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope came out. My very DNA was altered by that film. And I am here to tell you that Disney has the best chance out of anyone to create a true, honest sequel to the original films we love.
And make no mistake, Disney is smart enough to know that they want to make sequels that step lovingly in the footsteps of the original trilogy, not try to repeat the mistakes of the prequels.
And I can make lots of good arguments why they are the best choice to do it, but I'm going to cut right to the chase and use a single example that will make my case with absolute certainty. I'm going to talk about one single film that allays all my fears, and should lay yours to rest as well.
That movie is TRON Legacy.
Hey! Come back! Just give me a second here, you will see.
Now many people despised TRON Legacy, and complained about everything from the overuse of CGI (which is pretty stupid, if you think about it,) to the nonsensical plot (why would programs need a bar?)
And I come to bury CLU, not to praise him. I'm not going to try to convince you why it was a good movie. I'm here to show you why I liked it, and why that is good news for Star Wars fans.
Because I'm not just a rabid Star Wars fan, I'm also a rabid TRON fan. I adored that movie as a kid, and my friends and I would watch it over and over again when it came out on video. We would greet each other at school with calls of: "greetings, program!" and sign off phone conversations with "end of line."
I didn't just enjoy the light cycle sequence (as we all do,) but I enjoyed the world of TRON, with all that was shown and implied. It was a rich well for the imagination, and it turned the technological realm into fantasy, rendering programs and lines of code into living beings with personalities, thoughts, beliefs and desires.
But Disney did not count TRON as a highly valued part of their massive library of properties. They made almost no attempts to keep it alive as they have with other films. It sat and gathered dust, but for a few video game appearances, never released with much fanfare. TRON did not gather hordes of new fans like Cinderella has (they still sell merchandise with her likeness to little girls around the world.) But the old fans remained, and we still loved the world of TRON.
Then, almost thirty years later, they decided to do a sequel.
It made sense, in that it was a property they already owned, and they had the advantage of much better special effects. They could have rebooted the original and made it a much slicker presentation of the story, and then used that to anchor a new version of the property. The new TRON would replace the original, for a new generation of fans (rather like the new Star Trek is meant to do.)
But they did not go that way. They made a direct sequel to the original. When you watch the beloved original, with its overly-ambitious special effects, you are watching the canon. TRON Legacy picks up directly from that ending. It has plenty of action and special effects and eye candy (Olivia Wilde in a body suit is probably responsible for half its domestic box office receipts alone.) But the story itself was steeped in the canon of the original film, to the point where those unfamiliar with it might become somewhat confused.
So then who was the movie meant for? We've already established that the original was not that popular, so who were they trying to appeal to with the plot?
The answer of course was that the new movie was meant for fans of the original. And while it's true that Disney may have overestimated the number (and commercial power) of those fans, it's clear that they were making a film for them.
For we TRON zealots, the bar inside the computer wasn't at all confusing. We had already accepted that the beings inside the computer lived lives parallel to our own, so why wouldn't they want to go to a place where every program knows your filename? All of these oddities were explainable by Flynn's upgrades to the computer itself, just as today Mario no longer looks like a jumble of legos.
But for someone just tuning in, unwilling to suspend some disbelief in the name of pure fun, the whole thing made little to no sense. And the movie flopped.
But that is awesome news for Star Wars fans.
Because Disney took a chance. Think about how rare that is in Hollywood today. A slick reboot was a far more economically viable alternative, simply going by movie trends. A direct sequel of a relatively unknown (by Disney standards,) film, using concepts that make sense only to those steeped in knowledge of that original film, and using older actors that aren't exactly top box office draws for this kind of film? Who would take such a chance with a multi-million dollar budget?
Disney.
They respected their own film. When they go through their back catalogue, they don't treat it like a rag bin, to see what they can cut apart to stitch back together into something useful that no longer resembles the original (mostly, I'm looking at you, Witch Mountain.) They care about the stories, because they know that is what their entire empire is based upon.
And now they have Star Wars. They know that those films created an incalculably large cultural impact, and they want to fold that into the Disney family. And they know that the way to do that is to respect the stories that came before.
So we aren't likely to see more Jar Jars, or spend too much time discussing trade embargoes. We will see space battles, lightsaber duels with larger than life villains in death masks, and witty banter between our favorite characters.
It will be Star Wars. The way we remember it. And I'm going to sit in the theater with my little girl (who will be six or seven then,) and we will eat popcorn and be transported to a galaxy far, far away.
Of course, there will still be pissy little bitches who will whine that it's not as good as the original, but fuck those people, the movies won't be for them. Because the Force isn't with them.
End of Line.
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