“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
–-Darth Vader
On October 30, 2012, Disney announced its plans to buy Lucasfilm for four billion dollars. Since then, Disney has released four Star Wars films and made over four billion, eight hundred dollars. Disney has announced Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in both Disneyland and Disney World to open. Galaxy’s Edge will be a Star Wars theme park. It’s going to be a theme park like no one has seen before. The employees of the park will be taught the languages of the Star Wars movies, and a Cantina restaurant in the park will have a live band playing the exact instruments and music from the movies themselves. It will be a completely immersive experience, and its popularity will be unprecedented in terms of theme parks. Disney announced the parks back in 2012. They also posted warnings to let know the public know that the parks could be full, and it may not even be possible to get in. “Access to the park, land and experiences may be restricted or unavailable depending on guest demand and other factors. Park tickets, Annual Passes, vacation packages and Walt Disney World Resort Hotel stays do not guarantee access to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. People will buy tickets anyway. I know this to be true because my family will be buying tickets for our annual Thanksgiving trip to Disney World.
My dad’s birthday falls around the third week of November every year. Sometimes, it even lands on Thanksgiving itself. We don’t eat turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing like most families do. The Singletary’s drive the seven hours to Orlando, Florida. We stay at the same hotel. The Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes. There is a left tower and a right tower in the hotel. Whenever we stay on the left, the rooms never seem to be up to par. My father says, “We’re on the jersey side of this cesspool.” That, of course, is a line from Madagascar. Alex the Lion says it as he tries to persuade Marty to leave the island.
The same marble tile greets us as we step into the Florida hotel. It’s like we never left. We eat dinner in the same hotel lounge and complain the food is gross. We eat it anyway.
On Thanksgiving Day, the four of us cram into a little, four-door Uber and roll right up to the Animal Kingdom. Believe it or not, Disney’s Hollywood Studios isn’t actually our favorite park. We like the animals and the lack of people at the Animal Kingdom. My mom isn’t a crowd person.
My dad and I line up for the Everest roller coaster as soon as we get there. The cool, wet ground of the mountain atmosphere only heighten our excitement. We’ll wait as long as we have to. We even wait the extra ten minutes to ride in the front row of the rickety train car. There’s 17 rows of seats on the roller coaster’s train. I’ve ridden enough times to know.
My dad and I laugh at the people complaining about how nervous they are. They’re worried about drops and turns and going upside down. The ride doesn’t even go upside down. Newbies.
“Do you remember the first time you rode, Hannah? You were so nervous. You wouldn’t stop screaming the whole time.”
My dad doesn’t scream on roller coasters. He laughs the entire time. From start to finish.
“Only because it was fun. I wasn’t scared.”
My dad just laughs.
I place my sunglasses in the seat pocket in front of me. I regret not asking my mom to hold them. I’ve never actually remembered to give them to her before.
As the train takes off, my dad and I reach our hands up to the sky. We fly down the hills, and my hair whips from side to side. My dad’s right. I am screaming. But only because it’s fun.
“The Force will be with you. Always.”
–Obi-Wan Kenobi
When I was 17, my dad dressed up the Singletarys and took us to Dragon Con. Dragon Con defines itself as “the largest multimedia, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!” Dragon Con draws fans of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Anime, cosplay, comic books, Game of Thrones, Halo, World of Warcraft. Dragon Con offers attendees options to attend the National Puppet Slam, which offers admission to people ages eighteen and over only. I can’t say my family actually attended the National Puppet Slam.
To be honest, it wasn’t what any of us thought it would be. My mom had my brother and I take pictures with furries. At the time, my mom thought they were just cute, fluffy costumes. Later on, I had to tell her that, they were, in fact, furries.
I dressed up in brown slouchy pants, a loose white shirt, and the Obi Wan Kenobi cape my brother bought from Target for Halloween one year. My dad had talked about Dragon Con for years, so I really did try to dress up. I walked down the stairs the morning of Dragon Con to find my father dressed in jeans and a white button down. He looked as if he could go out to brunch. “I’m a clone trooper. Do you see the white shirt?” My mother was dressed in all black. She could go to brunch as well. “I’m Darth Vader. Don’t you see? I’m wearing all black.” I was the only one that really dressed up at all. The fake Chewbacca in the Starbucks apron and the “clone troopers” in the Star Wars parade loved my costume. I fit right in at Dragon Con.
“It’s a major award!”
–-Mr. Parker (The Old Man)
My dad has quoted movies since long before I even knew he was quoting anything. I genuinely used to think he was just talking. He can quote just about anything. It’s usually Star Wars, of course, “Caddyshack,” “Surf’s Up,” or “A Christmas Story.” We used to watch “A Christmas Story” on TBS every Christmas for twenty four hours. We’d switch between that and the Star Wars marathon on Spike. That was until we cancelled the cable of course. My mom claimed we didn’t watch enough TV. We just watched Netflix and Hulu. All we did was watch bootleg movies on the Internet anyway. Why would we need TV? My father, a graduate of the great University of Alabama, isn’t happy about this when football season comes around in September.
“I can’t believe I have to watch this fantastic game on this tiny iPad.”
Every Christmas, my dad says, “I want a Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range air rifle.” He doesn’t really. But Ralphie does. When our old family car, Bessie, breaks down, he says, “Only I didn’t say, ‘Fudge.’ I said the word, the big one, the queen-mother of all dirty words: the F-dash-dash-dash word!” After all, that’s what Ralphie said when he wanted to help his dad fix the flat tire. By the way, our old family SUV is named after the big old road-paving machine Lightning McQueen paves Radiator Springs with in Cars. Their screaming engines, overwhelming amounts of rust, and painfully toxic exhaust fumes match in all the worst ways.
In our living room, we have two Mr. Potato Heads sitting on the stone mantle above our fireplace. They frame the television that doesn’t actually play anything. One is a clone trooper and one is a Darth Vader we made at Epcot in Disney World when I was around ten years old. I don’t think that store exists anymore, but I could be wrong. I feel like I’d remember the rows and rows of random arms and legs and empty plastic potatoes splayed about. I’m not sure whose idea it was to put the Mr. Potato Heads on the mantle, but they have sat there for as long as I can remember. Beside the mantle, sitting on a clean white shelf, are little M&M figurines. They’re only about the length of my middle finger, but we have quite a few. We have C-3PO, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Queen Amidala, Luke Skywalker, R2D2 M&Ms. We used to have an Elvis one too, but it’s gone. We’re not sure where it is. I always forget about that one. It’s not like it matched the Star Wars M&Ms anyway. So who cares? My mom does. The missing Elvis has become something of a conspiracy.
“Someone stole it.”
My dad bought a “Caddyshack” print of a famous painting by David O’Keefe a few years ago at a gala. The print is entitled: Tribute to a Green Jacket. It’s about as tacky and gaudy as the movie itself. It’s actually one of my favorite pieces of art in the house. It hangs in my dad’s office against a bright orange wall. Princess Leia is in the background if you look closely enough.
I remember when I saw it for the first time.
“What is that?” Who would ever buy anything so…. Weird?
“What are you talking about?! It’s Caddyshack! It’s Bill Murray! The funniest movie of all time.” My dad was certainly offended.
We also have a print that’s a play on “The Usual Suspects.” The painting itself is entitled: The Usual Suspects. We were driving to my grandma’s condo in Ft. Lauderdale when I was around thirteen when we stopped for a break in Orlando. We walked up and down the streets of Downtown Disney before we found an art gallery hidden towards the entrance. We walked inside, and my mom fell in love.
“I love this painting. I love this painting.” She loved the painting. She had to have the painting. But we didn’t buy it. It wasn’t worth the money. We still had to drive to Ft. Lauderdale. We would be there a week. What would we do with the painting? “We don’t need any more crap!” “I have so much stuff.”
We drove to Ft. Lauderdale empty-handed. We stopped in Orlando on the drive back to Atlanta. It was a kind of tradition. We were all getting older. We couldn’t handle the full ten- hour drive anymore. Curiosity got the best of my mother back in Orlando. We stood in that same art gallery a week later.
“I love that painting. I don’t care. I’m going to buy it.” She had said.
We stared up at The Usual Suspects. More importantly, we stared up at the big red “SOLD” tag.
My mom was clearly disappointed.
“Chris, look it’s sold. Ugh, we should have bought it.”
“We loved it too, Mom,” my brother and I chirped from somewhere else in the gallery.
My dad just stared at her blankly. “I know.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know it’s sold. I bought it.”
My dad bought her The Usual Suspects. It hangs in our living room. A few years later, the painter, Fabio Napoleoni, painted The Usual Suspects Too. We bought that one too.
“May the odds be ever in your favor!”
–-Effie Trinket
When I was younger, my dad would take me out of school to go see movies I’d been dying to see. He’d check me out of school so we wouldn’t have to worry about lines or the movie being sold out or having bad seats. The movie was always empty because, well, everyone else was in school. My dad and I saw lots of movies during the school day. We saw “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One,” “The Hunger Games, Catching Fire,” and “Divergent.”
I remember in the seventh grade when “The Hunger Games” came out. I was sitting in my Language Arts class working on a project with my old neighbor Connor Buehlar. We were just finishing up our PowerPoint when my teacher got a call from the front office I was to be checked out for the day.
“Where are you going?” Connor asked me.
I grinned smugly. “To see The Hunger Games.”
His jaw dropped as I a skipped out of class.
My dad picked me up in Bessie, and we drove over to the AMC.
“See? We’ve got almost the whole theater to ourselves.” My dad would say as we arrived. “Isn’t this great?”
It was great. I saw Katniss Everdeen decorate Rue in flowers of pink and purple and yellow up and close personal. It was like my own, personal movie theater.
“You know, I used to scout for songbirds- toucans- for this musical revue in Brazil. Now that’s show business.”
–-Mikey (Surf’s Up)
I’ve seen so many movies. I’ve seen everything from “Sharknado” to “The Royal Tenenbaums,” to “The Avengers” and “Shawshank Redemption.” When people ask me what I like to do I tell them I like to watch movies, that I’d love to be a scriptwriter or a movie producer one day, and that I follow Rotten Tomatoes religiously.
People ask me what my favorite movie is, and I’m always embarrassed to say it out loud. Everyone thinks my favorite movie is going to be something deep and profound like “Gone With the Wind,” or “The Godfather,” or “The King’s Speech.” My favorite movie in the entire world is “Surf’s Up.” Sometimes, people don’t even know what I’m talking about.
Sometimes, they ask, “The cartoon with the penguins that surf?” Yes, that’s the one. That’s my favorite movie. I’ve seen it at least thirty times. Just last month, I watched it three times. I watched it one night before bed, I watched it one Friday with my roommates, and I watched it over spring break with my parents and my brother. My entire family can quote every single line. All my entire family does all day is long is quote lines “Surf’s Up.” We can’t get through a day without quoting at least one line. Just today, at dance, the president of our team discussed the upcoming competition next week. She told us not enough people were coming to practice, and we weren’t going to compete well if we kept this up.
I said, “What’s winning without the losers?” The line, of course, flew right over their heads. The line was taken from Tank Evans, a surfing penguin and the villain of the story.
People always ask me why that’s my favorite movie, and I honestly don’t really have a good answer. It’s funny, a good story, good characters. I don’t really know if that’s it though. I mean, my entire family can quote almost every line. We can watch that movie over and over and over again (There’s a line in “Surf’s Up” where Cody, the main character, tells his viewers that they are going to want to watch him “over and over and over again.”), and it really doesn’t get old. It really just gets better. I quote “Surf’s Up” here at school all the time, but nobody ever really gets it. It’s really fine though because I’ll just call up my dad and explain to him the horrors of me quoting “Surf’s Up” in a perfectly quotable moment to a person who has no idea. My dad will tell me that’s offensive, and I’ll tell him that I am offended actually. I don’t really mind that nobody here can keep up with all my “Surf’s Up” quotes. It would kind of ruin the fun anyway.
Most people don’t actually know about “Surf’s Up” because it was released just after “Happy Feet.” The creator of “Surf’s Up” sat down with a trusted friend one day and told him about this new movie he has planned. It was going to be about these penguins, and they’re going to surf and all this stuff. His friend told him it was a great idea, and he should totally do it, and it would totally be successful. That same guy turned around, sat at his desk and wrote out “Happy Feet”: the more well-known of the two penguin movies. He rushed out “Happy Feet,” so it would win out the box office over the later released “Surf’s Up.” My mom tells me that story every time we watch “Surf’s Up.” I’ve never actually looked it up to fact-check her, but I tell the story anyway to anybody who tells me they love “Happy Feet.”
“One can never have enough socks.”
–-Albus Dumbledore
I finished the final Harry Potter novel: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the fifth grade. I had seen “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire” in an IMAX Theatre at the Mall of Georgia when I was just six years old. My dad and I reread all the Harry Potter books and watched all the movies before a new one would be released. We saw them all on the day they would come out. Any day other than the opening day was unacceptable. My family went to Universal Studios for the first time a few years ago specifically so my dad and I could go to Harry Potter world. I rode the Dueling Dragons roller coaster four times in a row, and we waited three hours to ride the simulator inside the Hogwarts castle.
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, has written a detective series under a pseudonym in recent years after the success of Harry Potter. She writes these novels under the name: Robert Galbraith. She says she just wanted to try something new, and there would be too much pressure writing under her own name. J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter go hand-in-hand; Rowling wanted to write without that pressure. Although it’s since been outed, Robert Galbraith is really one of the most famous children’s authors of all time, her detective novels remain written by Robert Galbraith because, well, Robert seems to be extremely successfully on his own. I guess J.K. Rowling could reveal herself without being embarrassed.
I went to Harry Potter art camp when I was a kid. I was placed in Gryffindor. On Pottermore, I’m a Hufflepuff. I really wouldn’t mind being in either one because, personally, I feel I relate to Luna Lovegood, but who wouldn’t want to be in the house of Harry Potter? Luna’s long blond hair and carefree, whimsical take on life reflected me perfectly.
Five of the eight Harry Potter movies appear on the list of the fifty highest grossing movies of all time. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is one of only 36 films ever to make over one billion dollars. In total, the series has made over seven billion dollars worldwide; it’s also the third highest grossing film series in history. The Harry Potter film series is credited as creating the modern big, blockbuster film franchise approach. Popular franchises that followed included The Lord of the Rings, Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy, and The Dark Knight trilogy. Additionally, the idea to split the finale of a series into two movies actually started with the splitting of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Follow-ups to this formula include the finales of the Hobbit, “Twilight: Breaking Dawn,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” and “The Avengers.” Finally, the Harry Potter film series actually led to the popularity of young adult fiction film series. The Harry Potter series was the first of its kind; its success led to the popularity of the Twilight films and The Hunger Games series.
“There is no place like home.”
–-Dorothy
“Not a finga.”
- “A Christmas Story”
“You’ll shoot your eye out.”
- “A Christmas Story”
“It’s a pink nightmare.”
- “A Christmas Story”
“Fragile…Must be Italian.”
- “A Christmas Story”
“Thank you very little.”
- “Caddyshack”
“You’ll get nothing and like it.”
- “Caddyshack”
“Looks good on you though.”
- “Caddyshack”
“You’re gonna want to watch it over and over and over again.”
- “Surf’s Up”
“You could fit a whole fish in there.”
- “Surf’s Up”
“What’s winning without the losers?’
- “Surf’s Up”
“I’m in Hillbilly Hell!”
- “Cars”
“You hurt your what?”
- “Cars”
“You turn right to go left.”
- “Cars”
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
- Star Wars
“I sense much fear in you.”
- Star Wars
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
- Star Wars
“I’m not a big fat panda. I’m THE big fat panda.”
- “Kung Fu Panda”
“You were the chosen one! It was said you would destroy the Sith, not join them.”
–-Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Avalon in Alpharetta, Georgia, opened when I was fifteen years old. It is a monstrous sprawling, outdoor mall with stores like Free People and Pottery Barn. It sure beats the little outdoor shopping mall by my house with a Red Robin and Cheeky’s, which is the cheap Mexican restaurant whose health rating can never seem to be above a 75, yet the wait every weekend is around two hours just for a table. Not only is the Avalon miles and miles above any outdoor shopping center in our area, it has a Regal Cinemas that boasts giant, red, reclining velvet seats. The poor excuse of an AMC Theater by my house typically has some kind of cheese sauce on the airplane seating it boasts.
The first movie we saw in those reclining seats was “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One.” My dad bought the usual large size popcorn we would somehow finish, a large Coke Zero my brother would finish and have to get up to go to the bathroom every five minutes, and Peanut M&Ms. Like always, my dad poured the Peanut M&Ms into the popcorn and shook it up. Like always, we would dig around in the popcorn bag to find the melty chocolate until we were fighting over who had enough M&Ms and who had none. My brother eats them all. He denies it though.
“Mockingjay Part 1” was an absolute disappointment, but I knew it would be anyway. Mockingjay was the worst and shortest book of the series, so how could they even make a part 1? My parents agreed as we dissected the lack of action and unnecessary amounts of politics. My mom said, “I am never going to another theater with those tiny seats. From now on, I’m going to a theater with those reclining seats. I didn’t know what I was missing!”
We did go back to a movie theater without reclining seats on a few occasions. This past Christmas we went to see “Mary Poppins Returns” at Movies 400. It’s the redneck movie theater one exit up from my house. One exit up is when the southern accents grow much more prevalent. The seats at Movies 400 were smaller than airplane seats; the theater was packed and gross. Popcorn was packed in the armrest cupholder and spilled soda littered the stairways.
My father referred to Movies 400 with the most serious of offences. “I’m strickening Movies 400. I’m never going back. I. Am. Never going back there.”
In the Singletary household, being “strickened” is the worst of the worst. We save it for the worst restaurants, the worst food, the worst recipes, the worst stores, the worst hotels. Being “strickened” is just. The worst. To “stricken” something is to say that you will never, ever, ever, ever return to a certain place of establishment or eat a certain food or do a certain activity ever again because it was just that traumatizing. It was just that bad. We do not stricken lightly. When you stricken something, the consequences are permanent. You can never go back under any circumstances. You just can’t. So you can’t make a mistake. We strickened Movies 400 that day.
My mom claimed the rest of America was copying our Christmas tradition. “Who goes to the movies on Christmas? Don’t all these people have families? This is our thing. Not theirs.”
We also eat Chinese food from the Chinese restaurant down the street. Wok-and-Chopstick. I went to high school with the owner’s son. Every year, on Christmas, it’s harder and harder for us to attend the restaurant in reference to one of our most sacred traditions. People want Chinese food on Christmas now too.
“Don’t all these people have families they need to cook for? It’s a holiday. Go home.”
We eat Chinese food to honor the Chinese food eaten by Ralphie and his family in “A Christmas Story” after the Bumpass’s dogs eat their Christmas turkey. Rest in Peace.
“Oh, my dear friend. How I’ve missed you.”
–-C-3PO
Interestingly enough, the most famous quote from Star Wars is, of course, “Luke, I am your father.” I’ve seen “The Empire Strikes Back” a million times yet, believe it or not, nobody ever remembers, including me, that Darth Vader doesn’t actually say that. In actuality, as Luke is hanging by his single hand in the air shaft, he tells Darth Vader that Obi-Wan told him he killed his father. Darth Vader responds with the less iconic, “No, I am your father.”
The fact that Darth Vader turned out to be Luke Skywalker’s father is considered to be one of the biggest plot twists in history. George Lucas says he always knew Darth Vader would be Luke Skywalker’s father. “Vader” actually means “father” in Dutch. It all seems like a strange kind of coincidence considering early scripts for the first Star Wars don’t actually allude to the fact that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father. In fact, in some scripts, Luke Skywalker actually has a whole different father altogether.
I watched Star Wars for the first time when I was around three or four. I don’t really remember much, but I still watched it over and over. We had the box set of the original trilogy, and, later, after Revenge of the Sith was released on DVD, we had the box set for the new trilogy too. They don’t even compare to the original though. How could they?
“There’s nothing better than the original.” That’s what my dad always said before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Now he thinks “Rogue One” is the best. True Star Wars fans would think he was a fake fan, but my dad just says he loves any and all Star Wars.
Roger Ebert claims the original Star Wars actually gave him a kind of “out-of-body experience.” He says the movie actually transported him from the theater and into another world, which, for him, is rare. The only other movies to complete the list of “out-of-body” experiences are: “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Cries and Whispers,” “Jaws,” and “Taxi Driver.” “Bonnie and Clyde” is due to the art and style, “Jaws” is because of its “slick commercialism,” and “Taxi Driver” is for its “brutal strength” as Roger Ebert puts it.
The fairy tale and fantasy amazed Roger Ebert. Star Wars really isn’t all that complicated. It’s really just about a guy and his family. Star Wars is really based around one of the most basic stories that humans can tell. It’s about the “Journey.” Luke Skywalker is on the path to rescue Leia, and the fact that it’s in space with the Death Star, and starships, and the Empire is really just ancillary. The amazing thing about the Star Wars is its simplicity in storytelling and its complex relatable characters. All the awesome space stuff just magnetizes everything. At the end of the day, Luke Skywalker is the underdog fighting to be the hero, Darth Vader is a confused villain with a good heart, Obi-Wan is the father figure, Han Solo is the goofy sidekick. And this simple yet complex story is what amazes Roger Ebert and the rest of the world.
I’ve been going through article after article. I’ve read through The Odyssey and The Guardian. Why do we watch movies? Every article says the same thing. “We watch movies to feel something.”
Roger Ebert didn’t actually plan to review films forever. It was just going to be a starting position. He would one day have a column and then write novels, but, eventually, he lost interest. He said going to the movies just felt so “natural.” Throughout his life, he thought he saw about ten thousand movies and reviewed about six thousand. He said that he often forgot what he watched, and movies just kind of blurred together. But, he said, he “remembered the ones worth remembering.” He claimed that, “good movies are about good people.” It doesn’t really matter what kind of movie it is. It could be sad, happy, scary, an action film, silent, black and white, color. “The best movies aren’t about what happens to the characters. They’re about the example that they set.”
In a way, Ebert said the same thing the countless articles I read did too. We want to be entertained, “we want to feel something,” we want to watch real people do real things. George Lucas himself has claimed that Star Wars is just a soap opera about a screwed-up family.
“Every great film should seem new every time you see it.”
–-Roger Ebert
Hannah Singletary is from Atlanta, Georgia. She attends Penn State, University Park, and her major is English. She’s minoring in both Spanish and rhetoric. She enjoys creative nonfiction and hopes to work at a publishing house in New York after graduating. Around campus, Hannah is apart of Outcast dance team, Volé Dance Company, and Delta Gamma Sorority.
Bibliography
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-buy-lucasfilm-405-billion-384448
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(film_series)#All-time_rankings
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1004151_christmas_story/quotes?
https://pixar-planet.fr/en/les-repliques-de-cars/
https://www.starwars.com/news/40-memorable-star-wars-quotes
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-wars-1977
https://www.shopartcenter.com/products/fabio-napoleoni-the-usual-suspects-limited-edition
http://flavorwire.com/465863/25-delightful-roger-ebert-quotes-about-movies
https://www.infoplease.com/arts-entertainment/movies-and-videos/top-100-movie-quotes
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-watch-movies
https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/reflections-after-25-years-at-the-movies