By Estaban Febles—
A long time ago, in a theatre not too far away, the Star Wars films infused themselves into American pop culture. Thirty-six years ago the first film (Episode IV: A New Hope) began an epic saga of films that have spanned almost four decades and six feature films, a television series and countless books and comics. With the recent announcement that Lucasfilm has been purchased by Disney fans the world over are anticipating a series of new films in the Star Wars Universe.
Disney is wasting no time, already planning on releasing a new Star Wars movie in 2015. Mr. Barbara, PHS resident Star Wars expert and one of our sophomore English teachers is very excited about the purchase and new film. “Star Wars? I love Star Wars!,” said Mr. Barbara, with eyes sparkling in anticipation. While many fans are not enamored with the idea that Disney will be making Star Wars films, he is very excited about the Disney acquisition. Barbara pointed out that many people don’t like the second series of films (Episodes I, II, and III) at all, but he does, and has confidence that Disney is going to do it right. Mr. Barbara has embraced all of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which includes cartoons, books, comic books, movies, etc. and enjoys all of it. If it has Star Wars on the cover Mr. Barbara will love it. He said, “I am glad that I will have Star Wars for the rest of my life. I am happy!”
Mr. Lockwood, science teacher and Star Wars fan, has fallen in love with Star Wars ever since he saw the first film when he was three years old. He has a good memory. He too is embracing the entire Star Wars expanded universe, but has mixed emotions about Disney buying Lucasfilm, because it might get “Disney-fied” being more “kid friendly” than he would like. He mentions that the graphics will obviously be great, since it is Disney, but he’s more worried about the type of audience Disney will be focusing on attracting.
The “Disney-fication” of this American pop culture icon is a concern that may be put to rest now that J.J. Abrams has been named as director for this project. Abrams, of Lost and Star Trek fame, is one of the hottest young directors today. However, there is a rift between the Star Wars and Star Trek camps and never should the two camps meet. “Blasphemy!” said Mr. Barbara, “that’s one of our vocabulary words. Actually, Abrams is a visionary director and should do well.”
This sentiment was largely echoed by Mr. Kida, English teacher and fan of anything put to cellulose, who thinks that “everything Abrams does is great! He brings a new vision to everything he tackles.”
However, Mr. Barbara is not so sure. He has mixed feelings about Abrams, saying “Star Trek was great! Lost was not.”
One thing is certain. Much of the faculty and students of PHS will be in the theaters in 2015 to see the latest addition to the Star Wars saga.
