From Thomas to Wall-E to Star Wars

It happened relatively fast: I got Owen the the Wall-E DVD when it came out in November, and suddenly, everything was all about Wall-E, and robots. He occasionally made a track, but by Christmas, that was all he wanted. It was pretty amazing, and it seemed like he was ready to move on to something different. Considering how much he was upset and sobbed when we took him to see it in the theater, he wanted to watch it every day. We were starting to get a little tired of it. He drew Wall-E, Eve, and the Axiom on the back of his papers or at after-school. Since he was fascinated with robots and ships, we decided to try a different tact.

He'd been pretty resistant to Star Wars up until late January. Except at Christmas, my mom dug my Millennium Falcon and some action figures out of the cellar, and he loved playing with it. So I got him a mini-graphic novel, with stills from the movie and word bubbles (and by "the movie Star Wars," I mean, of course, A New Hope, Episode IV). The boy was captivated, and we slowly watched it over a weekend. Woo-boy! Meanwhile, the tracks (wood, plastic) and trains are now sitting neglected in a bin.

He still won't watch Empire Strikes Back all the way through, but he seems curious about the Ewoks, and *someone* told him the truth about Darth Vader. We've also seen The Clone Wars, and he really liked that, too. But R2 is his favorite character, and he loves the Falcon. We invested in some flat Legos so he can build the ships (Knex weren't doing the trick), although he's made a serviceable Death Star and a "rebel base" from Duoplos. Maybe we'll give Return of the Jedi a try soon. May the Force be with us.