The Force

Here's an article by Emily Bazelon about the alleged dangers of showing your kid Star Wars. She ponders the SW phenomenon, and the amazing hold it has on young boys' minds:

How does the Lucas-world accomplish this mind control? [...] Maybe it's the combination of simplicity and multilayered detail, good vs. evil in a world of interdependent yet rival creatures. Maybe it all comes down to Darth Vader, with his fearsome helmet and the voice of James Earl Jones. Or maybe the magic element is the open void of outer space as a backdrop.

My own theory has two more mundane components: overwhelming length and co-branding. However dragged out and tedious it may seem to me, the adult, the recent prequels add to the epic's allure by building up more layers of plot permutation. I'm not sure the internal logic of Lucas' universe holds up, but it sure does have a lot of moving parts. And many of them, like Anakin going rogue and turning into Vader, are cunningly designed to lodge in the heads of small boys.

Since the Star Wars world was mind-bogglingly huge well before the sequels were released, I don't have much use for this theory. In fact, before Return Of The Jedi, before Empire Strikes Back, before the Kenner toys and the Christmas special, you had the original movie, which was the biggest hit ever (by certain measures). Lucas somehow figured out how to combine mythic and pop elements into a satisfying whole as no one else had before. You dont need to go beyond the first movie to understand the phenomenon--in fact, the further you go, the more you miss the point.