The lead up to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was characterised by enforced silence about the content. An officially sanctioned trailer was released, but no one was allowed to reveal the plot and no advance previews were provided.
But the build up and hype were huge, and since it has started screening, people have been paranoid about spoilers. Revealing anything about the plot to somebody who hasn’t seen it yet has been treated as practically sacrilegious.
But where does this leave parents?
No doubt all the hype is good fun for some, and a great many filmgoers will really enjoy the movie. But there are some who will go, but who won’t enjoy it, including many young children who have begged their parents to take them.
It’s not rocket science to connect the massive merchandising of multiple child-oriented Star Wars products with children’s desire to see the movie. Everything from Lego, action figures, costumes, to fluffy toys, Play-Doh, sticker books, rain boots, slippers, drinking cups, water bottles, swimming trunks, beach towels, beanies, scooters, flash drives, and PG-rated videogames has been linked to the movie, and marketed to children for months in advance. The spoils from these product sales have been enormous (estimated at $5bn over 12 months), and will continue.
And the very marketing campaign that has teased and tormented adults with its lack of advance notice of plots and characters has resulted in a lack of useful knowledge about content for parents. Some spoilers have their uses.
The hype and the silence about the content of the movie have led to many young children attending the movie in its first days of release. Why would parents do that, when it’s classified M (not recommended under 15)?
Part of the answer might lie in parents’ devotion to Star Wars growing from enjoyment of the movies in their younger days when the movies were not as violent or scary, and were classified PG.
Others may say, “I took my young children and they enjoyed every minute of it”, or, “Yes mine were scared for a bit, but they’re fine now”.
But what about the parents who wanted to research the content before responding to the urging of their children? Where were they to get that information from? With no previews, reliable review sources such as Know Before You Go (Australia) or the US Common Sense Media could not provide them until a day or so after release.
With spoilers being so passe, even the local grapevine was no use.
The classification system offered some guidance with its M classification and consumer advice lines of “Moderate science fiction themes and violence”. But this was only available less than a week in advance, and long after most children would have decided they wanted to see it.
And even then, the classification system can’t offer detailed guidance about which age groups under 15 years will be most vulnerable and why. Parents need the information about age-appropriateness that comes from review services and it’s unfair that they were denied it for so long, especially in relation to the biggest blockbuster of recent times.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will surprise and delight many. But parents don’t need silence and surprises about content, and what one person might call a spoiler, a parent might call helpful information.
The spoils from this latest instalment will be monumental. But parents need more support and less undermining by a marketing force too big to be resisted.
