Interview with the Kids: ET

Recently, Stephanie and I decided to show ET to our kids.  This movie holds a special place in my heart as my dad took me to see this great movie when I was about the age of my son Jack.  I asked them what they though of it:


Joel:  "We just finished watching a movie that my dad took me to see when I was about Jack's age..."

Jack:  "Yeah, you were about my age..."

Joel:  "What was the name of the movie."

Jack:   "It was called ET."

Joel:  "Now Corrie, this was an emotional movie for you, wasn't it?"

Corrie:  "Yes...towards the end I thought that he had died and I was very sad...I had a lot of emotions...first I was happy, then I was sad, then I was angry...when I first thought that ET was dead."

Joel:  "Jack, what was your favorite scene in the movie."

Jack:  "I liked most of the funny scenes, but the one I liked the most was when he says to ET, 'No, it's a fake knife'."

Joel:  "That was funny.  Corrie, do you have a favorite scene in the movie?"

Corrie:  "I like when he saw the person dressed as Yoda and said 'HOME..HOME..."

Jack:   "Why does he say, 'HOME.'"

Corrie: "Yoda is an alien, and he thought that the person dressed as Yoda was someone from where he was from, and the Yoda person was like staring at him..."

Joel:  "Did you guys notice...did they show the grown ups in the movie...what did they show when they showed grownups..."

Corrie:  "Just the mom and the nice guy."

Joel:  "Yeah, but, before that..."

Corrie:  "Yeah...waist down..."

Joel:  "Why do you think that the movie was shot that way?"

Corrie:  "Kind of supposed to be more like a children's movie and when they do stuff like that it shows you that the children are more the main characters than the grown ups are..."

Joel:  "I think that's a great answer.  There's a scene when the older brother is in the closet when ET is sick.  One of the things that's neat about the movie is that Elliott is old enough to really know what's going on, while the younger sister doesn't know as much, but the older brother is old enough to sort of to be a young man and the only dad Elliott has because Elliott's dad isn't there anymore.  But he's also sort of a kid, so when he's scared about ET's health, what does he do?"

Corrie:  "Goes into Elliott's closet."

Joel:  "He goes into the closet like a little kid again, doesn't he?"

Jack:  "So, Dad, how do they know that the spaceship was going to land there?"

Joel:  "Great question!  What did ET build...the place where the phone was was where the ship came..."

Jack:  "So they knew that it was there?"

Joel:  "Yeah.  What did you think of the part at the school...with the frogs."

Corrie:  "Well, I would have freaked if there were huge masses of frogs leaping everywhere, but I didn't really liked how he was acting.  I know that ET was connected to Elliott..."

Jack:  "Why was he connected to him?"

Joel:  "We're not really sure why...it's some sort of connection that the ET creature has with Elliott that unique."

Corrie: " I didn't like how he did whatever the TV did!  I didn't like how he...you know what..."

Joel: "You know what?  I have a feeling you're talking about when he kissed that girl?  Yeah..."

Corrie:  "That made me feel so uncomfortable."

Joel:  "So, I guess the only other thing is...did you like the music?  When I was a kiddo I had a record of music from the movie...I don't know where it is now...probably just gone.  When this movie came out, I was about Jack's age, and it was so popular...every kiddo saw it, every kiddo was going around saying "ET phone home..."

Corrie:  "So you could ask someone if they had seen ET and you could know that they would say yes?"

Joel:   "Anyway, mommy and daddy thought this would be a great movie night movie...you guys liked it, right?  Anything else you want to say about the movie?"

Jack:  "I hated it when he got dressed up in all the girl's clothes...he was being treated like a doll..."

Wesley:  "She looked like an alien slash girl..."

Corrie:  "I think that...I have seen a lot of movies where certain children find objects that aren't normal...like "Indian in the Cupboard"...the boy Omri, they have to get to know each other, then when they develop a friendship then they have each other for awhile and then something happens that makes it necessary for the Indian and his friends go home.."

Joel:  "There was one other thing that you guys said that I thought was cool...at the beginning of the movie, you said that ET reminded you of somebody...who was that?"

Corrie:  "I thought he reminded me of WALL-E."

Joel:  "I have a feeling that the people who made WALL-E, because it was made 25 years after ET, they would probably tell you that part of the inspiration for WALL-E was ET.  Do you remember the name Ben Burtt from the Star Wars Radio dramas Corrie?"

Corrie: "Uh huh"

Joel: "He did the sound effects for the Star Wars movies, the sound for WALL-E, and the sound for ET."

Corrie: "They all seem so connected.  ET, Star Wars and WALL-E...I think Star Wars and WALL-E are connected is because a lot of it takes place in space, and WALL-E and ET are alike for another reason...they talk but they don't say long sentences..."

Jack: "How long is this interview going to be Dada?"

Joel: "It's over now."

Jack: "Why....?