Jedi Training Acadamy 10-22-06
 

After hearing mixed reviews, I wasn't so sure about this. Nickolas said he would like to watch. I told him that he may not get picked since they tend to look for the smaller kids. He was one of the first picked, and got to go on stage with the "Jedi Master."

He was part of the group that got to battle Darth Vader. He had a blast, and it was really fun to watch. Here are a few pics:












The CM's involved in this have much to be proud of. The kids really enjoyed it. What impressed the heck out of me was watching the interaction with a young, autistic boy. Before this young man, Darth Maul was full of energy and completly in character. When it came to this boy's turn fighting him, he was very tender as they battled. It was something, that as a mom, teared me up watching.

On a funny side note, Dsnylndmom, who is also from Bakersfield, was there at that same time, with her youngest on stage a few spots away from Nick.

It is a cute show (the five minutes I watched, anyway) but I am still not pleased that Disneyland has instituted a training program for kids who'll later be wandering the park hitting things with sticks.

No boy needs training to do that...

No, but the training to more effectively hit what they're aiming at isn't good.

I was in Tomorrowland right after a show and it was awfully full of young kids twirling and kicking and swinging at things. And most of them didn't even have sticks.

How does the "fighting" work? It seems like that'd be kind of a legal nightmare, especially recently.

They are given a "spot" to stand on and instructed not to hit anything outside their spot, especially their Jedi Instructors. There were several kids who had their own sabers, but they had to leave them with their parents and only use the ones from the show. We did the first show of the day, and didn't stick around after it was over. I didn't see kids hitting things, but I have seen that on other trips.

I think the show is cute, but it somewhat feels like a kindergarten graduation as each of the million children goes up to "get their diploma!" I was with a LoT crowd the day it opened and we were all cracking up as the Jedi kept attempting to disengage his light saber. I won't even go into what it looked like... LOL

Obi Wan, can you hear me?:D

We walked past this and I was thrilled. It's not often I'm that jealous of 8 year old boys. Fighing Darths Maul and Vader - hell yes!

I was thinking, girls can be Jedi, but do they let boys in on the Princess action in Fantasyland theater? ;)

Yes they have "Knight Training" for the boys. Wonder if they let them get makeup first?