Mothers and Star Wars have an interesting history together. For the most part, a mother has to die so that a male character becomes the chosen one. It’s all about father and child relationships but we rarely get to see a mother dealing with their children. Leia died to try and help Ben, Padmé died in childbirth. So to have a short thanks to Star Wars: Visions all about motherhood and understanding is honestly a beautiful change of pace for the franchise as a whole.
I spoke with creator Magdalena Osinka for her short titled “I Am Your Mother” about Star Wars, motherhood, and what inspired her to tell this story using Star Wars as her play ground. And when I asked what it was about this franchise that made her want to tell this story, she thought about what she could bring to stars and the Aardman Animation universe.
“At the beginning when I sat down to write this story, the initial outline of the story, I was wondering what is it that I can bring to the Star Wars universe and Aardman universe,” she said. “And honestly, the first thing that came to my head was the I’m your father line. And the fact that I am a mother now and I think about motherhood so much and about myself, whether I’m good enough, and I think about my mom much more and I think I understand her way better now as well because I understand what she was going through. I think this is where it all started. And yeah, I think just Mother is really about sacrifices, because from a woman, who kind of, I didn’t have too many responsibilities in a way before that.”
She went on to talk about how her priorities shifted when she herself became a mother. “I had to make living, fulfill my heart, but then to carry this child for nine months, breastfeed and naturally, I had to think about this other human being and keeping that human alive. So I think there is a lot of sacrifice in there and a constant kind of juggling between being a mother and also, you know, having a career. And it’s a very different life. It made me think about my mom who’s always been very motivating, very giving, and very supportive. I don’t think I always appreciated what she was giving me. And I was a good kid. You know, I wasn’t a bad kid. But I think that’s just natural. I think this is quite relatable that every one of us is a little bit maybe embarrassed of our parents at some point and we don’t appreciate them and we don’t see the sacrifices. So, I really wanted this thing to be like a love letter to all the moms because there is not that many stories about mothers and daughters. And I think that mothers are the really superheroes and and we should talk about them.”
You can watch “I Am Your Mother” from Star Wars: Visions on Disney+ now.
(Featured image: Walt Disney Company)
Published: May 15, 2023 12:14 pm