Check Your Hype: Watch Fans React To 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' Back In 1999

While we're obviously more than a little excited for the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens next week, it's important to remember that this movie could be a disappointment. Obviously we are all about Star Wars here at /Film, but we really are trying to keep our expectations in check. Even if The Force Awakens turns out to be good, it's probably not the best idea to start spouting off about how incredible it is until you've had some time to absorb it.

Sadly, fans who saw Star Wars: The Phantom Menace right away back in 1999 didn't wait before proclaiming the movie was the best thing since blue milk. While many Star Wars fans don't like the prequels much, you'd be hard pressed to find many who didn't like the first one in this old news footage of fans reacting to The Phantom Menace.

See how fans react to The Phantom Menace from Funny Local News Bloopers (via Uproxx):

There are some kids here who loved the movie, so we can't really slight them for just liking the lightsaber battles, spaceship sequences and podracing. One kid even liked how much noise the movie made.

But there are plenty of adults who just loved the movie in this old footage. Shaquille O'Neal and Lucy Liu even get in on the hype. I'd love to see someone get in touch with all these people to get their thoughts on The Phantom Menace today. Only one guy at the end of this video completely bashes the movie, but demanding a public apology from George Lucas seems like overkill.