People who know me well know that my favourite movie of all time is E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial. I remember well the first time I saw it in 1982 when I was eleven years old. I related so closely to Elliot, the boy who befriends an alien who’s been left on Earth accidentally. While my parents aren’t divorced, like Elliot’s were, I was the loner, the geeky weirdo who didn’t fit in, like he was.
Some of the scenes in E.T. with the kids at the school were so close to real life. In one scene where Elliot and his brother Michael’s friends are arguing, I could pair each one of them to a boy at school. It’s a testament to Steven Spielberg’s skill as a director, I believe, that he could tap so closely into how these scenes play out in schoolyards across the world.
When my husband told me that there was an ad on YouTube that was a mini-sequel to E.T., I was sceptical at first. Was it just some cheap milking of the story I’d loved? Was it going to be something amazing? He thought I’d love it and suggested I film my reaction to it.
I did. You can watch it here:
For so many years I’d wanted something like this. As I said in the video, I toyed with the idea of trying to write a sequel with E.T. returning to see Elliot, but it seemed too difficult to even contemplate. Given E.T.’s overwhelming success, I’m sure a lot of scripts (far better than any I could write) have been passed from desk to desk in Hollywood over the years, but how do you beat a movie like that? How can you do something that even compares with it in the slightest way?
So it’s probably a good thing we never got a sequel to E.T. but I’m glad we got this. It’s done so well and does pretty much everything I wanted a sequel to do. I’m thankful someone had the idea and that Spielberg gave the go-ahead. It’s the best present ever for an E.T. fan.
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