Jar Jar Must Die
By MICHAEL FLEEMAN, AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) - And you thought adults hated Barney. Just listen to what they're saying about Jar Jar Binks, the flop-eared amphibian from the new ``Star Wars'' movie.

Many fans, echoing the views of a number of film critics, see the character as an annoying goofball at best and a racial stereotype at worst.

Since George Lucas' ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' opened May 19, the Internet has been afire with messages - and several entire Web sites - calling for no less than the annihilation of the creature.

``The tally so far is running about 10 to 1 in favor a having a festive Jar Jar-B-Q,'' said a Web site called Jar Jar Must Die.  By Thursday, the Web site deja.com had amassed 15,000 messages just about Jar Jar, with many saying they couldn't stand him.  Jar Jar, a computer-animated character dropped into the frames next to the actors, is a bumbling sidekick who steps in animal dung and says things like ``yousa'' and ``meesa'' for ``you'' and ``me.''

To some, his speech sounds like Caribbean-accented pidgin English, and his ears suggest dreadlocks. With his bellbottom pants and vest, Jar Jar looks to some like the latest in a long line of black stereotypes in movies. (Critics have also complained of Asian and Italian stereotypes in other characters.)

Film critic Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal described Jar Jar as ``a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen.''

Rick Barrs, author of ``The Finger'' column in Los Angeles' alternative weekly New Times, wrote: ``This digit can only hope that Massa George comes to his senses before Episode II and kills off shufflin' Jar Jar among others.''

The Jar Jar attacks certainly haven't dampened enthusiasm for the film, which made more than $100 million in its first week and is expected to go over the $200 million mark by the end of Memorial Day weekend.

But the vitriol has caught the people at Lucas' production company by surprise. The filmmaker appears particularly stung by the suggestions of racism.   ``Nothing in `Star Wars' was racially motivated,'' said Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynn Hale. ```Star Wars' is a fantasy movie.  I really do think to dissect this movie as if it had a direct reference to the world today is absurd.''

As for the criticism that Jar Jar is a grating presence, she said: ``It's a children's movie. Kids love him. He's so childish.''

As one Jar Jar defender wrote on the Internet: ``Get over yourselves. If you want to fight real racist stereotypes do it, but stop picking on fictional aliens in a kid's movie.''

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