I just caught on TV some of my all time favorite childhood film, THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Now that is a perfect film.
Ah, Cary Elwes!
His career enjoyed its peak at “Machenka” and “Princess Bride”
and then went downhill.
He was completely damaged with the first film of SAW series. Oh, no…
I never saw him in that (and it would probably taint my memories of childhood) but I knew things looked bad when he started to parody the role in THE PRINCESS BRIDE in Coppola’s DRACULA and later in Brooks’ ROBIN HOOD. He was quite funny in those though, even as his career sloped downwards…
Um, Star Wars?
Okay seriously, top 5 list.
My top:
Spaceballs
The Monster Squad
The Naked Gun
Back to School (With Rodney Dangerfield)
Caddyshack
Revenge of the Nerds
All the Cantinflas, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete and el Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras films
Speaking of puberty.. wasn’t Carey Elwes was also in The Crush with Alicia Silverstone… ?
My Top 5:
Star Wars (any of the original trilogy)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Batman (Michael Keaton)
Goonies
Batman (Adam West)
uh uh! Naked Gun, and Top Secret too.
funeeeeeee
I’ll also add I grew up with most of the original James Bond films. Let’s see, what else, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? for sure…
Okay here’s one for ya. I watched this probably 100 times between the ages of 5 and 8:
The Phantom Tollbooth
Sound of Music.
Watched it every day, and memorized every single word in that movie…
Also Goonies and Indiana Jones series.
Bond Films.
I’ve been wanting an Aston Martin with champagne cooler and rocket launcher since I was 8.
Yes, Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.
I can sing all the songs in them. And Bond films too.
There is a popular event called “Sing Along Sound of Music”
at Prince Charles Cinema in London.
All the lyrics appear as subtitles
and audience sing aloud as you watch the film.
Karaoke cinema! It was a great fun.
Do you have this in the States too?
Nope but that sounds like fun! I still remember all the lyrics…
I was also into Bond films!! and not for the action, but for the expensive lifestyle!
I used to have a “Dr. No” poster up on my room as a kid.
my favourites as a child, watched in theatres &/ or whenever they were on television (this was long before i had access to a VCR):
2001: A Space Odyssey (saw the theatrical re-release when i was 5; i suppose that set the tone for what was to follow)
Planet of the Apes (the whole series except the 5th – which i now enjoy, but especially the first and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Young Frankenstien (1st film i saw 3 times in the theatre)
Flash Gordon (1980; 2nd film i saw 3 times in the theatre)
The Exorcist (a big event when my family huddled together to watch the TV premiere)
Soylent Green
any Woody Allen movie that came on TV (though i’m not much of a fan of his anymore)
The Empire Strikes Back
Logan’s Run
High Plains Drifter
Oh man, 2001 when you were 5? That must have been somewhat traumatizing.
… in a good way though, i guess. i didn’t understand it at that age, but i did really enjoy it. a harbinger of things to come…
My very first animation film on a big screen was Panda and the Magic Serpent which had its debut in the US in 1961. Then followed Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a UK film. I’m still into films with a British flavor and enjoy fantastic films like the recent Water Horse with a remarkable dragon in it. I’m not really sure how Sleeping Beauty affected me but I like visiting castles in Europe, even ones in ruin. :) I can’t think of a fifth film that left a strong impression on me when still a child… but I remember being thrilled/enchanted by Fantasia and Never Ending Story later on as a young adult. Edward Scissorhands is also a modern fairy tale that I enjoyed as an adult.
“Stand By Me.” What strikes me most about it now i didn’t really realize when i was a kid. The entire thing is about death. This one will stick with me for a lifetime.
That, and “Strange Brew.” One of Max von Sydow’s finest… I wish i had seen The Seventh Seal when I was a kid but it didn’t go down like that. That one is also about death. Strange Brew is about Canada.
I think I’ll stop there…
Stand By Me
The Goonies
Who Framed Rodger Rabbit
Back to The Future
Raiders of the Lost Ark
My List will be something like this:
Back to The Future Trilogy ( I was nearly obsessed with all of them)
Ghostbusters
Labyrinth
The Ghost
And, the Nightmare Before Elm Street Films ( eventhough most of the time, I was not able to finish the whole movie :)
I saw Grease when I was five and was besotted with John Travolta. I then saw Saturday Night Fever (god knows what I thought of it) and forced my parents to take me to You Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu. I thought Raiders of the Lost Ark was AMAZING and also enjoyed ET, Back to the Future, before all the teen movies that I loved including Say Anything, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club.
In constant rotation during childhood:
Alice in Wonderland (Disney version). Note: I was Alice five years in a row for Halloween!
The Worst Witch
Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas
Desperately Seeking Susan
The Goonies (my favorite scene was when they find the treasure!!)
In Bethlehem we used to have a very big movie theater, every Sunday afternoon was a special day for me, i remeber that period 1983-1984 i was 7 years old, from 2 PM till 8 PM i was watching all Bruce Lee movies specially The Dragon Way also 21 hours in Munich, Indian cinema was so so famous in Bethlehem i used to see all Amitab Batchan, Amjad Khan Movies, mainly the movie Amar Akbar Anthony. Egyptian cinema and Arabic movies was exist but i saw few. I remember how i used to steal the money so as to buy a ticket, It was a very facinating period in my life it shaped my way of thinking and it leads me to where i am now. A filmmaker but not a thief.
Saed Abu Hmud
www.saed.7p.com
Angels in the Outfield
Jeux interdits (1952) by René Clément… I remember watching this on television as a young prepubescent person and not understanding it very well but being nevertheless impressed by the story and identifying with the protagonists who are children.
Disney films made my childhood. Peter Pan, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are still among my favorites. Also, watching Ben-Hur at the tender age of 8 certainly left an impression, as well as a taste for gloriously epic films that carries on to this day.
Juan C.P.
My new friend Rica and I, accidentally started discussing childhood films.
It is quite impressive how much these titles can shape your actual taste for cinema, or at least mine.
These films also tell a lot about one’s background.
Growing up in Buenos Aires, we mostly got north american films, to watch.
Although people had access to world cinema, it is far from what we have now.
I’m also fairly young, so my films would also denote certain aspects of my generation.
1. Back to the Future 2 (the second one is the real deal)
2. Koneko Monogatari (a.k.a. Las Aventuras de Chatran, probably my first cinema experience ever) – Masanori Hata
3. Gremlins 2 (omg how much I loved those nasty creatures!)
4. Ghostbusters (I ain’t afraid of no ghost.)
5. Never ending story (Atreeetyuuuuuuuu)
I guess this is sort of it.