Childhood Movies That Still Hold Up

This comes to mind after having gone to see Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer last night at the McKay Center - fulfilling a childhood dream I've carried since I was about 5 years old (Oh, and if was as good as I could've hoped for). It makes me wonder what I'm at all justified in still enjoying at my age that I enjoyed as a kid.

In the wake of tons of Disney Channel stars invading the big screen such as The Lizzie McGuire movie, High School Musical, Jonas Bros 3-D, and I think the new Hannah Montana movie might be big screen but I'm not sure, it's easy for us to sneer at children and the horrible things they drag their parents into seeing. We all feel like kid's movies have gone way downhill since we watched the Disney Channel. For the most part, I agree. I think ours were better. However, we have to admit that there were a few things we loved as kids that were just stupid. Things we wouldn't tolerate as adults.

For example, I loved the Ewok movies Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor. Movies that I couldn't pass up whenever they were aired as a kid, yet could never be expected to sit through today. So, after much explanation, this will be a blog listing a few movies I loved as a kid that still hold up today and I'd recommend to anyone.

Now to do this properly I feel I have to avoid some of the more obvious ones. Everyone still loves Karate Kid and Newsies. Likewise, there are a few seemingly obvious ones that I can't quite list. An example of this could be the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just about every guy I know who saw this as a kid still loves it and would chew me out for not including it. But, really, could any of us recommend it to a 25 year old who'd never heard of it before? It's a bit of a coin toss. Like Big Trouble in Little China. They might get it, but they could just as easily think we're idiots. Anyway, this is turning into a very long prologue when I'm only listing about four movies so I'll just get on with it.

For the first one I'm going animated. And not Disney animated either. This was a Don Bluth Film. I could, and maybe should, talk about An American Tale but instead I'm going towards The Land Before Time. There are a few reasons. I feel like this movie gets undue spite directed at it because of the incredible amount of terrible sequals it spawned. And they were terrible. To be fair, they were for kids. The first film was for the entire family.

The animation is beautiful and, aside from a few moments where it clearly re-uses previously used footage, still holds up today. It does with its animation the same thing great Disney animated films did. It took great amounts of time without diologue just showing us the depth of this new, hand-drawn world. 2-D animation hasn't bothered with that in some time.

I love stories about friendship. You'll find this list contains, well, ONLY movies with them as a prominant theme. This one is unique among them in that it deals with a group of characters, each with very unique and endearing personalities, having to pull together to survive. In the process they become the best of friends. I like this stuff.

Finally, James Horner's score is one of the best I've heard in any film. I have songs from it on my ipod and I'm not the least bit ashamed. When people ask what I'm listening to and I tell them, "'Whispering Winds' from the Land Before Time soundtrack" they almost always laugh a little. Again, it's that association with the sequals. This isn't filled with cheesey character sung songs. It's a quality symphonic score.

What a lot of people don't know about the musical theme is that it's actually taken from another film that Horner scored earlier called The Journey of Natty Gann. He was so proud of the music from Natty Gann and so sad that it was in a film nobody saw, that he re-used much of it for Land Before Time. This is actually a great lead-in to my next movie.

The Journey of Natty Gann is a little-known Disney movie about a girl growing up in depression era Chicago who's seperated from her father, and decides to travel across the country to Washington state to find him. Already the plot is a little similar to Land Before Time and several other Disney films. This one holds a special place in my heart though.

Why? Well for one thing it's one of John Cusack's earlier roles and we all love Cusack. He actually appeared in it the same year as Better Off Dead. One movie was critically panned and one was pretty well recieved. This one. He has a small role in it but does well.

The other reason I love this film, though, is because the main character - Natty - befriends a wolf during her journey. A WOLF! I freakin LOVE movies where a wolf hangs out with a person. For anyone who doesn't yet know, wolves have been my favorite animal since... I saw this movie pretty much. Beautiful creatures. In this movie, the wolf (who's name is Wolf. Something I loved) is played by the greatest wolf actor of all. Jed. For anyone who doesn't know, Jed also played the title role in...

White Fang, the next movie on the list. I watched this earlier today and it still effects me. Yet another story of friendship featuring orphans who find each other. In this case the orphans are Jack Conroy (in one of Ethan Hawke's earlier roles) and White Fang - a wolf-dog who's mother was shot and starts out on his own. Something I love about this movie is that, while a lot of time is spent on Jack's story, White Fang really is the star.

This film is about his road from lone wolf cub who struggles to survive after his mother's death, to work dog for an Inuit tribe, to a fight dog facing abuse and torture from his owners, until he finally finds his place with his best friend Jack whom he encounters at various stages throughout his life.

Again, a pretty basic formula for me goes boy or girl + loyal wolf friend = awesome movie. I just love animals and the enduring friendship theme. Which is yet another lead-in to the last movie on this particular list (whew what a long post!).

The Fox and the Hound. Holy crap I love this movie. Disney animation goes through both strong and weak times. Sometimes it puts out animation classics and sometimes it puts out a dud meant just to fill enough seats. Hand-drawn animation barely even exists at Disney these days which is tragic because every so often they'd use it to explore complex themes of friendship against prejudice, societal norms, and two drastically different backgrounds like they did with The Fox and the Hound.

It's the story of a little fox named Todd who's orphaned (yet another constant in these movies) after his mother is killed by hunters. He befriends a hound pup on a nearby farm named Copper. The two spend their days playing and growing closer, not realizing that they're supposed to be enemies. As they grow up, they struggle against the complexities of their different worlds that threaten to tear apart their friendship.

What I love about it is that it's not always black and white. Both characters find themselves making a series of compromises, and even, at times, giving into what the world expects of them. These best friends find themselves pitted against each other, and they play the part. They actually begin to hate each other. Even the ending isn't the perfect deus ex machina that one might expect from a Disney film where everything falls into place in ways it shouldn't. The struggles these friends go through really do change things forever. The resolution comes in the fact that their friendship endures. I love that.

Anyone who's seen this movie loves it and has undoubtedly given up a tear to it.

That's the end of this list though there are a few more I could name. I'd love to hear other peoples' recommendations.