Childhood Classics

Partly to prove that I'm not against children's films, here's a list of movies that I used to watch repeatedly as a child. My family used to tape a lot of films from TV onto VHS, so we'd end up having heaps of sub-quality recordings of sub-quality productions, with the quality diminishing each time the tape was re-watched.

King Solomon's Mines


The 1985 version with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone. Although it's an adaptation of H Rider Haggard's book, I reckon this film was made to cash in on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm sure that didn't occur to me when I was 7 though. I watched this countless times and not once did it cross my mind that I might be watching a B-Grade flop and holder of two razzie awards ('Worst Musical Score' Jerry Goldsmith - I remember even liking the music! 'Worst Supporting Actor' Herbert Lom). I didn't notice the over-the-top acting or the corny script, I only noticed the excitement that came from watching an adventure like this. Funnily enough, a straight-to-TV version of King Solomon's Mines with Patrick Swayze came out not so long ago, and from what I saw of that, it seemed even worse than this one, and it probably had twice the budget, not to mention the hindsight of the 1985 version's failure. It would be good to watch it again for a nostalgic laugh.

BBC Narnia series


Particularly The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Silver Chair. I haven't seen these for a long time and would love to watch them all again. Because of my bias, the BBC Lion, Witch, Wardrobe will always have a bigger place in my heart than the recent film. But I won't stop there - I'm going to go as far as to say that the BBC is *better* than the new one. Particularly the white witch. I prefer the older one to Tilda Swinton's Jadis. I used to be terrified of her as a child (I guess that's the point - "as a child") Also, Maugrim was much more intimidating as a wolf-man type than as a talking wolf (regardless of what CS Lewis thinks). I haven't seen the new Prince Caspian but I always thought the BBC version of that was a bit crusty, so maybe the new one will surpass it in my mind. The Silver Chair was just awesome, and Tom Baker was a better Puddleglum than he was a Dr Who. Everything about it was magical, not least the fact that they made it on such a limited budget (they re-used the actress that played Jadis, to play the Lady of the Green Kirtle). The new film will have to be pretty special to come close to that.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase


This was quite brutal for a kid's film. The whole thing had a very sinister mood to it. The villain, Miss Slighcarp, a witch-type character, was extremely frightening. There are a lot of witches and wolves in children's fiction. I think this film in particular typifies what most kids are afraid of... which I might explore in a later post. Mind you, I'm sure The Exorcist would typify every child's deepest fear had it not been rated R.

The Water Babies


This was a great fantasy. I remember the first part of the film was live action and set in Dickensian London. Then the protagonist (Tom) jumps into a lake and discovers an underwater kingdom and gets captured by sharks and eels. It sounds like an acid trip, but I remember it being a really exciting film. The image above, is not from the movie; it's an illustration from an edition of the novel, which, incidentally, I'd like to read if I can find a copy.

All 3 Indiana Jones films


I imagine most kids would've watched these to death. I certainly did. I was particularly fond of The Temple of Doom. In fact, I still really like the Indy films. They capture 'adventure' so well. I remember trying to replicate Indiana Jones' adventures (and invent some new ones) by skillfully climbing up the balcony, then precariously balancing on the railing, before rolling through the sliding door -pretending it was something more dangerous than glass. I also remember wishing I had a whip... something I certainly haven't dared to wish for as an adult.

All 3 Star Wars films


I've been on the Internet for too long tonight as it is. So I'm not going to write about Star Wars. I just couldn't live with myself. Needless to say I loved all three original films as a child/teen and have seen them so many times that I haven't had the desire to watch them again since.

Disney


We had quite a large collection of Disney cartoon films on video. My favourites were Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland. I used to think it was called 'Disnep', because of the logo. How dumb!

A few other films I used to watch as a youngin': The Wizard of Oz, Superman: The Movie, The Dark Crystal, The Karate Kid, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.