30 Day Movie Challenge - Day 11-13

[trinityvixen]

I'm never good at posting to LJ on the weekend. I got swept away with volunteering and classwork and far too much movie watching and video game playing. On the up side, I got a fairly well-argued paper written and I watched The Running Man and Robocop for the first time in far, far too long. I don't know if I've told this story a million times or nothing, BUT my parents used to have HBO in the 1980s. They kind of obsessively taped movies off of it, and that is how we came to have a VHS tape with Predator, Robocop and The Running Man on it. When I was upstate, sleeping in and then pointedly not skiing with the rest of the family, I would watch that tape constantly. I started off too scared and too squeamish, respectively, for Predator and Robocop, but I watched The Running Man a million times. Eventually, I worked my way backwards, realizing that Robocop, though occasionally gory, was awesome and that Predator, while scary for a kid ~10 years old, was a really great action movie. Smart, too. That's what struck me about the rewatch this weekend: both The Running Man and Robocop for all their many, many MANY ridiculous aspects, are smarter times a thousand than any action movie released recently. They have coherent stories driven by sympathetic (and still badasss) protagonists with relatable problems. This stuff shouldn't be so hard to fit into an action movie. (Looking at you, Statham.)

Anyway, the meme got away from me, so I'm playing catch-up.
Day 11 - Your favorite movie from your childhood

Rats. I sorta covered this on Day 01 with Sleeping Beauty. I love Star Wars more than life itself (or did before the prequels made me so ashamed I wanted to kill George Lucas), but there's no denying Sleeping Beauty was my childhood favorite. These are more than adequate second choices, though. We had a proper VHS copy of Star Wars, but my parents only had the other two on those copied-from-HBO tapes I mentioned already. In fact, I think they taped The Empire Strikes Back twice. As well they should. If something happened to that first copy, woe betide the person who didn't have a backup of the best of the trilogy! The ONLY trilogy.

Day 12 - Your favorite animated movie
 I'm being punished, am I? For missing this weekend? Because seriously, my favorite animated movies have already been covered on other days. I'm baffled by this question, frankly, as I fail to see what "favorite childhood movie" people would have these days that isn't animated.

These three movies were also on VHS-ed HBO tapes. The Last Unicorn and Animalympics were on one tape with, I think, a claymation Curious George movie. Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer was on its own tape, and I wore the thing out. feiran bought me a VHS tape a few years back (the DVD had gone out of print). I watched it every time I was home sick, which, seeing as I caught strep throat every year until midway through high school, was often enough. I have a ton of Rainbow Brite paraphernalia, but the truth is that I only ever watched this movie. I can't remember watching the TV show until I was much older and went to a video store where they had VHS tapes with a couple of episodes apiece on it. I think I got bored and went back to watching Star Stealer again. Funnily enough, though I like Transformers, too, the version of that that I saw most often was their movie. Bizarre.

The Last Unicorn used to scare me. Now that I'm older and I know that I'm supposed to be scared of Christopher Lee, whether he's animated or not, I feel better about that.Animalympics, I was convinced, was something I'd, like, made up in a fever dream. Seeing as I watched it when sick, too, this was a stark possibility. I mean, the movie featured Dachshunds looking for "Dogri-la," and a goat and a lioness (both long distance runners, naturally) fell in love. There was disco. And possibly an acid trip. I think I could be forgiven for assuming that this was something I made up. Then I met a few friends who assured me it existed. I might have to track that down again. I think it's all on YouTube.

Day 13 - A movie you used to love but now hate don't like as much

I can't say revisiting this movie made me hate it, but it certainly seemed the weaker for it. The animation is substandard and, at times, even creepy. I'll be damned if I could understand why little me watched this movie over and over seeing as the retelling is only so-so. Wouldn't you know it? It was also taped off of HBO in the 1980s. At one point, I accidentally hit RECORD while watching it and lost a chunk of movie in the middle, right as Aslan is reanimating the statues at the Witch's palace. I hadn't seen that five minutes in years until I rented this again on DVD.

Basically, as this list proves, I watched the same five movies over and over and over as a kid such that I don't really hate any of them now. I couldn't possibly, even if they're bad. They all mean far too much to me sentimentally.

Day 01
Day 02
Day 03 - 06
Day 07
Day 08
Day 09
Day 10

Comments

[fairest.livejournal.com]

The Last Unicorn is the movie that made me consider doing this meme, in spite of the fact that I couldn't speak at length about pretty much any question other than favorite animated movie. I've thought a lot about why I like it so much and want eventually to post about it. :)

Edited for unicorn icon.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have an enduring affection for the movie, though absolutely no desire to sit and watch it. Mostly, I think, because it's so melancholy, unlike all the other movies I watched over and over as a kid where good triumphs and is happy forever and ever.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Favorite movie from childhood: honestly, I didn't watch many movies as a kid. I'll probably have to go with Star Wars, just because I still remember going to see that for the first time (at the drive-in!) and being utterly awed.

Favorite animated movie: I have to pick one? The Disney Robin Hood is still one of my faves, definitely. Kung Fu Panda is right up there too, though.

Movie I used to love but now hate: I don't know that there are any currently, but I certainly went through that with Wizard of Oz. Loved it when I first saw it, got incredibly sick of it living in Kansas, but finally burned through that disgust and discovered it again in grad school.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Excellent film, that. We own it, and watch it every so often with the kids, who also love it. I need to go back and reread the novel at some point.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It is an excellent story, it's just so heart-breaking. It's like, yay, evil is defeated and good triumphs, and the unicorns are free, but the unicorn is all sad and waaaaaah...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I loved Robin Hood as a kid. I remember being confused by the popularity of that old website/internet meme, "The Hamster Dance" because it was just sampling songs from Robin Hood and I couldn't believe that was news to anybody. Kung Fu Panda was better than I believed it could be, so there's that.

Ugh, though, The Wizard of Oz. I couldn't use that because I hated it as a kid and I still haven't gotten over my dislike/indifference to it. It was the only movie my babysitter bothered to put on. If I never saw it again, it might still be too soon. Which is funny because I'm sure I've seen every movie on just this post more times, and yet I can still watch them. I never cottoned to The Wizard of Oz. I don't know why. I don't really love the story, matter of fact.