It’s been a while since I last wrote anything substantial, and i’ve seen quite a few movies since then. I watched Spiderwick Cronicles, Hulk, Terrabithia, etc etc… I guess I’m talking about fantasy films here. But wow, they’re all pretty much crap. Maybe they’ve always been crap? I rewatched the Goonies recently and i’m quite sure that that was an ok movie. But all the shite we’re getting over the past couple of years all seems to be kinda shit. Was it just me, or was the Lord of the Rings trilogy kinda forgettable?

I like to rate a film by 2 things. By how much you think about the film the next day, and it’s rewatchability. It seems to be the majority of the films targeted towards kids these days have, in general, hit none of these marks. I’m left asking the question of whether these marks were ever hit? Was Goonies rewatchable? The Lost Boys? I know Hulk films definitely were NOT. Terrabithia, Narnia, no, no, no.
But admittedly, I’m 30 years of age and don’t quite have the mind of a child any more(no matter what my wife tells you) and I can’t help but think, what movies are kids of today falling in love with? What are they quoting at school? I admit that I don’t have kids myself, so I don’t actually know the answers to these questions.

Myself, as a child, the movies that really hit home with me were… Big Trouble in Little China? No, that was actually quite forgettable. I honestly can’t remember. I remember rewatching Robin Hood Prince of Thieves quite a bit, but I’d never admit that to anyone.. The only thing that really touched me when I was under 10 was Astro Boy, and G Force – Defenders of the Planet. These obviously were not films though. Shows that appeared after Inspector Gadget and Peter Russel Clarke on the ABC in fact. Why they ever put a cooking show in between 2 cartoons I’ll never understand…

So, what was it in these shows that that touched my 10 year old heart?

Emotional responsibility for the characters.

In these shows, the episodes that pulled my heart strings, were the ones where decisions had to be made by astro that could effect the lives of the ones he loved. They were impossible decisions that had to be made. It was love, mixed with the fear of losing that love.
Maybe a shrink would undercover the fact that my mother never hugged me and that’s why I was brought to tears by a cartoon at such a young age. But, maybe it was the act of watching this cartoon that brought me to realise my issues and allowed my young mind to process and search for hugs, and love from other places.

Therefore, in some crazy conclusion, how much can our fantasy films and tv shows that kids watch actually teach them things about life? Whether they consciously understand it or not…

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 12:46 am and is filed under Film Making. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.