The Movie From Your Childhood...- Page 2

[Marlene]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 1:34am

It probably was a draw between Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. Possibly with Lion King trailing not too far behind.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 3:33am

At summer camp almost every year we watched Harold and the Purple Crayon and Bless the Beast and the Children ... on some old contraption called a projector with actual film having to be thread through spokes! We actually had one at my house and would be able to get some old MGM and WB films to watch on occasion.

The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz were appointment TV when they came on.

There was also this really bad skateboard movie we used to watch at camp called "Skater Dater."

Le Sigh - time to go put on some wrinkle cream.

[GuyfromGermany]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 3:38am

I was totally obsessed with "Charlotte's Web"...
I remember sitting on the couch with my mother and crying everytime the movie ended. *g*

[jam_man]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 4:37am

I had a few I watched a lot, including The Lion King, The Pagmaster (anyone know that one?), and when I was a little older, The Music Man. I mean after I was in a HS production as a kid, I couldn't watch it enough (or get enough of the soundtrack on either CD or cassette). There was a time when I was up to as much as 2 viewings a day!

These days, I'm slightly less obsesive.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 4:59am

I know I wore out a Care Bears tape that was about some evil thing taking over kids at a camp.


Also, I played the **** out of An American Tail

[jam_man]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 5:11am

[Quickly raises hand] I used to watch that Care Bears movie too! [Slowly lowers hand embarrassed, looking from side to side]

Updated On: 7/22/06 at 05:11 AM

[YessicaB]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 6:06am

Tie between Mary Poppins, Pippi Langstrumpf (Pippi Longstocking) & Ariel (The little Mermaid). I LOVED them!!!!!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 8:03am

I'm right there with DG - I'm even older, so there was no opportunity to watch movies repeatedly. We played outside, used our imaginations, read books, made things with our hands, painted, sculpted, daydreamed.

Ahh,for those good old days before technology took over the world and made everyone so dependent upon gadgets.

[YessicaB]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 8:12am

DG and Red Hot, I was 3-8 from 1988-1993 and I though we had a VCR, I could not just "pop in a movie" whenever I felt like it....my sister, the neighborhood kids and I spend our days building bike ramps, "exploring" our town on tricycles, bikes, skates, etc... (yes, were I live that was still possible. I walked myself to preschool when I was 4!), and ran around the woods. We also had the bright idea to go from door to door selling our drawings when I was 5 and ended up making about 100 DM (~$50) my mom was MORTIFIED...

"I'm right there with DG - I'm even older, so there was no opportunity to watch movies repeatedly. We played outside, used our imaginations, read books, made things with our hands, painted, sculpted, daydreamed."

Ahh,for those good old days before technology took over the world and made everyone so dependent upon gadgets.

Having had a favorite movie does not mean we spent our days glued to the screen...lol.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 10:14am

As others have said here, the was no such thing as watching movies "non-stop" in the pre-home-video days. I have no idea what that would have been like, either. I think, as a result, we were exposed to more films, TV shows and specials back then. It's not that kids weren't watching too much TV either. Our generation was accused of being boob-tube addicts as well. But we couldn't watch anything over and over, so we saw "more stuff," if that makes sense. Or we went outside, played with our friends, or read a book. Or in my case, wrote songs or drew pictures.

I did watch The Wizard of Oz every single year it was on TV, and that was the most that any of us could do back then.

But repeat viewings of films were impossible, unless you went to a movie theatre during its run (or return engagement) to see them.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 10:30am

Well said B12B---Your first paragraph was exactly what I was thinking!

My father was the media advisor for his school district, and so we were lucky enough to have some of the first VCR type equiptment at our disposal. I do remember the summer he brought home a Beta-max machine and the movie "1776", and I watched that non-stop. (Of course, it was the only movie he brought home, strangely enough!)

That meant that we often had access to a real movie projector too, and our local library had a great collection of movies that you could borrow. They mostly lent them to the schools---I can't tell you the number of times we saw The Red Balloon and The Velveteen Rabbit---but if you had a projector you could take them out. We used to rent Shirley Temple movies and Charlotte's Web and Soup and Me.

Of course, the library also had filmstrips and these portable filmstrip machines you could check out. I remember being very fond of the "Sleeping Beauty" filmstrip and watching it many times! And you had to be paying attention, or you'd miss the little "ding" on the tape, and then the picture wouldn't match what they were saying!

[jlc6314]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 10:31am

Drop Dead Fred...best children's movie ever. I still watch it today.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 10:41am

All Dogs Go to Heaven. I'm pretty sure the rest of the family hated it.

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 10:41am

I used to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, and Gulliver's Travels over and over (those were the first four movies my dad taped when he got his first vcr).

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:01am

"But repeat viewings of films were impossible..."

Not true for those of us who lived in the NYC area and watched WOR-TV's "Million Dollar Movie" as I mentioned above. They repeated the same movie every night for a week and that had showings all day Saturday and Sunday.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:04am

Oh no, I didn't have access to my own VCR until I was in my teens. My parents did own a Curtis Mathis VCR that I was not allowed to touch. My mom put all of my movies in. The damn things were like $500 when they first came out. And that was in the mid-80s. By watching things over and over, I mean that is what I chose to rent when we went to Curtis Mathis. That was the only rental place near us at the time.

I also used to wear out all of the Farie Tale Theatre tapes!

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:47am

jimnysf---I assume you didn't grow up in the '60s and '70s?

In a way, I'm glad I didn't have instant access to The Wizard of Oz and other favorites during my childhood. It made their showings that much more special when they did turn up on TV or at the movie theatre for a weekend kiddie matinee series. It was truly an emotional event each time. I remember doing strange things like putting my (clunky) portable reel-to-reel audio tape recorder up to the tiny speaker on our TV (console) and telling everyone to be quiet while I tried to record the soundtrack to the whole film during a viewing. I remember being so disappointed when the cuckoo clock went off, because I'd forgotten to stop it while I was taping.

I remember racing to my drawing pads so I could sketch a character or a set, or a scene so I could remember it better... until the next airing a year later.

If I had been able to watch these movies repeatedly, and whenever I felt like it, I don't believe my imagination and resourcefulness wouldn't have been sparked in such a way.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:56am

I paid $850 for my first VCR when they first came out. It was an RCA that had a timer that could only be set to "start" so it wouldn't stop until the tape ran out. Blank tapes were $20! Movies cost $100.

[bunnywings]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:57am

JerseyGirl2 ~ I *loved* The Last Unicorn! I was going to post that and I was surprised to see that it was one of your favorites as well.

My neighbors had a videotape of Pollyanna and I watched it everytime I babysat their kids.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 11:58am

I did. Million Dollar Movie was on in the 60's.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:04pm

Here's my story:

This is a story my mom told me that had me literally laughing my butt off. As a little kid I was obsessed with Barney. Not gonna lie, I had a purple wardrobe. My parents wanted to take me to my first movie, and it was going to be Beauty and the Beast. The only problem was, Barney was not in that, and I refused to see things that the name "Barney" was not in. So my mom told me that it was called "Beauty Barney Beast." Apparently I loved the movie, but didn't understand why Barney never showed up. When it came out on VHS I'd watch it ALL THE TIME, searching for Barney. True story.

[luvliza89]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:05pm

The Jetsons Movie. That's right, the one with Tiffany.

I've explored every aspect and angle and what-not with The Wizard of Oz. I think given a blank piece of paper, I could draw each and every background in that movie, down to the sawhorse in back of the Tin Woodman's cottage. I've been through about 7 VHS tapes of The Wizard of Oz, because I would watch it too many times and I wore a bunch of them out. One afternoon, I found a large book about different types of birds and paused the Tin Woodman scene and tried to correctly identify every bird that showed up in that scene. There were some pretty wild ones, let me tell you.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:07pm

I also had one of these. Anyone remember the Pioneer Disco Vision Player? It was later changed to Laser Disc. MCA Universal put out a bunch of discs but the player and the discs were very large.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:13pm

"I did. Million Dollar Movie was on in the 60's."

Well, where I grew up we had 3 channels, and one or two REALLY fuzzy additional ones, until cable came along in the mid-'70s.

And even when it did, there were no constant repeated movies on any channel, until HBO came along and started doing repeated airings. They claimed (back then) that it was "something new." You picked the time, from a group of scheduled times, that you wanted to see a particular movie. So either they weren't truthful in their innovative programming, or you grew up in a very isolated experience of massive multiple viewings in the '60s. Most of us didn't have that.

Although we did have "Million Dollar Movies." They aired ONCE though.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/22/06 at 12:18pm

We New Yorkers were lucky. We had Channels 2,4,5,7,9,11 and 13. Most people I know only had 3 or even less stations. I remember when HBO came out as a pilot. They played the same movie over and over. "Blazing Saddles" comes to mind as one of the first they had. Then they expanded and started mixing up their schedule. Now I have hundreds of stations on Digital Cable and there is still nothing on.