Black House Black House
Dec
08
2008

Twitch-O-Meter: You Gotta Start ‘Em Young

Posted by Todd Brown at 1:24am.

Posted in Twitch-O-Meter .

Over the past year here at Twitch I know for certain that both Kurt and I – and I believe Ard as well – have commented on the sad death of the PG-rated kid-oriented adventure film, a category of film that was pretty much a thriving sub-genre unto itself for a period in the eighties before MPAA rules squished it flat.  It was a sad loss because these were the films where imagination was allowed to reign supreme without any of the cynicism or extreme violence that marks the supposedly “serious” and “adult” versions of the same genres.  I’m all for cynicism when it’s called for but these where the films where you got to dream and where, while those dreams may include a touch of danger, they were always ultimately films where possibility ruled.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that the group of us mention these things from time to time simply because all three of us are fathers and, if we’re honest, half the fun of parenthood comes from being able to pass on the things you love to your own kids and while Walden is at least trying there’s really no equivalent to these older classics.  And so, last week I introduced The Boy to The Goonies.  And the next night he asked to watch it again.  Which brings me to the topic of this installment of the Twitch-O-Meter: Five films to get your growing geek-child started off right.  There are a good number of big, obvious titles not included in my list so feel free to jump in and throw your two cents in.

Willow
Coming in 1988 Willow, in retrospect, pretty much marked the end of quality kids’ fantasy.  If there were any major titles of the type released for fifteen years or so following this one they’re certainly not leaping to mind for me.  Willow’s also one of the last thing’s George Lucas has had any involvement in that had any semblance of a soul.  Put Lucas and Ron Howard together as a writer-director combo now and I’d run screaming from the room but this one is filled with magic and adventure and Val Kilmer before he turned into the over-serious grouch that he is today.  Yes, it has its flaws, but it dreamed big which I’ll always thank it for.

Gremlins
Joe Dante’s Gremlins definitely skews a bit older than most on this list – it’s probably a touch frightening for The Boy just yet – but it is an undeniable classic and one of the all-time great pieces of Christmas counter-programming.  Whatever happened to the Chris Columbus that wrote Gremlins?  For that matter, whatever happened to Joe Dante?  Would it be too much to ask for you two to get back to your roots?

Time Bandits
Irony of ironies:  former Monty Python members Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin reportedly wrote Time Bandits over a single weekend because they needed to turn out a quick hit to secure financing for Gilliam’s Brazil.  And hit it did – based on cost-reward ratio I believe this is still Gilliam’s most successful film and a pretty compelling argument that maybe he needs to just stop thinking so damn much all the time.  Charming, funny, frightening this thing blends history, mythology and adventure into one potent coming of age story with a surprisingly downbeat ending that you’d NEVER be allowed to put in a kid’s film these days.  People always talk about Brazil as Gilliam’s masterpiece but you can make a good argument for Time Bandits as well.

The Monster Squad
Wolf Man’s got nards.  And the movie that demonstrated this fact to us has already been chosen as The Boy’s next foray into this particular world.  How Fred Dekker’s career fell apart so very, very badly so soon after making this is a mystery to me but no monster-loving kid’s childhood is complete without this one.

The Goonies
I feel kind of silly saying it but it wasn’t until sitting down to re-watch The Goonies last week that what should have been perfectly obvious all along finally hit me full on:  The Goonies is, quite simply, Indiana Jones for kids.  All of the same elements are there: the hunt for treasure, the swashbuckling adventure, the narrow escapes, a hint of romance … the collection of young talent here is astounding – Josh Brolin!  Sean Astin!  A Corey! – and the film has aged incredibly well.  Again I ask writer Chris Columbus:  any chance of a return to form?  Please?


So there you have it.  I’m happy to entertain suggestions on what else I should be throwing The Boy’s way.  The Neverending Story (which I confess to never having seen)?  Back to the Future?  Something from the Henson factory?  Have at it!

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Reader Comments

  1. Is There Food 12/08/2008 @ 2:57am

    Good choices, as soon as my son’s old enough he’s watching these. Agree about Gremlins, a but scary. As is Monster Squad. Also totally in agreement about Fred Dekker.

    Maybe for a touch of the classics you could try Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein? The Neverending Story is a good one. As are Labyrinth and Dark Crystal.

    Small Soldiers is an option - essentially Gremlins with action figures.

    Ummm…more when my brain wakes up.

  2. Swarez 12/08/2008 @ 3:43am

    I heartly recommend The Explorers, another Joe Dante gem that seems to be quite overlooked IMO. I was utterly in love with this film when I was a kid and put it besides The Goonies and Monster Squad as my favorite kids adventure films. It also features the younger versions of Ethan Hawk and River Phoenix.

    I also think that you might want to give the kid a little taste of Howard The Duck. Another film I was hooked on as a kid and think would go well with the younger crowd.

  3. mikeleeder 12/08/2008 @ 4:39am

    Finally picked up the DVD of “Goonies” initially for the commentary etc and was impressed by how well the film held up, and funny to see where various cast members have gone..Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldmen, and Jonathan Kee Quan working mainly behind the camera now as an action choreographer

    Monster Squad the DVD sits in the to watch pile, loved it when I was young, gotta track down Explorers again, saw War games again recently and still good fun too

    Howard the Duck, still a classic I mean its a talking Duck and he gets to have a love scene with Lea Thompson, and you got a soundtrack by Thomas Dolby…..where could it all go wrong?

  4. thekinginyellow 12/08/2008 @ 7:19am

    i was at a starbucks the other morning and while i was sweetening my joe i overheard the uber youth baristas saying what movies they liked and didn’t.  one girl had the audacity to boast that she ‘didn’t like the goonies, couldn’t understand why everyone thought it was so good.’.  my jaw hit the floor.  i guess it helps that i’m 30 with a kid and saw the goonies during it’s theatrical run while she is most likely in her teens and doesn’t understand anything other than big explosions and special effects.  my child will have a great appreciation for films as i do no matter what.  i will force it.  classic disney films (darby o’gil, peter pan, etc) and good old fashioned spielberg (not his new stuff..yuk).  goonies, back to the future, 16 candles, etc.  they just don’t make them like that any more.

    i can’t wait to show my daughter time bandits (and all gilliam films) especially since i have a framed replica of the time map…that should add to the experience.  i rewatched labrynth a few weeks ago and got all teary eyed during the beginning titles; so much talent was involved in that film.

  5. Cinema-Suicide 12/08/2008 @ 7:33am

    I was actually on my local Public Radio station back in October talking about this kind of thing since I had a feature at my own blog about it.  The ten horror movies you could watch with your kids.  I included The Monster Squad on that list since the whole thing was Halloween/horror themed.

    I might also include:

    Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal since each is still pretty impressive in spite of their age.  I might even throw Legend into the mix.

    On a more contemporary edge, I thought Mirrormask was pretty vacant but visually it’s pretty rich and might be good for kids.  The Gaiman/MacKean one-two punch is dynamite for kids.

  6. cjbarney 12/08/2008 @ 7:34am

    Return to Oz, while not a great film, always had the right ratio of fantasy and scary for me as a kid.

  7. solaris 12/08/2008 @ 9:24am

    My vote is to start kids on older movies.  I meet too many people who just can’t put up with watching something that was made before the 80’s.
    Five off the top of my head:
    The Thief of Bagdad
    The Adventures of Robin Hood
    Forbidden Planet
    Them!
    Captain Blood

  8. MikeEverleth 12/08/2008 @ 10:09am

    Labryrinth, which is the first thing that popped into my head, and Explorers are both good additions people mentioned above.

    I’d like to add “The Black Hole,” which I loved as a kid, but I don’t know if it has universal appeal. I liked that it was dark and spooky—for a family type film—and had that bizarro ending in hell.

  9. Ard Vijn 12/08/2008 @ 10:17am

    My Top 5 in this regard:
    TRON
    The Dark Crystal
    The Goonies
    ET (nobody mentioned this yet… too succesfull?)
    The Neverending Story

  10. thekinginyellow 12/08/2008 @ 10:18am

    @cjbarney:
    return to oz scared the crap out of me but in a good way…i think it was the wheelers and the stop motion stuff that got to me the most.

    @MikeEverleth:
    huff…the black hole is horrid.  i caught it on tcm a while back and it did not sit well with my nostalgia.

  11. Todd Brown 12/08/2008 @ 10:30am

    Oh, Them is a fun suggestion!  The Boy’s already a big fan of Ray Harryhausen so he’s definitely not shy when it comes to the old stuff.

  12. Ard Vijn 12/08/2008 @ 10:49am

    Ahh… Them.
    “Daddy, I want a flamethrower for Christmas!”

  13. voltronjones 12/08/2008 @ 11:08am

    Since, Gremlins is a bit older fair, I’d have substituted Flight of the Navigator.  Runners up:  The Explorers, The Princess Bride

  14. CAB 12/08/2008 @ 2:13pm

    The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

  15. andrewz 12/08/2008 @ 2:15pm

    Definitely Princess Bride. Also consider:

    The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
    The Land That Time Forgot (maybe not as fun for the parents - even with Doug McClure)
    Star Wars
    20K Leagues Under the Sea

  16. Amleth 12/08/2008 @ 4:34pm

    Princess Bride, Flight of the Naviagtor, Labyrinth and Dark Crystal for sure. And of you don’t mind throwing some action to them try Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood, Jackie Chan’s and Sammo Hong goofy kungfu oldies (First Druken Master and so on), and KungFuKidxplotation.
    Also, if you think they are old enough to watch Gremlins, maybe they could like Lost Boys, Karate Kid, Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill flicks…

    As I kid I watched also all Sly’s, Arnie’s, Van Damme’s, etc. but I’m not sure you’d like them to watch that kind of movies…

  17. bonnequin 12/08/2008 @ 8:04pm

    It was a TV show, but Jim Henson’s The Storyteller was a great short series. Starring John Hurt as the title character, with screenplays by Anthony Minghella, they are re-tellings of old folk and fairy tales, starring some pretty heft British acting talent such as Miranda Richardson & Jonathan Pryce. I watched them with my 10 year old neighbour and she loved them.

  18. Brad 12/08/2008 @ 8:38pm

    Karate Kid 1, 2, 3.
    Jaws.
    Ghostbusters.

    Sure…Jaws isn’t suitable for little ones…but it sure made me love movies.
    Hmm….maybe I was 5?

  19. gotadventure 12/08/2008 @ 10:59pm

    What about Frog Dreaming aka the Quest, it’s got the kid from E.T. as a gadget creating adventurer-boy out to find out if there is a monster or vengeful spirit haunting a quarry.  There is a lot of love in me for this film, though perhaps too obscure? Ok, how about we head over to China nobody told anyone in Hong Kong of the early 90’s the 80’s fantasy bubble was bust, A Chinese Ghost Story anyone? (It’s got Stephen Chow and EVERYONE love him. I said LOVE HIM !!!!!) Ok, ok, subtitles too much for the lad’s growing film geek-fu how about Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It got cartoons, it’s got Bob Hoskins, who the boy surely will after seeing the Long Good Friday many years down the road, it’s got Jessica Rabbit to get the ole hormones a gentle kick in the nards, all encased in a film noir package that he can savor for years to come.  Oh, yeah and I second Flight of the Navigator that movie will have him loving cinema and wanting to play football all at once, it is a man-son win-win!!

  20. Joey Fernandez 12/09/2008 @ 6:04am

    Gots to watch the Miyazakis.

    I teach 8 year old kids and they go crazy over Porco Rosso and My Neighbor Totoro.  Totoro puts such a grin on their faces that even the ones who think they are cool can’t stop talking about it after.

  21. Todd Brown 12/09/2008 @ 9:02am

    Oh, the Boy knows his Miyazaki very, very well.  He can pretyt much quote Totoro, loves Laputa and Spirited Away as well.

  22. Deadpool 12/09/2008 @ 2:52pm

    The Dark Crystal
    Project A
    Raiders of the Lost Arc
    Dr. Wai in ‘The Scripture with No Words’
    Once Upon a Time in China
    Amazing Stories: The Movie
    Lord of the Rings trilogy
    The Mummy

    That’s a good start

  23. emobadger 12/09/2008 @ 4:32pm

    Obviously all the most obvious ones have already been said, some real greats in there too, personal faves return to oz & flight of the navigator had me in awe as a child. Though I believe Oz may have scarred me but in a good way! (i think)
    This genre is certainly one of my guilty pleasures which i revisit every now and then.

    A few off the cuff ideas I dont believe have been mentioned:
    Clash of the Titans
    My Science Project
    Starchaser : The Legend of Orin
    The Navigator : A Mediaeval Odyssey
    Lensman - Secret of the Lens
    Short Circuit 1&2;Flash Gordon
    erm Super Mario Bros? :D
    Fire & Ice (may be a bit more adult orientated)
    Masters of the Universe (bit crap but still enjoyable when ur a child)
    Transformers the Movie (cartoon)

    And one that sticks in my mind for some reason is a tv film called Glitterball. I just remember watching it when i was young around the same time i saw Explorers et al.  It but probably wasn’t all that good really, and the budget was fairly none existent. But I found it fun to watch at the time.

  24. emobadger 12/09/2008 @ 4:36pm

    Flash Gordon

    deserves its own line smile

  25. Kurt Halfyard 12/09/2008 @ 7:45pm

    Late to the party (damn illness)...

    Zarthura may be a recent one of these. but Todd’s right in that they are very, very rare.  (No Walden Media are pretty vanilla and white washed, I liked when the swearing and smoking accompanied good pre-teen storytelling god bless you Shane Black.)

    Most of the good ones have been mentioned (I’d second nearly all of them, but kudos on the mention of The Explorers, Flight of the Navigator and Willow)  I dislike Ron Howard (A LOT, he’d be on my personal ‘fight club’ list), but love Willow, go figure.  Ditto on Chris Columbus, but the man did write Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting and Gremlins…But if you really want to drive your kids batshiat crazy, give GREMLINS 2 a whirl.  It’s quite the mind fuck.  While we are on that subject, all Looney Tunes Golden Age box sets, are, well, GOLDEN.  My little ones love Looney Tunes to death and that spirit is definately in all of the Joe Dante efforts.

    I have a terrible soft spot for Howard The Duck (good call Swarez).

    Also kooky sci-fi opera along the lines of Battle Beyond the Stars, or (some what aggressive) fantasy a la Sword and the Sorcerer are a bit off the beaten path. 

    And I’d add that Frank Oz’s musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors has its share of delights, not the least of which being its fabulous cast at their prime.

    Romancing the Stone is a real treat too.

  26. Kurt Halfyard 12/09/2008 @ 7:47pm

    ...Oh… And Beetlejuice.  Definitely Beetlejuice.

  27. Joey Fernandez 12/10/2008 @ 4:29am

    Ah, he is well-schooled then, the young padawan.

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