Topic: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Okay, so during WAYDM's commentary for The Wizard Of Oz, Dorkman declared that film, Annie and Ghostbusters as the three pictures in heavy rotation during his childhood, which went on to define his tastes. Basically, those three films tell you exactly who Dorkman is, what he's like as a person. This created a kind of "game" in the forum thread for that episode, so I felt it should have its own thread.

Here are the rules: 1. Only 3 films (none of that runner-up, honorable mention or tie bullshit. You MUST limit your submission to three. That's the fun, challenging part. 2. Let's put the cut-off point at age 13. We're entering into Teenager territory at that point and that's a whole different game. So, only films you "grew up on", before you turned 13. 3. Include the year of release for each film. It gives a time stamp of sorts, allowing to track how old you were when it came out and when you might have seen it. 4. No Doubles or Triples, meaning you can't just list two or three films in a franchise (so no Star Wars, Empire AND Jedi. Pick one out of the three).

I'll go second. Dorkman counts as first:

1. The Breakfast Club (1985)
2. Night of the Creeps (1986)
3. Three O'Clock High (1987)

Last edited by johnpavlich (2013-08-28 17:43:44)

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

For me, I have the 3 I remember watching over and over from childhood:


1. Terminator 2 (1991)
2. The Terminator (1984)
3. Ghost Busters (1984)

So basically I love optical special effects and 80s synth music. Win!

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1.) Uncle Buck (1989)
2.)The Lion King (1994)
3.)The Two Towers (2002)

Last edited by Withkittens (2013-08-28 22:14:44)

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Always good to see Pav back on the forums

Bugsy Malone (1976)
The Goonies (1985)
Ghostbusters (1984)

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

E.T.     (1982)
Last Starfighter  (1984)
Star Wars    (1977)

Last edited by drewjmore (2013-08-28 21:57:38)

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Withkittens wrote:

3.)LOTR (2001-2003)

Rule-reading fail big_smile tongue

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Star Wars
The first movie I saw on VHS (in a kindergarten, around 1987). Made a great impression on me.

Aliens
I was 9 or 10. Scared the hell out of me.

Terminator 2
I must've seen it at least 10 times with my cousins.

So honor the valiant who die 'neath your sword
But pity the warrior who slays all his foes...

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. Jurassic Park (scared the shit out of me and got me interested in movies when I saw it at age 4, in theaters)
2. Star Wars (on VHS in 1995, saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on VHS about the same time as Star Wars)
3. I need to mention Goldeneye (my first Bond film) on VHS at about 8

"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me   cool

Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

TechNoir wrote:

1. Terminator 2 (1991)
2. The Terminator (1984)

Please pick one of these and fill the empty spot with something else.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Jimmy B wrote:
Withkittens wrote:

3.)LOTR (2001-2003)

Rule-reading fail big_smile tongue

Seriously, folks. It's not like I'm asking a lot here. You have three spaces. This should be super easy. smile

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1) Toy Story (I saw this movie so many times that I remember it shot-for-shot. My mom took me to Burger King several times just to get the toys. I still have several of them.)

2) The Iron Giant (The first movie I can remember not just seeing, but wanting to see. I have a vivid memory of pointing at the poster and saying, "Mom, I want to see that." We got the VHS that had the little toy Giant, and my dad bought 2 copies because my little sister wanted one too. Both my Dad and my Mom accompanied me to the theater for this one. I still have fond memories of it.)

3) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter in general was a major defining factor in my childhood, so it has to get a mention. My school did a special field trip for each of the first 3 movies. EVERYONE loved Harry Potter, jocks and nerds alike. And everybody was dying to see the movie. Nothing was the same after Hedwig's Theme started playing and the WB logo flew past. Not for me, anyway.)

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. Toy Story

2. Flubber

3. Star Wars

I'm Batman

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986)

http://i.imgur.com/xe4Dz0v.jpg



2. FLETCH (1985)

http://i.imgur.com/hKIJX8a.jpg



3. TRADING PLACES (1983)

http://i.imgur.com/SluEiby.jpg

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. Star Wars (1977) - to me, there has always been Star Wars, I can't remember a time pre-Star Wars
2. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - always my favourite growing up, such fun to watch and it had a cool Chinese kid who did martial arts. I was a kid who wanted to be that cool and do that stuff.
3. The Vikings (1958) - historical epic with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, ends with big battle, I'd run about my garden swishing my wooden sword around humming one of the tunes from the soundtrack

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

First, for context I should mention that I'm born in 1985. And the first three movies that come to mind are:

Star Wars (1977) - My first exposure to anything Star Wars was the game Super Star Wars for the SNES. It was loving that game that made me really excited about watching the movie when it aired on television at some point in 1993. I taped it on VHS and watched that movie an obscene amount of times in the following years.

Back to the Future Part 2 (1989) - Saw it for the first time in 1994 and it was actually the first BTTF movie I saw. I have an extremely vivid memory of building a lego spaceship as I watched this for the first time on a really crappy VCR. I also remmeber not understadning any of it, but knowing that I loved it. It's still to this day my favorite BTTF movie.

The third spot is the hard one to pin down. There are probably even some Norwegian movies that (almost) nobody here will have heard of that could be in the running, but I think I'll have to go with...

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Have little memory of when and how I first watched it, but I owned it and Temple of Doom on VHS. Judging by when I watched Last Crusade, I only know that I at least had seen Raiders before 1995.


Not being able to mention any runner-ups is killing me, so Pavlich, know that I hate you.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

johnpavlich wrote:
Jimmy B wrote:
Withkittens wrote:

3.)LOTR (2001-2003)

Rule-reading fail big_smile tongue

Seriously, folks. It's not like I'm asking a lot here. You have three spaces. This should be super easy. smile

Woops, sorry about that. That's what happens when you start skimming.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

johnpavlich wrote:
TechNoir wrote:

1. Terminator 2 (1991)
2. The Terminator (1984)

Please pick one of these and fill the empty spot with something else.


Sorry, I misunderstood the rule and thought it meant I couldn't have one of the entries be an entire series, not separate films from a series be separate entries.
And I would change it, but I really couldn't remember any other film I watched as religiously as these 2, with ghostbusters as a strong memory aswell. To me they are distinctly different as influences, one giving me the love of the 80s, particularly the music (I couldn't tell you how many times I rewound that VHS to just play the intro of The Terminator with the steel letter credits and Brad Fiedels synth score), and the other just flooring me with action and effects. I don't know, they're not really that similar in my mind. I hope this can be acceptable. smile

Nice idea for a thread btw, I had never really thought about this before, I tried so hard to remember the labels of the VHS tapes we had at home but it feels like so long ago now...

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Hansen wrote:

Not being able to mention any runner-ups is killing me, so Pavlich, know that I hate you.

Take a number and get in line, Sport! smile

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

TechNoir wrote:

I don't know, they're not really that similar in my mind. I hope this can be acceptable. smile

Nice idea for a thread btw, I had never really thought about this before, I tried so hard to remember the labels of the VHS tapes we had at home but it feels like so long ago now...

You make a strong case, so I'll allow it, just this once. Don't anyone else go gettin' any ideas about technicalities! I want you guys to dig deep into your brainy brains. I'm loving some of the choices, by the way. This is turning out to be more fun and insightful than I expected.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

I've been racking my brains since the Wizard of Oz comm thinking about this, and I've come to the conclusion that I didn't "like" movies growing up. Which is a weird thing to say i guess. But when I think about my childhood I don't have very specific things that jump out at me as being hugely influential (I have 2 specific movies that I remember watching a lot, George Of The Jungle and Space Jam, which were 2 of the only VHS's we had in the house growing up, but they only jump out because I continue to actively watch them).

Otherwise I don't actually remember anything from that era, and as I'll say in the other thread after I do this, that dead zone continues until High School. Obviously I watched movies as every kid does, but I didn't latch on to anything in any meaningful way that actually influenced me then or had repercussions on who I am now. The entire concept actually feels weirdly alien having thought about it so much over the last couple days.

I'm kinda not really sure how to feel about this, I don't know if I just have a really horrible memory of that time or if I just didn't have anything that affected me like y'all seem too. I kinda feel a little empty about the whole thing hmm

So yeah, anyways, like I said, going by the only metric I have (repetition of watching) I have to go with:

1: George of The Jungle (1997)
2: Space Jam (1996)
3: The Phantom Menace (1999)


Yeah. When I was a kid I watched the living SHIT out of the Phantom Menace. Sometimes it would just be looping in the background 4or 5 times a day. But I don't have any cool stories about memorizing every line or anything like that, it's just a movie I watched a lot when I was a kid, and then I grew up.

This thread is making me kinda depressed, I'm just gonna stop now.

ZangrethorDigital.ca

Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
3. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

I don't think I saw Star Wars until it was on VHS. The other three I saw in the theater.

And before you laugh at 3, keep in mind that I was 11 or 12 and had no idea that all this awesome music was by one band, and that band was not the BeeGees. (Anyway, the ones I loved were "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by Steve Martin and "Come Together" by Aerosmith.)

EDIT: My friends actually made me see Grease twice (with GIRLS!), when I'd much rather have seen SPLHCB a second time.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-08-29 03:12:21)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

1. Return of the Jedi
This is no longer my favorite Star Wars film (that's ESB, naturally), but I wore the VHS out as a kid. I loved it for the visual effects and the battle sequences, and its general flashiness compared to the other two OT films. From ages 9-14, Star Wars completely dominated my life, and I watched all six numerous times, but this one is the one I'd revisit the most.
2. The Swiss Family Robinson
One of the classic live-action Disney films. Sure, it's corny, but it was the most rousing adventure picture I'd ever seen before Star Wars. Pirates and desert islands and the kids from Old Yeller—what's not to like?
3. Monsters, Inc.
This film, Star Wars, and Harry Potter remain the pillars of my childhood. I had the entire thing memorized for a while, and watched the special documentary features over and over again. The first movie I saw in the theater, and the first that I owned on DVD.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

I don't know what this says about me, and that's probably a good thing, but the three films I remember seeing over and over again in our local cinema when I was a child are:

  • Thunderball (1965)

  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

  • Paint Your Wagon (1969)

Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

I am really trying to imagine the sort of life lessons a young child would derive from repeat viewings of that combination of movies.   No matter how I slice it, it's disturbing.

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Re: 3 Childhood Defining Movies!

Indeed, but I'd rather not become another research project for my psychiatrist's students.