The character the audience would most expect to be the hero of the story dies before the opening credits, and so the focus falls on his grieving widow and her efforts to save her family. There aren't many characters like Mrs. Brisby, who is so clearly afraid throughout the whole movie, but still manages to do what must be done. I like it when my heroines and heroes are vulnerable and capable of making mistakes.

I didn't have unicorns on everything; I probably decorated more stuff with dragons than unicorns.  But it did mean I had a pretty firm preference for fantasy.

I'm also probably not the best person to ask whether or not it's "held up," because I don't think I've ever gone more than a year or so without revisiting the film. It's not nostalgia for me, but years and years of well-considered affection. They're actually doing a special screening tour of the movie to celebrate its recent 30th anniversary and Peter S. Beagle will be at every event to do signings and meet with fans. There's no polite way to describe my excitement upon hearing that news. If you're well versed in animation, then there's no doubt it may seem a bit dated. It's also clear that they didn't have a huge budget for it. It's not as smooth or polished as some other films; the colors are bright, but may seem a bit flat to the modern eye. But the remaster is supposed to be gorgeous, and I can't wait to see it on the big screen. Here's hoping the movie has a ton of Japanese fans so we can get multiple screenings in Tokyo.

I posted it in the Wizard of Oz thread. I wasn't sure if it would get enough traction to be worthy of it's own thread, but I'm glad to see pav brought it over here and folks are taking interest. 

So one of my 3 Childhood Defining Movies has changed from my earlier post because as much as I love The Princess Bride, I really should've put down The Secret of NIMH instead. The Princess Bride was that movie that my brothers and I could all agree upon and watch happily, but left to my own devices, I think my love for Mrs. Brisby is stronger than my love of Buttercup.

1. The Last Unicorn (1982) - I was probably seven or eight when I first saw this, so it's one of my earlier forays into Japanese animation, although it is an American production.
2. The Neverending Story (1984) - Good, depressing fun.
3. The Secret of NIMH (1982) - The beginning of my love for Don Bluth and still my favorite of his movies.

I wasn't trying to establish rules, per se; I was just more interested in those movies that helped establish your taste in film. And knowing this forum, I definitely should have said straight up that Star Wars only counts as one. 

My brother reminded me of one I'd nearly forgotten, Unico.

My mother hated these movies, 'cause they are fucking depressing, and the tapes "mysteriously" went missing after we moved. Forget about how cutesy the trailer is. Unico is one baby unicorn's endless tale of woe. Because the gods are jealous of his strange power to make the people around him happy, the poor creature is repeatedly taken from his family and friends, deprived of his memories, and abandoned in various desolate locations as punishment (originally the gods wanted to kill him, but changed their minds). It doesn't take him long to make new friends, whom he eventually ends up rescuing from some cruel fate. But no sooner is the day saved, than the West Wind comes along and snatches him up all over again.

Unico was the creation of Osamu Tezuka, so it had royal pedigree, but the tv series never got picked up and Tezuka died in 1989 without creating anymore stories. So basically, fans are stuck with a downer ending and the implication that it will be repeated ad infinitum.

Ugh. Only if I can throw him back.

I never said he was old. I said he wasn't young. I'm in my 30s myself, and there is a world of difference in that roughly ten year age difference.

As for their relative attractiveness, one of the things I've always liked about British TV is that it isn't always an endless parade of beauty queens and  models. Tennant and Smith are both just normal looking guys. I won't argue with your assessment that they're good looking, as that falls in the realm of personal taste, but hot? Um, no.

Feel free to jump them if you like, but I'm not gonna be in line for sloppy seconds and my head shall stay safely un-exploded. 

Moffat has created stories that I like in the past, and although there wasn't much for me to like in series 6 or 7, one of those things was Matt Smith. But truth be told, if Smith had stayed on for another series as the Doctor, I probably give the show a past until Moffat left as well. As it stands, however, I'm much fonder of Capaldi than Smith, so I'm gonna give the next series at least a few episodes before I bail out.

Wait, are you talking about Sarah Jane? 'Cause my comment was about Rose. Sorry if I was a bit unclear, but I liked Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane was lovely. Even with the aforementioned retconned romance in that episode, Sarah Jane was nice to Rose, initially, and Rose was really bitchy in response.

No, some of us didn't know that! I really can't picture that scenario, but that's probably a good thing....

I think I'm more a fan of Doctor Who as a concept than the actual show, if I'm honest, but it is a terrific concept and there are times when the show really is awesome.

I know I'm clearly in the minority when it comes to Rose. She is a fan favorite and a big part of why they were able to successfully bring the show back. But if I'd started watching the show with either series 1 or 2, there's no way I'd still be watching it now. During the episode when the Doctor reunites with Sarah Jane, I wanted to  punch the stupid cow in the throat, and I hadn't even seen any of the classic series at that point. She doesn't  seem like a nice person, and I simply don't understand why the Doctor likes her or why we're supposed to like her.

I would lay this at the feet of Russell T Davies, the show runner, creator of those characters, and writer of a huge chunk of those episodes. The reason why Rose is exactly the same with Ten as she was with Nine, despite the fact that it really doesn't make any sense for her to be so, is because RTD decided to keep their dynamic essentially unchanged.

The tonal shift we get in series 5 is not because we have a different Doctor. It's because there was a regime change behind the camera and basically anyone with any significant influence on the previous four series left. There have been rumors to the effect that there was some resentment on RTD's side when Moffat took over and that partly explains why Moffat was handed such a clean slate. Basically, RTD deliberately ended Tennant's run in such a way that it would be almost impossible for there to be much continuity, and Moffat began series 5 by trying to make the best of it.

The same was true of the classic series as well. Changes to tone of the show had a lot more to do with the people behind the camera than the people onscreen (not that the actor doesn't matter; Tom Baker, for one, had a lot of influence on the show).

You cannot honestly watch the Library two-parter and tell me that River Song wasn't a real character. And for that character, in my opinion, Alex Kingston was an excellent choice. The problem was that, just as with the Daleks and the Cybermen, Moffat has thoroughly mangled River Song's story. Really, I'd say he managed a twofer, ruining both River Song and the Weeping Angels in the same two-parter.

I understand his desire to revisit the character and flesh out her mythos once he became showrunner. Unfortunately, the backstory he gave her just didn't add up to the character to whom we were initially introduced. The more he tried to make her time with the Doctor worthy of the payoff we got in Forest of the Dead, the less of a character she became and the more she was a poorly conceived means to an end.

Well, it does say the worst film you've ever seen, and I've avoided Battlefield Earth like the plague. In general, I have a low tolerance for bad movies, so I haven't actually seen a lot of notoriously bad films, especially those of the summer blockbuster variety.

But I did forget to mention The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter and The Neverending Story II.  I remember seeing both of these in the theaters as a kid and being so angry at how bad they were. And that was before I read the book I realized what terrible adaptations they were. The author sued to have the title of the original film changed because he felt it differed so much from the source material; I sometimes wonder if his anger after seeing what they did in the second and third movies isn't what did the poor man in.

Wait a second, wait a second. Any film with Eddie Murphy? What about all of really great movies Eddie Murphy made in the beginning of his film career. Certainly things have been pretty dire for the past 20 years or so, but there are some real gems in that first decade. Partly, this is the girl behind the nostalgia glasses talking, I know, but having recently re-watched Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours, while far from perfect and showing their age quite a bit, I still found them both to be genuinely entertaining. Remember, the reason they've let the man make a seemingly endless stream of crap movies in recent years is because at one point he was both a true talent and cared enough to try and make good movies.

What Dreams May Come stands out among the all the bad movies I've ever seen as the only one my whole family watched together and despised with equal passion. Usually, at least one person's tastes will diverge and we'll have a rollicking back and forth, discussing the movie's various pros and cons. But we were all of one opinion on that one.

Having completed seven series of New Who at this point, I can see a need to distinguish between each series under Tennant's run and Smith's run. And most New Who fans will never go back and watch any significant portion of the show's previous incarnations, so there's no need to placate Old Who fans by having a consistent numbering system. IMO, since they abandoned the serial format, New Who feels like a different beast altogether, anyway, and worthy of a restart.

I didn't like Eccelston's run on the show, but I would be interested to know what he would've been like with a different Companion. Rose was just awful. I started with series 4, and of all the Companions, Donna is still my favorite. Series 4 is also the only series with RTD as showrunner that I actually like, so it seems like as good a place to start as any. Tennant was much less mopey and annoying in series 4, the backstory doesn't loom over it too badly, it's just as polished as later series, and it ends with the beginning of new era. Plus,  Catherine Tate's Donna really is really awesome.

There's also the bonus that you get Blink and the Library two-parter in their proper order.