So where have all the great kid's movies gone?
Looking back on it now, I seem to have been born at a very opportune time for fantastic kid's movies. Between 1984 and 1986 there was a glut of really amazing films aimed at mostly kids and teenagers with the leads generally of those ages (with 1 exception that I will include mainly because while starring adults, they were most definitely kids inside!). This really did lead me to associate with them, and allowed me to submerge myself in the storyline.
I was too young to see these films when they first came out, but fortunately for me they all hit our TV screens in the late 80s/ early 90s when I was at just the right age to appreciate them. Back when Christmas TV actually was something out of the ordinary.
A lot of these films became so popular that they formed their own cottage industry with sequels, video games, cartoon TV shows and more. No more so than 1985's Back to the Future which was one of my favourites as a kid. The humour, the dialogue, the car. And while dear ol' Michael J was a tad bit older than the teenager he was supposed to be playing (he was 24) it didn't matter to the audience.
The same year, The Goonies hit the screen, featuring a variety of kid and teenage actors in an amazing adventure. I have to admit I wasn't hugely big into this film, but many site it as one of their all-time favourites.
A year earlier, Gremlins had arrived. Featuring amongst others, a young Corey Feldman, this was one of those quite scary to watch for kids, but at the same time enormous fun as well. And in fairness, you couldn't be too frightened by a film featuring a character like this:
The recently deceased (RIP) director John Hughes made some fantastic coming of age films (but not the best one I've ever seen, we'll get to that one) and he was responsible for one that probably would have been my favourite if you'd asked me aged about 12. This was Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). The age gap between Matthew Broderick and the ubiqutious Bueller may have been large, but it's nothing like that of his buddy Cameron (who was played by a 3o year old).
Fortunately, I wasn't aware of any of this when I was watching it and I have to admit Ferris had the most perfect life a kid could ever wish for. And it was great fun to watch.
What started me writing this was the long-awaited arrival this morning of my much anticipated copy of Ghostbusters: The Video Game based on the 1984 film. I mean, what kid didn't want to have one of those ray guns and fight ghosts (and know I finally can!) Everybody in that film looked like they were having so much fun doing it, I'm sure they couldn't believe they were getting paid to do it (and the film made an absolute truckload of money too).
Cue a disappointing sequel, some substandard cartoons and numerous merchandising. But nothing can dull the sheer wonderful brilliance of the original movie.
But now we come to my favourite. Despite all those classics coming out around the same time, 1 beats them all in my mind. It helps that when I first saw it, I doubt I was much older than the boys in the film. It wasn't funny, it wasn't escapist like the films I mentioned above, but it is a film that will stay with me til my dying day. And I doubt I'm the only one.
In fact, it so affected me that when I got my first DVD player a long time ago, it was the 2nd film I bought (after Dirty Harry but that's another story). Stand By Me came out in 1985 and featured the story of 4 youngsters going to see a dead body.
I suppose I'm too old to appreciate kid's movies now. But beyond a few exceptions (like American Graffiti), there are very few that stand out for me. And to have so many in such a short few years seems amazing to me.
I'm just glad I was of an age to appreciate them all when they first hit our TV's on long Christmas nights 2 decades ago.
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