For the past week or so, Sam has asked to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory every day. I'm much happier that he watch this show than some of the superhero shows that are available on Netflix. I've enjoyed having him watch this show anyway, since it feeds my own nostalgia. I remember watching this show as a kid (along with The Wizard of Oz and lots of the old musicals), whenever we visited my Grandpa T and Grandma J. Since we weren't allowed to eat very much sugar in my house, my siblings and I especially liked watching the opening credits. All of that chocolate!
As a result of this new Willy Wonka phase, I've been reminded of the other shows that I liked to watch as a kid. Whenever I associate movies with my childhood, I usually think of these:
- Mary Poppins (When we used to live in Los Angeles, I remember watching the a scene of this movie when an earthquake happened. I remember feeling the ground rumble at a point in the movie when there was a close-up of Julie Andrew's face when she was clad in the white hat).
- The Ten Commandments (I could probably quote this movie verbatim. This movie, along with the next four ones in the list, were some of the only things that we were able to watch on Sundays.)
- The Genesis Series (This is from "The New Media Bible" which came out in 1979. The Book of Luke was also filmed by this same director, John Heyman, and the footage eventually became the Jesus movie from 1979).
- Jesus of Nazareth
- The animated videos by "Living Scriptures"
- Saturday's Warrior
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks
- Pollyanna (I don't think that we ever owned this movie, but we rented it enough - and watched it at my grandma's house - that I still associate it with my childhood.)
- The Parent Trap, with Hayley Mills
- Freaky Friday, with Jodie Foster (The opening credits and this "body swap" scene are so familiar!)
- Candleshoe, with Jodie Foster (This scene with David Niven is quite fun!)
- The Shirley Temple Collection (Really, any Shirley Temple movie reminds me of my childhood. I remember that we had one VHS tape that highlighted a couple short films, including "Kid 'In Africa" and "War Babies." I also really loved the film The Little Princess.)
- The Buttercream Gang
- Split Infinity
- Girl of the Limberlost
- The Incredible Mr. Limpet
- Anne of Green Gables
- The Narnia series by Wonderworks (The trailer for "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is available online.)
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe cartoon (1979)
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6 comments:
gosh, almost all of those movies are ones we watched too - other ones were The Great Race, every Marx Brothers movie, every Laurel + Hardy movie, Rigoletto, Anne of Green Gables, Jane of Lantern Hill, Girl of the Limberlost, Swiss Family Robinson, Follow Me Boys, Darby O'Gill and the Little People,...and i'm sure there were LOTS more. there wasn't much else to do at night in upstate NY. :)
The Secret Garden (Hallmark version), The Sound of Music, Rigoletto, Mary Poppins, Anne of Green Gables, any Lawrence Welk program (at my grandparents' house), and, of course, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.
I loved Willy Wonka, but I still hate the part when they go through the tunnel. Scary.
Girl of the Limberlost! Anne of Green Gables! I forgot about those. I'm going to add them to my list.
I saw "Rigoletto" a few times when I was a kid, but not often enough to really associate it with my growing-up years.
I would love to see J's list. Can you send via email?
Fun post.
The Buttercream Gang! I totally forgot about that movie. We watch a lot of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Newsies, and Man from Snowy River. Other than that, our lists have a lot of similarities.
I must have loved weird movies in my childhood. My favorites were "My Blue Heaven" and "Tremors."
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