Awesome to the Max (Part 1 of 4)

Awesome to the Max: My Top 25 Movies That Made Growing Up in the 1980s Exceptional

Looking back on the decade of the 1980s, there was a lot more tragedies and terrors than the day-glow memories would lead us to believe. I mean, the United States and Soviet Russia were locked in a frightening nuclear stand-off, cocaine was everywhere, AIDS was beginning to have a huge outbreak, this was not the 80s I remembered as a child. Of course, we were kids and, for most of us, our parents just wanted us to be happy, so we were allowed to play and live in our own bubble world of sandboxes, metal slides, steel merry-go-rounds, monkey bars and those awesome metal spheres that looked like the home version of Thunderdome. Yeah, try finding those in your nearby park now. But for the most part, I look back on the movies that made such big impressions on me as a kid and they never failed to make me happy and always gave me something or someone to pretend to be whenever our friends would come over and we would dress up in cardboard boxes, pretending to be robots or swinging tree branches like they were lightsabers.

I started with a top ten, but there were just too many, so it became a top fifteen, then a top twenty. Finally, I came to the realization that there were at least 25 movies that had a tremendous impact on me growing up that I had to include on my list. Now, there were movies that I missed out on but saw later on in my life (the Star Trek movies, Tron), some that I saw but they didn’t leave too big of an impact on me (Return to Oz, Top Gun, Batman and Edward Scissorhands) and some that I just didn’t connect with (Labyrinth and Transformers). There are also some that I’m not sure whether to consider them family films or films I enjoyed that weren’t meant simply for families (The Princess Bride, Three Amigos, The Karate Kid are all movies I love). But before you go grabbing your pitchforks and declaring how I never lived as a child, let me just saw this: this list is in no way meant to be an encapsulation of everyone’s childhood movies, just my own. That is why I say this is MY list, not the list that everybody should have. We all grew up differently and, hey, what appealed to some kids may not have appealed to others. If anything, I’m looking back on these movies to see just what a profound they were pretty big influences on the type of movies I like as well as the movies that left the largest impact on me as a child. In fact, a lot of them still have the same impact on me, if not a bigger one.

Another thing I found in looking back on these movies is that they elicited a common ocular reaction: for most of these movies, I either hid my eyes or cried. Come to think about it, those seem to be a common motif of the movies we saw when growing up. I’ll be the first to admit the movies I cried at and the movies I got scared at, so make fun of me if you want, but like I said, that was just my reaction to these movies. So, get ready to relive some of my favorite childhood movies and, hopefully, you’ll remember some of your own childhood gems that you may have forgotten about.

Honorable Mentions:

- All Dogs Go to Heaven

- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

- Follow That Bird

- The Little Mermaid

- Innerspace (Man, that one was hard not to include on the list, but let’s just say, it’s a strong #26.)

25. *batteries not included: This was one of those movies that, while it never achieved a deep sense of profoundness, it was just a well-meaning heartwarming family film. When you’re 7, those kinds of movies can be all you need to cherish it. A couple of small sized sentient UFOs land in a building scheduled for demolition to have their children (Robots procreating? I’m not even gonna dwell into that philosophical topic right now) and fill in the voids of the few tenants left in the building.

The effects are actually pretty good for the 1980s and the movie does achieve a small sense of wonder and some senses of connection to the robots on a cute level. The movie also manages to achieve some really heavy emotional moments, including one that I never realized how heavy it was until I got older. Just thinking about it now gets me pretty choked up. If you’ve seen it, you probably know what I’m talking about, if you haven’t, well, let’s just say one of the UFO’s children doesn’t quite…get born. Yeah, in the middle of your family movie, there’s a moment where one of the cute aliens goes through a stillborn situation. It choked me up as a kid, but imagine being one of the parents having to watch it with their children. I imagine that would be more traumatizing for adults.

Still, the movie manages to maintain its lighthearted family tone and ends on a heartwarming note. While it’s not really remembered for being a classic, it’s one that has a fantastic heart to it and has a special place in my childhood heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJmvsb13dA8

24. An American Tale: Speaking of movies that leave you a sobbing mess, may I remind everyone of this story of (break out your Kleenexes) an immigrant mouse who gets separated from his family and tries to find his way back to them in the new country of America.

While this can be seen as a tale of Russian immigrants escaping persecution, when you’re a kid, it didn’t matter what the subtext was. We simply identified with the young kid separated from his parents and we’ve all had those moments where we thought we lost them. Yeah, that feeling is pretty much this entire film. My memories of this movie are primarily in front of the TV and crying on the couch with my parents while I look up and see them fighting back emotions. And from everyone I’ve talked to about this movie, that’s pretty much their experience, too. So why do I so fondly remember this movie as such a nostalgic staple of my childhood? Well, three words: “Somewhere…out…there…”

You’re welcome for the lip quiver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZfEQ_pMdg

23. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Long before Phineas and Ferb embraced the joys of having adventures in your back yard, this movie did just that by (how else) shrinking the kids of the house and the neighbor house. Ever wonder what it would be like to be a quarter inch tale and have to make the journey from one end of your back yard to another?

Yeah, that’s a pretty long trip and that’s not even encountering the small obstacles like sprinklers, insects and lawn mowers that become entire action sequences. This movie created such an imaginative world that it was so easy to get lost in the adventure. By the end, the movie shows itself as being a tale of putting aside your differences and bonding together amidst a crisis. I loved this movie as a kid, especially the Roger Rabbit short in front of it; it’s just an all-around good, adventurous family film. Oh, and the baby ant is actually kind of adorable, even if it is the size of an 18 wheeler.

Why do I have such an attachment to the ant? Well, if you’ve seen the film, you know what happens to the ant, but if you haven’t, it actually makes you think twice before stepping on an ant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69hGtQjpjw

22. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure: Okay, I don’t know if your parents were like mine and they hated Pee Wee Herman so much, they wouldn’t let you watch his Saturday morning show or this movie. Well, we all saw it any way, right? And how hard was it not to get pulled into the story of this man-child who has his bike taken from him and goes to such exuberant lengths to get it back.

This is one of those stories where the journey itself is probably more fun than the source material. But let’s face it, as kids, that was the coolest bike ever, wasn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I wanted a bike that had all that cool stuff. It was the James Bond of cool bicycles. It had smoke screen, jet packs and ejection seat. Yeah, that was the James Bond of bicycles. There are also some moments that are pretty damn terrifying, too. Anyone remember the nightmare about the clown surgeons or even just Large Marge.

 Yeah, see what memories that conjures up for you. It freaked me out at points, but it also made me laugh, too. It was fun, bright and goofy that I fondly look back on. And also when I would have no shame and not be afraid to do the Tequila dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrzqBwuxHV8

21. My Science Project: Okay, maybe it’s because I grew up in the desert of Twentynine Palms, California, but the setting for this movie (a small Californian town next to a military base) hit pretty damn close to home for me. The movie centers around a student looking to pass his science class by pulling out a gizmo from a military junkyard that turns out to be an alien time/space warp drive.

Strange things happen here and there as the gizmo tries to suck power out of the city building up to what is probably one of the coolest endings I remember as a kid. The main characters fight through their high school, which has become a gateway of different eras like Ancient Greece, Vietnam and a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the gym! Let me restate that so the coolness can fully sink in…a friggin’ T-Rex in a high school gym!!

Until Jurassic Park came out, that was the coolest looking dinosaur in a movie as far as I’m concerned. There isn’t one moment of this movie that isn’t just fun as hell and I fondly look back on this movie as one fun ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csHptb8APlo

20. The Land Before Time: Hey, remember how much you cried watching An American Tale? Well, the same filmmakers team up to traumatize you again with The Land Before Time. A group of children dinosaurs separated from their parents (seriously, again with the being separated from their parents) cross a barren plane to find a land that has more plants for the herbivores to thrive.

But there’s one character named Littlefoot, who isn’t just separated from his family, his mother was killed fighting off a T-Rex to save her son. Mufasa, my ass, you want a sad childhood memory? Watch the scene that follows when Littlefoot has a final conversation with his dying mother.

JEEZ! Where are the tweeting birds dancing around in a meadow to bring us out of those doldrums we were just violently thrust into? But, of course, the movie ends happy, so it’s not entirely emotionally crippling, but it can be very emotionally draining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLW_uymCcJs

19. The Neverending Story: Holy hell, this movie was the nostalgic shizznit of our childhoods! A boy who gets beat up a lot finds solace in a book called (wait for it…) The Neverending Story. Inside, the world of Fantasia is about to be swallowed up by The Nothing and the only person brave enough to stand up to him is a young warrior named Atreyu.

Fun adventures, flying dragons, deadly philosophical obstacles, this book has it all, but is it really a book as the reader finds out that he’s becoming more and more entwined into the story. Who didn’t have great memories of this movie growing up? Exciting adventures, wonderful fantasy world to get lost in and a great theme song, too! (Neverending Sto-ory! Oh-o-whoa, oh-o-whoa, oh-o-whoa!) And there were some pretty intense moments, too, like the Southern Oracle scene and the entire sequence with the wolf. Again, we’re thrust in some pretty intense stuff, even a rather heartbreaking scene with Atreyu’s…

…nope, not gonna think about it. Moving on, The Neverending Story was like our bedtime stories came to life on the movie screen and it was just the perfect family film. Just try not to think about Artex. DAMMIT!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3DcWtkKeIY

18. Short Circuit 1 & 2: While a lot of people fondly remember the first one as that cute movie where the robot comes to life and believes that he is a living being, I more fondly remember the second one, but I’ll get to that in a minute. As mentioned, the first part is about a lightning storm that shocks a robot, Number 5, into believing that he is alive. He befriends a woman who helps him learn to appreciate the living things in the world around him so much that he believes he is alive himself because he does appreciate these things.

Of course, the government wants him back to “disassemble him”, but Number 5 knows that means he will die and he wants to live. While even his inventor, Steve Guttenberg, does not believe that he is alive, he does try to help protect him from the destruction cause by the NOVA army. (Apparently, PBS shows were real renegades in the 80s.) It’s cute, it’s funny and, as you get a little older, a little creepy at points, but it’s pretty much harmless fun. Also, when you look back on it, doesn’t Number 5 looks a lot like Wall-E?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TBcQ8h_kXU

Then comes the second one where we don’t follow the original two stars (hey, who wants to follow Steve Guttenburg more than once), but instead follow the co-engineer played by Fisher Stephens as he tries to get a toy making business started in New York City.

There, the robot, now going by Johnny 5 instead of Number 5, help Stevens build the robots, but still can’t help but feel that he’s not fitting in with the humans around him (pretty easy to feel in NYC). This one manages to be a lot more touching and heartfelt while finding a new way to have a lot of fun, but why I put the second one so much higher than the first in my childhood is how far they take the final act. There’s a moment so brutal and traumatizing that it was actually pretty difficult to watch as a young kid, still kind of is.

In fact, the rest of the third act fluctuates between funny adventure and pretty emotional weight. It’s then that you truly begin to appreciate the character of Johnny 5 that this movie helped create and start to feel like he actually is alive. So, kudos, Short Circuit 2, for being one of the rare ones that actually goes above and beyond the first part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6VVELKyhOg

Okay, I’m only eight movies in and I’m already noticing a trend of these family movies. They are freaking traumatizing! I mean, it was bad enough that a generation had to grow up with Bambi, Baby Mine and Old Yeller, now we have the kids of the 1980s growing up with movies that are as emotionally wrenching as Sophie’s Choice or In America. I think we had to deal with some pretty traumatic stuff in our entertainment alone and that’s not even going into whatever tragedies befell you individually growing up. A lot of people give Disney flack for always killing off the mother characters, but if you look back on a lot of the movies we grew up with, there is a lot of death, grief and mourning. So I’m beginning to notice that while we look back fondly on our favorite movies growing up, some of them we have a hard time watching because it’s about as emotionally crippling as suggesting, “Hey, want to watch Terms of Endearment again?” If our parents’ generation wants to know why we seem so desensitized as a collective whole, it’s because the screenwriters of their generation put us through the emotional wringers, and that’s not even getting into the movies I’m about to cover later on in the other part of this list.