top movies from my childhood

I'm listing my childhood favorite movies, too. Aren't there those movies that are so dear to your heart, that no matter how many other movies you see, none can top the ones from your childhood? Me too.

The top five:

Swiss Family Robinson

I love, love, love this movie. Who doesn’t? Tight-knit family, daring adventures, wild animals, marauding pirates, handsome brothers, and they live in a TREEHOUSE! I wanted that treehouse so bad it hurt. Then all my dreams came true when I toured a reasonable facsimile at Disneyland. And then my dreams were shattered when they turned Swiss Family Treehouse into Tarzan’s Treehouse. What the …?!!!

Candleshoe

A girl from the streets pretends to be the long-lost granddaughter of an eccentric old woman so that she can search for the treasure hidden somewhere in the mansion. (I’m a sucker for movies about hidden treasure.) But then she starts to fall in love with the motley family she planned to steal from, and that’s when it gets good. Disney and Jodie Foster at their best! I will always have a place in my heart for this movie.

The Goonies

At the time that I saw this movie, it seemed like the most amazing, most adventure-filled, funniest, and scariest movie I had ever seen. My parents were in Las Vegas when my siblings and I watched this, and I was truly scared! The Fratellis were frightening (especially Sloth!), the gang was so funny, and their underground adventure and search for pirate treasure is every kid’s dream. And also I was in love with Sean Astin.

The Neverending Story

Back in the days of cassette tapes and VHS, my parents rented this movie for us while they went out on a date. My brother, sister, and I watched it and fell in love. We loved it so much that we had to have it for our very own. So what did we do? We got out our tape recorder, put it up next to the TV as the movie replayed, and recorded the whole movie onto cassette tape. Did we ever listen to that tape? I think only once, but it makes me smile at how ardent our love was for that movie. I believe that tape is still around somewhere.

The Karate Kid

My sister and I used to play that the Kobra Kai gang was chasing us. Also, my sister was the sensei of the karate dojo while I ran the knitting class (“This is a karate dojo, not a knitting class!” – Why did my sis get to do karate while I knitted?!!) Like I said in a previous entry (and I stand by this), I don’t know if you can make a movie better than the Karate Kid – action, romance, character-building, comedy, suspense, and catching flies with chopsticks. What other movie has all that?!