My dad was a film historian. My entire childhood was filled with movies none of my contemporaries had seen.
My dad wasn’t a historian, but he loved old movies and made a point to introduce us to the classics. I’ve seen so many black and white films that I hardly get to talk about with anyone.
Watching older media is what got me into Star Trek though. TOS specifically, and then TNG much later.
Me too. I grew up on Fred Astaire, Buster Keaton and Eddie Cantor.
I used to have a party trick back in the pre-IMDB days where I’d bring out Leonard Maltin’s movie guide, have someone flip to a random page, start reading titles, and I’d stop them before they could get to the end by describing the plot of whichever one I’d seen.
My earliest memory is my parents projecting 2001: A Space Odyssey on our living room wall using a 16mm projector with a Cinemascope lens for a bunch of grad students.
He also had a reel-to-reel recorder that came specifically with one type of Sony Trinitron TV that predated VHS. Of course, once VHS came out, he taped everything. We had all the movie channels.
But my brother was the Star Trek person. My dad was pretty so-so about it.
Me and the other Brave Little Toaster kids ended up a bit weird.
We just rewatched this with our daughter the other day and it is rrrrrough.
For me the more “obscure” ones were The Indian and the Cupboard, Small Soldiers, Jingle All The Way, James and the Giant Peach. Not that I referenced it hard or anything.
The VHS sleeve for Indian and the Cupboard just had the cupboard printed on the opposite side, so child me tried putting his toys into the VHS Clamshell to make his toys come to life.
HE’S MY FRIEND AND A WHOLE LOT MORE
…wait what
And I’m actively trying to go back to that. I ripped all of our old DVDs and Blurays and cancelled most of our streaming services. I told my kids that we can buy pretty much anything they want (so they don’t miss out), provided it’s not an exclusive.
The net result is that my kids really like Clue (1985) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008).
My daughter liked both of those a lot.
But then she also really loves Forbidden Zone and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
She’s a weird kid. Like her mom and dad.
You’re raising them right. Lol
Do you have the ripped movies on a Plex server or something that’s easy for them to use?
Yup, Jellyfin. Unfortunately, my youngest kept watching even after I said no, so it’s locked behind a passcode. But when it’s watching time, I unlock it and let them pick. We have some Pokemon seasons, Studio Ghibli animations, and a bunch of other kid-friendly shows and movies for them to choose from.
That’s awesome. This is my next project. I want my kids to have a library of movies/shows that I’ve personally curated, instead of letting them loose on a handful of streaming services.
Do it! It’s a bit tedious to rip everything, but you can always “rip” things by looking up whatever you need on the internet from less… copyright approved sources, which can help to seed the collection.
We happened to have a bunch of movies and shows, so I went ahead and ripped everything, and I ended up buying a Bluray drive and flashing open firmware onto it to rip those properly as well.
my kids really like Clue (1985)
One of the best movies ever so that speaks pretty well to their tastes.
Tim Curry is a gift to humanity that we don’t deserve.
It has a great cast overall but he definitely carries the movie, just like most things he’s in.
Yup, once they’re a little older, I’ll introduce them to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it’s fantastic.
Rupert and the Frog Song. Three terrifying stories. It was a Thursday night… I was working late…
they forgot to add “…and is now embedded to your core being.”
The buttercream gang.
And nobody would get your references
You can still get that, just follow obscures enough hobbies and reference memes from it.
Something something i use arch google en passant robot girlyman clem
lol/36 for one of mine. Bonus points if you can guess what it is.
I had an aunt with the Disney channel and HBO that recorded almost everything. It was like a home video store at her house, probably hundreds of tapes that she let friends and family borrow. She have me a spare copy of the Disney animated Robin Hood with all the animals and I must have watched it a hundred times.
My “rich” aunt (relative to my family) had a laserdisc player. I would watch the Disney Robin Hood, as well as Star Wars and Star Trek The Motion Picture.
Damn, your aunt had a laser disc setup? Not only was she ballin, but she was cool, too.
scamper the penguin
This unlocked a memory for me.
The thief and the cobbler!
My friend Garrett Gilchrist has spent years restoring it, doing cut after cut, trying to get it as good as he can. He’s not being paid, it’s a labor of love.
I believe his most recent was Mark 5 from last year:
Top Secret! dubbed in Galician.
I had the same thing with video games. My dad got a free promotional copy of Morrowind from Fry’s. I didn’t have a computer/ laptop, but every summer, my dad would let me use his on our road trips. That game made me want to learn so much about anthropology, biology, history, mythology, etc… I played for hundreds of hours and never even came close to finishing.
My dad got a PS2 when I was six. There was Jak and Daxter, and there was Colin McRae Rally. Later I also ended up with Sly Cooper.
I didn’t have many friends to compare with so that was what I played. Everyone else played Crash Bandicoot, Pokémon, Mario games, etc. and I was like “have you heard about Ratchet and Clank”? Those series eventually got more popular but no one I knew had them at the time.
Uncle Buck Great movie.
When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be uncle Buck. Unfortunately my brother took that position (down to driving a shit car that randomly backfires) and I’m just a normal dude 😕
