Curiouser and curiouser - childhood friends

I just saw something online about how today in 1988, the movie Drop Dead Fred was released and I figured 'oh, that's great, I can write about that' but then, like with most things you read online, it turned out it wasn't true. The movie actually premiered on October 11th in the UK, so a few days ago, actually (it premiered in May in the States). So, the beginning to my post was ruined, but it still got me thinking about the movies of our childhood.

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I know a lot of people who used to watch Drop Dead Fred as children and who grew up dreaming Rik Mayall would show up in their lives and get them into trouble. I didn't. The movie's 11 years older than me, so it wasn't really popular when I was growing up. But I did find my way to it eventually, and I remember the first time I watched it.
The movie is the story of a little girl who has an imaginary friend called Drop Dead Fred and then, like most adults, she forgets him, but then at the age of 30, she's going through a crisis and finds herself all alone. And out of nowhere, Drop Dead Fred pops up and shows her life can be good again. And as a child who had numerous imaginary friends, I fell in love on the spot – the silliness and the magic and the 'everything is possible' vibe just went straight to my heart. Not to mention that I when I first saw it – as a teenager, rather than a child – it was quite soon after Rik Mayall had died and so it was a very emotional moment.

And thinking about this belated birthday of the movie, I return to the movies of our childhood, of my childhood that meant so very much and yet, at the time, you didn't even realize it. I was lucky enough to grow up before this PC age where all the animations have political undertones and are pushing a hidden agenda. I just grew up with good stories, true to the dictum of

curiouser and curiouser.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

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They used to show the movie at every Easter, on the same channel, in the morning, and I would play with my presents from the Easter Bunny and I'd see the movie. It didn't matter that I knew the story, it was as if a crack opened in time that was reserved specifically for that film.
Recently, I've been watching the Netflix series of the same name and while it's very good (Neil Patrick Harris is a brilliant actor), it's not the same. I expected it to be bad when I first started watching, because many things today are but also because I wanted to stay loyal to the movie of my childhood. How could they make a version now that would still be good?
But it was good and I realized it wasn't about the quality at all. I've always had a a fascination for villains and it just showed me, the impressionable child, that evil characters such as Count Olaf could exist. That insane plots (yet so very clever) like the one in those stories could really exist. And it left a huge impression on me – that somewhere out there, in a village someplace, Count Olaf could exist, that such strange, absurd characters were possible.

Winnie the Pooh

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I think we all grew up with Winnie the Pooh. And if you didn't, I don't think I want to know you. It just seems to me that Winnie represents something inanely good inside all of us. I still love Winnie stories, I'll always love them. Although this one was as much books as it was the movies, I realize it represents such a huge part of my childhood. It had such simple ideas behind it – of kindness and friendship. And as adults, we kinda scoff at that – kids' stuff – but it's not, it's something we need in order to survive.
And Winnie was weird too, you know, there were all these humane characters that were plush – that were other and yet the same as us and it was wonderful to see. Again, it was a pleasure to think that somewhere, there is a forest where these characters live and go on adventures and where all troubles seem small (although I only get that one now).

Matilda

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God, I loves this one, although it was three years older than me. It was another one of those movies they used to show on the television at holidays and it was another that no matter how many times I'd seen it, I still wanted to see more. And naturally, as a young girl who loved books herself, it appealed to me tremendously.
I'm trying to decide now if I liked the book more or the movie, and no matter how much I would like to say 'book', I can't. The movie had something special about it (not dissing the books, obviously, Roald Dahl was a tremendously talented writer, with an imagination that very few have), maybe it was Danny DeVito being the strange, obnoxious father. Maybe it was the fact that teachers could lock kids in dark places, and more importantly, that they could be defeated. But the movie was this amazing universe, so much like your own, yet slightly different.
See, I think all these stories expand your universe bit by bit, you know, starting from a very similar place, but then they add stuff – like a girl who likes to read but also has superpowers, to a talking bear, to an evil Count. They tell you that this can be true and then a bit more and a bit more, until you find the universe in your mind is really quite different from the one you started out with.

Mrs Doubtfire

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I know, I was going to end on the magic three, but then I remembered this one and I figured I couldn't leave it out. You know, it seems to me – but maybe it's just my old age – that today's kids movies are far more kiddie-friendly than the ones back in the day. I mean really, if you look at Mrs Doubtfire now, it's fun and wrong and at times rude and it's a movie that can be enjoyed by adults as well as children, whereas today's usually animated features can not.
Mrs Doubtfire was a very special movie to me when I was small because my dad wasn't as much around as I would've liked him to be and obviously, who doesn't like Robin Williams? And again, this one was such a weird movie if you think about it, because there was something really ludicrous about RW in a dress and acting like an old, wise woman. Nowadays, you'd probably get all the trans folks in your hair for doing that movie, but you didn't then.
It was just a slightly odd movie with a very touching message and a lot of funny moments.

Many of my peers have left behind such movies, as I suppose is natural. You don't feel the same about Winnie the Pooh now as you did when you were six, but I do. All these movies and all those characters from my childhood mean as much to me now as they did back then, maybe I recognize them in the foundation of my bigger world, of my expanded universe. Like a really good teacher who inspired you to do more and to think and told you that anything and everything is possible – you don't forget her, do you?

And you don't forget or think less of the faces of your childhood. I wouldn't be the reader I am today without them. Or the writer. Or the human.

Thank you for reading,