If I could choose, I would love if my childhood took place in The Adams Family as an Adams myself, but instead it was Fight Club.
And the first rule of the Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club 🙃
But if there is something good I remember from that time are the movies, series and games that kept me company!
About movies that rocked my childhood, hm... I could easily talk about the horror ones that I accidentally watched and got nightmares and irrational fears from for days.
When I watched "Tremors", a horror movie about giant killer sandworms that track their victims through the vibration on the ground, every time I remembered about it I had to play an extreme "the floor is lava" or I would die (so I though). I spent weeks rowing around on an office chair to move inside my house, noting that I lived in the 6th floor at that time.
Nowadays I love the genre and some of the best shows and movies I watched recently were horror, like "IT", "The haunting of Hill House" and "Relic". But enough on this topic, now let's talk about how movies have the power to change us instead.
A developing mind and the influence of cinema magic
Kids are very susceptible mini-people, they see some cool character and start a phase where they dress like Elsa or Spiderman everywhere for weeks.
Disney was responsible for that in me thanks to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Robin Hood’, two movies that shaped much of my personality and tastes for a good part of my life.
Disney is a synonym of childhood and nostalgia. They brought us movies that touched on hard topics without dismissing children's capacity to understand them while still giving good morals through a great and entertaining story.
Robin Hood was responsible for my love of animation and anthropomorphic animals. I mean, how can you not be mesmerized seeing they dance and sing so vividly on screen?
Robin valiantly fighting corruption and the royal guards, making complex plans to steal from the prince and give to the poor, him and Little John rocking in drag while stealing Prince John's jewelry, the sadness the villagers show while they are imprisoned... I could go on for hours about it.
This movie is a rollercoaster of emotions with great art and soundtrack! I still catch myself whistling the Rooster song from time to time with a smile.
I started wanting to be able to bring this same amusement to others and even though I couldn’t pursue a higher education in art, I did land a job as a motion designer for a marketing company. It wasn't the same but it was a start nonetheless. Now I'm studying by myself thanks to resources found on the web and trying to truly animate!
I'm starting small and slow and I have a loooong way ahead of me but the feeling of really doing it is amazing and the fact that I have already started is reassuring.
Down the rabbit hole
While I fell in love for Robin Hood as an animation, Alice in Wonderland was something closer to a "phase" during my spring years. It started my love for the nonsensical and weird (and for hats, too).
That bizarre world where anything could be alive and sentient, the unexpected but great wisdom being dished by seemingly crazy characters and the upbeat energy of what would be otherwise a nightmare realm was exhilarating!
The movie has great lagomorphs depicted and I frequently reference the white rabbit's "I'm late" quote, being a bunny who is usually late myself but my real main influences during childhood were the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
Those character were the closest I had to a "I'm Spiderman!" phase, they influenced on what kind of aesthetics appealed to me, how I acted and how I wanted to dress like.
Even though I, like Alice, have been through the looking glass and I'm not in wonderland anymore, I still have fond memories and some teachings from my time there... and a kick-ass hat collection with one of them signed by the real mad hatter in Disneyland!
Nowadays I'm more in a Notre Dame stage in life: gothic, gypsy and wanting to burn all of Paris! I don't usually talk much about myself, but this was a fun exercise.
Well, now I guess need to re-watch these movies.
Thanks for reading, have a good dawn and remember… “not all who wander are lost” 😉
Gifs are from tenor gif
Robin Hood pizza gif by Anne Horel
Hat picture by moi
Link for the contest
https://peakd.com/hive-121744/@cinetv/cinetv-contest-were-back-with-a-new-one