One of the joys of modern technology is the ability to sit down with your child and watch a movie that came out back when you were a kid. Nowadays there are of course a lot of parents who are young and have been able to access the movies they grew up with on Netflix or blueray but I grew up before we even had films on VHS tapes.
I can remember back when I was in my late teens bugging the manager of the local video store about when my favorite movie at the time, Beastmaster, would be out on VHS. This was quite a while ago. You didn't get ads telling you when a movie would be out on video tape and available for rental. Heck most people did not even have a VHS player. This was in the days of the VHS and BETA wars and if you did not catch a movie in the theatre you have to hope and pray that someday it would be shown on tv.
Now you can go online or to the local library (we hit the library) and rent or buy you movie within weeks or months of its release in theatres. That is both a wonderful thing and a sad thing. Kids today will not have that anticipation of waiting for a good movie.
Well back to the kid. She got very excited because i let her pick out two movies. The great thing about my child is she does not just watch the most current CGI filled movies. She loves watching old animated movies from when her sisters were kids, when I was a kid and even when her grandmother was a kid!
Today she brought home with her Disney's Fox and the Hound. A lovely film with two creatures who don't know they aren't supposed to be friends and what happens when they grow up. Not super long of course but like all Disney flicks it managed to stand the test of time and was well worth watching even in the new millennium.
The other film is Balto. For those of you who don't know this one (really?) it is an animate film based on a true legend from Alaska of a half wolf/half husky who is part of the team that brought home a badly needed vaccine to help a town filled with sick children. A lovely tale filled with lessons about life and love and understanding.
Films like these are not as popular now as they should be. These films are great for kids of all ages and it would be a great thing if more parents would show them to their kids.
I too introduced my children to Miyizaki films. If only to show what can be done with animation before 3d and Flash. The results were immense, some titles like grave of the fireflies are too much for little ones, but Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle are repeated over and over after they are re-discovered in Daddy's dvd collection.
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