Movies have been a part of my life since I can remember. I remember seeing classics like Back to the Future, Little Mermaid and Flight of the Navigator over and over again. It’s funny because these are childhood movies and since you loved them, of course your kids will love them too, right?
Wrong! Here is a list of movies that I loved when I was growing up that my kids (at least my son) hate and will not watch.
- Flight of the Navigator – I loved this movie! Don’t remember it? Basically a kid falls in a ditch, gets picked up by an alien then when he comes back it’s been like 10 years and everyone has aged but him. I always loved two things in this movie: Ralph the alien was so funny and made you want to be abducted and a young Sarah Jessica Parker is a worker for NASA being a friend to David (the kid that was abducted). I played this for my son and the beginning scene of dogs catching Frisbees was more than exciting to him. Once that was over, he was over it. I couldn’t get him to come back and watch it even when the spaceship was flying everywhere and Ralph introduced David to his crazy creatures. I’m not giving up hope on this one because my niece and nephew had borrowed this movie from me and would watch it regularly, so there is still hope.
- Labyrinth – Who doesn’t love a classic Henson Production that included David Bowie? No, you weren’t a fan either? I don’t know what it was about this movie that made me love it so much, but I did and my kids hate it. You would think that the mix of human and puppet would be a perfect mix. I mean, he loves Muppets Christmas Carol. I get it though, this movie is freaky. I put it in the DVD player and my son was crying louder than the baby was in the first few moments of the movie. Is there a part of the show that I felt that we could have gotten to and he would have been fine? Probably not, but it was just one of those movies I grew up on so I thought he would grow up on it too. Bad idea.
- The Secret of Nimh – What kind of childhood did I have? Okay, this one I agree should not be shown to little children. I mean, I thought, it’s a cartoon, he loves cartoons. Did I block this movie out of my memory for a reason because I was on the couch with him watching it immediately had to turn it off. Are those rats serious?
- The Witches – I swear you forget all the bad stuff that freaked you out as a child because I had forgotten so much from this movie that I didn’t like, but I clearly remembered the parts I loved. I loved when the boy turned into a mouse by the witch and the fun little apartment he had created at his grandma’s house. I think I had this mixed with The Mouse and the Motorcycle (which is understandable), but I clearly forgot about the scene when the witches take their wigs and faces off, especially the queen witch. I may have found the reason my son hasn’t been wanting to sleep in his own bed.
- Teen Wolf – Since we watched Back to the Future together and he loved that, I figured, my son must be a Michael J Fox fan like myself. So if you’re a fan, you have to see Teen Wolf. I guess the first transformation into The Wolf slipped my mind and suddenly my son was thinking he was going to turn into a wolf also. I also thought that he’d love it because Scott Howard (Michael J Fox’s character) played for the basketball team and my son loves basketball. Well, when Scott turns into The Wolf during one of the games because he was too angry that didn’t quite sit well with him. Maybe we’ll pull this one back out when he’s going through puberty and see what he thinks of the transformation scene then.
- Return to Oz – Not a lot of people I know have seen this movie, but I was literally obsessed with it as a kid. I loved that they took Dorothy back to Oz because she felt like the Scarecrow was calling for her. The wheelers never really scared me because I was in love with roller blading and felt like it was the same thing, but these got to my son a little. He was able to get through them, but the part that freaked him out was when all the characters go to the queens castle and there is a closet full of all the heads that the queen had taken from the women of Oz. Yeah, just typing it is weird, but honestly I was never fazed by this as a child. My sister on the other hand hated it and I should have taken that as a warning that maybe my son wouldn’t like it either. Just a side note- my wife couldn’t watch it because she thought it was so ridiculous.
- Fantasia – I know what you’re thinking here, “Jason, no one liked watching Fantasia” and I will say you’re right! I never liked watching this movie, but what I did love was putting this movie in, bundling up on the couch and sleeping for hours on end. It was always my go to movie when I needed something to put me to sleep. Well, my son needed a nap, but wanted to watch a show. I quickly reached for my go to and popped it in. I never thought he would actually watch it. I was putting laundry away and suddenly heard him being scared and wanting me to turn off the movie. I ran into room to find a mighty demon called Chernabog on our screen freaking out not only my son, but freaked me out too. I guess I never made it that far into the movie and felt bad for leaving him with such a dark creature. #parentoftheyear
- Little Monsters – Here is a movie that I absolutely loved as a kid. Fred Savage, a classic movie actor, finds out he has monsters under his bed. He rigs a plan to catch the guy that’s ruining his life and in the process makes friends with him. They get into trouble together and it turns out the monster isn’t such a bad guy after all. Now, watch this with your child and they won’t sleep in their room, they’ll constantly look under the bed for monsters and they will never want to drink apple juice.
We grow up with these ideas that our kids are going to love the same movies we loved, but it really turns out they were stupid movies to begin with or we just had a really messed up childhood. Maybe we just like the memories associated with the movies of our childhood and not necessarily the movie itself.
