DVDs Bought out of Childhood Memories (1 Viewer)

Looking over my collection recently, it struck me that a number of titles were there only because I loved them as a kid and they have heavy nostalgic value. I'm not talking about movie released during my childhood that I would have loved regardless of my sentimental attachment (The Indiana Jones and Star Wars series, Gremlins, Aliens, The Untouchables, a lot of others), but stuff like this:

1.) The Watcher in the Woods: My day care center used to show this strange horror/sci fi/ kiddid movie all the time. For some reason they thought out of all the Disney videos that this was the best for their young kids. Its not great, but I remember it frightening and stimulating me as a kid, so I bought it. The alternative endings are hilariously bad in their effects.

2.) Beastmaster: I saw this on HBO all the time as a kid. I would always get sad when the hero's ferret pal died heroically and then smile at the appearance of the baby ferrets at the end. Hey, I was really young.

3.) G.I. Joe and The Transformers: Don't get me wrong. I think these are pretty good cartoons. But there's a lot of animated DVDs out there and it takes the childhood factor to give these shows the edge over others.

What about all of you? Do you have DVDs like these lurking about in your collection?

Mine's the Kimba The White Lion 4-disc set: I distinctly remember my first grade teacher playing an episode or two in school and then I remember running home after school to catch the reruns.

Rafael.

I also got season 1 of GI Joe and Transformers. I'll also probably get Flight of the Navigator when it comes out in June.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series, absolutely irresistable as a seven-year old. And equally fun and cheesy now.

Ghostbusters was the first DVD I ever bought, purely because I'm a nostalgic git (and I'm finally old enough to get all the gags). And also, I think a great deal of us owns Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, OAR, naturally.

The DVDs that I bought out of childhood memories

Pump up the Volume
Legend
The Hobbit
Red Dawn
First Blood
Spaceballs
The Goonies
-UHF-
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
The Secret Of N.I.M.H

Transformers pretty much cured me of that. I remember a friend and me each trying to offload our copies onto the other because it just didn't hold up.

Tron (I remember renting this on VHS and watching it 4 times in one day once)
Red Dawn
Time Bandits
Robotech

Saturday Matinees from the late 50's, early 60's prompted me to buy the following:

The Thing From Another World
Angry Red Planet
Quatermas and the Pit
The Haunting
It! the Terror from Beyond Space
House on Haunted Hill
The Crawling Eye
Rocketship XM
The Tingler
Matinee (the John Goodman flick about a William Castle-type movie showman)

Time was less kind to the "Beanie & Cecil" collection - MAN was it annoying! (gave it away)

I bought "The Goonies" DVD when it came out because I loved it as a kid (I think I saw it in the theater at least four times; it was probably my first "repeat" experience in theaters).

It wasn't as good as I remembered. :frowning:

Oh, man, the list is entirely too lengthy to post here.

However, one stand out from my collection is The Sword and the Sorcerer, a perennial HBO-classic.

If I had to narrow it down to one, it'd be At the Earth's Core, a rather cheesy 1976 AIP flick starring Doug McClure and Peter Cushing. I had fond memories of this one and still enjoy it because of its cheesiness. Others on my list include Condorman, The Dark Crystal, Force 10 From Navarone, Gremlins, Labyrinth, Legend, Lord of the Rings (1978), Planet of the Apes (1968), Something Wicked This Way Comes, Superman: The Movie, the first 3 Muppet movies, Peter Pan, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I'd love to claim that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a childhood favourite, but I didn't actually see it until I was ~22.

I've 'thinned the flock' recently of a lot of those titles that were purchased because of some childhood attachment, but there are still a few floating around and some that I will probably still get...

Still have - Private Eyes, Don Knotts/Tim Conway comedy - Watched a thousand times when I was a kid, but man, I was disappointed seeing it again...

Watership Down - Still good film, but maybe the subliminal messages I've received from doomed rabbits over the years would explain a lot of my... Wait, this is for my therapist...

Plus, I'm sure I'll still grab Explorers, Cloak and Dagger, and Legend of Billie Jean when I find them...

Ahhh, nostalgia... It's so.... nostalgic...

Some of my childhood memories are going to be a bit... older than some of these already mentioned.

Movies (many first seen on a tiny B&W TV set):

The Wizard Of Oz
The Time Machine (George Pal's, of course)
First Men On The Moon
North By Northwest (what can I say, my Mom was a big Hitchcock fan)
The Birds (ditto, although I can't believe she let me watch this when I was 6 or 7. Scared the bejesus out of me)
Mary Poppins
The Sound Of Music

TV series:

Lost In Space
Star Trek
Dick Van Dyke
"Ed Sullivan" Beatles episodes
"Peanuts" specials
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Raindeer (Rankin-Bass)
Jonny Quest (coming)

I was raised on a bunch of classics... and I treasure the DVD's!

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (I love it more than I did as a tyke)

Fantasia (my first exposure to classical music and classical animation. I love it even more now)

Treasure Island (The '50 Disney film is still a lot of fun)

A Hard Day's Night and Help! (My introduction to the Beatles... I still love the films!)

Blazing Saddles (Better now, with the letterboxing and lack of censorship )

The Blues Brothers (Still love this movie)


I'm very much looking forward to the Around the World in Eighty Days DVD, too. It was my first "epic" film... even with the pan & scanning and faded color, I fell in love with the charm of the film.

Most of you people make me feel old, posting titles released within the past 15-20 years!

The movies I have bought SOLELY because they have nostalgic (as opposed to artistic) value, from Saturday matiness (if they brought these back, I'd still go to them) and New York's Million Dollar Movie, etc. include many of Jim's and Craig's titles - although their lists contain many genuionely GOOD movies - plus

GORGO
MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL
THE LOVE BUG
ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR
THE BAT (1959)
RODAN
GODZILLA (1956)
EDDIE DUCHIN STORY
ANGRY RED PLANET
JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET
JACK THE GIANT KILLER (new aquisition)

Paul's right...far too many to list!

The Legend of Boggy Creek.
This was one of the first movies I saw as a kid at my local theater where I had to walk home in the dark afterward.

Mysterious Monsters.
I vividly remember all of us kids screaming whenever the 'bigfoot' appeared on the screen. Great fun.

LOL - Same here. It just wasn't as funny as I remembered.

Other movies are the early 80's movies that were on HBO constantly:
Midnight Madness
Hysterical
Empire of the Ants

Now if they'd only release Super Fuzz to DVD, I'd be all set.

I'm going by those movies that I saw in a theater as a kid, and in this case this puts me into the 1960s. Recent purchases based on these nostalgic stirrings include:

THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR
SON OF FLUBBER
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
MARY POPPINS (upcoming edition)
THE LOVE BUG
THE GREAT ESCAPE
PLANET OF THE APES
THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT
IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
THE TRAIN
HELP!

I'm still waiting for the original THAT DARN CAT.