Flashback to favorite children’s movies
Allow me to take a step back from the specific topic of adoption today, and let’s take a quick trip back to childhood.
There are certain movies and songs that when I hear or see, I immediately go back to a certain age, or in some cases a specific moment, and I’m sure I’m not the only person this happens to.
Recently I ran into my old copies of the classic movies D2: The Mighty Ducks, Rookie of the Year, and Cool Runnings. I must have watched each of these movies 20 times apiece, with D2 and Cool Runnings reaching an even higher number, and I felt this overwhelming rush of nostalgia.
I hadn’t seen any of these movies in at least 5 years (I think I saw parts of Cool Runnings on TBS a few years ago actually,) but I could immediately recall going to the theater to see all of these movies for the first time.
I remembered leaving “Rookie of the Year” with my parents and sister and I turned to my dad high on snowcaps and coke and exclaimed, “that was the greatest movie I’ve ever seen!”
I remembered sitting through “Cool Runnings” with my mom and my friends Mike and Alex just completely glued to the screen. “Cool Runnings” came out in 1993, and I wasn’t even 10 yet, and had trouble sitting through a whole movie without getting up for more popcorn or to go to the bathroom, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Sanka, Darius and the rest of the crew.
Lastly, I thought back to my first experience with “D2.” I believe I begged my parents to take me the first night it came out, after having watched the original Mighty Ducks over and over again. This was one of the rare times where the sequel beat the original.
Now let’s bring this back to adoption. There are a lot of movies that I can remember watching growing up that dealt with the theme of adoption. The first one that popped into my head was “Angels In The Outfield,” what can I say? I loved sports movies.
“Angels in the Outfield” is the story of a kid living in foster-care, who begins to see angels on the baseball field. He befriends the head coach of the Anaheim Angels who actually believes him about the angels, and eventually is adopted along with his friend by the coach. It’s not the most realistic plot, I mean it had Tony Danza as a star pitcher, but it does put foster-care and eventually adoption in a positive light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCXiGeM9Lqw
I will always list “D2” as one of my favorite movies, and I can’t wait to show all of these movies to my children one day just like my parents showed me “ET” (which I was scared of), “Wizard of Oz” (another movie about adoption since Dorothy lives with Auntie Em) and “Guys and Dolls” (which I surprisingly loved even as a young kid.)
As I said in the beginning, all of these movies have specific memories for me, and I’m sure there are movies from your childhood that do the same for you. Which movies from your childhood have you/plan to show your children? Did they enjoy the movie as much as you did as a child?
Now if only I could figure out how to watch “D2” again on VHS.