Welcome to Respawning’s Film & TV Club! The purpose of this is to get a bunch of us together every Wednesday and allow us the chance to chat shit about whatever takes our fancy in the world of Films & TV!
With Sherlock Gnomes gracing our local cinema screens soon, we’ve turned into little balls of nostalgia… Those good ol’ days wrapped up in a blanket by the fireplace, watching some of our favourite movies on grandma’s old CRT
Javier
There are waaaay too many to choose from here, kids films are just so fucking good nowadays and sometimes you just need that mushy brain goodness when you don’t want to sit down and process something like ‘Black Mirror’. I guess if you count the MCU as kids films then those are my tippy top, but lets not for now.
A personal favourite of mine is the original Spongebob Squarepants movie. At the time 15 year old me was really into SpongeBob and I absolutely loved the fact that at the cinema everyone was my age, no kids to be seen! Not only that but it really did feel like they went bigger for the movie and it wasn’t just an extended movie, plus it has the Hoff in!
Otherwise going back a-ways my favourites were probably Monsters INC and Hercules. I think that Herc was one of the first movies I saw in the cinema and I still love it to this day.
More recently I’ve really enjoyed the newer spate of CGI movies such as Zootopia and SING. I like that there’s enough in it for an adult to enjoy.
Will
“I’m still here.”
Good god, ‘Treasure planet’. Sadly one of Disney’s bigger flops, this film regardless remains one of the most inspirational- to me, at least- films I have ever seen. Nothing in the past 15 years has come close, save for perhaps the MCU.
Stunning visuals that combined 2D and 3D animation in a way that still stands up stylistically 15 years later. A young Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead. One of the best OST’s Disney ever produced, and it was released just shy of my sixth birthday. What a treat.
Treasure Planet is a film that fits its own identity – One of the most underrated films in Disney history is a film all about the search for hidden treasure, and the film itself is just that.
You owe it to yourself to watch ‘Treasure Planet’ – The opening alone will sell you, I promise. This is where a love of adventure is born, and it’s going to tug on your heartstrings every step of the way.
Ben
Holy shit there’s so many to choose from. I think I’m going to need to select two. one live action and the other animated. My favourite live-action kid’s film has got to be Home Alone. Yes, it’s a Christmas film but I don’t care. The film shows the ingenuity of kids and how they can just take things to the next level without really trying. It also has some of the best slapstick in films around to the point where it just been mastered.
The animated film for me has got to be The Incredibles. Even today it looks like a film that only recently came out. It’s the sort of thing that kids love because superheroes are cool and adults like as well, as there are enough jokes for them that the kids would pass over. I know I said I would pick one but the other film that comes to mind is The Road to El Dorado. having re-watched it recently, it’s a little shorter than I remember but it teaches some good values, especially along the lines of lying is bad. but an awesome film of my past none the less.
William
I’ll always have a soft spot for Aladdin. I remember as a tiny child boy (at 6ft 5 now that’s a hard thing to imagine) I used to watch Aladdin at least once a week. burning through VHS tapes rapidly so that my Dad had to replace them twice. Its the mixture of stunning animation, memorable songs and possibly the greatest character ever in a Disney film, The Genie.
Everything good about the Genie is of course all thanks to the late Robin Williams and that mans skill at improv comedy. Even now practically every line out of his massive blue mouth is as hilarious as it was when i was 6 years old which just proves that comedy can be great across the entire age bracket. I still give this movie a watch at least once a year and it always manages to put a smile on my face whenever i do.
P.s Jasmine is hot.
Clarice
When I was a child I was obsessed with one film in particular, Quest for Camelot, god I loved that film and I always imagined myself as the main character Kayley (who so happened to be one of my best friends names at the time) and her journey to become a knight just as her father was. Although its only rated a measly 35% on rotten tomato for me it was my all time favourite film due to the beautifully written songs and the theme around a young girl struck by the loss of her father fighting to become one of the knights of the roundtable and her struggles with love and friendship.
For me it taught me a lot as a child and showed me that just because I was a girl I can still do anything (By the way Quest for Camelot came out way before Brave) and that if I have my heart set on something I should keep on fighting. Another point to make it introduced my love of dragons as this film contains a two headed dragon named Devon and Cornwall and as they are one big dragon they are are inefficient wings and couldn’t breath fire and due to this reason they was bullied a lot by other dragons yet they stood proud and overcame there demons and helped out our main character to find Excalibur and then comes along our love interest, my first ever love, Ayden.
He was a hermit who knew everything about nature and the forest and god was he just mMmmm… But it wasn’t just his appearance as to why he was a good character but because of his nature and the character progression through the film. The Quest for Camelot helped boost my spirits and because I was a lonely child I felt as if this film resonated in me and gave me the confidence I needed when I was a child.
Oh and to this day I still cry at the song “Looking Through Your Eyes”.
Joe
For me, I never really did get into films or TV specials… However one film always managed to capture my sense of childhood wonder – Toy Story – Following the adventures of magically living toys living in the bedroom of a young boy named Andy, and tracks their adventures and mischievous happenings – I always have a bit of a soft spot for Buzz and Woody, as they, for the most part, were my childhood.
Not just this, but Toy Story 3 is one of the only times I’ve shed a tear in a cinema… Those damn last few minutes of the film always make me end up in a blubbery puddle.
HUGE shoutout to The Nightmare Before Christmas too – Although I’m sure Luke would’ve spoken MORE than enough about it…!