I really appreciate the suggestions you gave me about movies to watch with my kids. By far the best one we watched on your recommendation is Singing In the Rain. I saw it in high school but I'm surprised how well this show holds up. It has a quirk-factor that makes it feel modern. We loved it. I copy Lina Lamont's wrist dancing almost every day and we love to ponder over the supposed invention of lip-synching by singing, "Watch my mouth!"We also watched The Lion King, which I have always liked. Ben and Ellen hadn't seen it yet. They thought it was good.
For Family Home Evening we watched New York Doll. It's so inspiring to me. It's one of my all-time favorite stories and I'm happy my kids are old enough to watch it with me. God rest Killer Kane's soul.
A couple weeks ago Great Performances showed a big anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera. Ellen, Ben, Maggie and I watched the whole thing. Does it count as high art or music? Don't know. Don't care. It's pretty compelling--even for a 4 year old. At the end Andrew Lloyd Webber came out with original members of the London cast. I remember selling out of that double casette sucker at Pegasus Records. What's wrong with Michael Crawford, by the way--did he have a stroke? That's not a joke. I think he did. I sympathize.
And then one night--because you put the idea into my head--I queued up Labyrinth on Netflix and watched it with Ben and Ellen. Dudes. That is some psycho shiz. I had never seen it before. I loved it. I love David Bowie and now I have, like, five more reasons to love him. 1) His hair. 2) His upside-down walking. 3) His throwing of babies. 4) His inappropriate propositioning of tweens. 5) His rapport with muppets--he doesn't suck up to them like everybody else does.
Yes, Labyrinth rules. Thanks for encouraging me to watch it. Anything else we should watch?
Oh I love to twirl and dance and kick and throw:
Spazzy and quirky and bizarre and fantastic--Yes. It's all of those things:
Singing in the Rain is my favorite. I haven't seen it for so long! Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to watch it with my girls now :).
ReplyDeleteLove Singin' in the Rain. It's one of those movies we would watch as a family pretty regularly. And I have to agree with you about Labyrinth--it's crazy! It's fun...and some of the best psycho shiz I've ever enjoyed :)
ReplyDeleteLoved New York Doll as well. We watched it in a Mormon Lit class I took a few years ago. Good stuff.
Labyrinth is definitely weird! Great tunes though that cant help but get stuck in your head.
ReplyDeleteIm surprized you had never seen it, but I just found out last week that my husband, who is a HUGE movie fan, has never seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and how I missed that over 12 years of marriage is beyond me.. and also besides the point...
LOVE singing in the rain! Its a fave of mine. Im going to have to watch it with the kids and see what they think. I agree with your review of it, its def. quirky!
I love Singing in the Rain. In high school I had a big crush on Gene Kelly, true story.
ReplyDeleteYou know what movies I loved when I was a kid (jr. high age). Gidget. They are girly and clean and retro and funny...so yeah, I still like Gidget. Now sure if a teenage boy or younger kids would like it but a tween/teenage girl, totally.
Never Ending Story...The OLD parent-trap. Newsies. Goonies.
ReplyDeleteWe actually just watched back to the Future, but I was surprised at the language...so depending on your tolerance for that...
OLD disney like Herbie and the Shaggy Dog...
We are suckers for musicals, so 7 brides for 7 brothers, Oklahoma (skip the weird dream sequence in the middle other wise it is really really long...)
Annie Get Your Gun...
I can't believe you had never seen Labyrinth! That is a childhood favorite of mine. That and Dark Crystal, which is also creeptastic.
ReplyDeleteI feel very confused about Labrynth. Watched it over and over growing up, but I still hate it as much as I am fascinated by it.
ReplyDeletelala had some good ones. How about Gremlins, Big, Gods Must Be Crazy, Freaky Friday (old one), Hook, Indian in the Cupboard, Jurassic Park. Our 5/7/9 yr old thought Some Like It Hot was HILARIOUS. It's a pretty good old classic.
ReplyDeletenothing in this world has given me nightmares more than watching labrynth did when i was a kid. my baby brother reminded me so much of that movie baby... i just couldn't handle it. i am curious to see it again though, now that i'm not nine.
ReplyDeletelately my older two have really enjoyed meet me in st. louis, the music man, annie get your gun, seven brides for seven brothers, and hello dolly.
And did your kids just love the whoopie cushion rocks in Labyrinth? And, my word, Bowie's guy liner!
ReplyDeleteWhat about Princess Bride? I showed my kids The Dark Crystal-they are probably permanently scarred.
Singin' in the Rain is Hugh's favorite (which I know you'll love knowing). I'm going to try Labyrinth on them. You've convinced me. My family had a joke growing up about The Dark Crystal--it terrorized James and he never got over it (I guess that's not really a joke, just a small story). We still tease him about it.
ReplyDeleteThis month I'm going to have them watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (and then reinforce some feminist ideals to balance it out), in anticipation for the play this summer, and Newsies. I think I only saw that once and people are crazy about it. I'm going to watch it and judge for myself.
Watch the documentary Being Elmo--we loved it. You might too.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on about Labyrinth. It is totally psycho. I was laughing out loud at your descriptions and kept reading them out loud to my husband with no context. Now he thinks I'm insane. Oh wait, he's used to it.
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