What the heck is “kiddult”?
Let it be known that I am a sucker for films that both children and adults can watch and have entirely different – but enjoyable – experiences. So, clearly, the only thing to do was write a top ten list of my favourite such movies. (Thanks for the info, IMDB.) Now, I can only vouch for the ones I’ve seen both as an adult and a kid, so that puts a limit on how recent an addition to this list can be. However, in no particular order:
1. The older I get, the more brilliant I think Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) is. I mean, it was funny even when I was a kid and had no idea what the whole private-eye genre was about. Now that I do understand the clichés it’s using… well, it’s just great. The more Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons you know, the more gags you’ll recognize. I love it when storytellers can combine two distinct genres and make something magical out of them. Who would have thought that cartoon shorts and Hollywood noir would mesh so well? The best part is, when you re-watch the movie, you can just sort of see how the plot is put together: Here, the writers introduce the portable holes in a sight gag, so later Eddie can use one to escape. There, Marvin Acme squirts Eddie with his disappearing ink, so later we know it exists when it becomes important to the plot.
Random quote:
BETTY BOOP: Work’s been kinda slow since cartoons went to color. But I still got it, Eddie: boop-boop-be-doop!
2. and 3. I think The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) are two of my favourite movies ever. That’s probably because I’m a cynical whiner with a love of comedy. I thought these films were great when I was little, because, hey, who doesn’t like to watch day camps over-run by morbid little kids or disembodied hands making unsuspecting people scream? Now that I’m older, I kind of get the subtext where the movie is basically making fun of cookie-cutter, caricatured-Victorian, white-upper-middle-class culture and its tendency to cast people who don’t fit in as outsiders. Don’t believe me? Go see the second one and note who the writers put in the group of kids the camp counsellors reject. Simplistic, yes, but still kinda fun.
Random quote:
GIRL IN THE DELIVERY ROOM: …and then Mommy kissed Daddy, and the angel told the stork, and the stork flew down from heaven, and put the diamond in the cabbage patch, and the diamond turned into a baby!
PUGSLEY: Our parents are having a baby, too.
WEDNESDAY: They had sex.
4. The Great Mouse Detective (1986) is more sympathetic than Mr. Sherlock Holmes, his human counterpart. Intriguingly, I propose this has to do with the fact that the former is hopeless at the violin. Nobody likes anybody who plays the violin well and with melancholy feeling – look at what his contemporaries said about Paganini – but I digress. This is one Disney film with a truly spine-chilling villain (Ratigan, voiced by Vincent Price!). Come on, how can you not be creeped out by a rat who rings a little bell to have his “pet” Persian cat eat henchmen who disappoint him? And he sets up the best music ever to play as he leaves his hated nemesis to die by a variety of fiendish devices. So what if his evil plot is somewhat outlandish? There’s nail-biting danger and suspense anyway.
Random quote:
RATIGAN (singing by way of phonograph as Basil and Dawson are waiting to die): “Goodbye so soon/And isn’t this a crime…”
5. Originally, Harvey (1950) was a stage play, but James Stewart’s movie version of laid-back Elwood P. Dowd has since become the stuff of legends. Elwood’s best friend is the titular character – a six-foot invisible rabbit only he can see and hear. Kind of like a Pete’s Dragon with undertones sophisticated enough to keep adults entertained, too. Is it better to be a nice, content person who fails in our “reasonable” society or a mean, unhappy one who succeeds?
Random quote:
ELWOOD P. DOWD: Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, “In this world, Elwood, you must be” – she always called me Elwood – “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.
6. If I didn’t include The Princess Bride (1987) here, I would feel I was leading the reader astray. I must admit, I wasn’t all that fond of this movie when I first saw it, but maybe that’s because my sister and I were, reportedly, so scared of the ROUSs that my parents gave the video to friends (for their kids… who were the same ages as us… and, apparently, weren’t such wusses). However, since the scariest of my childhood filmic memories are not of films I actually saw but of what I imagined was going on in those I wasn’t allowed to see – I say, no matter what the age of your kids, go for it. Besides, maybe they, unlike me, don’t have an irrational fear of people in costumes. Just remember to fast-forward the gross kissing scenes.
Random quote:
INIGO: My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
7. I admit, the first time I saw Castle In the Sky (1986), I was all “WTF????”. The plot of this film doesn’t follow the typical Hollywood conventions and may therefore be a little difficult to understand. Also, I was trying to read a book at the same time. Whatevah! Anyhow, if you decide to actually pay attention to the movie, this simple story is a still pond whose waters run deep. A young boy, Pazu, rescues a girl who falls from the sky. The girl has an amulet with the power to rule Laputa, an island in the sky that holds the secret to ultimate power. Naturally, some nasty and not-so-nasty grown-ups want that power. The wonderful thing about this story is the way in which bad guys turn out to be good guys and vice versa. This is the only Studio Ghibli film I saw as a kid; otherwise, more would make their way onto this list (you know, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service).
This isn’t really a random-quotable movie.
8. My Fair Lady (1964) really is the love-child of George Bernard Shaw and Lerner and Lowe. Shaw! Shavian! (I always wanted to use the adjective “Shavian”, and now that I’m no longer studying for a Drama degree, I was afraid I’d never get the chance.) Who can’t fall in love with the interaction of Henry Higgins, self-absorbed self-proclaimed intellectual and Eliza Doolittle, determined and no-nonsense flower girl? The first time I saw this, it was going to go way past bedtime, so Mom stopped it at the “intermission” and we watched the rest the next night. I was convinced Higgins and Eliza would get together at the end. At the time, I was disappointed; now, I’m glad. It feels like a more realistic portrayal of adult relationships.
Random quote:
ELIZA: Come on, Dover, move your bloomin’ arse!
9. It’s a good thing after all they hired Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, because that left Julie Andrews free to do Mary Poppins (1964). Like Peter Pan, this movie has more impact on adults, I think, than children; I loved the animated scenes and magical adventures as a kid (who wouldn’t want to be able to clean their room by snapping their fingers?), but it wasn’t until I was older that the bank managers’ song made me giggle or I understood what the heck had happened when Michael asked for his tuppence back. Dick Van Dyke’s strange accent aside, this is a well-acted, well-choreographed, whimsical movie. Oh, David Tomlinson. You’re always an adorably troubled father figure in every Disney movie they put you in.
Random quote:
MR. DAWES, SR.: (puzzled) A wooden leg named Smith. A wooden leg named Smith. A wooden – (He gets it. He begins to laugh and floats up to the ceiling)
10. Though The Neverending Story (1984) is really only the first half of Michael Ende’s brilliant book of the same name, the movie-makers did well to limit the story for the screen. I love the evocative visuals and creepy atmosphere: the mysterious creature of darkness chasing after Atreyu, the mirror gate, the swamps of despair. I have a vivid memory of actually watching Artax’s head sink into the mud, and, the first time I saw this movie as an adult, I was bewildered to see that there’s no such shot. The camerawork made that strong an impression. Anyway, yeah, so the animatronics are somewhat, er, old-fashioned, and some of the dialogue is lame, but who cares? This is a story about stories, not about people, and Ende’s powerful account of human desires and dreams hides neither their darkness nor their delights. The real danger here is neither evil nor malice but only the relentless, horrifying advance of the Nothing.
Random quote:
ROCKBITER: They look like big, good, strong hands, don’t they? I always thought that’s what they were.
11 I had to include Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) because, really, whether you’re a kid or an adult, what could possibly be more entertaining than watching Angela Lansbury leading animated suits of armour into a slapstick war against the Nazis? That’s right: not much.
Random quote:
PAUL: I liked you better as a rabbit, Charlie.
CHARLIE: Shut up, you.
PAUL: Well, I never had a rabbit.
12. And, heck, if I already have eleven, I might as well make an exception for The Looney Toons Golden Collection. It’s not strictly a film, anyway. These are comic genius, folks. The goals of the characters are simple; the plot isn’t hard to follow. But check out that timing! That use of background music (bet you can tell what’s going on even with your eyes closed)! That twisted cartoon logic! Boo-yeah. Don’t be satisfied with the lame new shorts or the cut versions on the Cartoon Network: find yourself some classic Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, and Fritz Freleng and let ‘er play!
Random quote:
PORKY PIG: Th-the-that’s all folks!
You tell ’em, Porky!
Atreyuuuuu! Where are you?