Robin Williams

I was stunned to hear about Robin Williams' death last night. Someone who was so talented, so funny, lost in such a tragic, depressing way.

Honestly, a goofy gif was probably the only thing to keep me from crying about it.

I know he was famous long before his child movie career, but that's how I will always remember him. Whether it's Hook, Aladdin, Patch Adams, or Jumanji. My all-time favorite movie, though, is Mrs. Doubtfire. Sadly, I couldn't watch Mrs. Doubtfire in memoriam, because it wasn't on Netflix (nor was it at Target), so I opted for Jumanji instead.

Mrs. Doubtfire was great because it was so quirky, so nuanced. Any other actor in Williams' role could've looked like a total creep. But that didn't happen.

I quote that movie almost every time I see my family, especially my sister. I think I watched it with her once and now I always say 'Helloooooo!' in the stupid Mrs. Doubtfire voice whenever I see her. See gif above to give the phrase context. Hehe.

I also loved The Birdcage, which wasn't a kids movie, but another great movie with Williams. I remember watching that with my gay friend in high school. (He was the only guy in our class that had come out at that point.)

Mark's all-time favorite movie is Good Will Hunting. We both like Dead Poets Society too.

I don't know. Maybe it sounds melodramatic, but it almost feels like part of my childhood died along with him the other night. There are just a lot of memories with his movies, attached to different memories in my life as I grew up watching them, and he's really the one that made a lot of those movies special.

P.S. If you haven't already, you should read this Reddit AMA!

Nostalgic Weekend

A variety of events over Saturday and Sunday culminated in a very lazy, nostalgia-filled weekend for me, including the discovery of several late 1980s and early 1990s kids movies on Netflix, the continuation of my long term family photo digitizing project (after a taking a break for a few weeks), and an impromptu trip to my parents' attic last night.

Photo from disney.wikia.com

When I discovered Honey I Shrunk the Kids was on Netflix, I almost peed myself I was so excited.

I had this movie on VHS, and had watched it so many times as a kid the tape broke. (I think my little sister Ashley did the same thing with the movie Toy Story.) I hadn't watched the movie in full since I was about 10, so it was long overdue to watch it again as soon as I saw it.

For being a Disney movie, there was some "edge" for an American, rated G movie I don't think would be done again now. The neighbor's dad smokes. (WHOA.) And at one point, he even said H E double hockey sticks. And I forgot how fun it looked to use blades of grass as slides. And use an ant as a mode of transportation.

Being the devil that Netflix is, after I finished watching it, they recommended other movies for me that were similar: My Girl, Beethoven, and their sequels. Curse that movie-streaming beast. I put them on my watch list.

Some of my other favorite movies as a kid were Fern Gully and Matilda. I have them both on DVD now.

More on my attic adventure and my photo scanning later this week. What were some of your favorite movies as a kid?