We asked RM students and staff for their favorite childhood movies and shows. Some of their responses might surprise you.
Animated shows appeared to be a popular category. Senior Alexander Chen’s favorite was “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” largely because of its characters. “I just really liked Aang, the fact that he could, you know, do so many cool things. And then I also liked Sokka’s personality a lot, and the whole plot was very interesting,” Chen said.
Similarly, Senior Derek Wang’s favorite was “Lego Ninjago” due to its distinct character cast. “I liked Legos when I was a kid, and they had a lot of cool little guys, like different characters and, like, they all had very distinct personalities. So that was really cool. It was kinda like, out of this world,” Wang said. He is a “Kai fan,” but “Jay was the funniest.”
But for many students, Disney Channel shows, which peaked in the mid-2000s but quickly lost viewership after the mid-2010s, seemed to take the cake.
Senior Sriniketh Chakravarthy’s animated favorite was “Gravity Falls.” “I really like that, even though it’s a kids show, you know, there’s a lot of mystery and intrigue for everyone to enjoy,” Chakravarthy said.
Disney Channel also seemed to stand out for its teen sitcoms, particularly in ones where viewers could see themselves in the characters. Junior Carrie Nguyen’s favorite show was “Jessie.”“I watched the show almost all the time. It was funny and also had a lot of emotion. You could really connect with the different characters,” Nguyen said. “Emma was the oldest sister, and I am also an older sister. She was very fun and loved all things girly. She loved clothes and shoes and I would say very sarcastic and fun. She gave off cool older sister vibes.”
For junior Adriana Benavides it was “definitely ‘Liv and Maddie’,” a different teen Disney sitcom. “I was obsessed with Maddie because you could say I was a tomboy growing up,” Benavides said. “I love playing sports just like Maddie. Move-A-Roonney was my favorite episode; it was funny to see the characters going through underground tunnels.”
IB History and TOK teacher Ms. Kerri Fry’s favorite movie, “Teen Witch,” was also streamed on Disney Channel, but long before the channel’s peak years. Nonetheless, she expressed her ability to relate to the main character and sibling dynamic between different characters as one reason for enjoying the movie. “Her brother’s like, really mean to her, and he says, ‘You’re a dog, Louise, and then she turns him into a dog,’ Ms. Fry said. “To this day I say that to my sister. I’m like, ‘You’re a dog, Louise.’ And so that’s really funny, because that is a joke that has really just lasted since 1989 I don’t know if she finds it funny, but she’s my little sister, so it’s okay.”
A common sentiment was that these shows and movies, despite being corny or unfocused in plot, were simply entertaining. “[Jessie] wasn’t a continuing story, and it was kinda all over the place, but that’s what I loved about it,” Nguyen said.
Ms. Fry had a similar experience. “[Teen Witch was] starring Robin Lively, who is Blake Lively’s older sister. It’s about a girl who, when she turns 16, finds out that she actually is a witch, and hilarity ensues,” Ms. Fry said. “It was so cute. It was so funny, and it’s so corny. It’s like one of those movies that’s so bad, it’s good.”
Some students have experienced a change in how they prioritize movies and TV shows, especially when dealing with an intensive academic schedule. “It’s just a timing thing,” senior Chloe Kennedy said. “When I was little, I used to watch a lot of movies and not a lot of television, and I think that’s sort of shifted now because television is a lot shorter, and it’s easier to squeeze in an episode or two instead of devoting myself to an entire movie.”
Still, Kennedy’s favorite childhood movie is the third “The Hobbit” movie. “That was the only one my dad downloaded on TV,” Kennedy said. “So I actually don’t know what happened in the first two Hobbit movies, but I think the third one was really good, and I liked the dragon, and I still don’t know like any of the context going into it, but the ending was nice, and I liked it a lot.”
However, particularly in a time of widespread high-resolution film, dozens of streaming sites and social media, it can be easy to forget that media technology not even three decades ago was far less robust and less convenient.
Honors English and IB Film teacher Mr. Jason Bunyan’s favorite films include “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Secret of Nim,” an animated film by Don Bluth, but he was not watching these movies on Disney+ by any means. “For me seeing movies, you either were lucky to see it on television, or you had to go to the theater, or maybe you had a VCR, like when cable arrived,” Mr. Bunyan said.
Breaking down the films, one thing that stood out to him was the integration of mythological archetypes like the “hero’s journey” from greek mythology and folk tales. “In secret of Nim, the rats are these very intelligent, sentient creatures who had been like subjected to lab experiments. And the protagonist is this mother, who’s a mouse and her husband, her late husband, had been like, instrumental in helping the rats escape…so she goes on this entire journey that’s very treacherous and stuff. And so. I think that those stories stood out to me for that reason that I was able to get into sort of this epic story.”
Ultimately, Mr. Bunyan believes that these films were a “formative experience.” ”You know when you’re writing, and if you’re having fun, usually things are going to turn out well,” Mr. Bunyan said. And so in that sense, I think they do influence me those stories, because it’s like, if I’m starting, whether I’m trying to write something or I’m working on something for work or whatever. If I if I’m really feeling like, yeah, this, this is, this feels true, this feels genuine.”
