Bring It Back

I've never seen The Last Unicorn. Is that criminal? Did I miss something? There are certain things that I feel like you need to watch at a certain age otherwise the magic is just not the same. Stuff like Labyrinth or The Secret of NIMH, maybe even The Princess Bride or Goonies. If you didn't catch this stuff when you were a kid, watching it now just isn't the same. On the list of things like this that I missed out on: The Dark Crystal, Legend, and The Neverending Story.

A totally underrated film in this category is Krull (I just discovered the name of this thing), which is sort of like Beastmaster. I remember watching this movie, feeling horrible about the heroes getting hurt -- and one dying -- and wanting a magical Glaive so badly. I almost don't want to watch this again because it might ruin my memories. But it's availabe for ten dollars and it's pretty much a must buy. I think I'll be purchasing Flight of the Navigator too to put it through its paces twenty years later.

I found this blog, sadly no longer updated, that collects the theme songs and intros to classic 80's cartoons. A co-worker last year and I happened to hit upon M.A.S.K. and couldn't remember the acronym. In case you were wondering, it's "Mobile Armored Strike Kommand." We both had the helicopter guy. For three seconds we felt warm and fuzzy toward each other and reveled in our shared childhoods.

And if you really wanna bring it back, Silverhawks is now out on DVD. I can't purchase it though because so many of these cartoon series are actually horrible to watch in retrospect. For example, Thundercats were amazing way back when but now episodes are slow as molasses and painful to sit through.

To be honest, nothing made me feel the age difference more at work (our office was filled with 18-22 year olds) than talking about old school cartoons. Old school to them was stuff like Doug. Who? Exactly. There's no better way to measure generation gap than to talk about pop culture influences. Parents shouldn't deny their children the opportunity to soak in all that entertainment trash otherwise their kids will be left out in ten years when everyone talks about "Remember when....!?" Nostalgia is a not to be underrated bonding force.

There's this one cartoon that involved an eagle, a hawk, and a turtle totem pole that would come to live and attack things each episode. I think it was part of some compilation cartoon. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

If I had a daughter she would be trick or treating this year dressed like Rainbow Brite. Of course, adults like Tinsley Mortimer already have that T-shirt.