Ruining Your Childhood

Inspector Gadget was a shitty movie. It made me angry. 

When Inspector Gadget 2 came out, I was confused.

Star Wars Episode 1 made me like the Star Wars Trilogy less than I used to. What was the world doing to itself? Was this an example of greed winning out over art?

When I heard an interview with George Lucas, he said something like, of course lots of fans of the originals didn't like the new Star Wars movies; they were too old to; they were outside of the target demographic. You know who the most popular character was? Jar Jar effing Binx. 

And here, an entire generation of movie-goers was like, "What did you do to my movies?" 

How funny. 

In a recent post on the Best Week Ever blog, I saw a post titled "Of course the Yogi Bear trailer looks stupid. You know what else was stupid? Yogi Bear."

And indeed, it probably was. How would I have enjoyed it as a 4 year old, if it had not been stupid on some level? The more I think about Yogi Bear, the more I wonder how it entertained me in the first place. 

I was all about Yogi Bear, Inspector Gadget, and Bugs Bunny. They were completely awesome to me. I think back on them like pinnacles of entertainment, like models of excellence. When my friends talk about the unsurpassed greatness of Care Bears, the Smurfs, or, essentially, any children's show that our parents didn't let us watch, I think, 'what an idiot. They have no idea what they're talking about'. I am, in my adulthood, still critical and judgmental of these obviously, to me, inferior shows. 

As adults, we all stand by these things which we grew up with, which instilled in us this insane sense of loyalty and attachment. I saw an episode of the Pink Panther cartoon the other day, something I used to completely love. As a child, I would hang in anticipation, nervous, clutching, clenching and fixated on what was happening. Now, snoozefest. It takes something else, something entirely else, to fire off these neurons now as an adult. Now what I tell people about is not how awesome a show The Pink Panther was, but rather how awesome it was to watch as a kid.

I must tell you, in was a long time since a movie or TV Show had breached this cold exterior and affected the emotional receptors in my brain when I watched Inception the other week and left feeling mostly just tired. My friend and I walked out of the theater afterwards- unimpressed, dissecting the film, walking with people who mostly seemed to love it. I watched the movie Kick Ass a few days later and loved it. The same way that I loved the movie  The One for an entire Summer, keeping it running on repeat for seriously an entire Summer. I know The One was one of the worst movies ever made. It was ridiculous and insane. It was hilarious, and stands out in my mind as a pinnacle of entertainment. I'm a little afraid to ever watch it again, because that might just ruin it.