5 Movies That Were A Staple In My Childhood

Last updated on 19 June 2019

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I’m sure we all have those staple movies or shows we used to watch as kids.

You know the ones; your parents thought you might like them, and so they showed them to you and your siblings one time. Turns out they were wrong: you loved them. They then had to endure endless weekends while you were growing up watching the same movies, laughing at the same things, speaking the characters’ lines right along with them, singing the songs while you weren’t watching it, or just genuinely getting excited for the weekend when you could watch them.

Despite the above paragraph, my sister and I didn’t actually watch a lot of TV or movies when we were growing up. When we arrived home from school (primary, not secondary), we were allowed to watch the after-school shows until 4pm, regardless of what time we got home that day. This meant we would watch between 30 and 40 minutes per day of TV (heavily moderated by my parents to make sure we weren’t watching some ridiculous show with horrific morals or baby talk – we were about 10 and 7 at this stage), and that was it.

The weekends, however, were another story. While binge movie-watching was rarely granted, Saturday mornings were prime time. We were allowed to get up no earlier than 8am, take ourselves downstairs and pop on a movie while my dad made Saturday-morning-pancakes. Only one movie was allowed per Saturday, so we had our fair share of favourites. It’s these movies that I wanted to talk about today.

Star Wars Episode IV – VI (1977 – 1983)

The single most watched set of movies in our house was the original Star Wars series. More Saturdays throughout the year were spent watching a Star Wars movie than any other, and I honestly can’t even recall how many times I’ve seen these three films. After watching them with my Dad for the first time, my sister and I got the Star Wars bug, and that was that.

For months on end we would start with e.g. Saturday #1 and watch A New Hope. The next week, e.g. Saturday #2 we would watch The Empire Strikes Back, and then Saturday #3 we would watch Return of the Jedi. The week following that e.g. Saturday #4 we would head right on back to A New Hope and repeat the tri-weekly process. Like I said, this went on for months. We know these movies very well.

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

“Deeeeliver us, to the Prooomiiiissed Laaaaaand” – One of the animated musicals we grew up with (other than Disney, of course!) was this riper of a movie, The Prince of Egypt (a word which I can never spell correctly the first time). It’s basically just the story of Moses but it’s this brilliant combination of comedy, music, and a whole lot of frogs, which was a joy to watch as a kid. To this day I still get some of the songs stuck in my head.

When I was looking up the movie on IMDB for this post, I was astounded at how many incredibly famous actors fill the cast, that I had no idea about it! When you’re a kid you don’t really care who voices the animated characters you’re watching so I never really looked into it. Some of the well known actors on the list are: Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. What a cast!

Cats: The Musical (1998)

It only came to my attention a few years ago that the Cats musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice actually has very little plot. I think I knew this all along, as it’s based on the book, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by T.S Eliot, and that book is all just poems about various cats and their personalities and the things they get up to. Translated onto stage (or in this case, movie) it is still a series of songs around each cat and the plot is nigh-on non-existent. There is kind of an overarching plot, but it’s not really played out much. If you know Cats or have seen it in movie or stage form then you’ll know what I mean.

Regardless, it was still a staple movie of my childhood. Speaking of which, check out my trip to the Cats: The Musical here in Auckland.

Shrek (2001)

Possibly the single most quoted movie of all time, Shrek was flippin hysterical as a child, as a teen, and still today as an adult. I don’t know many people who didn’t love Shrek when it was released, and I don’t know many people who don’t like today. The sequels were average as (I didn’t mind Shrek 2, but then it went seriously downhill from there and let’s move quickly along and not talk about them), but the original number one is still one of the greatest animated movies ever, and I will stand by that. Fight me.

Anastasia (1997)

“You know, you really should watch your blood pressure. My nephew Izzy just keeled over mid-mango. Stress, it’s a killer, sir. And he was a fruit bat. No meat. No blood even.” – Bartok, the bat

Again, this is one of those movies that I never realised had so many famous actors in it! We’re talking Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, Kirsten Dunst , and Angela Lansbury! Who knew!? I actually re-watched this movie recently and it’s still just as fantastic as it was when I first saw it.

I included that quote above from Bartok the bat, because they gave Rasputin – the notorious, infamous Russian bad-guy – a bat side-kick, which is one of the most hilarious aspects of this movie. The characters in general are just so enjoyable, the music is excellent and the witty banter and script is spot on. Even though Disney bought Fox (who made Anastasia), apparently our heroine still doesn’t fall under the Disney Princess consortium … but even so, she’s one of my favourites animated movie heroines, and always will be.