Ten (No Eleven) Movies I Saw as a Child That Still Hold Up Today

At the end of Maleficent I wrote: “Yes, movies such as this might be made for a young audience that will find something to enjoy in the magical CG flittering around, but once that audience grows up will they honestly turn to something like this for warm childhood memories? Dear God I hope not.” It’s a statement that has stuck with me since I wrote it. I was primarily thinking of how classic Disney animated films, such as Sleeping Beauty, hold up no matter how old you are.

The more I thought about it, though, I began to wonder if I was simply being too precious when it comes to those classic animated movies and started to ask myself if there were any live action films I saw as a child, films that targeted kids and yet managed to appeal to adults then and maintain their value over time and can still be watched 10, 15, 20 years later and deliver the same (or similar) level of enjoyment. Or was I being too hard on Maleficent and films like that just don’t really exist?

I took the question to Facebook and obviously it matters when you were born, in my case 1977, and I asked, “Eliminating animated movies (so no classic Disney animation for example), what movies did you watch and love as a child would you say you could still watch and love today with the same affection?” If I were to add some additional qualifiers to that I’d list the rules as follows:

1. Films you saw before your 13th birthday
2. Films that are, for the most part, kids (or at least, family) films, which I would say means ratings no higher than PG-13
   • I know some people see movies such as Alien, Poltergeist, The Godfather, Scarface, etc. as children, but these aren’t films “for children”, so I don’t count them.
3. No animated movies
4. Movies you loved as a kid and can still watch (and have watched) affectionately today, which is to say at least ten years later

Now I’m not saying these are the “best movies ever”, though some of them I do consider legitimately great. These are simply a selection of movies I remember loving as a child and still enjoy watching today. Movies I would think children today would find some level of sustained enjoyment.

The list below isn’t in ranked order, simply chronological and I’ve included a few additional titles at the end. I would love to read what films you remember from your childhood that you still have fond memories of and have returned to recently and found that same (or similar) level of enjoyment in the comments. Have at it!

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

(1971)

Star Wars

(1977, 1980, 1983)

Indiana Jones Movies

(1981, 1984, 1989)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

& Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

(1982, 1986)

Ghostbusters

(1984)

Gremlins

(1984)

The Karate Kid

(1984, 1986)

The Last Starfighter

(1984)

Back to the Future

(1985, 1989, 1990)

Top Gun

(1986)

The Living Daylights

(1987)

A Few Others

EDIT: I was reminded of the Rocky movies (III and IV in-particular), which I also loved as a child. Also, Over the Top, though I haven’t seen that forever. Sly was a childhood fav of mine.

If I were to go beyond ten I would include Batman (1989), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Goonies (1985) and Superman (1978), but there were a lot that I listed that I actually haven’t watched in a long time, even though my memory of them is quite fond such as: The NeverEnding Story (1984), Flight of the Navigator (1986), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), WarGames (1983), Big (1988), Three Men and a Baby (1987), Short Circuit (1986), The Explorers (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Weird Science (1985), Annie (1982), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).

One film I have seen recently that I loved as a child was Clash of the Titans (1981), but as much as I can appreciate it now for its stop motion animation, I had a hard time watching it again.

Now it’s your turn, have at it in the comments below.