The shows and movies you watched during your childhood can really offer insight into who you are as a person today. While everyone’s childhoods are different, the one thing most people can relate to is watching TV shows and movies to keep them entertained.
In the 2010s, while I grew up, that movie for me was “Cars.” I would watch “Cars” almost every day, and to this day, I can almost remember the entire movie verbatim. My parents used to tell me as a kid that they could tell how far along the movie was just based on one line, because we watched it so often. I wasn’t the only one who remembers “Cars” as a movie from their childhood.
Franklin junior Tyson Kerbs also remembers watching “Cars.” “We would always go to the Redbox and rent ‘Cars.’ One night my parents allowed us to eat dinner in front of the TV, and we got those TV trays [for dinner],” Kerbs remembers.
Redboxes were extremely popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s as a way to rent DVDs for both movies and video games. They were super convenient as most grocery stores had a Redbox kiosk where you could rent DVDs while doing your everyday shopping. However, due to the increasing popularity of streaming services, Redbox has had a hard time keeping up and had to shut down its kiosks in 2023.
For Franklin video production teacher Adam Souza, he explains the film that shaped his childhood was the hit movie, “Jurassic Park.” “The original ‘Jurassic Park,’ [with] Steven Spielberg, I just consistently went back to that,” Souza explains. Souza says he can still remember the first time he watched the movie at the theater, and how it kept him on the edge of his seat the whole time. “I was at the theater, it was a moment where I had never seen anything like that in my life before, and it was just so incredible that I felt like dinosaurs were real.”
Franklin Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science teacher, Megan Whisnand, remembers the many movies she watched as a child and a teenager, stating, “When I was younger, I loved that movie ‘Annie’ … when I was in high school, I’d have to say ‘Heathers’ and ‘The Lost Boys.’” It was the humor in “Heathers” and the “The Lost Boys” that made her like them so much. “There’s so many good one liners. I appreciated [the] dark humor.” Whisnand was also able to witness some of the shows children nowadays watch, while she raised children of her own, mentioning, “As a parent, I would often play ‘Curious George’ for my kids.”
A movie series that has stood the test of time across multiple generations is “Star Wars.” I can still remember the Christmas my grandparents got me the entire saga — at the time when there were only six movies. Because the movie series is so spread out, with a new franchise beginning after Walt Disney bought the franchise in 2012, it allowed many children to experience the excitement of new episodes regardless of age. Franklin sophomore Gabe Cisneros vividly remembers watching “Star Wars” as a child. “I remember watching and liking ‘Star Wars’ because I loved space stuff,” Cisneros says. “I remember being very sad when Anakin turned into Darth Vader and killed Padmé,” he adds, reminiscing about his childhood experience watching the film. My personal experience from watching “Star Wars” was when Yoda had a legendary battle with Sith Lord Count Dooku.
Everyone’s childhood is unique, but most people can relate to having something that keeps their nostalgic memories as a child thriving. For many, that was the time they spent keeping up with all the episodes of their favorite TV shows and going to the theaters to watch the newest addition of their favorite movies. Some things never age, and some of our favorite films and shows continue to provide comfort and enjoyment throughout our lives.
