I love how many 80's kids' movies treated us as intelligent people and let us experience emotions other than just happiness. I enjoyed The Secret of NIMH but I preferred the book, for the most part. The book has a lot more depth BUT the movie brings an interesting mystical edge to the story.
The Dark Crystal is a favourite of mine, I much prefer it to the Labyrinth. It was dark and disturbing and whole lot of fun. The Gelflings were bland though. The Neverending Story movie was also good and I enjoyed it quite a lot until I read the novel. It was still good, just not as good as before. Also, Bastian should've been chubby!

By the way, FernGully isn't Disney. It was an Australian-American production. Rubbish movie though, even thought so as a kid.

I have to confess that I never made it through The Neverending Story, BECAUSE of that scene in the swamp.

I always cried during that scene. I think the sadness is part of the reason why I always loved it as a child. I've always been strangely fond of sad things.

~Riella

Thanks, ForeverFan! I was really hoping one of them would be good, but we will steer clear of them. I almost got the 1980s one of our old library before we move, now I wish I had since our new one doesn't have it. Oh well.

We girls watched Sarah's Choice last night. It wasn't perfect, but it was really good. I highly recommend watching it at least once.

You're welcome. I hope you can see the 1980s one at some point, although you perhaps might want to wait until after you've read the book (which is excellent, I must add).

I would like to see Sarah's Choice some day, as I have heard about it, but have not seen it yet. It sounds good, though.

Oops.... Ferngully was Disney.

No it wasn't. I know this Disney, and this isn't theirs. I check to see which studio it was that made/released it: Fox.

*never mind, this has been corrected.*
I 'jumped' to quickly at this. Pet peeve of mine with Disney movies. If it's not Disney, don't call it Disney

I do love the original 'The Land Before Time'. (Not Disney). It's sequels are great for young kids, but really have nothing to do with the original. It was a different production team altogether. The mood even changes entirely.

I don't like NIMH. As for An American Tail, I love the memory more than the movie itself. Best to leave it for kids IMO.

Ferngully - I remember this, though i only saw it (or part of it) once when i was about four or five years old. Only thing i remember is that one part of it scared the dickens out of me.

An American Tail - I don't particularly care for this one, but i think i didn't see it until i was a little too old for it. We saw the second one, Fievel Goes West, first; whatever its quality, my siblings and i loved it, and it has a lot of nostalgia associated with it.

Secret of NIMH - I have no interest in seeing this; no mystical necklaces for me, thanks. I read the book - it has a wonderful, melancholic feel to it.

Speaking of non-Disney 80s animated films, any fans of The Brave Little Toaster? I'm pretty sure i've seen some around here somewhere. That is a fantastic movie - lots of great quotes, fun story, and some surprising depth; which is less surprising when you learn that a couple of the guys who would later start Pixar were involved in making it.

"Why, if only we were all wiener dogs, our problems would be solved!"
" ............ what?!"

On the subject of American Tail, that was one of my mom's favorite movies ever, so I watched that one a lot when I was little. I definitely didn't care for it as much as Fievel Goes West though.

But yeah, the 80's laid on the dark atmospherics pretty heavily for the kids movies.

Isn't that interesting? And yet it was different kind of dark atmosphere than the direction that "kid's" movies take today... and those bother me a lot. A couple that come to mind right now are Monster House (which you will NEVER convince me is appropriate for children) and Toy Story 3 (which I personally don't think is appropriate for small children either, but the kid's at my parents church love that movie so I digress...). Both of them have moments of pretty extreme darkness, and I don't think I could put my finger on it, but it's different from kid's movies in the 80s and early 90s.
But maybe the ones now bother me more because I understand them better and the others I grew up with so I'm kind of biased.

Regarding Land Before Time and the two An American Tail films: I haven't seen LBT in years, but I distinctly remember not liking it as a kid. I think it was the double strike of all the bickering between Sara and Littlefoot coupled with my annoyance that they never called the dinosaurs by their right names. Yeah, I was REALLY into dinosaurs when I was little so all the "Sharptooth", "Three Horns", "Long Necks" highly annoyed me.

On the plus side, I remember really digging the T-Rex.

As for the Fievel films, I liked the first one well enough but really enjoyed Fievel Goes West. Even if it's basically a retread of the first film and the animation is not as groundbreaking, I still think it's the superior movie. Maybe because of fond childhood memories or the fact that James Stewart voices the old sheriff dog, but I think it also has to do with the fact that AAT2 is just pure fun.

Yesterday, we watched Born Yesterday on TCM. It was really funny. Definitely one I will watch again. Judy Holliday and William Holden were both really good.

I was checking the TCM schedule for the next month and Wait Until Dark starring Audrey Hepburn is going to be on the 13th. Maybe we will get to watch it, if we do, AslansChild, I will let you know if it's good.

SnowAngel

Speaking of non-Disney 80s animated films, any fans of The Brave Little Toaster? I'm pretty sure i've seen some around here somewhere. That is a fantastic movie

I'm a fan of that one, and Disney actually supported production on this movie, and Buena Vista distributed. So it's not a non-Disney movie.

As for the Fievel films, I liked the first one well enough but really enjoyed Fievel Goes West. Even if it's basically a retread of the first film and the animation is not as groundbreaking, I still think it's the superior movie. Maybe because of fond childhood memories or the fact that James Stewart voices the old sheriff dog, but I think it also has to do with the fact that AAT2 is just pure fun.

James Stewart is excellent in the sequel.

Not to mention it has the Blues Brothers' rendition of the Rawhide theme song (though I like "Somewhere Out There" too).

"Catch a passing sagecoach..."

I watched John Carter of Mars last night and I have to say, that's gotta be one of my favorite movies I've seen this year.
So now I'm curious, has anybody seen it and NOT liked it on here? I'm a little stumped as to how it flopped so badly at the box office that Disney's CEO resigned. The only thing I can figure out is that the people who saw it didn't realize the story it's based on was written back in the late 1880s (I think) and they didn't find it original.
Anyways, I really enjoyed it. My one and only complaint were the stupid one-liners they stuck in that seems to plague movies nowadays.

a lot of the problem with John Carter was the marketing, the first few trailers were horrible, but everyone I know who has seen it agrees with you- all love it. I've been meaning to rent it to see for myself where I'd land.

Woohoo! Glad you enjoyed John Carter, FK!

I was lucky enough to go see the film in theaters with a friend and highly enjoyed it (my friend didn't care much for it... except for the last half.). I'm also rather stumped as to why everyone seemed to hate it. I can see the argument of it being "unoriginal" if you're touchy about such things, and yes, the film does have some minor problems in the story area.

Overall, John Carter was just a fun old-school Sci-Fi flick that I think most people just don't "get"* anymore. Maybe everyone was expecting some dark, edgy film like SW&TH or the like.

Edit:

*Perhaps "just don't understand or like anymore" is a better wording. Either way, purely fun escapism films seem to be the brunt of scorn in modern cinema... unless you happen to be Pixar.

SW&TH? What's that? John Carter looked decent. Seems Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (the arena scene) borrowed heavily from the original books.

Oh, sorry about the acronym. Snow White & The Huntsman, the movie with Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. OR the movie with the Basic Instincts lady, Bella and Thor.