Hey! The other day a thought hit me, and that thought was “why can I recall such early cinematic experiences in my life?” I can still remember many of the films I saw as a child, even though I was not into cinema at the time. So I feel like starting this thread so that we can share our early cinematic experiences.
The first cinematic experience I had in the movie theaters was watching this film called Cats & Dogs, I saw it when I was five years old with my father. For some reason that experience is very vivid to me, I can’t recall the plot but I remember the feeling I had while watching it. I was very happy but I was overwhelmed by how the screen seemed to take everything over. It felt like for a moment life paused and this film became the new active experience that I was a part of. Although I’m glad I remember the experience, I don’t want to watch this film again.
When I was young I saw a lot of animated films on television. I saw films like The Iron Giant, Balto, An American Tale, The Brave Little Toaster, The Land Before Time, and many others. I’m surprised I didn’t see as many Disney films as I would have thought, the one real awesome Disney experience I had was when I had a hernia and I was in the hospital when I was six years old. My grandmother was there comforting me and Pinocchio was on the TV screen. I didn’t watch the whole movie because I had to get surgery and the doctors put me to sleep, but the overall experience of being with a loved one and seeing such a wonderful film during that time stayed with me.
The first time I became aware of cinematic talent was with Pixar. I always begged my parents to take me to see their films. Toy Story 2 was the first one I saw when I was four years old, it was also the first VHS I bought, I saw it many many times. Then in school I got to see the first film in the series. From then on I saw all of their films in theaters without fail until I moved to the Dominican Republic at age 13.
When I was 5, my school actually had a Film class which was really cool. Obviously we didn't get deep into analysis, we just tried to understand what the movie was about. For most of us (including myself) it was the best class just because we got to watch movies. I only remember that I saw The Land Before Time in this class but I know we saw more. Ironically, my favorite class in Kindergarten actually became my favorite subject in life, for much different reasons though!
One important film for me was E.T. The Extra-terrestrial. In 2002 (when I was six) I had seen lots of trailers for the re-release of this film (due to its 20th Anniversary). I actually taped a trailer that they gave on TV and I watched it over and over again dreaming about what the film would be like. I also saw part of it when I visited the Universal Studios theme park when I was 8. But I never did get to see the film until I was 14 and it didn’t leave much of an effect for me, it didn’t click with me at the time. It still has a place in my heart though for being my obsession throughout my childhood, and I look forward to seeing it again soon!
My father is a huge action fan so I always saw action films since I was a kid. I loved the Rush Hour series and Sylvester Stallone movies. Once I grew up a bit (about 11 years old) I saw Police Story 2 and my mind was blown with the fight choreography. For the most part though, I saw films like The Fast And The Furious series just to spend time with my dad but I hated the action genre because it was too violent for me. Starting last year though I began bonding with my father more as I am now exploring the action genre with him and there are some great works within that genre (my favorites are by John Woo or anything made in Hong Kong from the 60’s – 80’s).
I guess I’ll leave my experiences there as I have written quite a bit! The reason I’m so surprised about these early meaningful experiences with cinema is because cinema did not become important to me at all until I was 12 years old, and it never became extremely important until just last year when I was 16!
Please share your experiences, I am really interested in how cinema affects all of us even at a young age. It is very interesting for me to see how cinema and its language already communicated to me so much when I was young, I’d like to see how cinema has affected others at a young age!
The first cinematic experience I had in the movie theaters was watching this film called Cats & Dogs, I saw it when I was five years old with my father. For some reason that experience is very vivid to me, I can’t recall the plot but I remember the feeling I had while watching it. I was very happy but I was overwhelmed by how the screen seemed to take everything over. It felt like for a moment life paused and this film became the new active experience that I was a part of. Although I’m glad I remember the experience, I don’t want to watch this film again.
When I was young I saw a lot of animated films on television. I saw films like The Iron Giant, Balto, An American Tale, The Brave Little Toaster, The Land Before Time, and many others. I’m surprised I didn’t see as many Disney films as I would have thought, the one real awesome Disney experience I had was when I had a hernia and I was in the hospital when I was six years old. My grandmother was there comforting me and Pinocchio was on the TV screen. I didn’t watch the whole movie because I had to get surgery and the doctors put me to sleep, but the overall experience of being with a loved one and seeing such a wonderful film during that time stayed with me.
The first time I became aware of cinematic talent was with Pixar. I always begged my parents to take me to see their films. Toy Story 2 was the first one I saw when I was four years old, it was also the first VHS I bought, I saw it many many times. Then in school I got to see the first film in the series. From then on I saw all of their films in theaters without fail until I moved to the Dominican Republic at age 13.
When I was 5, my school actually had a Film class which was really cool. Obviously we didn't get deep into analysis, we just tried to understand what the movie was about. For most of us (including myself) it was the best class just because we got to watch movies. I only remember that I saw The Land Before Time in this class but I know we saw more. Ironically, my favorite class in Kindergarten actually became my favorite subject in life, for much different reasons though!
One important film for me was E.T. The Extra-terrestrial. In 2002 (when I was six) I had seen lots of trailers for the re-release of this film (due to its 20th Anniversary). I actually taped a trailer that they gave on TV and I watched it over and over again dreaming about what the film would be like. I also saw part of it when I visited the Universal Studios theme park when I was 8. But I never did get to see the film until I was 14 and it didn’t leave much of an effect for me, it didn’t click with me at the time. It still has a place in my heart though for being my obsession throughout my childhood, and I look forward to seeing it again soon!
My father is a huge action fan so I always saw action films since I was a kid. I loved the Rush Hour series and Sylvester Stallone movies. Once I grew up a bit (about 11 years old) I saw Police Story 2 and my mind was blown with the fight choreography. For the most part though, I saw films like The Fast And The Furious series just to spend time with my dad but I hated the action genre because it was too violent for me. Starting last year though I began bonding with my father more as I am now exploring the action genre with him and there are some great works within that genre (my favorites are by John Woo or anything made in Hong Kong from the 60’s – 80’s).
I guess I’ll leave my experiences there as I have written quite a bit! The reason I’m so surprised about these early meaningful experiences with cinema is because cinema did not become important to me at all until I was 12 years old, and it never became extremely important until just last year when I was 16!
Please share your experiences, I am really interested in how cinema affects all of us even at a young age. It is very interesting for me to see how cinema and its language already communicated to me so much when I was young, I’d like to see how cinema has affected others at a young age!
