People say that children are affected by what they see in movies and on television. The movies I saw when I was a child and throughout my life have definately corresponded with different stages I went through.
At 3, 4, and 5, Sleeping Beauty was the only thing on my mind. I had Sleeping Beauty everything. My mom made me a sleeping beauty dress and I would prance around the house reeneacting the movie and searching for my prince charming.
One of my mother's favorite stories to tell involves my obsession with Sleeping Beauty. On car rides as a child, my favorite source of entertainment were Disney books on tape. Of course, my favorite was Sleeping Beauty. After listening to the tape non-stop for a month or two, my parents were tiring of my pleas to hear it. One day, we got in the car to go somewhere and I, of course, begged to hear my favorite tape. My parents refused. What was I, the 3-year old in the back seat supposed to do?
"This is the story of Sleeping Beauty. When you hear the chimes ring like this *BRINGGGG* please turn the page." My parents turned around and stared at me, not believing their ears. I had memorized every word from the tape and was reciting it to myself just as the tape would have, had it been on. Mom still swears she's never laughed as hard as when I said, in an evil voice, "and there stood the Evil Milifisent."
After my Sleeping Beauty phase finally wore off, it wasn't long before I picked up another obsession. This obsession probably led to my love of musicals. I fell in love with Mary Martin's Peter Pan. This was actually a atape of a stage show. It was horrible quality, but my heart attached to it. I wasn't like most girls who wanted to be Wendy. I thought her role was too small. I wanted the part of Princess Tiger Lily. The actress who played this was much prettier than the actress who played Wendy. Tiger Lily was also blond! One year, for Halloween, I was Princess Tiger Lily. My mother stayed up all evening making my costume. She always did little things like that for me. I can honestly say I had the best costume in school. I was very happy.
Through the pre-teen years, I started to like boys. Therefore, the movies I loved had beautiful guys in them. My favorite was My Girl. It was the movie I saw where two people kissed. My mother suspected this was the reason I wanted to see this movie and teased me about it. I, of course, denied all her accusations. Of course, I saw the movie.
My early teens were the time I spent with my girl friends. We saw lots of movies. These were all typical "teen" movies. Clueless, Romeo and Juliet, and Now and Then were the movies I really loved. My friends at the time were Keri, Katherine, and Leah. Now and Then reminded us of ourselves. The story was about 4 friends, each very different. There was the movie star, Leah. There was the innocent, me. There was the tomboy, Keri. There was the eccentric, Kat. We were the mirror image fo the girls in the story. We created our own conflicts. We had adventures. we talked about boys. We were typical teens discovering the world.
In recent years, my mind has matured. Instead of teenybopper films, I enjoy films that make you think. I also enjoy films that make me cry. My emotions are crazy. I cry at anything that is the slightest bit sentimental. My favorite movies are, A League of Their Own, The Patriot, Cruel Intentions, and Here on Earth. Most of these movies mke me sob. They almost all have a theme of love. I'm a hopeless romantic, what can I say?
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