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 My Misspent Youth In Films... Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Directed by: Leonard Nimoy Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley Released: November 26, 1986 To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales. What I Thought Then I grew up on Star Trek , mostly early TNG  and reruns of TAS . Not T O S , mind you, but T A S ,  The Animated Series . For a long time, this was the most watchable Star Trek  movie to me, since 1 is boring, 2 was a little too intense for me, and 3 was confusing and also not good. And don't even get me started on 5. This one was fun and had a great message, so it got a lot of play, especially on long car trips. What I Think Now This movie holds up surprisingly well. It functions as a capper to the arc that started with Wrath Of Khan . After defeating Khan, Kirk--now an Admiral--had disobeyed orders an

My Misspent Youth In Films... An American Tail Directed by: Don Bluth Starring: Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, Erica Yohn Released: November 21, 1986 While emigrating to the United States, a young Russian mouse gets separated from his family and must relocate them while trying to survive in a new country. What I Thought Then The details of this movie didn't stick with me, although I know I watched it a lot. I loved some of the music, things like Never Say Never  and There Are No Cats In America . I also remember it being incredibly sad. What I Think Now The reason it didn't stick with me is that this film is a mess. At the heart of it, there's a really moving narrative about Russian Jews fleeing oppression from Cossacks and finding America less welcoming than they'd been led to understand. But very little of that actually bleeds out of the background into the main narrative. I spent most of my life not realizing that Fievel and his family were Jewish. And that's

My Misspent Youth In Films... Flight Of The Navigator Directed by: Randal Kleiser Starring: Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens, Cliff De Young Released: August 1, 1986 In 1978, a boy travels 8 years into the future and has an adventure with an intelligent, wisecracking alien ship. The Transformers: The Movie Directed by: Nelson Shin Starring: Orson Welles, Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy Released: August 8, 1986 The Autobots must stop a colossal planet consuming robot who goes after the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. At the same time, they must defend themselves against an all-out attack from the Decepticons. What I Thought Then These were two of my absolute favorite childhood movies that I watched again and again and they came out a week apart! Flight Of The Navigator  was dark and just a little bit scary, but ultimately a lot of fun. The Transformers: The Movie  was one of the most talked about films of my elementary school playground. It was a cartoon--that had a dirty word in it! As well as non-

My Misspent Youth In Films... Labyrinth Directed by: Jim Henson Starring: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud Released: June 27, 1986 Sixteen-year-old Sarah is given thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother Toby when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King Jareth. What I Thought Then This was another frequent rental. I didn't see it until I was maybe ten and I remember finding the whole thing weird and magical and also I was having some very confusing feelings about this Jennifer Connelly person. A lot of details have stuck with me, like Dance Magic Dance  and the doors where one of the guards always tells the truth and one always lies. What I Think Now The last time I saw this movie was about ten years ago and I did not like it at all . For one thing, it's campy, and I have a very low tolerance for camp. As I mentioned in my post for The Muppets Take Manhattan , while Jim Henson was a talented visual artist, he wasn't a

My Misspent Youth In Films... The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation Directed by: Dale Schott Starring: Maxine Miller, Pam Hyatt, Hadley Kay Released: March 21, 1986 The Care Bears try to help a young girl at summer camp who, in an effort to revamp her dorky social status to agility and skill, enters into a sinister bargain with a shape-shifting demon posing as a young boy. The Karate Kid Part II Directed by: John G. Avildsen Starring: Pat Morita, Ralph Macchio, Pat E. Johnson Released: June 20, 1986 Daniel accompanies his mentor, Mr. Miyagi, to Miyagi's childhood home in Okinawa. Miyagi visits his dying father and confronts his old rival, while Daniel falls in love and inadvertently makes a new rival of his own. What I Thought Then We didn't own a copy of Care Bears II , but it was a frequent rental. I remember thinking it was very intense with the evil shapeshifting cloud that was haunting a summer camp, and while we watched the first Care Bears  movie as well, this is the