Why do the Movies I watched as a Child make me so emotional Today?
(I literally can't watch Tangled without crying)
Coraline recently celebrated its 15th anniversary which prompted me to watch it for the very first time. I was a little apprehensive at first, worried that I wouldn’t enjoy it to the same extent as those who watched it as a kid. I was wrong! It is a great movie regardless. However, I still wonder if the movie is an even better watch for those who watched it at a young age first. This got me thinking a great deal about nostalgia and how it can alter your film-viewing experience.
Though nostalgia was once perceived as a mental disorder, it is now understood as a natural and common positive emotion. According to psychologist, Neel Burton, nostalgia is particularly prominent during times of change or uncertainty. It is also common to feel nostalgia on colder days.
Many things can make us feel nostalgic: music, smells, places, video games, and of course, movies.
When I think back to the films that I watched as a child, I’m met with that same, overwhelming feeling of nostalgia and longing to be a kid again. Films seemed brighter, activities seemed more fun, gadgets seemed “cooler” - everything was an elevated experience as a child.
The movies we watch growing up become core memories and with this, we attach strong, emotional connections. When we re-watch these movies as adults, we don’t feel upset because we miss the movie, we feel emotional because we miss the innocent, child-like joy we had when first watching it.
“Golden Age Thinking”: ‘the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one one’s living in – it’s a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present’ - Midnight in Paris (2011)
The first three Toy Story movie’s are core memories for me and I will always regard them as some of the key movies of my childhood. This year I re-watched Toy Story 1 & 2 and I couldn’t help but cry when I watched them. It’s a really odd yet comforting experience, because you remember almost every event of the movie, but understand it on such a different level. It gives a whole new dimension to the viewing experience because not only are you feeling those child-like emotions, but you’re enjoying rewatching something and understanding more about it.
Nostalgia allows us to re-live our emotions. It acts as a coping mechanism when things in the present become difficult or overwhelming. It is the same reason we might go back to movies we have already seen when we are in need of comfort. In my case, I always re-watch Tangled when in need of some warming comfort. Tangled was one of my favourite movies as a kid and I even remember re-drawing the DVD cover and replacing the insert with it so that I felt like I had my own “unique” copy which I would then lend to my friends.
Of course, it is possible to feel nostalgia for a time period that you never lived, too. When a movie (old or new) re-creates a time period so well, it becomes so immersive that you find yourself reminiscing on the past and how great it seemed, even if you weren’t around back then.
I enjoy reading about how different people respond to nostalgia. We all have different childhoods, and different core memories surrounding film that make our viewing experiences different when we watch movies as adults. Some of the movies I saw as a kid stand out to me more than others. Toy Story and Tangled in particular are two key memories for me. It doesn’t matter how many times I re-watch them, they will still make me cry. I have close attachments to other cringey films like Bratz: The Movie (2007) for example, which I can quote an embarrassing amount of. Anyone else would probably find that movie unbearable, but I can’t not love the Bratz movie when I spent so many hours watching it as a child.
These are just a handful of examples of how nostalgia affects my viewing experience, and the movies that remain close to me even as an adult. I’d be interested to know what movies you feel strongly towards too, and the movies that bring you the most nostalgia as this is a topic I really love hearing about.
Sources:
Burton, N (2024) The Meaning of Nostalgia
Flick Fanatics (2024) Why We Cling to Nostalgia
“Every Movie From My Childhood Ranked” list: click here
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Really excited to read this!