My son, at the age of nappies and toddling but before speaking more than a few words, had a Pavlovian response to the sight of me. As I walked in the door, he would waddle his chubby little bum over to the TV and put the 2002 feature film Ice Age into the DVD player, hit play, and then plonk himself down inches away from the screen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some parents might be disappointed to be thought of only as an enabler of television viewing.
As the son of a film critic, though, his behaviour delighted me.
The favourite movie would become Brother Bear (2003), Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999), Chicken Run (2000) and from an old VHS tape, his older brother's favourite movie, Holes (2003).
The film might change over the years but in some ways the pattern still exists. Screen time is our time. In his earlier days, screen time was a great opportunity for a bit of tidying up, maybe some dish washing or clothes folding, knowing that he wasn't too far away from the screen and getting into trouble.
These films were familiar sounds and patterns from an exhausting time. While initially dismissive of Ice Age, I can still quote the entirety of the script, still find myself using some of the phrases, unconscious of where they came from.
For the adult in the room, the [Toy Story] screenplay is not only witty, but just the tiniest bit adult on occasion.
Produced by Blue Sky Studios out of Connecticut, along with Twentieth Century Fox, Ice Age pairs up three unlikely companions, Mammoth Manfred (Ray Romano), Sabre Tooth Tiger Diego (Denis Leary) and Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo), who form a family unit as mass migrations and climate change upset the world around them. Its success would place the production company as the major competitor in the children's entertainment sector against Disney and Pixar. The film would spawn a range of sequels and fund Blue Sky's later successes, including Horton Hears a Who (2008) and failures like Epic (2013).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's creator Joss Whedon grew up in Hollywood as the son of television screenwriter Tom. While dad wrote episodes of Captain Kangaroo and The Electric Company, son Joss was absorbing the trade and popular culture, and his screenplay for Toy Story built the perfect universe for our kids' imaginations.
In his universe, after we go to bed, our toys come to life. The first of now four films focuses on the changing relationships in the bedroom of child Andy when his previously favourite toy cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is usurped by the arrival of the serious new spaceman toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen).
The genius concept, enabled by studio Pixar's unparalleled animation, included a library of toys many children had in their own rooms, with a Mr Potato Head, Barbie, and a Speak N Spell adding a touch of 'what if' reality for kids.
My son would zoom around the yard yelling 'Two Fiddy and Dion!', butchering Buzz Lightyear's saying 'To Infinity and Beyond!'
For the adult in the room, though, the screenplay is not only witty, but just the tiniest bit adult on occasion.
But it was the sequel, Toy Story 2 (1999), that made me put down the ironing and join my son on the couch. The film introduces a cowgirl toy Jessie, new favourite toy of Andy's baby sister Molly. In one scene, Jessie (Joan Cusack) flashes back to the life she had with her previous owner. As Sarah McLachlan sings 'When somebody loved me everything was beautiful,' the scene moves from Jessie being the centre of the girl's world, to falling under her bed where she watches, as the years go by, the girl move to nail polish and the telephone and, as the closing bars of the song play, Jessie is in a box of discarded toys in a roadside charity bin.
It had me crying, openly, every viewing, and we probably watched it 100 times. In fact, I'm crying right now because I just YouTubed it again to refresh my memory. Type 'Jessie's story toy story' now and see what I mean.
It is a perfect scene, and for the frustrated parent, one of those occasionally needed reminders to savour every moment, even the trying ones.
Other great secret delights, where your child thinks the experience is all about them but is secretly exactly to your taste, can be found in other first-rate films like Finding Nemo (2003), Zootopia (2016), Babe (1995), Coco (2017), The Incredibles (2004) and practically every one of the Disney Princess films, but for our family, most especially Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016).
There are some films you wish your kid would connect with more. The characters in Pixar's Inside Out (2015) include Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness, and are the embodiment of emotions inside the main character's brain.
The film is clever and hilarious, but in our house just didn't contain enough singing about frozen fractals to inspire multiple repeat viewings.
Parents also have to endure the anguish of your child growing out of the favourite film you have secretly come to love. As Brother Bear played on repeat, I yearned for a return to the great Ice Age. My heart literally broke when my son told me 'Ben Ten is for babies,' and I never got to find out if Vera and Kevin Leven got together.
Nobody ever thinks of the poor parents.
