Sadly I can’t take all the credit for this beautiful idea of list theme. That goes to Dan over at Top 10 Films (read his list here). Reading through his list reminded me a lot of what films I was watching at that stage in my life.

I was born in 1986. At the age of 10 it was 1996 (if you feel bad, yes I doubt your ability to add) and while if I were to be doing a definitive top ten of that year we’d be discussing a whole other set of films it’s amazing to look back at films of that age and remember not so much the quality of the films but rather my reactions to them. At that stage I hadn’t yet entered High School, I was still a cub scout and hadn’t yet become a member of the “few extra pounds” club (as you can see in the photo to the side here).

It’s easy now, for me to scoff at some kid’s films and give evil stares to those friends who’re parents and tell me about how they had to suffer through a fifth sitting of Dora the Explorer or Twilight because it’s what their child wanted to see. However, if I am being honest, I know I had those moments myself as a child. Here’s me turning the microscope back at myself.

So here’s what ten year old me would probably tell you if you asked him for a top ten films of all time:

10. Space Jam (1996) (dir. Joe Pytka)

Who at that stage in their didn’t like the Looney Tunes or Michael Jordan, and most likely (like myself) you loved both. So when Jordan (at this time I believe playing baseball) ended up doing a movie with the Looney Tunes about playing a basketball game that decides whether or not he’s going to have to be a slave to some demon or another, I believe voiced by Danny DeVito, I couldn’t resist. I even bought a VHS bootleg copy from a local pharmacy and watched the film repeatedly.

9. Aladdin (1992) (dir. Ron Clements & John Musker)

This is a film that I loved from the very start. I remember that my mother even tricked me into seeing Beauty and the Beast because she told me that we were going to see this film (she claims that I lie about this, but I know what really happened that afternoon).

I don’t remember how many direct to tape (yes tape) sequels Disney did but I’m pretty sure I watched them all, including the spin-off TV-show and the video game that I used to go over to my friend’s house to play. I was an Aladdin fanatic. So happy that my younger cousin is now a fan of it as well. She calls it “A-la-di-an” which puts a smile on my face everytime.

8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) (dir. Robert Zemeckis)

Here is one of those films that I guess was a lot deeper than I realized at the time. Just like with Space Jam I gravitated to the looniness of it having the live-action/animation hybrid and how zany it all was. I for some reason could never forget the bullets of the cartoon gun that Hoskins carried around, classic.

7. Condorman (1981) (dir. Charles Jarrott)

So this is one of THE films of my childhood. I can’t put the words movies and childhood together without talking about this movie. A film about a comic book writer who gets to be a spy and at the same time make his comic book gadget creations come to life as he rescues the girl and thwarts the international bad guy by becoming the real Condorman. Looking back the film is a bad movie, but at the same time it is so fantastically so far out there that if you’ve never heard or seen it before I highly recommend you doing your best to find a copy (even though the DVD is out of print, I await a blu ray release NOW).

6. Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) (dir. Steven Spielberg)

I know much of the film community seem to love to pile on this film as the worst of the Indiana Jones franchise (official notice: The Crystal Skull didn’t happen), but I love it. For a ten year old seeing Harrison Ford in that opening scene with the big swanky dining room scene and a man able to rip out a man’s heart  is AWESOME!!!

See Top Five on the Next Page>>>