The Lion King

My kids hadn't seen The Lion King until yesterday.  The Boy is 11 and the Big E is 14.  We didn't get to finish it, so we will watch the end tonight.  The kids had been talking about The Lion King, mainly because Fox looks like a little Simba.

There are lots of different ways to look at this.  Someone might say I am anti-Disney, but the Big E has seen Finding Nemo 30 or so times.  We own the DVD.  We had to stop watching it when the Boy was about two years old and the shark attack freaked him out.

I am not a big fan of screen time in general, but that is not all of it.

Here is my shame:  I was the Chairman of the Film Board in college.  I ran a volunteer non-profit that showed six nights of movies on campus.  If I hadn't seen a movie, I had likely read about it.  I had a subscription to the now defunct Premiere magazine.  When I graduated from college and was living in Chicago, I'd read Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Dave Kehr and Janet Maslin.  This is a case of "The cobblers kids have no shoes."

Even worse, The Lion King holds a special place in my heart.  Twenty years ago, Jack and I brought this little boy I used to tutor to see The Lion King at the Water Tower Theatre on Michigan Avenue.  Khoa Le was the sweetest boy ever, and I was grateful his mother let us borrow him for the afternoon and fill him up with popcorn.  We took him shopping at the Disney store, but he refused to buy anything.  See?  The sweetest.

I would say this movie brought tears to my eyes and whatnot, but so far it is just a regular movie, except now I am singing "The Circle of Life."  And we haven't seen Simba take down Scar and bring peace to the land.  I suppose tonight I will cry.

Given my complete remiss at showing my kids important movies, here is a list of movies that they need to see.  (Note:  I am missing many movies created since the Big E was born in 2000.  Oh well.)

1.   Almost anything with a score by John Williams:  E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, etc.
2.   Arsenic and Old Lace --  This is one of my favorite Cary Grant movies.
3.   It's a Wonderful Life -- I saw this when I was in high school on videotape.  About three quarters of the way through, I decided it was kind of a downer so I turned it off and missed the point.
4.   The Princess Bride -- Done.
5.   The Blues Brothers -- Best car chase ever.
6.   The Wizard of Oz -- My kids saw this at the Seattle Children's Theater, but I am not sure they saw it on the screen.  Oy.  Judy Garland is amazing.
7.   To Kill a Mockingbird -- Gregory Peck at his best
8.   Rear Window -- My favorite Hitchcock movie
9.   Casablanca -- Just because it is good
10. Ruthless People -- I wonder if I'd find it dated, but laughed so hard when I first saw this years ago.
11.  Something adorable with John Cusack
12.  Ishtar -- I saw this in high school with a friend and we were the only people in the theater laughing.  But we were laughing.