Happy Friday and holiday weekend, friends! I hope you have leisure or adventure planned — and perhaps a good movie queued to watch with friends!
Recently I was in the car with Ben and somehow the 2003 Freaky Friday remake came up. We were imitating Lindsay Lohan playing Jamie Lee Curtis’s character playing Lindsay Lohan’s character in that final Battle of the Bands scene (IYKYK).
I think both women are hilarious in that movie. I loved it growing up, had the soundtrack on CD, and thought Chad Michael Murray was the cutest love interest.
I suddenly had a thought during that conversation — I’m excited to show my kids this movie someday! And then I had another thought — I’m excited to show my kids Leading Ladies someday so they can read about and watch films I thought were worth mentioning!
So, my May Chat question for you is: what are some of those quirky, random, favorite movies of yours that you’ve watched multiple times and are excited to eventually share with your own kids?
A follow-up question: what films did your parents introduce to you as some of the memorable movies from their pasts?
For example, my parents loved The Princess Bride and we watched it frequently in my house growing up. They always gave me a warning to leave the room before the scene with the Rodents of Unusual Size (because I was, and still am, a scaredy cat).
Leave a note in the comments and let’s generate some great recommendations for each other!
Freaky Friday and The Princess Bride would be on the list for me, too. Some our family loved (and many of which we still quote) include:
-School of Rock
-Father of the Bride (both parts but mostly part 2)
-Both versions of The Parent Trap (Haley Mills and Lindsay Lohan, woot)
-The Brave Little Toaster (so underrated)
-The Iron Giant (first movie that made me cry)
-An American Tail: Fievel Goes West ("You played your last hand, CHULA!")
-Homeward Bound (<3)
-Black Beauty (horsey)
-The OG Star Wars trilogy and the first Jurassic Park, though these aren't super quirky
-Napoleon Dynamite (again, not a quirky choice, but certainly a quirky movie)
-Every Pixar movie from Toy Story through The Incredibles (I like more besides those, but those were the core childhood ones—the year Cars came out, my adolescence was in full swing). I guess the quirk here is just the specific era.
This is a fantastic list, Celina! Oh my goodness, I could not agree more on the Brave Little Toaster. I remember crying during that movie as a child. And oh yes I loved Black Beauty and possible loved The Black Stallion even more! I remember loving Cars, but I think The Incredibles and Finding Nemo were peak for me.
The horse movies are reminding me that we also frequently popped "The Amazing Panda Adventure" into the VCR as well as both Flipper movies and Free Willy. I was pretty obsessed with any story that had to do with a human who was loyal to an animal ;)
My first memorable movie on our new surround sound projector set up as a kid was Jurassic Park. I still love that movie and look forward to slightly scaring my kids with the T Rex like my dad did.
I will forever preach that EVERYONE should watch "About Time" . It's a classic that makes you want to go out and live life to the fullest and enjoy the little moments in your day. Super impactful film, I always cry during a particular scene :,) .
I would say Monte Python and the Holy Grail is a good one that my dad loved. :)
As a family, "A Knight's Tale" was our top film, and we frequently watched Steve Martin's "Pink Panther." One of my dad's favorites was "Casablanca."
My mom introduced me to a lot of Hayley Mills movies. One absolute riot of a film is called "The Trouble With Angels" which is about girls at a Catholic school run by nuns. We owned "That Darn Cat" on VHS and I would pop that one into the player often. I love the original Parent Trap, which stars Hayley, and the original Freaky Friday (not Hayley but same era) is so fun too. My mom grew up with the original Herbie movie, and then we would watch all the remakes.
I'm excited to show my As a kid, I loved a made-for-tv movie called "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken." It's based on a true story of a girl who does high-diving with horses, and I watched it over and over (I think we had it on VHS).
I think I'm most excited of all to share the greatest rom-coms of all time with my kids: they were a frequent movie night for me growing up because my parents loved them, and my friends and I watched them together too. The Nora Ephron trilogy — "You've Got Mail", "When Harry Met Sally", and "Sleepless in Seattle."
"When Harry Met Sally" is definitely for the older kids, but the two with Tom Hanks are family films. And then, of course, "Sleepless in Seattle" references an "Affair to Remember", so that would be a perfect double feature :)
To sum up — Hayley Mills and Meg Ryan are the leading ladies I'm very excited to introduce to my kids!
Freaky Friday and The Princess Bride would be on the list for me, too. Some our family loved (and many of which we still quote) include:
-School of Rock
-Father of the Bride (both parts but mostly part 2)
-Both versions of The Parent Trap (Haley Mills and Lindsay Lohan, woot)
-The Brave Little Toaster (so underrated)
-The Iron Giant (first movie that made me cry)
-An American Tail: Fievel Goes West ("You played your last hand, CHULA!")
-Homeward Bound (<3)
-Black Beauty (horsey)
-The OG Star Wars trilogy and the first Jurassic Park, though these aren't super quirky
-Napoleon Dynamite (again, not a quirky choice, but certainly a quirky movie)
-Every Pixar movie from Toy Story through The Incredibles (I like more besides those, but those were the core childhood ones—the year Cars came out, my adolescence was in full swing). I guess the quirk here is just the specific era.
This is a fantastic list, Celina! Oh my goodness, I could not agree more on the Brave Little Toaster. I remember crying during that movie as a child. And oh yes I loved Black Beauty and possible loved The Black Stallion even more! I remember loving Cars, but I think The Incredibles and Finding Nemo were peak for me.
The horse movies are reminding me that we also frequently popped "The Amazing Panda Adventure" into the VCR as well as both Flipper movies and Free Willy. I was pretty obsessed with any story that had to do with a human who was loyal to an animal ;)
My first memorable movie on our new surround sound projector set up as a kid was Jurassic Park. I still love that movie and look forward to slightly scaring my kids with the T Rex like my dad did.
Love it! Definitely a classic! I watched it for the first time as an adult, and there were a few jump scares that really got me...
I will forever preach that EVERYONE should watch "About Time" . It's a classic that makes you want to go out and live life to the fullest and enjoy the little moments in your day. Super impactful film, I always cry during a particular scene :,) .
I would say Monte Python and the Holy Grail is a good one that my dad loved. :)
Oh yes! I *love* About Time! Couldn't agree more :) And hahaha yes we watched that one too growing up. So classic, so quotable.
As a family, "A Knight's Tale" was our top film, and we frequently watched Steve Martin's "Pink Panther." One of my dad's favorites was "Casablanca."
My mom introduced me to a lot of Hayley Mills movies. One absolute riot of a film is called "The Trouble With Angels" which is about girls at a Catholic school run by nuns. We owned "That Darn Cat" on VHS and I would pop that one into the player often. I love the original Parent Trap, which stars Hayley, and the original Freaky Friday (not Hayley but same era) is so fun too. My mom grew up with the original Herbie movie, and then we would watch all the remakes.
I'm excited to show my As a kid, I loved a made-for-tv movie called "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken." It's based on a true story of a girl who does high-diving with horses, and I watched it over and over (I think we had it on VHS).
I think I'm most excited of all to share the greatest rom-coms of all time with my kids: they were a frequent movie night for me growing up because my parents loved them, and my friends and I watched them together too. The Nora Ephron trilogy — "You've Got Mail", "When Harry Met Sally", and "Sleepless in Seattle."
"When Harry Met Sally" is definitely for the older kids, but the two with Tom Hanks are family films. And then, of course, "Sleepless in Seattle" references an "Affair to Remember", so that would be a perfect double feature :)
To sum up — Hayley Mills and Meg Ryan are the leading ladies I'm very excited to introduce to my kids!