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I've watched "Watership Down" as a child. It's one of my more vivid memories from back then to put it mildly.

hackeraccount 4y ago
Or The Plague Dogs. I didn't read the book but saw the movie. Just a touch grim.
kstenerud 4y ago
Watership Down and the Secret of Nimh were my two favorite movies as a young child in the early 80s, followed closely by the Dark Crystal and maybe Aristocats and the Black Hole. Other movies of the time like the Rescuers and the Fox and the Hound and Labyrinth and such were a disappointment compared to these...
- onei 4y ago
  I've been curious about the Dark Crystal - was it particularly groundbreaking when it came out? I watched it after watching the more recent Netflix series and found the story pretty dreary. Similarly, I've heard Tron was almost revolutionary by the standards of the day, but the CGI is almost comical to watch now.
  - kstenerud 4y ago
    Both were groundbreaking and revolutionary. They were very ambitious projects due to the technology limitations of the time, and crossed well into the "labour of love" realm, in the same vein as Pinnochio (for example the animated bubbles in the crashing waves).
  - mbreese 4y ago
    (Not the OP) I can’t say it was ground breaking, as I was a kid at the time, but it was one of the great movies of my childhood. I remember watching it many times over. I do remember the characters seeming less real, and I still knew they were puppets. But this was also the era of Sesame Street, so a movie by Jim Henson that had puppets was kinda normal. I think the fact that my parents talked about it so highly probably answers your question more — it was something adults appreciated. Ultimately, to me, the Dark Crystal wasn’t a great movie because I feel the story was there to service the technique, even if the technique was masterfully used. Maybe I was too young to fully appreciate it. Tron was much the same. At the time, you knew it wasn’t great, but it was still new. Like the targeting computer CGI for the Star Wars trench run, the effects weren’t great. Even at the time, it was a little spartan. But the effects moved the story, and worked well enough to not be a distraction (and you had never seen anything like it before). Tron was just as much about what it foretold as much as the CGI that was available at the time. But in contrast to the Dark Crystal, I liked the story behind Tron more. I would say that both were groundbreaking for how they pushed techniques of movie making forward. The world creation in both were amazing and they both set a new bar for future movies to meet.
teh_klev 4y ago
I read the book as a kid in the 70's, the same decade that all the fun stuff like Mutually Assured Destruction was an ongoing thing. I seem to remember being fairly distressed and mentally exhausted by the end of it. However the upside was becoming aware of how humans were slowly and inexorably ruining our planet.
- davidkuennen 4y ago
  Agreed. It was a great lesson and if anything affected my development in a positive way.
lqet 4y ago
I am still at a loss why my parents thought that a movie about bloodthirsty killer-rabits was good entertainment for an 8 year old. To renew your trauma: https://static.kino.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/watership-1-rcm480x0u.jpg https://static.kino.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/watership-...

Or The Plague Dogs. I didn't read the book but saw the movie. Just a touch grim.

Watership Down and the Secret of Nimh were my two favorite movies as a young child in the early 80s, followed closely by the Dark Crystal and maybe Aristocats and the Black Hole. Other movies of the time like the Rescuers and the Fox and the Hound and Labyrinth and such were a disappointment compared to these...

onei 4y ago
I've been curious about the Dark Crystal - was it particularly groundbreaking when it came out? I watched it after watching the more recent Netflix series and found the story pretty dreary. Similarly, I've heard Tron was almost revolutionary by the standards of the day, but the CGI is almost comical to watch now.
- kstenerud 4y ago
  Both were groundbreaking and revolutionary. They were very ambitious projects due to the technology limitations of the time, and crossed well into the "labour of love" realm, in the same vein as Pinnochio (for example the animated bubbles in the crashing waves).
- mbreese 4y ago
  (Not the OP) I can’t say it was ground breaking, as I was a kid at the time, but it was one of the great movies of my childhood. I remember watching it many times over. I do remember the characters seeming less real, and I still knew they were puppets. But this was also the era of Sesame Street, so a movie by Jim Henson that had puppets was kinda normal. I think the fact that my parents talked about it so highly probably answers your question more — it was something adults appreciated. Ultimately, to me, the Dark Crystal wasn’t a great movie because I feel the story was there to service the technique, even if the technique was masterfully used. Maybe I was too young to fully appreciate it. Tron was much the same. At the time, you knew it wasn’t great, but it was still new. Like the targeting computer CGI for the Star Wars trench run, the effects weren’t great. Even at the time, it was a little spartan. But the effects moved the story, and worked well enough to not be a distraction (and you had never seen anything like it before). Tron was just as much about what it foretold as much as the CGI that was available at the time. But in contrast to the Dark Crystal, I liked the story behind Tron more. I would say that both were groundbreaking for how they pushed techniques of movie making forward. The world creation in both were amazing and they both set a new bar for future movies to meet.

teh_klev 4y ago

I read the book as a kid in the 70's, the same decade that all the fun stuff like Mutually Assured Destruction was an ongoing thing. I seem to remember being fairly distressed and mentally exhausted by the end of it. However the upside was becoming aware of how humans were slowly and inexorably ruining our planet.

davidkuennen 4y ago
Agreed. It was a great lesson and if anything affected my development in a positive way.

lqet 4y ago

I am still at a loss why my parents thought that a movie about bloodthirsty killer-rabits was good entertainment for an 8 year old. To renew your trauma: https://static.kino.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/watership-1-rcm480x0u.jpg https://static.kino.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/watership-...