Play it again, Sam.

We have entered a new phase in movie watching at our house and it makes me a little sad.  I fear that the days of Disney and Pixar are behind my soon to be 1st grader.

Like most kids when Addison got a new DVD it was put into the player and became stuck on a loop and was played over and over and over and over…and over.  I think the first movie that happened with was Cars.  I didn’t mind it so much, it’s a good movie.  Owen Wilson has a pleasant voice, the jokes are witty so I could take it.

From the age of 2 to 5 1/2 we went through a huge train phase.  It was all trains all the time.  Mostly Thomas but any train would do.  We watched the show and have a nice little collection of movies.  Two Thomas movies made it to the top of the list.  Thomas and The Great Discovery and Thomas and the Magic Railroad starring Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda.  The Great Discovery wasn’t so bad but it did get pretty old after a while.  The Magic Railroad got on my nerves and fast.  It was just so….stupid.  It was clear that all the actors were just phoning it in.  Ugh, it drove me crazy!

Somewhere in the middle of the train madness The Incredibles made an appearance.  That is a great movie.  I could actually sit and watch that one multiple times.  But it didn’t last too long.  Trains took center stage.

Monsters vs. Aliens had a short run at our house and then abruptly Addison decided he didn’t like it any more. He was even Gallaxhar for Halloween that year (best home made costume – ever). I don’t know what happened to make it fall out of favor so quickly.

We had a few months where Ponyo was constantly on. I miss those days. Some may say that was a weird movie and I’ll admit that the plot had some holes but I loved the Japanese anime. It was new for us and broadened our cultural movie watching horizons. It also has a fun and catchy song during the closing credits.

Now we are 6.  Star Wars is the word of the day.  Dear Husband showed Addison episodes 4, 5 and 6 with great glee.  Time went by, Legos Star Wars began to dominate the dinner conversation and we rented episode 1.  I forgot how horribly horrific that movie is, yet Addison loved it.  I realized why I disliked it so much: it’s target audience was 6 year olds and all of us grown up Star Wars fans went in expecting so much more.  But I digress.  A few weeks ago I was digging through our small collection of non-kid DVDs  and discovered episode 2.  I have no idea how we came to own it but it was an exciting treat to present it to Addison the next day.  In two weeks he had watched it no less than 10 times.  He is begging to watch episode 3 but I have to put my foot down somewhere.  Call me an old fuddy-duddy but there is a reason it’s rated PG-13 and I don’t feel my precious little 6-year-old should see that much violence and dismemberment.

I’m looking forward to the days when Disney once again dominates the small screen.  Harry has a couple of years to go, until then Peter Pan is waiting in the wings.