# The First Film You Remember Seeing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2008, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653 "2008-04-02T08:24:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/21 "2008-04-02T12:39:10Z")
**Ben Hur** , which came out in 1959, so I was 4. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/22 "2008-04-02T12:39:25Z")
[QUOTE=bibliophage] The first one I saw in a movie theater was a double feature: _Dumbo_ and a live-action movie (nature documentary?) about a cougar. I don’t know if that was the spring 1972 re-release of Dumbo (when I was 3) or the autumn 1976 one (when I was 6). [/QUOTE] Could it have been [Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062793/)? ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/23 "2008-04-02T12:41:58Z")
The first movie I _remember_ seeing in a theater is **Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day** in 1968, when I was six. I’m pretty sure I saw **The Sound of Music** when I was 3, but I don’t remember anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/24 "2008-04-02T13:25:06Z")
[QUOTE=h.sapiens] I’m pretty sure I saw **The Sound of Music** when I was 3, but I don’t remember anything about it. [/QUOTE] The Sound of Music when I was 8, I think. I had been at the theatre before, but not the cinema, as far as I remember… ---
**Author:** ![AlmondJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@AlmondJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlmondJoy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/25 "2008-04-02T13:26:06Z")
I remember seeing Mary Poppins, tons of old Disney classics- Snow White, Sleeping Beauty ect. I also remember loving the Muppets Christmas movie. ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/26 "2008-04-02T13:41:54Z")
On TV: The Monkey King, the Chinese cartoon from 1965. In the theatre: Neverending Story. Atreyu was my first movie crush. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/27 "2008-04-02T13:49:46Z")
It was either _Escape to Witch Mountain_ or _Snow White_. Both were in theatres in 1975. I remember I was so young that when the nasty queen took the potion to turn herself into a cackling old hag, I was silently shitting bricks, too scared to even breathe so I couldn’t cry. I was so relived that my sister did start to cry during the same scene (she’s only a year older), so our mom took us to the lobby where my heart rate gradually returned to normal. Checking the release dates on IMDB, it looks like _Witch Mountain_ was released in March and _Snow White_ was re-released in December. So _Witch Mountain_ must’ve been my first movie _in the theatre_. My parents also let us watch the yearly televised flicks _Sound of Music_ and _Wizard of Oz_. So it’s possilbe I may have seen one or both of those on TV (the Flying Monkeys were certainly in my nightmares at a young age.) ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/28 "2008-04-02T13:49:53Z")
The first movie I remember seeing was \*\*Star Wars \*\* when I was four years old (1979). It was the re-release in conjunction w/ the release of **Empire Strikes Back** , I believe. I don’t remember the movie so much, but I very clearly remember coming out of the theater and singing the theme at the top of my lungs. I don’t recall the name of the theater but it was in Seattle in the university district. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/29 "2008-04-02T13:51:27Z")
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen] In the theater- \*The Apple Dumpling \*Gang (Disney). I think I saw it 1000 times! I really loved that movie. I was 7 or 8ish. [/QUOTE] Holy crap! I remember that! And _Pete’s Dragon_ was a favorite of mine too. I had the record of the soundtrack. ETA: I would have seen _Apple Dumpling Gang_ before _Snow White_ so _Witch Mountain_ was definitely my first cinema experience. I remember _Witch Mountain_ best too. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/30 "2008-04-02T13:51:36Z")
[The Trouble with Angels](http://imdb.com/title/tt0061122/) 1966 ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/31 "2008-04-02T13:55:18Z")
My first theatrical viewing was the original _Freaky Friday_, released in 1976. I recently watched it again on DVD and picked up on several things that must have gone over my six-year-old head the first time I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/32 "2008-04-02T13:57:13Z")
Whippersnappers! When I lived in South Dakota, there was no TV! I remember seeing Disney’s _Alice in Wonderland_ in a theater. And some movie about Blackbeard. He met his end by being buried alive on the beach, up to the neck. Then, the tide began coming in… (And we listened to radio. When we moved away & I finally saw _The Lone Ranger_ on TV, I was upset. He was dressed all in white, and none of the cowboys I’d seen dressed like that. There _were_ cowboys & Indians up there–but it was quite a few years post-Deadwood.) ---
**Author:** ![Uglystick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/87869e/32.png) [@Uglystick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uglystick)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/33 "2008-04-02T14:08:23Z")
At 6 years old, I was taken to see **Willow**. The first movie I can remember watching at home was **Flight of the Navigator**. Ah, the classics. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/34 "2008-04-02T14:19:53Z")
Maybe you movie historians can help. I’ve never been certain, but I’ve always thought of my first movie (in the theater) as _ **The Fox and the Hound** _, which came out in 1981, according to IMDB. But I’m almost certain I saw _ **The Empire Strikes Back** _ in the theater as well, but there’s no WAY my parents would have let me see that as a 5 year old! Did they re-release \*Empire \*a few years later, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![InappropriateHumor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eb8c5e/32.png) [@InappropriateHumor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InappropriateHumor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/35 "2008-04-02T14:23:36Z")
Omega Man at the theater. It was released in 1971, so I would have been 5. Scared the crap out of me, I hid on the floor between the rows and had nightmares for weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/36 "2008-04-02T14:25:29Z")
First movie, at an actual cinema, I think it was Hunt for Red October. I really wanted to see Memphis Belle, but that had just ended. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/37 "2008-04-02T14:31:33Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] The earliest movies I can remember seeing in theaters are Disney’s Song of the South, and a movie called The Legend of Boggy Creek. [/QUOTE] I remember _other_ kids getting to see Boggy Creek in the theaters, and scaring the crap out of the rest of us, just reciting the story! Isn’t it about some sort of Bigfoot? That’s what I remember. I also remember going to see Song of the South and The Aristocats in the theater, and a Disney movie called, I think, Wild Country – memorable to me because it featured the live birth of a foal. I was 7 when it came out, in 1970 and I think it was the beginning of, as is typical of young girls, me going bonkers over horses. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/38 "2008-04-02T14:40:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Did they re-release Empire a few years later, maybe? The first Star Wars films ran for quite a long time, and after the initial run were still playing in indy theaters. All three ran for over a year after they first opened _in the same theaters_, then ran on other screens after that. I recall seeing a double bill of \*\* The Last Starfighter\*\* and **The Return of the Jedi** , for instance, sometime between 1984 (the end of the first, long intitial theatrical run) and its re-release to major theaters in 1987. So you could have seen The Empire Strikes Back in the theater at several points after its 1980 initial release. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/39 "2008-04-02T14:42:07Z")
I remember seeing _Forbidden Planet_ in the theater – specifically I remember Robby and the attack on the ship. I was 3 or 4 at the time. I was probably taken to a drive-in before that, but can’t remember it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653/40 "2008-04-02T14:42:35Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] So what was the first film you remember seeing as a kid? [/QUOTE] _Benji_ at the old Richland Mall Twin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-film-you-remember-seeing/443653.md?page=3)