# What are the first movies you remember seeing as a child and how did they affect you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 12, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980 "2025-08-12T15:41:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/21 "2025-08-12T17:17:20Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > I knew what “Star Trek” was but that existed on our t.v. sets, as did cheeseball sci-fi material from the 1950s. 1954 so I would have been four, the first movie I can recall is [_Gog_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047033/reference/), an Ivan Tors robot movie. The part I remember, which scared the crap out of me, were the two robots, Gog and Magog being activated by remote control and rolling down the hall to do their dirty work. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/22 "2025-08-12T17:17:38Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > > [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > > > All I have to say about those is that adults (or at least the particular adults responsible for those movies) have bizarre ideas of what children might enjoy. > > I saw some scenes from _Time Bandits_ (1981) a few years back and couldn’t help but think, “This is a kid’s movie?” I loved that movie when I was a wee lad, especially the song by George Harrison in the closing credits. Personally I think it’s good for kids to see movies that are scary, even if characters die. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want tons of blood & guts, but I do think it’s a good, safe way for kids to learn how to deal with fear and anxieties. This. Of the titles I listed in my O.P., well…they’re not all incense and peppermints. I do believe that Mom, and to a limited extent Dad, were using movies to do more than entertain and give the kids a treat. Hence the morally heavy content now and then. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/23 "2025-08-12T17:56:15Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I saw some scenes from _Time Bandits_ (1981) a few years back and couldn’t help but think, “This is a kid’s movie?” I loved that movie when I was a wee lad, especially the song by George Harrison in the closing credits. Personally I think it’s good for kids to see movies that are scary, even if characters die. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want tons of blood & guts, but I do think it’s a good, safe way for kids to learn how to deal with fear and anxieties. > [@Cartooniverse](#): > > This. Of the titles I listed in my O.P., well…they’re not all incense and peppermints. I do believe that Mom, and to a limited extent Dad, were using movies to do more than entertain and give the kids a treat. Hence the morally heavy content now and then. IMHO what’s traumatizing isn’t so much watching adult content as a child. It’s having material presented as “this is for children, and therefore you shouldn’t find it scary / traumatizing / creepy / whatever” even though it clearly is. The elephants on parade in _Dumbo_, the caterpillar from _Alice in Wonderland_, the talking couch from _Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure_, and so on are made worse because some adults seem to think that children **should** like those things, and if they don’t that means there’s something wrong with that child’s tastes. ---
**Author:** ![betonbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@betonbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betonbill)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/24 "2025-08-12T18:02:28Z")
Treasure Island. Don’t know how old I was at the time, and all I remember about it was The Black Spot. Scared the living daylights out of me, and had nightmares about it for years. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/25 "2025-08-12T18:29:48Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Big Adventure had Large Marge for your PTSD-inducing needs. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/26 "2025-08-12T18:40:51Z")
I could have sworn the talking couch made an appearance in both. But either way, talking inanimate objects, especially those which are supposed to be perceived as friendly despite the fact that they are creepy, are just the sort of thing that I don’t see as being the least “kid friendly”. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/27 "2025-08-12T18:41:00Z")
First movie was _tom thumb_, but I don’t remember much of it. Same for my second, _Sleeping Beauty_. I do remember seeing _Dinosaurus_, which scared me, especially the tyrannosaurus. But I got over it and thought it was dumb to be scared by light on a screen, so no movie scared me since. At best, they startle me, which pisses me off. The first movie I remember strongly as a kid was _Dr. Strangelove._ I was twelve and thought it was the best movie I’d ever seen (even though I was too young to catch any of the sexual aspects of it). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/28 "2025-08-12T18:48:52Z")
I’m not sure what movie I would have first seen in the theatre. I would have seen _The Fox and the Hound_ and _The Great Muppet Caper_ circa 1981, but I’m sure I would have seen other kiddy movies before that. We went to the movies every so often (every month or two), but I definitely watched way more TV as a kid. The vast majority of the movies I would have seen as a kid would have been on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/29 "2025-08-12T18:57:43Z")
I was born in '66. My parents meant well. I know they did. Having said that, their choice for my first movie was _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. They thought I would love it. It freaked me out completely. To my young eyes, all of these kids (bad as they were) were getting eliminated. They were blowing up to enormous size. They were getting sucked into televisions. I didn’t like any of it and felt sorry for them. But none of that compared to Gene Wilder’s deranged boat trip down the psychedelic river. That scared the hell out of me and we left. Their next choice earned them the “what the hell were you thinking” award. They took me to a little film called _The Legend of Boggy Creek_. It was a bigfoot movie. In one scene, Bigfoot reaches into a bathroom window and yanks some poor sap off the toilet and out the window, never to be seen again. Making matters worse, our home was surrounded by patches of forest. I was pretty sure Bigfoot was going to yank me out of my bedroom window one night. An epic fail on their part. They redeemed themselves with the next two films we saw together, although their choices were still questionable - _Blazing Saddles_ and _Young Frankenstein_. I didn’t get much of the humor, but I still enjoyed them because everyone else in the theater was laughing so much. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/30 "2025-08-12T18:59:11Z")
I’m a car guy, always have been, so I loved all of the early “Herbie” _Love Bug_ movies. At some point, I caught _It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World_ on TV and started reenacting one of the chase scenes\* with my Matchbox cars. \*I would add a video of the scene but I can’t seem to find it. It’s the one with the VW van that tips over. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/31 "2025-08-12T19:04:07Z")
_Forbidden Planet_ is probably the first for me. Interestingly I don’t recall the first time I watched it; the first time gave me mild recurring nightmares about being hunted by The Monster From The Id (not that I knew the name). But I didn’t recognize what it was from, just knew that it was from a movie until I saw _Forbidden Planet_ again and said to myself “Oh, yeah, it was from _that_ movie!” So I don’t _actually_ recall the first time I watched it, but remember remembering watching it the first time. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/32 "2025-08-12T19:05:54Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > I was born in '66. My parents meant well. I know they did. Having said that, their choice for my first movie was _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_. They thought I would love it. It freaked me out completely. To my young eyes, all of these kids (bad as they were) were getting eliminated. They were blowing up to enormous size. They were getting sucked into televisions. I didn’t like any of it and felt sorry for them. But none of that compared to Gene Wilder’s deranged boat trip down the psychedelic river. That scared the hell out of me and we left. I saw that one when I was young as well. I agree with you about the boat trip down the river. That scene still freaks me out, but the rest of the movie was fun. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/33 "2025-08-12T19:30:07Z")
Born in 1967. I’m not sure, but it must have been shown on TV. _Old Yeller_? _The Wizard of Oz_? One I distinctly remember being shown on TV was _Logan’s Run_. That gave me nightmares for a while. I just couldn’t get the Carrousel scene out of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/34 "2025-08-12T20:18:21Z")
Hard to remember because of my fairly advanced years but it might have been _The Absent Minded Professor_ with Fred MacMurray and Keenan Wynne. I hadn’t gotten out much and was dumbfounded with wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/35 "2025-08-12T20:53:13Z")
This happened twice when I was 4 years old: For some reason, when adults had a bunch of 4-year-olds and needed to keep them entertained, they screened _[The Salvage Gang](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169204/)._ I remember it being introduced as an “English” film. Until then, “English” only meant to me the language I spoke. Seeing this film revealed that this time English referred to England. At first, the kids in the film’s accent was hard for me to understand. It was my first time hearing a British accent (aside from the guy who recited A.A. Milne’s “The Changing of Guards at Buckingham Palace” on _Captain Kangaroo,_ but that was enunciated clearly). It didn’t help that the audio quality in those days was poor by today’s standards. The second time I was shown it, I understood the dialogue better. In retrospect, _The Salvage Gang_ was pretty progressive for 1958. The ensemble cast was multiracial and a girl was one of the two main protagonists driving the plot. The first Major Motion Pictures I saw were _Mary Poppins_ and _The Sound of Music_. The latter was my introduction to Nazis and World War II, which my school had not taught yet, I being 5 years old, so my mother had to explain to me what all that black-spider-flag stuff was about on the way back from the theater. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/36 "2025-08-12T21:33:14Z")
I vaguely remember seeing Disney’s 1961 _Babes In Toyland,_ and being a fearful little kid, it scared me. I was five years old. In 1965, I was taken to the drive-in with my parents to see _The Naked Prey_. My mom thought it was a movie about animals in Africa, but it turned out to be a movie about torturing and hunting safari travelers. It made me sick to my stomach and I ralphed up my popcorn. I laid down in the back seat for the rest of the movie so I didn’t have to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/37 "2025-08-12T21:46:02Z")
When I was a kid, we only went to third-run or re-release movie theaters, where you would get a double bill, with a short and a cartoon, because it was cheaper. We only went to movies my parents wanted to see, not kids’ movies, so there was generally a lot of stuff I didn’t understand, but I was happy to sit there with a 10 cent bag of popcorn and watch whatever (this was in the mid to late 50s). So the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Rear Window. This must have been a re-release, it was on a double bill with Not As A Stranger (I remember seeing that name on the poster and wondering what the hell it meant). Rear Window grabbed me when Grace Kelly climbed up into the Thorwald apartment, and didn’t let go until until Jimmy Stewart was pushed out of his apartment window, and fell down with that camera trick that Hitchcock used to such good effect. There was no particular long-term effect that I’m aware of, except I was then hooked on mystery thrillers, especially ones by Hitchcock. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/38 "2025-08-12T22:05:52Z")
I was born in 1953, the youngest of four farm kids. Driving 20 miles to see a movie was a rare and cherished treat. Not sure if this counts, but the first movie i was taken to was White Wilderness, a Disney (I think) movie. The only thing 5-year-old me remembers is walking into the theater and smelling the popcorn. The first movie I remember is Swiss Family Robinson. Of course, the only scene that I can really recall is the early shipwreck. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/39 "2025-08-12T22:34:41Z")
I was born in 1969, in New Zealand, and lived in a small village in the country, a fair distance from the nearest town, so movie-going was not a regular thing, it was kept to the holiday breaks from school that regularly occurred through the year. That was when the kids movies were properly scheduled, and you’d try to go with all your school friends to make it an event. Basically it was a scheduling nightmare across multiple parents with free days and available cars. The earliest movies I can remember were things like **Snow White** and **Bambi** and **For The Love Of Benji**. I can also remember **Pete’s Dragon** and **Freaky Friday**. Very ordinary kids fare. I don’t recall being traumatised by anything, but I was very tolerant of dark creepy stuff from the weird shows on TV so those didn’t bother me much anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980/40 "2025-08-12T23:16:26Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Born in 1967. > > I’m not sure, but it must have been shown on TV. _Old Yeller_? _The Wizard of Oz_? > > One I distinctly remember being shown on TV was _Logan’s Run_. That gave me nightmares for a while. I just couldn’t get the Carrousel scene out of my head. Those were TV, as mentioned. In the theater, I recall seeing _Island at the Top of the World_, _The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams_, and _Escape to Witch Mountain_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-first-movies-you-remember-seeing-as-a-child-and-how-did-they-affect-you/1021980.md?page=3)