Memories From Childhood, Part VI

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)

I remember watching this at a friends house (before I'd seen anything else by Terry Gilliam) and really enjoying it. It hada lot of famous actors for being a relatively unnoticed film, such as John Neville , Robin Williams, Uma Thurman, Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, & Johnathan Pryce. It was a very nice mix of fantasy, history (a very small part), and comedy. Fun for children and adults (at least the ones that can catch the innuendos, etc.). Definitely a recommended film!

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001)

This is one of my favorite Zelda games, other than Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening. Paired with Oracle of Ages...not sure if they had been planning this for a while, or if they were following GameFreak's model with the Pokemon games. I think they pulled it off, since my brother and best friends got different versions and played together. Spent many an hour playing this, and enjoyed every minute of it. Still not as good as Link's Awakening, but most handheld versions aren't- especially with the direction they're going now with games like Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks. 

Transformers: Beast Wars (1996-1999)

Didn't watch this show very much, but it sticks in my memory as one of the few iterations of Transformers I actually like (other than Michael Bay's first Transformers movie). I'm pretty sure the reason why I liked it was because they transformed into animals instead of lame things like trucks and such. Remember that the voice acting wasn't that great...then again, most animated kid's shows don't have very good voice acting (with some exceptions... like Scooby Doo & Spongebob).

The Redwall series- Brian Jacques

I really love this book series. One of the best fantasy children's series out there. Period. It's too bad that Brian Jacques passed away earlier this year. Most of my favorite authors are dead now (J.R.R.Tolkien, Michael Crichton, Brian Jacques, Robert Jordan, & C.S. Lewis)... the only ones left are Terry Goodkind, R.A. Salvatore, & Anne McCaffrey! At this point, I've read all but 4 of them (Eulalia!, Doomwyte, The Sable Queen, & The Rogue Crew), and there hasn't been one yet that I haven't liked. There are definitely ones I prefer over others, but all of them are good. I really like Lord Brocktree, Rakkety Tam, Salamandastron, High Rhulain, and The Pearls of Lutra (Badgers and Otters are my favorites). My all-time favorite would have to be Lord Brocktree though. You have to let your kids read these books! Just be prepared for them to be hungry after reading them-  Jacques goes all-out when describing meals and feasts! :)