Let me take you back to a very particular place in time. It’s the early 2000s, you’re around 8 years old and you live in a small British town with nothing to occupy your mind. Then, you discover DVDs and the world of cinema.
When I was growing up, I wasn’t interested in socialising or going to birthday parties. All I wanted to do was watch films. Discovering DVDs was life changing. You mean I can go to a shop, pick out any film I like the look of, take it home and then watch it over and over again? My mind was blown! Whether it was raiding my parent’s collection or going to car boot sales and charity shops to find my own, DVD’s were a big part of my upbringing. When I think of my childhood in the early 2000s, I vividly remember watching three films on loop, day in day out, and these three films help shape the person I am today.
I know many people my age will think fondly of the 2009 Wes Anderson classic, Fantastic Mr Fox. I certainly remember watching this film on repeat for months on end. Like all kids, I loved the bright and bold visual style and colourful aesthetic, I loved the stop motion animation, but I think there was something much deeper that I connected to at such a young age. A clear theme in Wes Anderson’s filmography is the feeling of being an outsider, and not quite fitting in because of your quirks, and Fantastic Mr Fox is a perfect display of this. As a child, I probably didn’t realise why I related so much to the characters and this core theme of the film, but all these years later it makes perfect sense. I was struggling with undiagnosed autism, struggling with friendships and fitting in, searching for my identity, and Fantastic Mr Fox allowed me to acknowledge the idea that it is ok to be different, and difference is not a bad thing to have. 
I think by watching this film so often at such a young age, I unknowingly reassured myself that there was something different about me compared to other kids my age, and that was totally alright. Cinema can be such a powerful art form, and children’s films are absolutely essential in helping young people find their identity and discover things about the world and how people can be. To this day I am a huge Wes Anderson fan, though I have now grown up and discovered that I relate more to The Royal Tenenbaums than a film about foxes, but that love never would have been sparked if not for Fantastic Mr Fox.
The next film that I remember being completely obsessed with is Richard Linklater’s School of Rock. I do not know anyone my age who doesn’t absolutely love School of Rock. Thanks to my parents having great music taste, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of superiority when 7-year-old me was watching the film and understanding all of the music references and jokes. The rewatch value of this film is through the roof; I have probably seen School of Rock over 100 times and it never get
s old. Such a witty script, and Jack Black’s performance is such a standout. Not only did the film inspire me to learn guitar and really engage in music and performing arts, but it also was my first introduction to the work of Richard Linklater. An incredible filmmaker with a fantastic filmography, his ‘Before Trilogy’ quickly became a very important trio of films to me as an adult, which I may never have discovered if it wasn’t for my love of School of Rock. But just like Fantastic Mr Fox, School of Rock is a film about an outsider struggling to find himself and find a community that shares his values, which is exactly how I was feeling in my youth. It isn’t a surprise that I found such comfort in these films, as I found them so relatable and they gave me reassurance that everyone has a place to fit in, no matter how different they are.
The third and probably most notable film that helped form my childhood, is The Mummy (1999). I can vividly remember being so enraptured by the film. Along with Indiana Jones, The Mummy inspired my childhood dream of becoming an archaeologist. My love of ancient history was sparked by this film, and is largely to blame for me doing a degree with The Open University in Art History and Classical Studies. The adv
enture mixed with the horror and special effects, not to mention the gorgeous Brendan Fraser and stunning Rachel Weisz in starring roles – what’s not to love? I was pretty young when I first watched The Mummy, maybe around 7 years old. I would religiously watch it on DVD, and remember being so excited by it. One of my earliest memories is the day where I discovered that my DVD had a 15 BBFC age rating and feeling as though seven year old me had committed a crime by watching a ‘grown up’ film. Hilarious in hindsight but at the time I felt devastated! However, nothing could stop me from replaying that DVD. It has made me think about how age ratings are quite pointless nowadays when it comes to streaming. Children can watch anything and everything, largely unmonitored on streaming services, and they’ll never have the memories of watching their first 15 or 18 rated movie. It’s a shame that that excitement has been lost.
Watching films at a young age is absolutely essential, and the act of physically buying and holding a DVD really helped me to connect with films in a deeper way than mindlessly scrolling through Netflix for hours and clicking on a random film because it has an interesting thumbnail. Many Millennials and older Gen Zs will have such nostalgia for DVDs, and everyone will think fondly of the films they watched as a child. The media we consume in our early years tends to be what sticks with us for life. We are completely shaped by the films we watch, and I hope kids continue to be inspired by movies, visual storytelling and trips to the cinema.
Nothing was better than being a child in the early 2000s and discovering a world of movies physically at your fingertips. Simply put: you had to be there!
I was chatting to a friend of mine recently about one of my all time favourite films, Withal and I. He had never seen it so I told him I would lend him the dvd. To my absolute shock he said he doesn’t own a DVD player! Now this isn’t someone who dislikes films, he watches them frequently and we’ve been to the cinema together. It turns out he streams all his films and doesn’t have any DVDs anymore as he felt they were obsolete. There seemed something so sad about that as I still get a thrill when I’m deciding what to watch, going through my disks and finding something I had forgotten I had, or haven’t watched since I was a teenager. Similarly the recent discovery that most people don’t have CD players anymore and use streaming sites for music stunned me. There is something surely missing if you don’t have that physical media, and rely on a streaming service exclusively. It’s great to see an account of someone else who loves the DVD format as much as me!
thanks for your comment! it baffles me how many people no longer own dvd players. most laptops now dont even have a cd player in them anymore! Withnail and I is a fantastic film, loooove paul mcgann!
I have dozens of DVDs from my time living in California. We brought them all with us when we came to England but we didn’t bring the DVD player. Everything we watch these days is streamed.
When I was growing up in the 70s, DVDs had not yet been invented — not even VHS. It often took years for a film to make it from the cinema to the TV, so the only way to watch a movie was to go to the cinema, which I did often. Jaws, Grease, Rocky, Love Story,, Life of Brian, Saturday Night Fever, Apocolypse Now. I saw them all at the cinema. I used to take the bus with my friend Gemma and we’d watch them all together.
I lived in California when The Mummy came out and the theme park, Universal Studios, in Hollywood had.a ride based on The Mummy. It was the main attraction, and a lot of fun! My kids loved it.