back to the eighties

My five-year-old daughter has fallen in love with the movie Back to the Future, without quite understanding it. I've never felt too strongly pro or con about it. I'm sure I saw it in the theater when it first came out. But I was always a little icked-out about the Oedipal/Shmedipal aspect. As the viewer is supposed to be, of course, but still - ick. But I am getting a huge kick out of trying to explain time travel to my daughter and try to gauge how much of the concept and plot is getting through to her.

The bottom line is that she loves Michael J. Fox's character, especially when he hitches a ride on his skateboard (great...) and she just loves the overall confusing-ness of the whole thing. "Why were there two Martys? That Doc must be pretty smart to invent that car. Why was his dad afraid of Darth Vader?" I envision having to record or tape this one soon - whichever ends up being easiest.

Maybe I can get her into some other fun films involving time travel fare: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Galaxy Quest, Time Bandits, Groundhog Day Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Time After Time, Les Visiteurs, Austin Powers in Goldmember, The House in the Square

And for when she's much, much older: Twelve Monkeys, Warlock.

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