narnia – By the Brooke

The title tells it all. I’m gonna do this on a 1-10 scale. This is 100% a whim but I figured it make a fun post. I am such a huge sucker for nostalgia and, when going through this list, I found that I still have a very warm place in my heart for all these things. For context, I was born in 2002 and, consequently, was raised in this weird era where I wasn’t quiiiite a 90’s kid but I still, largely, enjoyed 90’s kids trends. It’s a weird mix.

1. Horses

Or, more specifically, magical ones. I wasn’t quite a weird horse girl but I still greatly enjoyed wasting hours playing a horse themed trading card game called “Bella Sara”. Anyone remember that? The site has long since shut down but I ADORED this game and still have some of the trading cards to this day.

My horse love grew when I eventually came to own one. I live on a farm and when I was about 10 or so, my parents bought me and my sister a few horses. This hobby was something I greatly enjoyed however my favorite horse, Abby, died under not so unpleasant circumstances (she was an older horse and had some health problems as a result). This didn’t entirely ruin my love of horses but I think my horse phase really diminished after that.

I didn’t mean to dampen the mood….sorry. Here’s a Bella Sara mood board to lighten it!

But let’s not forget the rating! I’d still give this childhood obsession a 8/10 despite the traumatic horse death though that does bring it down a point.

2. Webkinz

Okay, full disclosure, I definitely have Webkinz installed on my laptop. It’s like the only other thing I use it for besides writing and college homework. This game has stood the test of time. It’s so much fun to play with my virtual pets and still enjoy a sweet air of nostalgia. The plush pets that this company sold were super cute too and I still have a lot of mine from my former years. Spoiler alert, this one is going to get a near perfect rating because I STILL enjoy it to this day. This obsession was entirely understandable. Webkinz is so charming, even now, years down the road!

This obsession obviously gets a 10/10 rating. Go play Webkinz right now, I dare you.

3. Fairies

Disney fairies especially. This obsession began when I got “The Tinkerbell Movie” for Christmas. These movies were so magical, my grade school self couldn’t help but admire them. I instantly wished I was a fairy and went about collecting tiny little fairy figurines. I would arrange these and play with them in my own little “Pixie Hollow” for hours on end. I still have this figurines in my closet, carefully tucked away as they are some of my most valuable possesions.

And since it seems to be an ongoing theme that these obsessions would be further kindled by online games, this obsession was no different. There was a little Disney Fairy themed MMO called Disney Fairies where you could create your own fairy, pick your talent, fly around and play games, and decorate your own house. It was an absolute tragedy when the site eventually shut down.

This obsession might be one of my favorites even if it hasn’t exactly stood the test of time as the franchise has been winding down the past couple of years. They stopped making movies and with the shut down of the website, I find it an awful shame that all that is left of this joy of mine are my little figurines which are definitely not manufactured anymore.

9/10. It was gone way too soon. You will be missed Disney Fairies.

4. The Chronicles of Narnia

Ahhhh… such a classic. I loved these books. Though I’d be lying if I told you the books were my introduction to “The Chronicles of Narnia”. It was but the Disney Movie “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” that captured my 7 year old heart. I wanted to be Lucy soooo badly. I wanted to stumble into a wardrobe and find a magical world where animals could talk. I wanted to fight in battles and go exploring and eat Turkish Delight (even though in real life, it’s actually not that good? The Narnian stuff must be something different because I swear it looked delicious in this movie).

It was such a shame when they stopped making the Narnia Movies. Despite not exactly being true to the books, I GREATLY enjoyed Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader though I was much older when these movies came out. Though if I’m being entirely honest, at age 20, I still want to find a magical world in a closet.

Maybe someday I’ll dedicate a whole post to these movies. They really deserve it. But, until then, I’ll just have to leave this childhood obsession with the rating of 10/10. Still a classic. Read the books. Watch the movies. Cry about your childhood lost.

5. DRAGONS

Alright, so originally that was going to be where I was going to end this post. But then I recalled a memory. A deep memory….

DRAGONS.

This was a relatively shorter phase than any of the others listed but it definitely still existed. I can’t exactly tell you how this obsession started but I think it was definitely punctuated by the books in the series called “The Dragon Codices”. Overall, this phase consisted of me wanting to find a dragon egg, hatch it, and ride it around How to Train your Dragon Style. I also drew a lot of dragon pictures. I mean, a lot.

I would rank this phase a solid 7/10. It’s lower than the others because it was so short-lived but I still enjoyed the world of dragons greatly. And I definitely wouldn’t say “no” to any merchant who offered my a dragon’s egg.

And there! I think we’ve covered the bulk of my childhood obsessions… *thinks for 10 seconds more* okay, that’s a lie. We still haven’t covered my Lord of the Rings phase or my Wizard phase (WIZARD phase. NOT Harry Potter, I must iterate). And there was my mini phase where I made Rise of the Guardian OC’s… ugh, cringe. Okay, I was lying. We’re not done. But I need to go eat supper so I think that will do it for today. Definitely be warned though… a part 2 may be in the future…. beware traveler. Beware.

Hey there! Aaaaand we’re still snowed in. But, on the bright side, that leaves me more time for blogging and writing and such. So here’s a little post about my favorite movies. It’s short and sweet because I limited myself to five movies (otherwise we’d probably be here for ages).

Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

This one takes the #1 spot being my entire childhood. The only thing I love more than Lord of the Rings & Tolkien quotes is Narnia & C.S. Lewis quotes. In summary, these two authors made my childhood as did the director of this movie. Though I must clarify, the disney version. There is a British version floating around out there with a…. smaller budget resulting in a slightly… different cinematic experience.

To summarize, this Disney Movie is my most favorite move. I love everything about it. Everyone felt perfectly cast, the music in phenomenal, the animal characters are loveable, Aslan is grand, and the redemptive story of Edmund holds so much weight.

A solid 10/10 movie. I still want to be Lucy when I grow up.

2. The Lord of the Rings Movies

And here is where I sing the Praises of Peter Jackson. He did what seemed impossible- condensed down the enormous works of Tolkien into three wonderful movies that tell a cohesive and developed story that I find myself continually coming back to.

I sort of cheated here as these are technically three movies but I couldn’t pick a favorite among them as they tell one continuous story and each one is masterfully done and has its own strengths in their own rights.

These movies probably have my favorite soundtrack ever, my favorite fight sequences, and some of my favorite characters. My only complaints are Frodo’s character felt a bit off compared to the book and the Frodo and Sam parts sometimes felt like they slogged on too long (or perhaps that was the intention as we were supposed to feel the weight of their looooong journey with them?).

Overall a 9.8457/10.

3. Aladdin

The best disney princess movie that is not actually about the disney princess. Not really. Robin Williams is perfectly cast, the song “A Whole New World” is iconic and probably will be for a very, very long time and rightly so.

9.7/10

4. Star Wars: The Original Trilogy

Yeah, I’m going to cheat again. This is technically three movies but again, just like with Star Wars, its hard to pick a favorite out of these movies (though if you forced me, I’d probably have to say “The Empire Strikes” back but I could easily change my mind at any time. The ranking is that close).

Another iconic and phenomenal soundtrack. Lovably corny CGI effects and all, I love this movie. The writing is amazing and the story so full of hope. I know its simple in structure. A typical good vs. evil struggle but when you pair that with the sci-fi elements that, until that point, had never really been implemented on a big screen (with some exceptions with Star Trek but that was a show and was so stylistically and tonally different, I don’t really see them as that similar).

I grew up watching these which unfortunately led me to having a really high bar as to the level of writing I accept in my Star Wars films so I’m not a huge Disnified Star Wars fan. But, regardless, these movies continue to have a place in my heart.

9.68/10

5. Toy Story

One of Pixar’s crowning glory movies. Sure, this movies animation hasn’t aged that well. Their character models for humans were lacking (Andy may or may not look like a crackhead) but it makes sense for the time period it was in and definitely set a precedent for future CGI Animated movies. Woody & Buzz are THE iconic duo.

9.5/10

And that concludes my list although I could rant about my childhood movies for much longer. Thanks for reading and see you readers later!