Hi guys it's Debbie. Today I'm having a rather nostalgic day so I'd like to
share with you a piece of my childhood. As a 90s child I obviously grew up with
VHSs, the noisy bulky predecessors of DVDs. As most families at the time we had
a huge cupboard in our living room packed to the brim with these beauties
and at each Christmas or birthday my brothers and I would receive the
latest Disney box-office hit to add to our collection. Now over 20 years
later most of these beauties have been trashed because of aged, faulty tapes or
been given to charities or libraries because of the little use they received.
But some of them have survived over the years and as my parents still have a VHS
reader some of them are still used up to date. So today I would like you to join
me in this trip down memory lane. Now don't expect all of my VHSs to be those
cool, retro, vintage ones with cardboard boxes and neon logos you would
usually find on Tumblr. As a matter of fact some of them actually date to the
early 2000s, so around 15 years ago. But to me they still represent a part of my
childhood I would like to share with you. Now the first VHS is I would like to
show you are some of our childhood favourites, the first of which is "The Iron
Giant", the 1999 film set in the 50s in which a robot from space lands on earth,
makes friends with an American kid and learns everything about our society,
including even the worst aspects such as war, weapons and death, teaching
humans what humanity really is. I think this is actually one of the few films in
this collection which is actually in Italian rather than English, as you can
see here it is "Il Gigante di Ferro". I think the other ones are all in English.
In any case this film made both children and adults
cry and laugh for nearly 2 decades because it includes hilarious scenes which will
make kids laugh but at the same time it contains serious topics which will keep
adults glued to the screen. I'll probably do a complete and separate review about
this film in the future. Another one of our childhood favourites was "The
Incredibles", the 2004 animated film about your normal, common, suburban family whose
members secretly display a series of superpowers,
such as enhanced speed or strength, invisibility and so on. It follows the
family's normal day-to-day activities and struggles
as well as obviously saving the world. This film is absolutely hilarious with
scenes which will appeal to the kids but also with other scenes of subtle
humour which will only be understood at an older age and which still make this
film great to watch as adults. My next most watched childhood film is "Mulan",
the 1998 story of the young woman which decides to pretend to be a man, she
disguises herself as a warrior to enter the army. I remember being very attached
to this film because it was my first personal VHS and I also had the board
game from the same franchise, so I was obviously very proud of this. Both
"The Incredibles" and "Mulan" will have sequels in the close future: "The Incredibles 2" will
be released as an animated film next year, whereas "Mulan" will be a
live-action film in 2019. The third most watched VHS during our childhood was
obviously "Toy Story" from 1995. This film speaks of a group of live, speaking toys
which get involved in all sorts of adventures, while trying to not be caught
by humans. The team of toys included sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks),
Mr. Potato Head and astronaut Buzz Lightyear, which all then became physical
toys you could buy in stores, along with all sorts of other
merchandise. "Toy Story" is probably one of the most famous computer animated films
from the 90s and it later became "Toy Story 2", "Toy Story 3" (which I still haven't
seen yet) and in the close future it should also become "Toy Story 4". This
edition I have is called "special collector's edition" because it also
contains a mini documentary about the behind-the-scenes of how the film was
actually created. Then I would like to quickly skip through some of the VHSs
which look like this, so basically just blank VHSs which you can tape
on. So in my mom's handwriting we have in order 1997 "Titanic", then we have 1964
"Mary Poppins", then we have a very 90s "Forrest Gump". Then in my dad's
handwriting we have a simple "Alice" which I imagine means "Alice in Wonderland".
Now moving on to box sets we have two "Star Wars" box sets, the first of which
is this black and gold one, this beautiful black and gold one, with Darth
Vader on the side. And it contains the original
trilogy, so covering from 1977 to 1983. So it comes out this way and
it includes the first film so "Star Wars", the original one from 1977, then we have "The
Empire Strikes Back" and then we have "The Return of the Jedi". There you go, very 90s
looking. And so basically they come in this gold cover like this and I think this
edition is from 1997, let me just check... Yes 1997, and it also comes with a
special behind-the-scenes documentary and interview with the director. Now the
second "Star Wars" set is not so fancy because as you can see it's a bit broken
and it's missing its front cover and also as you can tell there is the third
film missing, which I think my brother has left inside the actual VHS reader.
Anyway here we have "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and we should
also obviously have "Revenge of the Sith". We also have a "Lord of the Rings" trilogy
so it looks like this.. and so we have "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two
Towers" and "The Return of the King". And these VHS are
actually kept in exceptionally good state for not having a protective outside
cover and for being just like this, they're actually not so ruined. They were
actually (I think if I'm not mistaken) given to us by some family friends
before they moved back to the UK, so they left them here in Italy with us.
Unfortunately I don't think this set contained any additional bonus material,
I've never looked but I'm pretty sure it doesn't... ah no it only says on "The
Return of the King" bonus The Lord of the Rings trilogy super trailer,
but I don't think there was anything else apart from the films on this. In any
case a very special thing to keep. I actually have a very clear memory of
watching the first chapter so "The Fellowship of the Ring" at my grandparents'
house in England and I remember very clearly I was sitting on the mat on the
floor and had started to get really uncomfortable after a while and I don't
know why after so many years I still have that very clear memory,
and I was thinking how oddly fascinating the human mind can be, all the thoughts
it creates. Anyway, let's see what's next... The next film is "Jumanji", one of the most
iconic films of the 90s. It is from 1995 and it speaks of an enchanted board game
that when played has effects on the outside world, so for example it can
release animals or certain people or it can even create certain environments.
This could actually represent one of those cool, retro cassettes I was talking
about, see look at this very 90s logo and like the bad graphics on the front. Ignore
all the sticky mess here from an old sticker. In December of this year, so in a
few months the sequel to "Jumanji" will be released under the name "Jumanji: Welcome
to the Jungle" and its cast will include Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Black and
Kevin Hart. And now... more Disney films! The last cartoon VHSs which survived the years
and many children's hands are "The Jungle Book" and then we have "The Aristocats",
"Finding Nemo" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Oh and then "101 Dalmatians", I was
forgetting about this one. I actually just realised that as a matter of fact
"The Aristocats", "Atlantis" and "101 Dalmatians" are actually in Italian. You know I
saying before I only thought that "The Iron Giant" was in Italian but also these are.
Anyway although I've seen these films way more than once, the only two out of
all of these last cartoon VHSs that I can really consider good childhood
memories, are "The Jungle Book" and "Atlantis". I mean I enjoyed watching them
all but the ones I watched most and I really really enjoyed were "The Jungle Book"
and "Atlantis". I'm trying to get through this quite fast because there's so much
stuff I would like to say about each film and I'm really trying to rush through
and there's such little time. Now let's take a look at some classics, the first
of which is "The Sound of Music" the 1965 film set in the 30s in Austria
with an unconventional nun, Maria, which ends up being the governess of a large
and wealthy families, the Von Trapps. At first Maria and the seven children just
get into a series of misfortunes and adventures, but then thanks to Maria's
happy nature and her love for music and
singing, they form a tight bond and get on really well together.
But remember: 1930s Austria, where the Nazi regime had complete control. I saw
this film multiple times as a child but I obviously couldn't understand this last
aspect, so it took me quite a few years to see past just the happy singing and
fun situations. This specific VHS is from 1994 and by the looks of it, see here, I
think it is also part of a collection, I think it's supposed to be part of a
collection of films. The last VHSs I would like to speak about were actually
of my brother's property as he used to be a huge Spider-Man fan. And as a matter of
fact they are "Spider-Man" (the 2002 Spider-Man) and its sequel "Spider-Man 2"
and I'm pretty sure we have "Spider-Man 3" in DVD somewhere around the house. These are
the films with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and then there's Kirsten
Dunst, James Franco and there was still Doc Ock and Goblin. I've seen this film so
many times because my brother was such a huge Spider-Man fan and I'm pretty sure
we still have quite a lot of Spidey merch around the house. So this was all
that was left from our old original cassette collection, I'm pretty pleased
that there are so many VHSs which have stayed over the years and I'm pleased that we have
kept so many of them. And as many of them are really really good I'll probably, as
I was saying before, do some complete, standalone, separate reviews for some of
them. So also let me know what you would like to hear me speaking about. I hope
you enjoyed this video, if you did make sure to subscribe for more movie-related
content. See you soon, bye!
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