Day 6 -- The Nostalgia Monster

Today the Queen and I woke up, dressed the Princess, fed the Princess, dropped the Princess off at pre-school, and promptly went to the nearest movie theater to see Disney's Frozen.  The movie rocked my socks and I urge everyone with eyeballs to go to the nearest cinema right now and demand to see it.  It's best if you all organize and go out angry mob style, as angry mobs seem to get crap done.  However, according to Fandango, there's plenty of theaters showing Frozen at a plethora of show times, so an angry mob probably isn't necessary.  You all could car pool.  It's not angry, but it would help save Mother Earth or something.

Before the feature film, Disney did its thing and offered up a new animated short.  The short featured Micky Mouse in a mashup of new and old, where black and white Micky morphs into 3D modern Micky and then he switches back and forth.  That kinda sounds like I'm hopped up on goofballs, but the effect ended up to look pretty cool and reminded me of how the real world blended with the animated in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Roger Rabbit made me think of 1988.  And 1988 Made me think of Pee Wee Herman. And Pee Wee made me nostalgic for the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES to its homies).  Then I had to mentally kick my own ass.

The unholy act in which you think the past is so much better than now is such a fools errand, and one that we all do.  Especially if you're over 25, the urge to think that the toys, movies and TV shows you grew up with beat all others that have ever been made since.  Dwell in nostalgia enough and you will start to utter phrases like, "Why don't they make shows like Cheers anymore?" or "Our kids will never get to know the joy of plastic charm necklaces."  Once you think that nothing good in culture has come to pass since Ace of Base, you're too far gone to help.

We tend to only remember the good, but that thinking gets us modern movies like The Smurfs and a remake of Footloose.  Indiana Jones sequels, Star Wars prequels, and a New Kids on the Block reunion that could only have been forged in Hell.  People complain that Hollywood is out of ideas and insist on shoving reboots down our throats, but then scour the internet on the 800 fan pages for Back to the Future.

I try and qualm my nostalgistic tendencies by not only reliving those joys in my childhood, but balancing them by also focusing on the tragedies.  For instance, for every Cheers, there are just as many Tortellis.  For every Roger Rabbit, there's a Caddyshack II.  For every Wham! there was the Reynold's Girls.  Don't get me started on the Inhumanoids, Rock Lords and the Barnyard Commandos.

Besides, once you actually indulge the nostalgia, you find out that the very objects that you hold dear actually suck.  A few years ago, I got giddy that Namco re-released Techmo Bowl.  After shelling out $15 of my hard earned money, I actually picked up a control and played.  After ten minutes, I found out that I mastered the art of going right and up.  Haven't played it since, but I do have the new copy of Madden 25, which is awesome...

So, where was I.  Oh yeah, Frozen was great.  You should see it.  It's about sisters and a talking snowman.

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