Addendum to Your Inner Teenager

A quick update regarding nostalgia and its effects on quality:

One thing that I'm amazed by is the fact that Disney cartoons are amazingly consistent in this regard. Say what you want about Disney's efforts during certain eras of cartoonery, but each of their full-length cartoons is as good now as it ever was, with very little degradation resulting from adult hindsight. This is amazing when you consider how many films are in the Disney animated stable.

Of course the same holds true for the studio's more mediocre efforts -- Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Oliver and Company will always be the weak sisters of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. And the live action Disney films are all over the place; they don't seem to carry whatever Disney magic provides immunity to the animated fare.

Of course some adults may not want to let others know that they still watch Treasure Planet a few times a year. But social embarrassment is obviously not the same thing as personal opinions of quality. And, you know, that's just one more great thing about having kids. Chances are favorite movies from your own childhood will pop up pretty regularly, without you having to suggest it.

One more thing to note -- so far, Disney's genius offspring, Pixar, has yet to make a single misstep. Sure, Cars and A Bug's Life may not be the same caliber as Finding Nemo or Toy Story, but they're all damn good movies. Pixar studios started with Disney, then split, and now have come back under the umbrella, but all that moving around hasn't changed the high quality of their story-telling or animation. So far it looks like the magic's rubbed off on them, too.