Early influences
I was ecstatic when I saw Super Mario Bros. was on TV a week ago. It’s been sitting at the bottom of my Netflix queue for years, never seeming worth a disk. But I remember really liking the movie as a kid, and I wanted to see how it held up as an adult.
Eh…. It held up okay! Ha ha!
What really stuck out to me though, was a scene where Princess Daisy declines a plate of meat. She says, “I am a vegetarian, I don’t eat anything with a face.”*
It stuck out to me because I remember really thinking about that line, when I first heard it, as a kid. The movie came out in 1993, when I was nine. I wonder if it’s one of the first times I started thinking about vegetarianism (while I always loved animals, I wasn’t one of those kids refusing to eat meat when I was little – at least that I know).
Then this weekend, Raptorfest was on AMC – showings of all three Jurassic Park movies in a row!** I actually didn’t watch the first one, but thinking about it, I remembered that Lex Murphy’s character is a vegetarian. She says “I happen to be a vegetarian!” and her brother teases her about which dinosaurs are vegetarians. (And there is a scene of her eating jello, which is NOT vegetarian, but we all know that’s just because jello jiggles when dinos are near.)
This movie also came out in 1993 – and those “vegetarian” comments also stuck with me. The point of including them was probably to make fun of vegetarians, but they made me curious.
I didn’t become vegetarian until I was sixteen. When people ask me why, I sometimes jokingly say it’s because I worked at McDonald’s, but that’s not really true. It was something I’d thought about doing before, because of my love for animals, and I’d been spending more time around a vegetarian then, and felt encouraged to give it a try.
Mostly unrelated photo of me as a shift manager at McDonald’s in 2001… ha ha. Didn’t want to “borrow” a movie image off the internet, so you get this lovely photo.
And watching these movies reminded me that seeing characters I perceived as strong females, who were vegetarian, encouraged me to think about it. I’m surprised I had forgotten about this! I wonder what other early influences would be jolted if I watched other movies from my youth. Luckily, nothing came to me when we watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1990 version) I or II earlier this year, ha ha.
Can you remember any specific movie influences from your youth? What are they?
*Then you see the Goomba very sweetly get her a plate of steamed vegetables, only to be torched in the hallway by some bad guys, while holding the vegetables! Luckily they put out the fire.
**The first one ended and I said to Steven – “I wish they’d show all three!” Then the second one started and I checked the TV guide and “OMG IT’S LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE! Mario Bros. last week and now this?!???” <— now you see why I have so much time to knit while I sit on the couch watching high quality movies from my youth.
Themocracy
The Mighty Ducks franchise is fresh in my mind. Lately I heard someone ask what are those and I felt so old!
It’s funny how some things click and connect for some folks and not others. I remember being freaked out by my parents picking meat from a bone as a kid, and the older I got I just stopped eating meat because I couldn’t get that image out of my head lol
I am cracking up at how old you were in 1993 – I was a mom with a three year old, I am really old…
So you are a vegetarian? Why did I not pick up on this before? 🙂
You are not really old. Just older than me!
I have been a vegetarian for a long time, but different stages of strictness. Mostly because certain things just do not appeal to me. I was having a hard time with balances in blood work and the doctor really wanted to me to start eating eggs, tuna, and a few other things. I didn’t eat eggs for years, but now I eat them several times a week, and after 20 years of not having a bite a meat, I’ve have tried a few times this year, so I guess technically I’ve lost my status, but I still feel like one.
My husband put the Mario Bros movie on the other night when it was on! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it but he mentioned that his dad took him to see it in theater. I didn’t pay attention to it but I did catch that vegetarian line.
It’s so fun to re-watch things that I liked when I was a kid now – sometimes they hold up, but sometimes they’re SO cheesy! Examples: I used to LOVE the show Alf when I was a kid (I was allowed to stay up half an hour past my bedtime on Mondays to watch it). I saw it on cable a couple years back, watched and could not for the life of me figure out why I thought it was so great. It was okay, but so hokey.
The only movie influence that comes to mind is the movie Singles, which came out in 1991 or 1992 I think. It was set in grunge-era Seattle, and it made me want to move to the Pacific NW. Which I’m finally doing! 🙂
I haven’t seen either of those! I at least know who Alf is, ha ha. That is awesome you are now fulfilling your 1991 dream. Hee hee.
I think they’re both ever-so-slightly ahead of your time 😉
Everything by John Hughes – Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club…. also Clerks (that is where I am from ;)) And yes I am OLD.
I think I’ve got a future vegetarian/vegan in my 9 year old. She won’t eat pork because of her love for pigs. And when she puts together in her mind what meats come from what animals, she stops eating. It’s fascinating to watch.
Yeah! It’s amazing that kids make the connection! (because honestly, I know some adults who seem so to be really mis-informed about where their food comes from. Ha ha, they realize they are eating a dead animal, but not so much how they are treated, etc.)
So interesting that those lines resonated with you even before you decided to become vegetarian/vegan! I don’t know if there’s a movie that resonates with me like that, but I know that I have fond memories of The Princess Bride. Although, I don’t even remember the first time I saw it!
I don’t think I’ve seen any of the Super Mario Bros. movie, but I know what you’re talking about. Do you think it would have held up if you hadn’t seen it as a kid? (I just watched “The Goonies” for the first time last year, and I was like UGH THIS IS THE WORST!! But then I still really like “Hook” from my childhood. I think it’s partially nostalgia that makes a movie hold up or not for me.)
I’m sure there are movies that stuck with me and maybe got me thinking about things, but now I can’t think of any! The other day I was thinking about how I have a lot of random opinions about things that I got from TERRIBLE TEEN MAGAZINES that are basically mind poison. Ughhh, looking back, I wish I hadn’t read them because they were such garbage and probably influenced me negatively in ways I don’t even realize! Good thing you can pinpoint these movies as positively influencing you!
“Are they…meat-a-sauruses?”
I’ve watched movies from Steven’s childhood and have NOT liked them. So I think I did have to see movies like that as a kid to appreciate them now, ha!
Oh gosh, I read all that garbage, too! Isn’t it horrible?! At least we realize it now 🙂
Ha ha ha! Are you gonna see Jurassic World?