Who was born in the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80´s, can be considered a part of the xennials generation. They were children who took advantage of a significant change in technology and culture, all around the world. If previously they used to play a video game console called “Telejogo” launched in Brazil to play “Pong”, in this generation they could enjoy with their friends the consoles “Atari” and “Odyssey”. They used to listen to pop music and their parents' records, and watch the famous TV Show from TV Globo, “Show da Xuxa” and “Bozo”, from SBT. It was a different time, but unforgettable, the children and young adult movies of Hollywood were presented, and are remembered until today.
We used to watch these films with our family and friends. The movie theater's lines stretched for blocks. With the VHS tapes we waited anxiously to see them again on the VCR, and asked the video store attendant if the movie we wanted was already launched and if it were available to rent. In the beginning the tape boxes weren't placed on the shelves. Some cards were disposable so we could read the film sinopse to know the story and choose the one to watch in our homes. We used to take two, three tapes for the weekend, to watch it while eating popcorn and drinking Coca-Cola.
We can say that the 80's decade can be considered the Golden Era of children's movies in Hollywood. Adventure and fantasy were the genres that the kids most enjoyed. These xenilalls can be contemplated as a lucky generation. The stories they watched became an important legacy, which influenced children and, in a way, made them the adults they are today. Most of the cinematographic productions of the time had kids playing the protagonists and heroes of the movies. Mystery, discoveries, and dangers, found by the characters, left all the people of the theaters amazed, rooting for the final income.
One of the biggest box office hits of the 80´s was the movie Goonies (1985), a kind of Indiana Jones for kids. It was directed by Richard Donner, with a script by Stephen Spielberg. In the story, a group of kids search for a lost treasure owned by a pirate in the region they lived. That was the way they found to save their homes, which would be sold to an unscrupulous businessman who wanted to transform it into a golf field. They fight with some bumbling mobsters, and go for a journey of adventure, suspense and mystery. The movie was a world success that resonates in the minds of the people who lived in the 80's until today.
Steven Spielberg is really a cinema master, who seduced an entire generation. Another movie with tremendous success in the 80's, if not the greatest of the time, is ET - The Extraterrestrial, directed by him. That's the story of the young kid Elliot who found a lost ET in his backyard. Not only the children but also an older audience was fascinated by the picture. It was an adventure with science fiction elements. Who doesn't remember the scene where the kid released all the frogs in the school laboratory to save their lives, while kissing the girl he liked? Or the scene when the alien says ET phone home? Or even, the childrens flying through the sky with their bicycles? A remarkable narrative which inaugurated the cinematographic infant Golden Age of Hollywood.
The Neverending Story (1984) directed by Wolfgang Petersen was also a huge success. It's a fantasy movie which shows a different world where magic happens, and tells the story of a young teenager called Bastian Balthazar Bux. He's a shy kid who encounters in his school a book called The Neverending Story. When he reads it, he transforms himself into the protagonist of the story, Atreyu, who lives in a place called Fantasy. The world is threatened by a dark force called “The Nothing” which is dominating Fantasy. The hero counts with some strange friends like a racing snail called Teeny Weeny, a gliding bat named Nighthob, a lucky dragon called Falkor, elfs, and the Childlike Empress. She is dying and the group runs to save her life, fighting against time. This production has relations with Warner Bros, from Hollywood, but it was filmed in Germany, and also marked the children of the 80´s.
Now, a huge blockbuster, the science fiction Back to the Future (1985). The movie was directed by Robert Zemecks and starred Michael J. Fox. The narrative captivated an audience of all ages. The adventure talks about the young Marty McFly who has as his best friend a strange scientist, called Dr. Emmet Brown. He transforms his car, a Delorean into a time machine, and the kid goes back in time to the 50´s and knows his father and mother when they were young, before they met each other. He needs to fight so the couple knows each other, and his family can exist in the future. The movie shows a different epoch, the teenagers of the time, the parties in the school, the meetings at the cafeteria, the cars, the culture. In an iconic scene, the young Marty Mcfly ends up inventing the music genre Rock and Roll, in a party at the school. After the huge success, they made two other sequences, one passed in the future and the other in the old west.
The movie Ghostbuster (1984) also marked a generation. It was directed by Ivan Reitman, and combined elements of comedy with the supernatural. As the title says, a ghost story. The success was tremendous, and the film became an animated series, which aired in Brazil on the TV show from Globo, “Show da Xuxa”. The picture tells the story of a group of blundering scientists who became ghost hunters in the City of New York. The special effects were perfect for the time, the narrative had an intelligent humor, and charismatic characters. Ghostbusters had also a great soundtrack, became a blockbuster, and had countless sequences, including for today's generation. .
We can also quote the movie Stand by Me (1986), directed by Rob Reiner and based on a short story by Stephen King. The narrative tells the adventure of a group of kids searching for the body of a missing child. Even with a serious story, the film shows the strength of friendships, the passage from childhood to adolescence. Now, the movie Karate Kid (1984), was a tremendous success in Brazil. The director of the picture was John G. Avildsen, and talks about a boy called Daniel Larusso who has Karate classes with Mister Miyagi to defend himself from tough guys from his school. It's a message of superation which transformed an entire generation, all around the world.
Outside Hollywood, we can't help but talk about the famous humor group from Brazil “Os Trapalhões” (The Bunglers). They had an humoristic tv show in the 80's that passed on sundays and became a legend. They began in the 60´s but to the Xenialls they are important given that they produced a series of movies in the decade. The kids enjoyed, laughed a lot in the theaters. Their names was Didi, Dedé, Mussum and Zacarias. The group is still in the imaginary minds of Brazilians until today. We can highlight classics like “Os Três Mosqueteiros Trapalhões” (1980), “O Incrível Monstro Trapalhão” (1981) “Os Saltimbancos Trapalhões” (1981), “Os Trapalhões na Serra Pelada” (1982), “O Cangaceiro Trapalhão’ (1983) and many others. The humoristic group participated in a huge number of films. They started in the 60´s and ended up producing pictures in 2017, with “Os Saltimbancos Trapalhões Rumo a Hollywood”. This one didn't have the participation of Mussum and Zacarias, who had already died. If there was an Oscar in Brazil, Os Trapalhões would win for the relevance of their work.
The kids movies of Hollywood from the 80's established a popular culture to the whole world, and changed the emotional memory of all kinds of people. They can be considered a representation of an era, a time that can't come back and will be missed. It was a celebration of imagination and friendship, where the kids from the xennials generation and all the others that came after, enjoyed themselves and learned some lessons of life. The technology of the time didn't show the innovation we see today, but it was possible to put on the screen imaginary worlds that filled the eyes of the kids. A great number of these stories became a constant presence in the Brazilian TV Show “Festivais de Verão” (Summer Festivals) in TV Globo. The films continue to be watched and a lot of them were remade for new audiences, with new actors and directors, but the classics never lost their charm.
There's a certain nostalgia of the 80´s, presented in movies and tv series. The generation which grew up with them showed it to their kids, reviving the magic and innocence of childhood of the xennials. The stories of the time were original, with captivating characters, with a lot of adventure and fantasy. Kids from the time felt inspired and enchanted with the movies they saw in the theaters. Hollywood infant movies from the 80´s are a cultural legacy that needs to be preserved, they are atemporal stories, a treasure to be discovered to the kids that will come.