Heavyweights

A much more under the radar movie that I loved when I was a child was Heavyweights.  This was a movie all about kids going to fat camp. The only problem was that the nice kind owners of the camp were bought out by Tony Perkis Sr the lighting fixture king and is going to be ran by Tony Perkis Jr. (Played by Ben Stiller). This movie was hilarious and it still makes me laugh today. The basic story plot is that Tony Perkis Jr. is an ego maniacal camp counselor. The kids then try to revolt and take over the camp for themselves and try to beat camp MVP which was all athletic kids in the Apache relay. Ben Stiller is hilarious in this movie and this movie is definitely underrated in my opinion. For everyone who has ever seen this movie they know all about the buddy system... BUDDAAAYYYY  If I can ever find it in one of the $5 bins at walmart I will buy it unfortunately I have still not found it but I will continue the search. I guess I could always order it from Amazon but that wouldn't be very 90's of me.

Home Alone

Another great movie I remember from the 90's was Home Alone. This was a movie about a kid who was left obviously home alone when his family left for vacation. This movie was and still is one of the funniest movies that I've seen just because of the things Macaulay Culkin's character Kevin says. It was really good because when I was a child I always wanted to stay home alone and this was like a guide to what I would do if burglars tried to break into my house. Granted if this ever happened in real life a child would not be able to stop them but it was nice to dream. They had a few sequels but really the only good ones were the first and second one with the same actors and actresses. I'm sure that everyone out there still remembers the "AAHHHHHHHH" scene when Kevin puts the aftershave on his face and it burns him. I used to imitate this all the time when i was a child.

Space Jam

One of my favorite movies as a child was Space Jam. This was an epic movie with the Looney Tunes and of course The greatest of all time Michael Jordan. This was not just a movie. They had so many other products that went along with it. I remember I had the whole bed set that went with it. I had the video game for playstation and I also had my own Tunes team jersey. The movie was great and was basically about aliens that came to earth and took over the bodies of some of the top NBA players at the time, (Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Shawn Bradley, Larry Johnson, and Muggsy Bogues). The problem for the aliens was that MJ was playing baseball at the time so they did not take his power. The aliens wanted to bring the Looney Tunes back home to their planet, Moron Mountain, and make them entertain them for ever. Well of course MJ and the the Tune Squad beat the aliens and save the world. That was a very short synopsis of the movie and I recommend everyone go out and watch it. I have heard talk of having a remake of the movie featuring either Lebron James or Kobe Bryant but no movie will ever compare to the original with MJ.

Movies

For my next posts I am going to be going through some of my favorite movies from the 90's both children's movies and adult movies. This was a different era in hollywood and cinema had a lot less to work with but they still made some great movies. There wasn't all of the computer animation (CGI) and everything that we have today.

Can't Talk About Video Games Without Mentioning This...

When we were younger video games were not on discs. They were on Tapes. This is very different than today, but in my opinion it is better. The whole reason it is better is that you could fix any video game problem by simply taking it out and blowing in the tape and in the console. This was the golden rule of video game repair at the time. It was so much more cost efficient than having a scratch on a disc and having to replace the game. 

Super Nintendo

Might as well stay on the video games topic and talk about the other great invention of a kids life in the 90's, the Super Nintendo. This was my favorite video game system by far. I did like my sega genesis because it was my first game but the Nintendo was way better. They had so many more games and so many better games. The best games for the Super Nintendo were obviously all of the Mario games, Donkey Kong games, a game called Plok, the Kirby games, and of course all of the Zelda games. I used to stay up all night with my friends trying to beat Donkey Kong and it took me until I downloaded them for Wii about 5 years ago to actually do so. I also never fully beat the best game for Super Nintendo in my opinion which was Super Mario World. I've played that game probably thousands of times throughout my entire life and have never actually beat it which is actually pretty sad. A lot of people probably don't know what Plok is so I have provided an image below to see if they remember.

Best Sega Games In My Opinion

Sega had many great games but in my opinion the best few were all the Sonic the Hedgehog games, all of the double dragon games, and the ninja turtles game. These games really bring me back to my childhood and even with all of the crummy graphics compared to the games we have now I would still love to play these games right now. Sonic was just a classic game that never got old. I even bought it for my ipod when I was in highschool. This was the first of many Sonic games. Now they have all kinds of different ones with many different characters. The first one that I had only had Sonic and Tails, and you couldn't even play with tails he just kind of followed you around. Now they have all kinds of different characters but none of them can beat the original Sonic. Another game I really like was the Double Dragons game. It was definitely one that I spent countless hours playing as a child. It kind of makes me want to play these again because now I would be able to beat them and understand how to play a lot better than when I was like 6 years old.

Sega!!!

The first video game console I had when I was a kid was a Sega. My grandfather got it for me when I was probably too young to even know what I was doing but I remember playing Sonic The Hedgehog for hours on end. This was the greatest invention in life for a kid up until that point. I know that it wasn't the first video game system ever but it was the first one I ever had and it was the best to me. Of course the graphics weren't anything compared to the graphics we have now but at that time it was amazing. There were so many  great games for Sega and I would get almost all of them. I remember all of the kids from around the neighborhood would want to come to my house and play my games even though they were a lot older but since I had the best games they wanted to "be my friend". It was a great time to be a kid and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

VCR

I look forward to telling my kids back in my day we didn't have discs that played movies and music and we were not able to just download things to the TV or computer. We used to have a VCR. A VCR was our generations form of a DVD or Blue Ray player. It used to play VHS tapes. They were big bulky tapes that were like a jumbo version of a music cassette tape which of course kids now a days don't know what a cassette tape is either. Everything now comes on a disc and the younger generation knows nothing else. This was a simpler yet harder time especially for watching movies. We actually had to rewind and fast forward through whole movies there was no scene selection or skip chapter feature. Times were really rough.  There was a great invention however a VHS Re-winder  This thing was heaven sent. You could rewind the whole movie in a matter of seconds rather than waiting forever for the VCR to rewind it. The only other fast way was the ole stop rewind which worked relatively well but nowhere near as fast as a VHS Re-winder  Rewinding was such a big deal because if you ever got a tape out to watch and it wasn't rewound it was the biggest pain to have to rewind it before watching it.

Food for Thought

There were many different foods I remember from the 90's, Most of them of course being candy and other junk food. Some of the candy is still around today so it isn't like kids these days don't have what we had but they were originated in the 90's. The first thing that I thought of was the Ring Pop. I used to love these candy suckers. They were of course shaped like a giant diamond ring but they were so delicious. Another candy that I thought of was the push pop. These too are still around today but hit their popularity in the 90's. Capri Sun also started in the 90's and are still around today. These were definitely the drink of choice behind Sunny D of course which is the best orange juice ever, probably because it isn't real orange juice.

Some of the food that I remember that they don't have today are fruit string things. These were comparable to fruit roll ups and other candy like that. They were probably my favorite out of all the fruit candy and I really don't know why they were the candy that got the hook. Another junk food that I remember from the 90's that they don't have today is the Oreo O's cereal. I remember this was the best cereal ever and granted they did have it until 2007 it started in the 90's and it was beyond amazing. It is unfortunate that we will never be able to eat again. There are of course many more foods from the 90's that we will never see again but that's a list too deep to go into.

Make your own story

I remember I used to play with this thing for hours. It was so cool making your own sentences and stories with one of these books. You could make up anything that you wanted, well at least anything you wanted that they had the buttons for. You could make things that were disgusting or more realistic type stories but the fun in it was that you got to chose what to do.

Hot Shot!

This was one of the most epic games I had during the 90's, not including video games because we all know 90's video games were the greatest. It was a basketball game that you challenged all of your friends to beat your high score. You flicked the ball with a lever and tried to make it in the hoop. sounds kind of dumb now but at the same time people play the equivalent to this game all the time on their smart phones or tablets when they flick the ball and try to make it in. In the 90's we were just a little less high-tech and more about actual tangible equipment.

View Masters

One of the toys that i remember from the 90's was the View Master. I'm sure you may or may not know what I am talking about from the name but we all know what one of these is. It was a way of looking at pictures from your favorite shows, movies, or geographical pictures. It was like having a 3-D camera that you could use to see your favorite things. Unfortunately after you looked at them a few times it got old and you stopped using it. All in all it was a great toy for its time.

POGS

I remember collecting all kinds of different pogs back in the 90's. The thing about pogs was it was really all about getting as many as you could. The strange thing was that no one ever really played the game. We all collected them but didn't know the rules of the game so we kind of just went along with the way we all thought it went. You build up a big stack and then slam the "slammer" on top of the stack of pogs and scatter them everywhere. Once you get to that point no one really does anything. The "slammer" was a thicker pog that was used to obviously slam on top of the stack to play the game. Honestly the only reason I know the rules now is because I looked it up on Wikipedia while writing this. Back in the 90's there was no Wikipedia for us to find information quickly like this so we just kind of went with the flow. I still remember my favorite Pogs were my Power Ranger ones because that was one of my favorite shows as a kid.

The Shoes with the GOO

I don't know if anyone else remembers these shoes but I remember I wanted a pair more than anything. They were shoes with goo on them. If you were cool you had these shoes. I remember when I got mine they were the black ones and I probably wore them everyday to school until the rubber wore out on them. Even after the original awesome factor of having the goo shoes wore off they were still the coolest thing so everyone that I knew wore them.

Surveys So Far

So far I am happy with the survey responses and I am glad that everyone is taking the time to look at my blog and voting in the surveys that I have come up with

1st Survey Results: What was your favorite non-cartoon TV show?
Boy Meets World came in first place in overwhelming fashion by receiving half of the votes. Second place was All That! and surprisingly enough no one voted for Global Guts but I guess when you put it up against these other great shows it can't compare.

2nd Survey Results:What was your favorite Disney movie?
In first place was the Lion King which I definitely agree with because it is my favorite movie. Then in second place was Toy Story which was also a great movie and a real game changer with it being the first Pixar movie. Hercules and Aladdin both received one vote along with other.

You Got A Friend In Me

This is going to be my last post on Disney cartoon movies for a while but there might be more to come soon especially if requested, unless I've never seen the movie or don't like it. I will now bring you back before Nemo, before Cars, and before The Incredibles. I will bring you back to the first Pixar-Disney collaborated movie. If you don't know what I'm talking about by now you aren't a 90's kid. I am of course talking about Toy Story. This was a great movie and it was one of the first computer animated movies ever made. It is about something that we all thought about from time to time. What if our toys were alive? This movie examines several different toys living their lives and trying to escape evil children and be with their owner, ANDY. The two main toys are Woody and Buzz Lightyear. The two don't get along at first but learn to get along with each other and end up becoming best friends. They get stuck in a lot of bad situations but they always make it out together. There are a few other crowd favorites such as Mr. Potato Head, the Slinky Dog, and Rex  the T-Rex. This was a great movie and I know when I was younger I hoped that all of my toys would come alive and have adventures just like ANDY's toys did. This wraps up the Disney cartoon movie time for now until I think of some more to do.  I still have a lot of other topics to cover so stay tuned for more 90's memories.

Zero To Hero in No Time Flat

Another great Disney movie from the 90's is Hercules. This is the story of the son of Zeus and his attempt to get back to his home of Mount Olympus. How did he get to earth you ask? Well Hades who is the God of the Underworld poisoned him because he knew that the only way he could be stopped from overturning Zeus as the Ruler of Olympus was from Hercules. Hercules is raised on Earth but never really fits in because of his super-human strength. He gets a trainer so he can become a "True Hero" as his father told him he would have to become to return home. Philoctetes, better known as Phil, trains him to become the best hero ever. He also has a great mode of transportation in his flying horse Pegasus. It would be a close race between Hercules on Pegasus and Aladdin on the magic carpet, but that's besides the point. He goes through many trials and battles before the final battle against Hades but there is one problem he falls for a girl named Meg. We all know now that the woman would be the fall of Hercules but of course he perseveres through it all and regains his place at the top of Mount Olympus. There are a few twists here and there but I won't ruin it for the younger kids out there who have yet to see the movie. Another random fact about the movie is that there is a cameo from another Disney villain  I'm sure most of you know who I'm talking about but for those who don't, Scar from Lion King makes a cameo in a weird way.

A Diamond in the Ruff

I guess since I started with the Lion King I will continue to do some Walt Disney movies from the 90's for now. Another one of my favorite Disney movies from the 90's was Aladdin. This was the classic tale of someone coming up from the bottom all the way to the top. Sure he had help from a magical genie, voiced by Robin Williams. He also had his the help of his best friend Abu the monkey and the magic carpet which happened to be the best mode of transportation EVER. They were the best of friends and wanted to rise up from poverty and when they found the magic lamp and released the genie their lives were destined for greatness. They did of course have to defeat the evil Jafar and his parrot Iago. All of this was to try to win the hand of Princess Jasmine who was the most eligible woman of the country. They had an epic battle in which Jafar turns into a giant serpent and then a genie. The best part of the movie however is when he uses his last wish in the most selfless way. He used it to set the genie free. I don't think anyone in real life would do something so selfless but then again it is a Disney movie. I used to watch this movie over and over on VHS. For those who don't know what VHS is we will discuss it at a later date.

Best Movie Ever

Alright I've been thinking about what my first real post would be about and I've decided to do it on the Lion King. This was the first movie that I remember going to the movies to see when I was a child, so this is a pretty big memory from my childhood. This is a great movie and even though I still deny to this day that it is a musical it has great music and wonderful voice acting. I don't really know anyone who doesn't like The Lion King because it is just that good of a movie. I had everything Lion King when I was a child. I had the movie the game, sheets, toys, everything. I'm glad that they still play this movie on TV today so the kids today can appreciate a great movie as we all did when we were younger. I almost forgot one of the most important things about the movie to mention: "Hakuna Matata", that was the life motto for everyone way before YOLO. For those sad souls who don't know what it means what the video below:

First Things First

This first post is just to welcome all of you to my blog. This will be a blog about all things 90's. I will try to cover all of the important things that went on during this decade from our point of view. We were kids during this time period and grew up in the best time ever. I will cover all of our favorite things. I will cover Movies, TV shows, Books, Music, Sports, Products of all sorts, and anything else I can think of. Thank you all for visiting the page and I hope to keep improving the blog to your liking.