Once upon at time, I was very afraid of movies (after having nightmares upon seeing Free Willy 2 as a nine year old.) Besides that, I did not watch much in terms of movies as a kid (with the exception of the vintage Disney cartoons.) I did not spend much time at the movie theater as a kid, with a couple of notable exceptions. One of the notable features that I did see in a movie theater was Fantasia/2000 in IMAX at the Marcus Cinemas at Crosswoods (Back in the day the IMAX screens were the seven stories tall.)

My teenage years were not much different, as I didn’t do much for movies, in school or at the cinema. My mother would write a note to excuse me from class movies, and the teachers would give me an alternate assignments. Things started to change during my junior year of high school when I went to see Miracle at the Arena Grand Theater. My senior year of high school saw me at the movie theater 3 times: Christmas with the Kranks (Marcus Crosswoods), Robots and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (both at the old Cinemark Movies 12 at Mill Run)

It was not until 2011 that I would finally be comfortable seeing movies on a regular basis. The film that ultimately broke the streak was…..How To Train Your Dragon. It was at that time that I begun to understand what it took to make a movie, and could tell the difference between what was on the silver screen, and reality (more on that in a future post.) While I have made many strides in terms of preventing nightmares (I managed to make through an action-intense film like Avengers: Endgame with out any problems.) I have sadly discovered that horror films are not my style.

I began the tradition of seeing a movie during the holiday season with the Dreamworks animated film “Rise of the Guardians” in 2012. In the years since, I have seen an new release Disney film at a movie theater on Christmas morning every year since then, with a couple of notable execeptions (I saw Big Hero 6 on Christmas Eve 2014, and saw Wonder Woman 1984 and Soul on Christmas 2020 from the comfort of my home.)

In terms of what I watch, I enjoy watching Disney films, Star Wars, and the Marvel films (namely the films that comprise the Marvel Cinematic Universe). I also enjoy a number of documentaries as well, such a architecture, wildlife and sports.