There's some things in life that you just don't forget. To me one such memory was my first visit to a film theatre. My aunt took me to see 'The Lion King' in 1994, I must have been about five years old at the time. By now the story of that little lion called Simba has become a classic.
Back then it was heavily advertised on children's television. I recall featurettes about how lifelike the animated animals were and how each of their movements were painstakingly copied from their real life counterparts. McDonald's gave away 'The Lion King' toys with their Happy Meals. I remember getting this little plastic version of Scar, the film's villain. You could wind it up and watch it wobble along the floor as if it had just been shot in the leg by an expert marksman.
And so the hype grew, Disney's new film became an event. Every kid in school wanted to see little Simba and his bug eating friends Timon and Pumbaa. Much to the relief of my parents my aunt offered to take me to see it.
She took me to a little theatre called Forum, which has been out of business for quite a while now. I remember being guided into a huge room. All I saw was a big black wall. There were no television sets as I had expected. I looked around, wondering where the hell I was and what I needed to do.
You see, the only movies I had seen up until then had been on television. Naturally, I assumed we would be placed in front of a TV to see 'The Lion King'. It wasn't until that enormous black wall lid up and transported me to the wide African plains that I began to understand.
That was the moment I was hooked. The moment that five-year-old me said to himself: ''I love movies.''
No comments:
Post a Comment