I fucking hated the Red Balloon as a kid.
It was the only movie they could show us in Catholic School and it just was so fucking tedious. You can’t watch Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark and then be all “I hope Patrice Frenchy finds his fucking balloon!”The Red Balloon was a laugh riot compared to The Snowman. Every Christmas they forced us to watch it, as nothing says “jolly holidays” quite like an exploration of death set to a creepy choirboy rendition of “Walking In The Air.” I still get upset when I hear that song.
Spielberg worked on E.T. and Poltergeist in the same year; he once said something about E.T. being the suburban dream, and Poltergeist being the nightmare. That’s like The Polar Express and The Snowman. Our school system chose the damn nightmare, year after year after year.
In my school, we got Johny Tremain, most notable for the Saw-like, torture-porny image of the hero getting his hand melted by molten silver.
