When I was a kid I used to love story time. I think, in a large part, that’s why I love movies so much. It’s the ultimate story time, with the story brought to life before your eyes, with multiple people helping weave that story into something special and memorable. I guess I’m just a big kid at heart, which takes us to the subject of this week’s Friday Night Double Feature.

This week we’re centering around characters who are young at heart, or in at least one case actually is young, just in an adult body. While these movies are typically aimed at kids, they can be quite meaningful for adults who have forgotten to look at the world through young eyes. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day crap of the grown-up world, that movies like these remind us what a wondrous place we really live in.

Make sure to accompany this marathon with some candy and watch it in your pajamas, preferably surrounded by really big pillows. Maybe even break out and have a pillow fight while you’re watching or throw popcorn if you’re doing the marathon thing with another person. Heck, add in some of the additional movies and make it an all-night marathon – when was the last time you stayed up all night anyway?



Toys

Toys is one of those underappreciated films that never got a fair chance by most people. Why should they have? The poster (and DVD cover) features Robin Williams in a shot that looks like it comes from Yellow Submarine and the advertisements (included on the DVD) give very little information about the film. “It’s about toys,” is about all the audience was ever told. On the surface, it kind of is – Williams plays the immature son of the head of a toy company who passes the reigns over to his military brother (played by Michael Gambon) instead of Williams. The militant brother wants to make war toys, while Williams fights to return the company to its days of innocence. There are a lot of great allusions to wartime films like Patton, but the movie isn’t really about toys. It’s about the innocent and young at heart taking on the adult world and reminding them that sometimes simplicity is key. Give the film a shot, but maybe have a couple of shots yourself before viewing to enhance the surreal aspects of the movie.




Big

If you’re going to do a marathon about someone being young at heart, you have to include the movie that showed everyone how much potential Tom Hanks had, even as a comedic actor. The story of a little kid who wishes to be big and wakes up as an adult, Hanks shows the true range of both a comedic and dramatic actor. From his innocent way of looking at the world (and his naiveté about adult concepts like sex), to his crushed spirit, curled up in tears on his bed afraid of the adult world, Hanks is nothing short of brilliance here. I can still remember the first time I saw this movie, thinking how cool it would be to work in a toy store or for a toy manufacturer, building the toys that kids play with. The truth is probably nowhere near as glamorous as this movie makes it out to be, and even that idealistic image gets tarnished as Hanks’s character gets used to the adult world. I just want to thank Penny Marshall for not going with the film’s original ending, which would have spoiled the film’s message for a saccharine “Hollywood” end. The movie pairs up thematically with Toys perfectly, with a little less of the surreal, which probably explains why it was a more successful picture.



Other young at heart heroes: Jack, Freaky Friday (either version), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 13 Going On 30




Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.