having grown up with one of those old, thick tvs that struggled to even display color, most of my childhood was spent watching dvd’s on the family computer. some of them were bought by my mother from magazines; others were ripped off from sketchy websites, burnt onto empty dvd’s and generously gifted to us by my uncle (seriously, probably half of them are from my uncle). i still take them out of their 2 pink boxes every once in a while, and a couple days ago i finally made a full list of every dvd in family’s collection (there were 73! whew) - so i decided to share some of the things i found in there.

let’s start with the most prized dvd i own – "Le avventure di Barbapapa". this was my absolute favorite thing to watch as a child (i still own a plushie of one of the characters!!). the movie/episodes follow the story of an amorphous pink blob that can shapeshift (named Barbapapa), who grew from an egg that was planted into the soil and watered by two children (Francesco and Carlotta). he uses his shapeshifting abilities to help others get out of tricky situations, or just to do fun things for Francesco and Carlotta. after a while he forms his own family by planting more eggs into the ground (i think, i forgot almost all of the italian i learned as a kid so it’s a bit hard to understand what’s going on sometimes). i actually wanted to upload the movie on the internet archive but someone already did it, so here it is

image of the aforementioned plushie

now to move on to the more.. questionable/funny dvd’s i own. note that i am not saying any of these are bad, i remember enjoying most of them as a kid. one thing i find remarkable about the collection from my childhood is just the SHEER NUMBER of tom&jerry and mickey mouse spin-offs i have. i mean, just take a look at this list of some of them:

1. Tom and Jerry meet Sherlock Holmes
2. Tom and Jerry – The Magic Ring
3. Mickey Mouse – The Prince and the Pauper
4. Mickey Mouse and the Beanstalk
5. Tom and Jerry – The Fast and the Furry
6. Have a laugh with Mickey Mouse (featuring a “re-micks” of another one bites the dust by Queen)

among these “questionable” dvd’s I have are also rip-offs of more popular movies – like “Little Cars”, a series made by a brazilian studio that is definitely not inspired by “Cars”. i couldn’t remember anything specific from the 4 DVD’S THAT I HAVE from this series, so a couple years ago i decided to rewatch them, hoping to appreciate them from the new perspective of someone who’s slightly more mature (maybe). while looking through the dvd’s files, i came across this totally not terrifying screen:

yeah, so this actually has a way less creepy explanation: turns out “breaking free” is just the name of one of the chapters, and the glitchy effect is just because i probably opened the file wrong or something. but still, pretty scary to just see this randomly.

another “rip-off” in my collection is "L’apetta Giulia e la signora vita", a movie about a little bee that (according to my mom) i loved as a kid. i put “rip-off” in quotes because, turns out, the Bee Movie was released 4 YEARS AFTER this one. so, in reality, it’s the other way around – The Bee Movie is a rip-off of "L’apetta Giulia e la signora vita" (SHOCK AND HORROR) though once again, i don’t really remember ANYTHING from it, and haven’t taken the time yet to rewatch it. while looking for information on the internet, i found out that apparently it was the first 3d animated movie from italy, which is pretty cool! as much as I like to poke fun at some of these dvd’s, i have to admit a lot of them were probably groundbreaking at the time, which is why i try not to be too harsh on them. who knows, kids in the future are probably going to do the same thing with the movies and tv shows from OUR time.