Childhood Favorites
by sadielouwho | created - 20 Aug 2013 | updated - 20 Aug 2013 | PublicMy favorite movies of my childhood through the 80s and 90s!
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1. Labyrinth (1986)
PG | 101 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Sixteen-year-old Sarah must solve a labyrinth to rescue her baby brother when he is taken by the Goblin King.
Director: Jim Henson | Stars: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud, Shelley Thompson
Votes: 149,618 | Gross: $12.73M
2. The Goonies (1985)
PG | 114 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A group of young misfits called The Goonies discover an ancient map and set out on an adventure to find a legendary pirate's long-lost treasure.
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman
Votes: 298,471 | Gross: $61.50M
3. Stand by Me (1986)
R | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
Votes: 441,735 | Gross: $52.29M
4. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Gerald McRaney
Votes: 156,992 | Gross: $20.16M
5. Legend (1985)
PG | 94 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, David Bennent
Votes: 72,501 | Gross: $15.50M
6. The Dark Crystal (1982)
PG | 93 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal, and to restore order to his world.
Directors: Jim Henson, Frank Oz | Stars: Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz
Votes: 71,476 | Gross: $40.58M
7. The Land Before Time (1988)
G | 69 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
An orphaned brontosaurus teams up with other young dinosaurs in order to reunite with their families in a valley.
Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Pat Hingle, Gabriel Damon, Helen Shaver, Bill Erwin
Votes: 98,729 | Gross: $48.09M
8. The Breakfast Club (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Votes: 436,651 | Gross: $45.88M
9. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy
A popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones
Votes: 386,561 | Gross: $70.14M
10. An American Tail (1986)
G | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
While emigrating to the United States, a young Russian mouse gets separated from his family and must relocate them while trying to survive in a new country.
Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, Erica Yohn, Nehemiah Persoff
Votes: 58,075 | Gross: $47.48M
11. All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
G | 84 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A canine angel, Charlie, sneaks back to earth from heaven but ends up befriending an orphan girl who can speak to animals. In the process, Charlie learns that friendship is the most heavenly gift of all.
Directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, Dan Kuenster | Stars: Dom DeLuise, Burt Reynolds, Loni Anderson, Judith Barsi
Votes: 46,123 | Gross: $27.10M
12. Ghostbusters (1984)
PG | 105 min | Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Three parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City, attracting frightened yet skeptical customers.
Director: Ivan Reitman | Stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis
Votes: 450,364 | Gross: $238.63M
13. Back to the Future (1985)
PG | 116 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Votes: 1,307,174 | Gross: $210.61M
14. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,037,047 | Gross: $248.16M
15. Home Alone (1990)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Family
An eight-year-old troublemaker, mistakenly left home alone, must defend his home against a pair of burglars on Christmas Eve.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard
Votes: 652,939 | Gross: $285.76M
16. Clueless (1995)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd
Votes: 245,948 | Gross: $56.63M
17. Heathers (1988)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Crime
At Westerburg High where cliques rule, jocks dominate and all the popular girls are named Heather, it's going to take a Veronica and mysterious new kid to give teen angst a body count.
Director: Michael Lehmann | Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk
Votes: 115,896 | Gross: $1.11M
18. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Robin Hood decides to fight back as an outlaw when faced with the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Director: Kevin Reynolds | Stars: Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater
Votes: 208,436 | Gross: $165.50M
19. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The solitary life of an artificial man - who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands - is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall
Votes: 523,933 | Gross: $56.36M
20. The Terminator (1984)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield
Votes: 924,401 | Gross: $38.40M
21. Jurassic Park (1993)
PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 1,067,405 | Gross: $402.45M
22. The Karate Kid (1984)
PG | 126 min | Action, Drama, Family
A martial arts master agrees to teach karate to a bullied teenager.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, Martin Kove
Votes: 244,542 | Gross: $90.82M
23. E.T. (1982)
PG | 115 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace
Votes: 437,635 | Gross: $435.11M
24. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
After being exiled from the most advanced town in post apocalyptic Australia, a drifter travels with a group of abandoned children to rebel against the town's queen.
Directors: George Miller, George Ogilvie | Stars: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn
Votes: 147,688 | Gross: $36.20M
25. Conan the Barbarian (1982)
R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A powerful warrior seeks to avenge the genocide of his people and the murder of his parents at the hands of a snake cult.
Director: John Milius | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman
Votes: 162,538 | Gross: $39.57M
26. Clash of the Titans (1981)
PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Family
Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda.
Director: Desmond Davis | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith
Votes: 47,777 | Gross: $41.09M
27. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
PG | 143 min | Adventure, Drama
A missing heir of respected Scottish family, raised in African jungles by animals, finally returns to his estate only to realize that difference between the two worlds is really significant.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm
Votes: 21,262 | Gross: $45.90M
28. Sixteen Candles (1984)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
A girl's "sweet" sixteenth birthday is anything but special: her family forgets about it, and she suffers from every embarrassment possible.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling
Votes: 126,387 | Gross: $23.69M
29. Short Circuit (1986)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
Number 5 of a group of experimental robots in a lab is electrocuted, suddenly becomes intelligent, and escapes.
Director: John Badham | Stars: Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton
Votes: 66,355 | Gross: $40.70M
30. Uncle Buck (1989)
PG | 100 min | Comedy
Laid back commitment-phobe Buck babysits his brother's rebellious teenage daughter and her cute younger brother and sister.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: John Candy, Macaulay Culkin, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffmann
Votes: 107,750 | Gross: $66.76M
31. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
PG-13 | 109 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery
When assorted people start having inexplicable delusions that lead to their deaths, a teenage Sherlock Holmes decides to investigate.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins
Votes: 23,408 | Gross: $19.74M
32. Top Gun (1986)
PG | 109 min | Action, Drama
As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer
Votes: 502,775 | Gross: $179.80M
33. The Secret of NIMH (1982)
G | 82 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
To save her ill son, a field mouse must seek the aid of a colony of rats, with whom she has a deeper link than she suspected.
Director: Don Bluth | Stars: Elizabeth Hartman, Derek Jacobi, Dom DeLuise, Arthur Malet
Votes: 45,173 | Gross: $10.14M
34. Tron (1982)
PG | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A computer hacker is abducted into the digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program.
Director: Steven Lisberger | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan
Votes: 129,325 | Gross: $33.00M
35. The Princess Bride (1987)
PG | 98 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A bedridden boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon
Votes: 451,025 | Gross: $30.86M
36. Christmas Vacation (1989)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy
The Griswold family's plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | Stars: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki
Votes: 220,141 | Gross: $71.32M
37. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure
In 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri
Votes: 535,383 | Gross: $179.87M
38. Big (1988)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Votes: 240,018 | Gross: $114.97M
39. A Christmas Story (1983)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz
Votes: 168,629 | Gross: $20.61M
40. The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
G | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Kermit and his friends go to New York City to get their musical on Broadway only to find it's a more difficult task than they anticipated.
Director: Frank Oz | Stars: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire
Votes: 22,718 | Gross: $25.53M
41. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, the Rebel Alliance attempt to destroy the second Death Star, while Luke struggles to help Darth Vader back from the dark side.
Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Votes: 1,121,643 | Gross: $309.13M
42. Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
When eccentric man-child Pee-wee Herman gets his beloved bike stolen in broad daylight, he sets out across the U.S. on the adventure of his life.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger
Votes: 59,104 | Gross: $40.90M
43. Batman (1989)
PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure
The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being Jack Napier, a criminal who becomes the clownishly homicidal Joker.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl
Votes: 404,341 | Gross: $251.19M
44. The Little Mermaid (1989)
G | 83 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain in an attempt to become human and win a prince's love.
Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker | Stars: Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes
Votes: 291,041 | Gross: $111.54M
45. Gremlins (1984)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, John Louie
Votes: 247,851 | Gross: $148.17M
46. The Money Pit (1986)
PG | 91 min | Comedy
A young couple struggles to repair a hopelessly dilapidated house.
Director: Richard Benjamin | Stars: Tom Hanks, Shelley Long, Alexander Godunov, Maureen Stapleton
Votes: 62,251 | Gross: $37.50M
47. Beetlejuice (1988)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Fantasy
The spirits of a deceased couple are harassed by an unbearable family that has moved into their home, and hire a malicious spirit to drive them out.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Annie McEnroe
Votes: 340,213 | Gross: $73.71M
48. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
PG | 104 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When a cartoon rabbit is accused of murder, he enlists the help of a burnt out private investigator to prove his innocence.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer
Votes: 216,905 | Gross: $156.45M
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