Dawson's back! (That's James Van Der Beek from The Creek in Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23).

Yes, yes, I know this is a bit overdue and you all probably know that Dawson is back in some sort of form in that new American comedy show Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 or Apartment 23 (which is easier and quicker to say). Well I don't really care because I'm going to tell you all over again: DAWSON LEERY IS BACK!

The name's Leery. Dawson Leery.

For all the hardcore Dawson's Creek fans out there, this is probably a long time coming and must feel like some sort of cool but crazy dream that they never thought would happen but somehow did after all those tedious years that the Creek has been off air. Not me, I'm lucky. I AM a hardcore Creek fan (probably. don't quote me on that), but only since about a year ago when I stumbled upon some old repeats of The Creek on British TV. I now own all the dvd box sets (yes, even season 5) and have a Team Pacey poster up on my bedroom wall (the last part isn't true, but it would be cool if it was).

You see, I was only about ten when Dawson's Creek was first aired back in the late 90s, and since I didn't have a cool older sibling to introduce me to it, I missed out. Last year all I could remember was that Tom Cruise's wife was it and some guy called Dawson whose creek it was. And then I realised what I'd been missing. Not only is The Creek a lovely bit of 90s nostalgia, it's also actually very, very good. I would urge any Gossip Girl or OC fan who hasn't to watch this next.

Anyway... the point is that I'm really pleased to see James Van Der Beek, the guy who played the title character on Dawson's Creek back on TV...playing urm... himself (James Van Der Beek).

The Beek, the b---- and... June.

You see, for those of you who don't already know, Don't Trust the B----  in Apartment 23 is about a girl who finds herself sharing an apartment (apartment 23) which another girl who is a bit of a b----. This other girl (the b----), seeing as it's New York where dreams are made of happens to be best friends with the actor James Van Der Beek. She describes, 'he's like my gay bff, but he's straight' after being asked, 'Is that a picture of Dawson?' about a framed photo of him in her living room. Priceless.

In the show, the fictional James Van Der Beek is a washed up actor plagued with the dilemma that the film industry and everyone else only really think of him as Dawson. Therefore he is left with no choice but to star in bad straight to TV movies, endorse foreign products and if the mood takes him, sleep with twenty-something former Creek groupies by slinging the signature Dawson red flannel shirt over his shoulder and turning on the Dawson charm. So basically, fictional James Van Der Beek is pretty much the same as real life James Van Der Beek (minus the sleeping with Creek groupies thing of course, James is a married man). So, this means we get to see some top notch clips of fake bad films such as the father/daughter body swap comedy ('I don't like having to kiss Mommy!') and ads such as the 'Beek Jeans' parody.

Surely this all just goes to show how great James Van Der Beek is (although not enough for me to switch sides from Team Pacey). I really don't want to complain about or mock him in any way, but you see, even he admits in a roundabout way that he can't get taken seriously as an actor because everyone still sees him as Dawson. Which is why he's doing the best with what he's got by taking the mick out of himself. Which I think is awesome.

Since Dawson's Creek finished in the early 00s, aside from a standout role playing Patrick Bateman's little brother in Rules of Attraction, James hasn't had much luck hitting the big time and has had to settle for films with titles like 'Mrs Miracle' (yes, seriously). Plus there was that Internet meme showing Dawson crying that appeared EVERYWHERE on the Internet which didn't help matters.

Dawson crying.

Which is why it's great that James is playing up to all this. (Check out: http://www.jamesvandermemes.com/). It ALMOST makes me forget that I prefer Pacey to Dawson.

OK, no it doesn't. Only a fool wouldn't be Team Pacey. I mean, LOOK at him.

So if you want to give it a watch Don't Trust the B---- at Apartment 23 is currently (I think) showing on American channel ABC and in Britain on E4.

______________________________________________________________________________

A brief guide to Dawson's Creek for those who never watched it, but should.

1. The series centres around sensitive dreamer Dawson (James Van Der Beek) who lives with his middle class family in a cute town by a creek.

2. On this creek also live his strong willed childhood friend Joey (Katie Holmes), wacky best friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and new girl from the city, former wild child Jen (Michelle Williams).

3. Whilst the Creek might seem boring, lots of stuff actually goes on. In just a few short years these teenagers had to deal with fathers going to prison, restaurants being burnt down, teenagers having relationships with teachers, girls falling into the creek and dying and much, much more.

4. One of the main themes (and best things) of the whole series is the love triangle with Joey who must choose between the two best friends Dawson and Pacey. Que Dawson crying.

5. The show was created by (and partly based on the life of) Kevin Williamson who is currently the driving force behind The Vampire Diaries. Fact: Kevin Williamson is amazing.

Here's the theme tune:

Vinnie Jones new face of UK's 'Make Mine Milk' campaign

It's not from the 90s, but I HAD to make a quick post on this one because it is THE COOLEST THING EVER (well probably not, but whatever).

The UK's new 'Make Mine Milk' advertising campaign which hopes to sky rocket milk sales through celebrity endorsement, much in the same way America's 90s onwards 'Got Milk' posters do, now feature Hollywood hardman Vinnie Jones sporting a milk moustache.

Hey kids, if you drink enough of the white stuff one day you too will be as hard as Vinnie.

I'm sold.

To see America's 90s ads see my post on it here.

Got Milk? Celebrities looking silly in 90s posters advertising milk.

Back in the mid 90s it seemed the American public were drinking too much coffee, soft drinks and other stuff and not enough milk. Well not as much milk as the dairy farmers of America would have liked and sales were really falling. So The National Milk Processor Board decided to hire some advertising people to launch an ad campaign.

You can just imagine a bunch of ad executives sitting around brainstorming, 'how do we get the general public to drink more milk?' 'celebrities. Lots of them.' 'they'll have to do something to do with milk though... let's have them wearing milk moustaches and we'll put cheesy captions about the power of milk.'

So an advertising campaign entitled 'Got Milk' ran, featuring posters of celebrities and even fictional characters from television and film and appeared in magazines across the USA. Actually, it's still going strong today so not just a 90s thing.

Being from the UK I don't remember this at all as we never get to see them over here!

Here's some of the best from the 90s-

(1999) It's Austin Powers advertising milk. Groovy.

Text reads- 'The calcium in low fat or fat free milk helps to prevent osteoporosis and keep my bones strong. So I can keep my mojo working overtime. Oh, behave.'




(1999) Aww, this is when Britney looked all sweet and innocent. Long time ago.

Text reads- '9 out of 10 girls don't get enough calcium. It takes about 4 glasses of milk every day. So when I finish this glass, fill it up, baby. Three more times.'







(1996) It's Jack from Lost! Only years ago when he was on this programme called Party of Five.

Text reads- 'I'm not a commitment phobic, I just play one of TV. In real life, there are lots of things I'm committed too. Like, take my health. They say 3 glasses of milk a day give you all the calcium you need. So what do I do? Run away? Makes excuses about being too young, not ready? No, I drink it like a real man- straight from the carton.'






(1998) It's Buffy doing her bit to 'help slay ostereporosis'.

Text reads- 'Want strong bones? Drinking enough low fat milk now can help prevent osteoporosis later.'







(1999) Oh look, Everybody Hates Loves Raymond and his annoying lovely family advertising milk.

Text reads- 'Want strong bones? Drinking enough low fat milk now can help prevent osteoporosis later. Assuming, of course, there's enough to go around.'




(1995) Phoebe and Rachel from Friends. One question- where's Monica?

Text reads- 'We're such good friends, if I got invited to a big Hollywood party, I'd call you the minute I got home. Or if you had stuff on your face, I'd tell you, sooner or later.
Right, like now, sort of. But this is to tell more women to drink milk, it has all the calcium without all the fat. Wait, isn't that what friends are for?'



(1997) Even The Simpsons got asked to do an ad.

Text reads- 'Lisa, I like that moustache even better than the one you usually have'.... 'Listen, bonehead, experts say calcium helps prevent osteoporosis. So have a cow, man.'








(1997) Before The Jonas Brothers, there was Hanson...

Text reads- ;What do we drink when we write songs? MMMmilk. And you should too. 'Cause 8 out of 10 of you don't get enough calcium/ But at least 3 ice-cold glasses a day will give your bones lots of calcium to grow strong. In fact, we aren't sure what's getting bigger faster. Our new single, or our brother Zac.'









(1998) The Backstreet Boys. Was this ever cool? Seriously? (Also, it looks like they're actually standing in a back street which is probably coincidental, but funny.)

Text reads- '15% of adult height is added during teen years. So we give our growing bones lots of calcium by drinking milk. How do you suppose we reach all those high notes, anyway?'

Here's a more recent one from 2011 featuring Ryan Reynolds as The Green Lantern-

Text reads- 'Got what it takes to be a Green Lantern? Find out and learn how low fat milk helps build muscle at ____'







***

I've just discovered the UK started doing similar ads for their 'Make Mine Milk' campaign a couple of years ago. (!!!) Seeing that milk is actually healthy this is one of those celebrity endorsements that is probably a good thing. So I say, keep going for both campaigns. We want to see more!

Whatever happened to BN biscuits?

Smile!

If you were alive in the late 90s, over the age of five and not living under a rock it's impossible that you won't remember BN biscuits. Aside from the fact that they were really quite tasty, the UK adverts with their o-so-memorable jingle, 'BN BN, do doo do do do. BN BN, do do do do...' was enough to etch BN biscuits into your brain, never to be forgotten.

For what seemed like ages but was actually a limited time in the late 90s and early 00s, BN biscuits which are originally from France were hot stuff. It seemed their playful smiley face revealing the rich chocolate filling sandwiched between the two biscuit layers was a winning combination. They were cleverly marketed at kids with the smiley face and catchy theme tune and all, which was no doubt recited around the nations playgrounds at lunchtime (don't you just love it when greedy marketers con kids into eating junk food), not to mention adults alike who probably recited the theme tune in offices around the nation. All this made people remember to pick some up from the supermarket and put them in theirs and their kids lunchboxes for the next day. Result.

The good thing about them is that they did actually taste really nice, so we'll forgive them all the hype.

              BN packaging looking all cute

              and happy and buyable.

Whilst I loved them at the time, I'll be honest, they hadn't crossed my mind until recently. Then to my great disappointment I found out they're no longer stocked in the UK. That's right, NOWHERE in the UK. They haven't been since sometime in the early 00s when they disappeared COMPLETELY. And it's a bit of a mystery why.

There's a couple of theories, one being the interesting although strange urban legend claiming they were banned because one batch of biscuits contained cocaine. (Ha, don't you just love stupid urban legends?) A more likely theory is that they probably just didn't sell enough. This seems odd considering how popular they were though, so I guess the discontinuation of the BN biscuit will have to go down as one of the mysteries of the universe.

The good news is they're still sold in some parts of Europe, particularly in their homeland France where they're super popular. They can also be bought over the internet and shipped over. So if you're desperate there are ways. Expensive ways, but still ways.

In fact, people ARE desperate enough that many campaigns have been launched to bring them back to the UK. None of which have worked, but then again Wispa was bought back after all those years so you never know... 

I'll leave you with a clip from The Office (that amazing early 00s TV show featuring Ricky Gervais), in which Gareth, David Brent and some other bloke sing 'Mah Na Mah Na', the original song inspiration for the BN biscuit advert theme. It's good.

To find out what happened to another 90s snack time classic check out my Sunny Delight post.

Celebrities before they were famous... and starring in 90s adverts

(Before we get to the main article, here's a fun fact: if you type 'kid changes colour from sunny delight' into google, the fifth result is my Sunny Delight post. How cool is that.)

Anyway...

Before they get famous many celebrities star in adverts before they get their break. All of these stars did just that, and good on them for it. Maybe if they hadn't they might not have got to go on to bigger and better things. Here's some 90s adverts starring celebrities before they got famous...


Joseph Gordon Levitt- Pop Tarts (1991)

Before he was getting his heart broken in 500 Days of Summer or fighting evil in the next Batman film (I don't actually know if that's what he does, but you get the idea), or even being an alien in 3rd Rock From the Sun, Joseph Gordon Levitt was a cute little kid and adverting pop tarts.

Kristen Stewart- Porsche (1999)

Kristen Stewart rides a Porsche to school. That girl gets all the fun.

Keanu Reeves- Kellogg's Corn Flakes (1987)

This is an 80s advert but it's way too funny not to include. Check out Keanu's never failing top notch acting.

Anne Hathaway- Better Homes and Gardens (1997)

One of Anne's first television performances at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Wow, she doesn't seem to have had an awkward early teen stage and looks as beautiful and fresh faced as ever.

Ben Affleck- Burger King (1989) (almost 90s)

This reminds me of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Top marks go to Ben Affleck for doing his best impression of a sleazy teenager.

Mila Kunis- Telephone Tammy (1994)

Mila Kunis was sooo pretty even then. Doll's pretty creepy though.

Steve Carell- Brown's Chicken (1989)

I don't think Steve Carell ever ages. He looks exactly the same now as he did in this advert. Maybe there's something in that Brown's Chicken...

Brad Pitt- Pringles (1989)

This is from 1989, but I don't care. It also wins as best 90s advert (not that there was a particular order anyway), even though it's not from the 90s. This is simply because it has Brad Pitt in. And he looks good. Very good. He's also the best actor in it, but that goes without saying because we all know how great he is.

90s female fashion icons

The whole 80s retro fashion revival thing that's been in for a while is cute. Leggings, ruffle skirts, skinny jeans, clinched in waists, big hair. All cute. Well, not all cute, take neon brights for example, but you get the idea. However, give it a couple more years and it will be yesterdays news, resigned to the back of our closets and charity shops around the nation. And as fashion comes in cycles, it's quite likely that by then the 90s might be a popular choice for fashion designers to look to for inspiration. At this point in time, I haven't yet decided whether this is a good thing or not. Do designers really need to drag the 90s back into our everyday lives like they have with the 80s? Can't they just make something else up, or look for inspiration from some classy, long ago decade?

I wasn't really old enough to fully register 90s fashions seeing as I was a kid and all, but with a little bit of research I've identified some 90s chicks who looked pretty cool.


Rachel from Friends

She's mostly on the list here for her infamous 'Rachel' haircut which I hear was extensively copied by girls everywhere back in the mid 90s. She was also always effortlessly sleek and stylish sticking to neutral colours and classic styles.
 

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

















Sabrina was always wearing the latest fashions and really knew how to accessorise. This really isn't as scary as bringing the 80s back.


Kelly Kapowski from Saved by the Bell

Way back in the early 90s Kelly was the coolest girl in school with the best wardrobe.


Cher from Clueless

Cher seemed to own every piece of clothing under the sun and had a great knack of putting together an outfit.

Carrie from Sex and the City

Carrie Bradshaw! There was no way I was gonna leave her out. This girl lived and breathed fashion and wore many a memorable outfit, such as the Christian Dior newspaper dress pictured above that was so fabulous it got reused for Sex and the City 2.



OK, so these girls dressed well back in the day, but do we really want to go around looking like this (see below)? No.

The rise and fall of Sunny Delight

It's some time at the end of the 90s. You get home from school on a Friday afternoon, dump your rucksack in the hallway, get super excited when you remember there's double Simpsons on tonight then dash to the fridge where there's this week's new bottle of Sunny Delight waiting for you.

There was even two different flavours: Florida style and California style.

This Sunny Delight, it was some sort of super drink. You couldn't believe how good it tasted and your old folks couldn't believe how good it was for you. I mean it actually got you drinking something resembling orange juice that apparently had vitamins and other stuff that was supposed to be healthy. Hmmm. Sounds too good to be true...

Sunny Delight advert from 1998:

Turned out it was too good to be true. WAAAY too good. For starters (and this is NOTHING compared to what's next), it somehow came out that this 'healthy' beverage was actually only 5% juice. Yes, 5%. Which obviously meant that the other 95% was food colouring, sugar and a load of other extremely unhealthy rubbish. In fact, one glass of Sunny Delight had the same amount of sugar as a can of Coke. No wonder it tasted so good.

This really wasn't Sunny Delight's year. You see, around the same time as these revelations were coming out, some poor, poor four year old girl in Wales was very publicly admitted to hospital following being turned a 'yellow colour' by consuming too much Sunny Delight. Seriously. Apparently the kid had been drinking 1.5 litres a day of the stuff which is about seven and a half glasses. Perhaps her parents had a tap which poured Sunny Delight instead of water? Wasn't this kind of lifestyle expensive?

Anyway, the yellow colouring she turned was all due to all the beta carotene in the drink. Beta carotene is a pro vitamin A which is found in low doses in vegetables such as carrots and produces their orange colour. Every glass of Sunny Delight contained 120 micrograms of beta carotene which is around 30% of the recommended daily intake for an adult. However, since the girl was drinking seven and a half glasses a day, she would have been consuming over twice as much of the recommended daily intake for an adult, never mind for a child. And this excessive consumption of beta carotene can lead to yellowing of the skin. So this meant, shock horror, it could happen to you too.

A spokesperson for Procter and Gamble (Sunny Delight's owners) obviously desperate for the company to save face reassured everyone that the colour change wasn't really anything to do with Sunny Delight, as it could also happen if a person ate too much carrot juice and was only temporary anyway, as a person's colour would go back to normal in a couple of weeks. Clearly they were clutching at straws here.

Looks healthy enough to me.

You'd think all this was bad enough, but then just to top it all off the new Sunny Delight advert came out, a Christmas themed one featuring two snowmen who turned a yellowy orange colour. Talk about badly timed.

Not surprisingly, by 2001 sales had halved and Sunny Delight went from the third bestselling drink in the UK to the forty second. The marketers were so desperate to top up the plummeting sales that at some point they recruited S Club 7 (shame on them!) to star in their adverts:

None of this worked and Procter and Gamble completely gave up on the product in 2003 and sold it on. It was then relaunched and remarketed as Sunny D. The product has in fact had quite a few relaunches over the years with the marketers trying out new adverts, slogans and even changing the ingredients. At one point they even changed the juice content to 70% (so it was actually healthy this time, not just fake healthy). However profits could never reach anywhere near what they once did.

Sunny Delight during its 'Sunny D' phase.

Even after all that through the years Sunny Delight is somehow still going today and it's actually called Sunny Delight again! I was really curious to find out what it tastes and looks like now. Would it be as delicious and yellow and amazing as I remembered from back in 1999? Well first off, it's pretty hard to get hold of these days. Don't try health shops they do NOT stock it, only a couple of supermarket chains seem to do it. I did manage it though:

Sunny Delight in 2012.   

It's very cheap, costing about £1.30 for a whole litre and appears to be targeted at families. It's 15% juice, which is a slight improvement on the 5% from years ago. Sadly, it doesn't smell like it once did. Do you remember that amazing sugary orangery smell? OK, credit where credit's due, it does smell like that but only a teeny, tiny fraction of what it used too. And as far as taste goes, it doesn't have that Sunny Delight magic any more. It just tastes like a run of the mill orange soft drink. So not bad I suppose, just not the Sunny Delight I remember.

They also seem to be really pushing the whole idea that the drink has no added sugar, is rich in vitamin C and doesn't have any artificial sweeteners, flavours or preservatives in. Perhaps a healthy alternative to other soft drinks for the kids at a low cost? Sounds a little too good to be true I think...

Check out my other post Whatever happened to BN biscuits?

90s songs that haven't got old yet

It doesn't matter how much you love or hate the 90s, the fact of the matter is that 90s music rules. Every one of these songs is very, very 90s, whether it was on a movie soundtrack, by an iconic band or by a not very good band who made quite a nice cheesy song that everyone liked (and still likes) to dance too. 90s songs seem to have some sort of magical power to never get old and rubbish, and provide a safe nostalgic couple of minutes for us 90s kids.

There are SO many songs I could have chosen from, but I've somehow managed to narrow it down to fifteen (and in no particular order either, I couldn't possibly choose). For me, these 90s songs haven't got old yet, probably never will, and I'm pretty sure they'll be on my iPod (or one click away on youtube) for a good while.

Under the Bridge- Red Hot Chili Peppers

One of their best songs and also inspired a pretty good cover version by All Saints.

Don't Speak- No Doubt

Catchy but not cheesy, allegedly written about a break up between two band members and a video featuring Gwen Stefani rockin' a lot of polka dots. Love it.

Coffee and TV- Blur

Classic britpop favourites Blur and the cutest lost milk cartoon you've ever seen.

Don’t Look Back in Anger- Oasis

More amazing britpop from Oasis at their peak.

S Club Party- S Club 7

It's S Club 7! I don't need to say any more than that.

Truly Madly Deeply- Savage Garden

Everyone in the world probably knows the lyrics to this. Good, they should do.

My Favourite Game- The Cardigans

You know those Greatest Road Trip Music Ever! type albums? This should be on every one. Also, I wouldn't mind driving around a Californian desert in a convertible.

Come As You Are- Nirvana

You can't have a list like this without a bit of Nirvana on it. Plus, this is one of their best songs.

Creep- Radiohead

Another one everyone knows the lyrics too. Also, RADIOHEAD!!!

Bittersweet Symphony-The Verve

Watch the video! The main bloke walks down the street bumping into everyone and they get really annoyed but he just pretends they're not there.

Black Hole Sun- Soundgarden

If you've never heard this song before, please do it now coz it's really, really good.

Alive- Pearl Jam

Some more grunge. Grunge was the best.

Learn to Fly- Foo Fighters

Not only is the song pretty good, the video is HILARIOUS.

Ironic- Alanis Morissette

She may have got the meaning of the word 'ironic' wrong, but this is still a lovely little song. Plus, Alanis rules.

Buddy Holly- Weezer

I love this because it's like they're in Happy Days with The Fonz.

10 things I learnt about high school from 90s teen movies.

I don't know about you, but when I was younger I would watch tv shows or movies and believe that what happened on screen was pretty much exactly how things really were in the real world. This was clearly either wishful thinking or just plain stupidity (place your bets now). So when the late 90s rolled around with all those American teen comedies (She's All That, Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You to name just a few...) and I was almost about to go to high school and was wondering what it would be like, I looked to them to show me the way...

10 things I learnt about high school from 90s teen movies

1) Despite being between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, everyone will look twenty five.

This lot were 17, believe it or not!

2) There will be a group of cool kids. These will include a 'popular jock', a 'nasty cheerleader', a 'cocky blonde guy', 'the cruelest girl in school' and a 'token black guy'.

3) Your high school will look AMAZING. It will be huge and sunlit, even in winter. It will have massive hallways that you can't possibly get squashed in and lockers will adorn the sides. There will be a large green football field and track course outside with bleachers you can sit on and it might even have some of those big artificial light things.

4) There will be cliques of kids who will all look and act exactly the same. You must join a clique. Then you must adopt their ways. You must except that these will be your only friends for the duration of high school. According to that guy in 10 Things I Hate About You these are: the beautiful people, the coffee kids, the white rastas, the cowboys and the future MBAs (smart kids).

That guy knows his stuff.

5) If you aren't a football player, cheerleader or if your parents don't own half of Manhattan, you'll be a loser.

The beautiful people.

6) The school faculty might all be aliens!

If they are, Josh Hartnett will be the only one recruited to save you. Good luck with that.

7) There will be an extremely cool party that you somehow manage to get into. Someone unexpected will dance on a table, people will have enlightened revelations about their lives, someone's parents house will get wrecked and the police will end up breaking the whole thing up.

Even Heath's confused.

8) It will be REALLY easy for anyone at all to impersonate a high school kid, so watch out for that.

           Guess which one's not supposed to be in high school? That's right,

           it's our favourite 25 year old reporter, the fabulous Drew Barrymore.

9) A lot goes on at high school. Everything that is, but school work. You can get away with going only to the odd class, never seeming to do any homework and still get into an ivy league college.

Like this guy apparently.

10) If you wear glasses and have a ponytail, one day someone will give you a makeover that consists of removing your glasses and taking your ponytail out. This will make you instantly prettier and your wildest dreams will come true as Mr-generic-bland-jock-guy aka Freddie Prinze Jr (see above) will now take you to the prom.

Before

After

The main lesson I should have learnt is that this is not what high school is like. But it is what high school would have been like if I had been in a 90s teen movie.

Titanic. Nothing on earth could come between us, except the fact that I was too young to go and see you in the cinema.

4th April 2012. This date is a massive deal for me. Why? you ask. Why is a random Wednesday that will probably be raining or cloudy, is still ages away from summer is not my birthday such a massive deal?

Well, this is the day that I'll finally get to do something that I so long ago wanted to. This is the day that I thought would never come, that I thought had passed me by and I would never see again...

Yes, that's right. This is the day that Titanic is released in cinemas. And I'm finally old enough to go and see it.

I remember the first time around. It was the beginning of 1998 and I was ten years old. Too young to really appreciate the truly massive hype surrounding the 12 rated film but old enough to want to go. Badly.

No wonder I was so bothered, it was in your face everywhere you went. On breakfast radio before you went to school, in tv adverts when you got home from school. Everyone was talking about it. It's not like I was even invested in it for any particular reason. I was a bit too young (at that point anyway) to be a Leo fangirl and I wasn't a die hard action fan. But what I did know was that this film was being talked about, that it looked epic, and I wanted to go.

So you can imagine how difficult this must have been for a relative of mine, who for some reason was around our house on the night he was due to go and see it. I can't remember much from 1998, it was a long time ago, I was only ten. But I remember this. All through dinner I had been begging, pleading to go with them only to be told something to the effect of, 'We would take you, but it's a 12. You won't get in, then we won't get in and none of us will be able to see it.' I can see their logic now, but as a ten year old kid watching them walk out the door on that cold February school night to see the biggest. film. ever. it didn't seem all that fair. Why couldn't 12As have been invented then?

So, needless to say I didn't get to see Titanic in the cinema. I did however get to see it when it came out on video the next Christmas, when I still wasn't 12, but luckily no one seemed to care. Words cannot describe how much I loved that movie. It gave me nightmares and I didn't sleep that night but it was worth it. I loved Leo and his boyish good looks. I wanted to be Kate. I liked Celine Dion's cheesy song at the end. I wondered why, when they were on the raft at the end, Kate told Leo she would never let go and then she let go of his hand and left him to plummet to the bottom of the ocean. I know he was dead by then, but couldn't she have moved up a bit on the raft before that? Was there really no room at all for Leo?

Watch out Leo! She says she'll never let go...

...but she will!

Anyway, whilst I was lucky enough to see it, I had a friend at school who was about as desperate to see it as I had been. Unfortunately she had to wait all the way until she was actually twelve years old. Her excitement for the film did not die, and one and half years after it hit the big screen, a group of us watched it around her house on the small screen at her twelfth birthday sleepover. She loved it about as much as I did (which was a lot), and we even ended up performing Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' with her fantastic singing and my clumsy but enthusiastic keyboard playing at a school assembly.

Leo and his curtains.

So this April I'm gonna make like it's 1998 and go and see Titanic in its second release in 3D. I simply have no choice, it would be wrong if I didn't go, like I was betraying Leo and Kate and my ten year old self.

Top 5 most popular 90s Disney films

If there's only one thing any 90s kid will remember about, well, being a 90s kid, it's Disney films. Disney was going through some sort of super phase and managed to churn out tons of great animated cartoon films at exactly the right time for us 90s kids.

I've compiled a list of the most popular ones. However, please note that it's actually incredibly hard to find out what people's top Disney films are, so I went to wikipedia and found some stats on how well they did at the box office and in dvd sales, which more or less does the job.


5. Pocahontas (1995). All time worldwide box office revenue- $346,079,773.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that Pocahontas had done so well. I certainly loved it anyway, it was my favourite Disney film as a kid. This story was very, very loosely based on the true events of the first English settlers who went over to America, clashed with the Native Americans and a guy and a girl from each side fell for each other. It's all a bit Romeo and Juliet and to be honest, probably too grown up for little kids, especially little boys. However, there's no denying that it's a magical story with stunning visuals and this is probably what captivated audiences then and continues to do so today.


4. Beauty and the Beast (1991). All time worldwide box office revenue- $424,477,231.

I'm not surprised at all that Beauty and the Beast has done so well. It's got all the right ingredients to make it as a successful Disney film: fairy tale plot, cute secondary characters, catchy sing and dance scenes. The story is set in olden day France and tells of selfless Belle who takes the place of her father under house arrest to 'the beast' and teaches him the error of his ways. It's really quite magical and has something in it that everyone in the family will like, which is always a bonus.


3. Tarzan (1999).  All time worldwide box office revenue- $448,191,819.

Does anyone actually remember Tarzan? No? Thought not. Well actually some of you younger folk might, or anyone that got dragged along to see it at the cinema with their kid brother/sister. On the whole I'm not really sure why it did so well. In fact I'm not even sure if I've seen it at all.






2. Aladdin (1992). All time worldwide box office revenue- $504,050,219.

I knew this would be high up on the list. I remember all the hype about it at the time and the fact that literally everyone was going to see it. I thought it was alright I suppose, nothing to write home about though. Except for one thing: Robin Williams. His voice work as the genie is possibly the best thing he's ever done. Along with that, the action and lamps and wishes and everything else makes Aladdin the second biggest hit.


1. The Lion King (1994). All time worldwide box office revenue- $951,583,777.

Now this was a movie. Obviously everyone thinks this too as it is by far the most popular Disney film of the 90s and probably all time. It's taken tons of box office money, won loads of awards and continues to be featured on hundreds of 'best of' lists today. It certainly pulled out all the stops: the legendary Elton John did all the music (who can forget 'Circle of Life'), and an A list cast including Woopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick and Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr Bean) were recruited to do the voice overs. But it's the epic story that grabbed viewers attention the most. Who can forget the tale of Simba, the lion cub who was forced into exile while being tricked into thinking he killed his father by his evil Uncle. It really grabbed at viewers heartstrings and has earned its rightful place as the reigning number one on the list!

Honorable mentions go to-

The Little Mermaid (1989). All time worldwide box office revenue- $211,343,479.

I was shocked when I discovered The Little Mermaid didn't make as much as some of the others in the box office, so I'm including it in the honorable mentions section. It wasn't actually released in 1989 which means it isn't technically a 90s film, but no one cares about tiny little insignificant details like that. Any true 90s child will remember it and how good it was, so all go out and buy the dvd so we can increase its rating!


Toy Story (1995). All time worldwide box office revenue- $361, 958, 736.

It's not traditionally animated, which is why I didn't include it in the above list. However, I thought I'd include it now because you can't write a post about 90s Disney films without including Toy Story, it's just not right. It was of course an amazing film and featured two of possibly the best kids film characters ever, Woody and Buzz. It was also the first film to be made entirely using that fancy CGI stuff which every kids film seems to be made of now.