Early Crushes

[pen_grunt]

I had a moment of self-realization/rembemerance this weekend, digging out DVDs to see what is appropriate for N and what will have to wait a few years. I pulled out "Secret of Nimh" and casually mentioned to D: "Oh my gosh, Justin was one of my first crushes."

Justin.
A rat. An animated rat.
But he was a smart and heroic rat!

For reference:

Hawt.

I've heard this is really common. Especially in little-little kids. And truly, it was more his character/role/voice that I liked. (And I was having crushes at, what, age 4? I don't even think I knew what it meant, I just knew that I liked watching certain male characters in a strong way.)

Other early-early crushes include:

Wesley from The Princess Bride (this one was STRONG and long-lasting and I had very complicated feelings about the torture scenes)
Wesley Crusher from Star Trek, TNG (super common among kids my age who watched ST:TNG)

I wish I could think of more. I'm sure I had other animated crushes, too, but none come to mind immediately.

ETA:
Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap.
I had weird fatherish feelings about Michael Landon on Little House on the Prairie. Like mostly he was in "dad" category, but sometimes not? 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

There must have been a dearth of animated animal heroines when I was a kid, as I can't think of any.

Robin Hood was a little too early for me. In terms of childhood crushes, I aged through the Brady sisters. Jayna the Wonder Twin.

Oh. Kim Richards in everything! "Nanny and the Professor" "Hello Larry" the Witch Mountain series. The one about children geniuses. Apparently she's still a thing on Reality TV. That's kinda sad.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

They must have been an acting family. Her sister Kyle was in Little House on the Prairie around the same time!

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I don't remember her! It was too long ago. I don't like that.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

I only know from re-watching. She was like a Brady-Bunch-Style Oliver (only not as annoying). All the little kids had grown up, so they had to adopt some orphans.

PSA: Little House on the Prairie is a terrible show to watch while running.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Remember when Albert got hooked on opium? So many "very special episodes"...

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

OMG yes.

Or the plagues. So many plague rats! From bad corn!

And the rape episode where the girl gets pregnant and Albert tries to stop her serial rapist... and... that shit got dark sometimes.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

There was one where the mom was alone with a wounded arm or leg. In her delirium she consults the Bible to cut off the offending limb, so she ties it off to cut it and passes out, and a doctor says it's a miracle she tied her limb or she would have died. And I was all "that's fucked up! I'm out."

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

There were so many fucked up situations. Dudes knowingly selling infected flour/corn to the town. . . Laura's horse, Bunny... (I forgot whether she had to shoot him herself or not. I think so...)

I mean, I guess you have to have a lot of bad stuff go down for Pa to never, ever get a crop.

Then in the end it was all: "Nellie is nice and having twins and one will be raised Christian and one will be raised Jewish because WE ARE THE WOOOOORRRRRLLLLDDDD."

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Was it you who met Alison Arngrim? I remember someone posting a selfie with her and I was wondering what it was like to play the most hated character on TV.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Yes! She does a "Prairie Bitch" routine, and it's pretty great. She talks about Nellie (and how people *really* hated her--as Alison--for Nellie), and a lot about AIDS and gay rights, and being BFFs with Liberace (her parents were agents/managers in Hollywood at the time).

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Erg. I gotta remember to log in when I comment.

No, I don't recall any female animated animals in the 70's. Robin Hood was too early.

I watched a lot of live-action Disney. I never liked Jodie Foster as a kid because she was kind of loud and jerky (like an older sister).

I had a crush on Kim Richards, who showed up in a lot of things (Nanny and the Prof. Hello Larry. The Witch Mountain movies). Apparently she's a bit of a trainwreck now :)

My crushes moved through the Brady sisters as I aged.

It's funny about TNG is I thought Tasha Yar was absolutely gorgeous when the series came out and wanted to see her as much as possible. I don't see it now. I mean, she is, but I don't remember where I was coming from.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It's funny how things like that change (w/r/t Yar). I remember all the adults going on about how Riker was capital-H-Hot and I thought he was really...oddly creepy (maybe too overtly sexual for a little kid? I don't know). As an adult, I now see where they were coming from, but I still have some of that lingering "he was creepy" vibe that I can't shake even through his image rehabilitation.

Doing a quick search of animated movies from the 70s and 80s...there aren't really a ton. Not like in the 90s when everything Disney sort of exploded.

I forgot how much I love-loved the Don Bluth films, though. And how comparatively dark they are.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I remember when TNG came out, there was a theory they split Kirk into the sexy Riker and leader Picard, but Stewart did fine all on his own and then they didn't know what to do with Riker. But now there's all this talk about fals memories about Kirk and I don't know if that was a thing back then, or later and I retro-remember it.

Yeah, Disney Animation was in a slump (because Bluth left?) until Little Mermaid and then they printed money for years. They made their money on re-releases of previous films, like Lady and the Tramp.

And then the attractive females in animation were sexy humans surrounded by animals. (Red Hot Riding Hood surrounded by wolves. Jessica Rabbit and Dolores in WFRR?) There was a Tiny Toons where Babs spends the episode trying to find a female role model and had to go back to the 20's! That's sad.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Probably the increase of personal VHS players really helped the animation market, too. "I just need some shit for my kids to watch, thanks. Anything will do, really."

I was trying to think of anyone I had a crush on in WFRR, but...there's nothing for male characters, really. Just Jessica Rabbit, etc.

Tiny Toons! God. I miss the weird blend of awareness and throwback sexism in some of those cartoons (Tiny Toons, Animaniacs).

ANIMANIACS. So good. So so good. No one crush-worthy, but such a good show.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Oh, I saw so many Disney films in the theatre/drive-in.

Pete's Dragon. Candleshoe. (I'm just rattling off, don't mind me.) Darby O'Gill and the Little People (re-release). The Rescuers. Winnie the Pooh. Freaky Friday. The Black Hole. Benji. Gus. The Littlest Horse Thieves (oh the tears!).

Fortunes must have changed because I didn't see Fox and the Hound and later. What probably happened was they got rid of the Saturday buses from the city to our town, so our aunt stopped taking us out for the day.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

They used to show Disney stuff on The Wonderful World of Disney every....I want to say Sunday?... night when I was a kid.

I remember all those live-action movies as being high quality, but I haven't actually re-watched them since I was a kid. Maybe they're as bad as the treacly tween stuff the Disney mill has been turning out lately, but my revisionist mind wants to say that THAT was quality entertainment.

I mean...Thomasina--the cat with 9 lives...with poisoning and witchcraft and death!

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

My sister saw Song of the South IN THE THEATRE in 1986. That won't be happening ever again.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Whoa.

Yeah, Disney has buried that deep. I've never seen it, and I don't expect I ever will.

[(Anonymous)]

It's an interesting thought to know when it fell out of favour. Dissenting voices must have come out. Academia? Maybe the LA riot? Maybe the Internet?

But this gets away from the topic. No crushes. Boo!

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Again. That was me, obviously ;)

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I was never big on celebrity crushes. But I did have kind of a thing for Jonathan brandis on seaquest. He was like Wesley (genius kid on the voyage) but super hot.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Oh! I didn't watch Seaquest, but I *loved* Jonathan Brandis (I think I was exposed to him in Neverending Story II).