• Great Family Film Poll: The Goonies

    From Your Name@21:1/5 to All on Fri Mar 25 17:58:12 2016
    Over the Christmas / New Year holiday time the New Zealand Herald
    newspaper ran this series of articles with journalists giving their
    suggestions for New Zealand's favourite family film for The Great
    Family Film Poll ...


    *The* *Goonies*
    Steven Spielberg didn't direct The Goonies, but you'd
    be hard-pressed to find a more enduring distillation of
    the master film-maker's family-friendly cinematic
    identity. Spielberg came up with the story for the
    beloved 1985 adventure, and is credited as Executive
    Producer - his unmatched ability to give kids what they
    want can be felt in every frame of the film.

    Indeed, The Goonies is childhood wish-fulfilment
    cinema of the highest order - even the most
    indoors-inclined children fantasise about going on a
    adventure with their pals to find pirate treasure. Add
    in some Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions, a few water
    slides and a little bit of pre-teen smooching, and
    there's not a kid in the world who didn't want in.

    Future Lord of the Rings co-star Sean Astin leads on of
    the greatest-ever collection of child actors as Mikey,
    one of the group of young friends whose houses are all
    about to be demolished by an unscrupulous property
    developer. Upon discovering a lost pirate map in his
    attic, Mikey leads his chums on a cave-bound quest to
    find the treasure that will save their families. Doing
    so brings them into contact with all sorts of peril,
    some of it in the form of bumbling criminal family The
    Fratellis. One of whom sings opera.

    I've always seen The Goonies as an Americanised Famous
    Five or Secret Seven story - it took the old-fashioned,
    youth-empowering derring-do of Enid Blyton's classic
    adventures and infused yankee insolence. There was
    genuine power in hearing these kids say "shit".

    Arriving as it did smack in the middle of the 1980s,
    The Goonies' status an enhanced Blyton helps it to
    function as a metaphor for New Zealand's transition
    away from English-centric pop culture towards a brasher,
    American-style form of family entertainment. It remains
    one of the greatest ever examples of the form, and
    family-friendly films are still trying in vain to
    replicate its unique alchemy.

    - Dominic Corry, New Zealand Herald Film Writer
    28 December, 2015

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