‘I want to watch the dinosaurs!’
“I want to watch the dinosaurs!”
The first thing my little nephew does when he comes to our house is to find me and ask for the dinosaurs. “The Dinosaurs” is a YouTube video showing highlights of prehistoric reenactments produced by The Discovery Channel. It’s impressive enough that it held my attention span a solid 10 minutes the first time. My nephew, however, is still mesmerized after at least 20 viewings.
I don’t know what it is about children wanting to watch the same thing over and over.
When D was little he spent a couple years falling asleep each and every night to “Cars.” “Cars” was replaced by “The Best of Ernest.” After D fell asleep, and the show played through, the DVD returned to the looping menu. I would get up and hear “Know what I mean Vern? Know what I mean?”
The Ernest kick lasted six or seven months. I still don’t know what he meant.
When we were little kids, the battle at my grandparents’ house was between two movies: My brother wanted to watch Disney’s “Robin Hood” every single morning, but I wanted to take another shot at finishing “An American Tail.”
Mamaw still talks about me saying “I won’t cry this time, Mamaw. I promise I won’t cry.” Inevitably, though, it would get to the part where the poor lost mouse Fievel sings “Somewhere Out There.” I would become a 4-year-old mess of tears and tell her to turn it off.
As an adult it’s hard to watch a movie once, let alone multiple times. The phone is a distraction that has to be put away, or I will compulsively check it and be lost. My wife does the same thing. I told her last night, while watching “The Way Back,” that we had to at least take turns so one of us knew what was going on.
That being said, I recently watched Clark Duke’s “Arkansas” three times in a week. It’s a great Southern Gothic about a criminal enterprise in Pine Bluff. Vince Vaughan and Liam Hemsworth both give stellar performances, and the soundtrack consists of The Flaming Lips covering classic country songs like “All the Gold in California” – but what really makes the movie is the dialogue.
Each generation gets to pass some movies down to the next one. My dad insisted we watch “Slap Shot.” My momma wanted us to see “Terms of Endearment.”
I’m waiting for the day my nephew is grown and finally tired of “The Dinosaurs” so I can say “You’ve never seen ‘Arkansas’? You’ve got to watch ‘Arkansas.’”
For now, though, I have to restart “The Dinosaurs,” watch the T-Rex eye the Triceratops from the woods, and hear my nephew say, “He’s gonna eat him” for the 50th time.
I guess It could be worse. He could be crying over a mouse. Know what I mean?
Stults is a performing songwriter from Russellville.
