Hello all! I've been a long-time lurker on this website and always wanted to write an article for it, but never knew what to write about until now.

First, a little bit of background on me so you have a rough idea what I saw as a kid. I was born in '88, hence, I missed out on a majority of the awesome cartoons I constantly hear people talk about, unless they were shown as reruns in the early 90s. Most of my childhood was spent watching Disney VHS tapes (of which I believe we owned all but three of the movies available; more on that later), Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, early Saturday morning cartoons, and of course...tapes we rented from our local video store.

The local video rental store. You know 'em, you loved 'em, and a good majority are out of business now thanks to...



Blockbuster. What else?

Most every town has/had their own small little video rental store, piled floor to ceiling with every VHS tape imaginable. Regrettably, I don't have a photo of the one that used to be in my town. Thanks to Blockbusters popping up everywhere, the store went out of business about 7 or so years ago. Right now, the building space is still empty...and I never got to buy VHS tapes from their sale when they left. D'oh. Back to garage sale hunting for me.

Anyway, onto the main part of this article; my personal top 10 constantly rented and watched VHS tapes.




10) Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird

"This news just in, concerning a 6-year-old runaway. The runaway is an 8-foot yellow bird who answers to the name Big Bird."

Summary in a nutshell: Big Bird is sent away to live with his own kind and feels he doesn't fit in with his new family, so he attempts to go back to Sesame Street.

I, like many other children, would watch Sesame Street on TV, so it's only natural I picked this movie to rent one day. Very cute film.




09) The Little Fox (Vuk)

"It was springtime and bursts of colour began to fill the forest as thousands of new lives were beginning."

Summary in a nutshell: After a little fox loses his family to hunters, he is raised by his uncle Karak and grows up to be the most cunning and successful fox in the forest.

Hungarians made this? Whoa, I hadn't a clue until I did research. When I was little I didn't really notice the odd movements in the animation due to lack (?) of animation frames, but looking at it now, yeah. There's some problems. However, I give kudos to Hungary for this entertaining video that kept me preoccupied daily when I was little. ...Shame I don't really remember it.




08) The Special Magic of Herself The Elf

(Ya know, I lost my recording ages ago and I can't find a single quote from this movie online? How sad.)

Summary in a nutshell: King Thorn and his daughter Creeping Ivy steal Herself's wand used for bringing life into nature and it's up to Herself and her friends to get it back.

Ya know, I never knew this video was based off a line of toys until I did some research for this article. And I can hear groans from the true 80s children in the background reading this article. My apologies.




07) The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation

"Good or bad, you're still a person."

Summary in a nutshell: Dark Heart has been lurking around on Earth in a summer camp causing feelings of jealousy, doubt, and mistrust. It's up to Noble Heart, True Heart, and the Care Bears and Cousins to set things right again.

Dark Heart x Christy = OTP! ...*cough* Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Now, I know Care Bear fans in general are iffy on this film since apparently it retcons everything from before it. ...Personally, I've never watched the first movie so I think this film is just fine and dandy. Regardless, this film is still enjoyable to watch as a reminder of times long gone.




06) Felix the Cat Movie

"It may sound far away, but it's closer than you think! One thing is for sure though. Trouble is trouble, no matter where you are."

Summary in a nutshell: Felix and his magic bag of awesomeness are sent to a foreign land called Oriana and attempt to restore order to the world and rescue the Princess from the evil King Zil. Did we mention Felix has a really cool magical bag?

Prior to this movie, I'd never heard of Felix the Cat. I think we wound up renting this because my dad remembered watching Felix cartoons when he was little. I was interested, so there you have it. Looking back at this movie on youtube the animation is very bizarre, but, when you're little, honestly, who cares? ...Did I forget to mention Felix has a sweet bag?

(Part 2 will contain my top 5 video rental picks.)