Browsing Family Films Like It’s 1999 |

Photo Credit: Emily Poisel on a CC License

If we set aside our mourning for a bygone era, can'the DVD section of the library recreate the gratifying experience of browsing movies? As a kid, I loved the ritual of visiting the film rental place up my street. I witnessed that store diversify its offerings by selling ice cream, but then become obsolete altogether. I know I’m not the only person who feels nostalgic for video rentals, despite the conveniences of watching movies today.

Netflix and other streaming services make recommendations to viewers based on their history, but browsing the library collection opens up a new world of potential. You can scroll on Netflix, but when genres of films are physically next to each other on a shelf, you’re bound to find things you might never have considered.

Here is an assortment of family films, some of them quirky, to stumble upon at your branch:

Song of the Sea / Ernest & Celestine / When Marnie Was There /

Zarafa / BatKid Begins / Monkey Kingdom / A Cat in Paris / A Letter to Momo

Regardless of your viewing preference, film buffs have a lot of choice these days. Check out Hoopla if you haven’t already, the library’s answer to free streaming TV and movies. Also see our New Title Lists, in this case, New Children’s DVDs and Newly-holdable Children’s DVDs.

I was reading I Lost it at the Video Store: A Filmaker’s Oral History of a Vanished Era by Tom Roston, a tribute to this golden era of home movie viewing, when Queen Video closed its doors after 35 years in the business. At this loss, my colleague reminisced about the awkward preteen years, when the video store was one of the few places her children still deemed socially acceptable to be seen with their paren'ts in public.

While renting a copy of Fantastic Mr. Fox in a museum-like video store with most of its lights turned off, presumably to save on operating costs, I was struck by the changing times. Books have movie-like trailers now and we frequently watch television without a TV. Even as the library evolves, it still gives families a piece of the nostalgia they know and love.

Everybody's version of nostalgia differs, but these are a few of the films that I would love to rent (or borrow) again: