I am sure I had a completely different prompt written up (in my head) but never put fingers to keyboard and now as time for the Weekly Movie Thread to go live draws near I find myself with a case of amnesia of sorts. Not full on amnesia, but rather a targeted localized amnesia effecting only the parts of my memory that deal with whatever I had planned to write this week. But this does not effect me as the coming releases have provided an inspiration (or sorts).
A few weeks ago saw the release of Legend of Ochi and this week sees the remake of Lilo and Stitch released and since it is well documented that my current favourite movie is Lilo and Stitch (full disclosure: I am not looking forward to the new one, but my kids love Stitch so I think I will be going either way), then I thought I would draw inspiration from this and talk about cute animal/robot sidekicks. Time was a cute animal side-kick was pretty much the domain of Disney, but lately anyone can get in on the cute sidekick game. The role of a Cute Sidekick (CSK) often changes throughout the course of the movie. Usually some form of comic relief early on (often at the expense of the movies hero(s), and later CSKs often move into some form of emotional response through things like noble sacrifice or wounded from betrayal. Or maybe they don’t do much at all other than show up and sings a few songs with a Disney Princess, either way they will probably in the end serve their true purpose… merchandizing.
Rampant capitalism aside, CSKs do have a place in many movies and are often really great and fun characters who will go on to be some form of fan favourite or cult following so in that spirit I as: Who/what is your favourite cute sidekick? It could be animal, robot, alien or otherwise. Now obviously I would normally pick Stitch for this one, but while writing this prompt I remembered a movie I watched when I was a kid that was all CSK robots and I loved it, Batteries Not Included. I am a little fuzzy having not seen it since 1987, but I remember antics such as robots getting caught in the soup pot and the like, and I probably will not watch it again due to the possibility that these memories may be ruined, speaking of which, maybe memories for next week’s prompt…