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5 Films from 5th Grade

October 30, 2018 2 Comments

In elementary school, one could hardly contain their excitement when the film projector made an appearance. It meant it was time to turn off our brains and watch pretty moving pictures.

film canisters

Is there a missing Doctor Who episode in here?

Most of the what we watched was the standard elementary school edutainment fare – kids teaching aliens about English grammar, the occasional episode of Ramona, etc.

Ramona title screen

Remember Ramona?

But on the rarest of occasions, we got something really interesting (even a bit strange) to watch:

All Summer in a Day

girl

The protagonist

This was based on a Ray Bradbury story focused on children living in a space colony where it rained all the time like Seattle. Because they never saw the sun, these kids would have to stand in front of UV light at certain periods in the day to get their daily dose of Vitamin D.

Kids in field looking at sky

The sun finally comes out

One girl has a recurring dream (I think?) where it stops raining; she tells everyone about it, but they just dismiss her and maybe even ridicule her. Then, one day, her dream comes true! It stops raining, and all the children run outside and play.

Crying child

“Aw, shit!”

Then it starts raining again.

Rainbow War

Blue leader

The leader of the Blue people

A 17-minute film about a war between the primary colors – each personified as a distinct society/country. I only remember that the Blue people were aristocratic-looking and had airships.

Yellow man and Red woman

I guess there was a Romeo and Juliet thing going on, too

There’s one part where the Red people unleash their ultimate weapon, a giant fire hydrant balloon, and the Yellow people counter with a giant yellow dog balloon.

Yellow army

“Charge!”

There was no spoken dialogue, all music. Fantastic visuals.

The Children’s Story

classroom

Based on a James Clavell short story

The United States loses a war and is conquered by an unidentified superpower. At an elementary school, a classroom of kids find that their dear teacher has been replaced by a new one resembling Mary Poppins.

New teacher

The new teacher

However, instead of feeding her students spoonfuls of sugar, this teacher feeds them propaganda from the unidentified superpower.

Teacher holding scissors

Time to cut the flag

At one point she takes out the American flag and tells all the kids to cut it into pieces for a fun activity. The kids are quick to indulge – all but one.

Teacher talking to student

She’ll win him over, just you wait

This kid’s upset because his dad fought and died in the war, but the teacher quickly wins him over with candy or something, and he happily joins his classmates in cutting the flag.

Rescue Party

space ship

Based on a short story by Arthur C. Clarke

The sun is about to go supernova, and a starship full of really weird aliens lands on Earth to evacuate the populace. A party from the ship fruitlessly searches the deserted streets to find people to rescue, but to no avail. Earth has been abandoned – but where did everyone go?

Aliens in a shuttle

The rescue party

The aliens’ ship leaves the Earth and detects a large fleet of human-made rocket ships not too far away. The aliens, who have faster-than-light travel capability, have a laugh, talking about the audacity of humans traveling in space with mere rockets.

laughing aliens

You laugh now…

Then, the moment that cemented this film in my mind. Fade to black, text: “Twenty years afterward, the remark didn’t seem funny.” As in, the aliens probably ended up getting killed by humans because humans suck.

Adventures in Odyssey

Inventor guy with kid and dog

The main characters

Okay, so this is a series, but it was a direct-to-video series with 1-2 episodes released a year, so it sort of counts as film. It’s based on an Evangelical Christian radio series that started in the ’80s and is still running today (!). Chick-fil-A would often give out cassette tapes/cds of the radio episodes in kids meals.

Older woman scolding boy

I don’t know what’s going on here, but this lady looks mean

The school counselor showed my class the episode “A Fine Feathered Frenzy” (the title is all I remember). The weird thing is, we watched it again – the exact same episode – the next time we visited the counselor, weeks later.

Group in airship flying by clock tower

The guy driving the airship looks like a Burger King Kids Club reject

When we told her we had already seen that episode, she went on to tell us the merits of watching something we’ve already seen before: “You’ll catch details you missed the first time around.” I think she was just feeling lazy that day.

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Filed Under: Film and Television Tagged: lists

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Comments

  1. Hexum Black says

    October 31, 2018 at 11:16 am

    What kind of school did you go to? I am jelly. I can only remember watching episodes of Perro Pepe and Carmen Sandiego

    Reply
  2. Michael says

    October 31, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    I went to Regular School, USA!
    We also watched “normal” stuff too like Bill Nye and The Magic School Bus.

    Reply

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