When I was growing up, there seemed to be a bit of an odd trend in movies where certain ones were compared to others, and where fans seemed to have leanings towards one over the other. Let me explain this better. For example, Steven Spielberg was working on two projects in the early 80's: E.T. and Poltergeist. I was never a fan of E.T., but loved Poltergeist. Some others that were naturally compared/competing were Labyrinth vs The Dark Crystal, Drop Dead Fred vs Little Monsters, and The Monster Squad vs The Goonies. Ah, see where I'm going with this now?
I never saw The Goonies when I was a kid. I always leaned more towards The Monster Squad, which is still one of my favorite movies today. The comparisons made sense though. Both featured a group of kids on their own sort of fantastical adventures that their parents were oblivious to (Mary Ellen Trainor played the mother in both movies, no less), both featured the token "fat kid" who behaved jarringly similarly, both featured adult actors playing the villains, both featured a strong disfigured character the children befriended (Sloth in The Goonies, and Frankenstein in The Monster Squad).
It was interesting watching The Goonies for the first time last night as an adult, especially being so familiar with The Monster Squad and being able to point out my own comparisons. In the end I discovered that their contrasts made a world of difference, and I had a better understanding as to why I was never drawn to The Goonies like I was to The Monster Squad when I was a kid. For starters, The Goonies is grounded in a pretty real world. The kids go on an adventure which, sure, is a bit unlikely but not out of the realm of possibility. As a kid, I never really got into movies about pirates, high adventure, or things of that nature. The Goonies almost put in mind of an Indiana Jones movie for kids (and no, not because "Short Round" was in it). The movie is predominantly adventure with aspects of fantasy and zero horror, which I think made the biggest difference to me. As a kid, I was always drawn to the horror genre, even more so than straight up fantasy. I also was drawn to movies where the villains were as appealing/interesting or more appealing/interesting than the heroes. The villains in The Goonies were sort of bumbling idiots and hard to take seriously as any sort of real threat. Now I know kids movies have to be careful about making the villains too scary for younger kids, but I still think they could've been done with less comedic effect. Though maybe that's what the director was going for, in which case it might just come down to personal preference. For me, I'd rather the heroes triumph despite overwhelming odds (*cough* The Monster Squad *cough*) even if it makes the storyline a bit less realistic.
Ignoring the comparisons to The Monster Squad, I actually came away from The Goonies enjoying it more than I thought I would. The cast was familiar (Corey Feldman, Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, Jonathan Ke Quan) and great as usual. The story, though a little slow at times, did interest me, and I liked watching the kids figure out the various puzzles/booby traps in the film. My favorite character was Sloth, and I wished he had been featured more. I was always a sucker for the gentle giant type characters in films. As a kid, since I hadn't seen the movie, I would occasionally see pictures of Sloth, and he scared me (oddly, even more than the villainous monsters in The Monster Squad). I sort of wished I had seen the film when I was younger, just so I could've appreciated Sloth as the good character he was.
Although the movie wasn't entirely my cup of tea, either then or now, I can still see why other kids loved it so much and why it remains a classic to this day. I'm happy I finally took the time to watch it.
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