Nick Picks | Are the 2010’s the Decade of Nostalgia?

Welcome to Nick Picks, a regular column by Nick Spake. There are countless important questions regarding the current state of cinema and I’m here to answer them.

A few months ago, I wrote a feature about how 2015 is the year of the nostalgic blockbuster. Some long-awaited nostalgia movies have been good, like Mad Max: Fury Road, and others have been huge letdowns, like Terminator Genisys. There’s no denying that nostalgia played a substantial role in making Jurassic World the highest-grossing movie of the summer and the third highest-grossing movie of all time. Believe it or not, Jurassic World isn’t even guaranteed to be 2015’s biggest moneymaker when all’s said and done. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is only three months away. Many predict it’s destined to rein as the year’s number one hit, not to mention the year’s most nostalgic blockbuster.

If you think about it, though, 2015 isn’t just the year of the nostalgic blockbuster. The 2010’s on the whole have been the decade of nostalgia. Since 2010, we’ve been getting a ton of sequels, reboots, remakes, and even original pieces fueled by our longing for retro media. Now that we’re more than halfway through this decade, let’s take a look back at how our current generation has become so obsessed with nostalgia.

The ball for this nostalgic boom started rolling in the late 2000’s when YouTube broke out into popularity. While much of the content on this innovative video-sharing site was original, it also enabled people to watch clips from old movies and TV shows they’d forgotten about eons ago. This inspired Internet reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Nostalgia Critic to go back and critique the past. Through humor and thoughtful critical analysis, they discussed why our childhoods were awesome and why they weren’t always as awesome as we remember. This further inspired us to revisit our youth and provide our own opinions.

With nostalgia taking the Internet by storm, it was only natural that we’d get a ton of movies that dealt with this phenomenon. The film that arguably launched this trend was Toy Story 3, the highest-grossing movie of 2010. It had been 11 years since Toy Story 2 and 15 years since the original Toy Story. Seeing Woody and Buzz on the big screen again was a major blast from the past in itself, but what made Toy Story 3 an especially poignant nostalgic trip was that the characters had aged almost a decade. Andy was all grown up and moving on to college. Would he let go of his cherished toys or cling to his childhood?

The film spoke to several generations of audiences on numerous different levels. Since many 90’s kids grew up with the original Toy Story, they too were entering college around this time. Any new adult could put themselves in Andy’s shoes and identify with his difficult life transition. Even if you were a much older audience member, Toy Story 3 could still trigger your longing for youth and bring back fond memories. Children of course enjoyed the film for its wonderful characters, humor, and adventure, but they can appreciate Toy Story 3 even more in their adult years as daunting changes await them.

2011 was an even more significant year for nostalgia with the highest-grossing movie being Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. A generation of kids grew up with these films and characters. No matter how old you were when Sorcerer’s Stone came out in 2001, it was hard not to get choked up at the end of Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as a grownup Harry watched his own son leave for Hogwarts. As the credits rolled, it didn’t just feel like we were saying goodbye to a beloved franchise. We were saying goodbye to a group of friends and a part of our own youth.

Where Harry Potter raked in the most cash, the Best Picture winner of 2011 was The Artist. This film also dealt with nostalgia, but in a different way. The Artist wasn’t a throwback to a forgotten franchise, but a forgotten form of filmmaking. It was a black and white silent picture about a movie star coping with the transition into talkies. While mainstream audiences had a hard time getting into The Artist, true cinema fans and filmmakers could definitely relate to its themes. The film demonstrated that this art form is constantly evolving and sometimes that evolution is for the better, but part of us will always long for the so-called good old days.

Hugo, another Best Picture nominee that year, also made commentary on nostalgia by relating the sentiment to motion pictures of the past. That same year, we additionally got Super 8, a love letter to 80’s Spielberg movies, The Smurfs, a corporate cash grab inspired by the 80’s cartoon, and a 3D rerelease of The Lion King, which exceeded box office expectations with over $90 million grossed. Quite possibly the most nostalgic movie of them all was The Muppets. This reboot of sorts was truly brilliant in how it not only recaptured the franchise’s original spirit, but also addressed how the world had changed since the first Muppet Movie. Timeless characters like Kermit the Frog, however, will never change.

Since then, we’ve gotten more and more movies that lure us in with nostalgia. Sometimes it’s merely a lazy sellout like Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. Every once and a while, though, we’ll get a truly inspired movie about nostalgia like Boyhood. The film acted as a time capsule of the past 12 years, capturing a generation dominated by iPods, Facebook, Dragon Ball Z, Britney Spears, Harry Potter, Twilight, High School Musical, The Dark Knight, Halo, and Wii Sports. Boyhood did much more than reference popular culture highlights, though. It embodied all the good times and bad times of growing up. Watching the film as an adult, part of you is grateful that the hardships of adolescence are over, but another part of you wishes to just be a kid again.

Aside from movies, our fascination with nostalgia can also be exemplified on television. We’ve been getting numerous revivals of shows from the 80’s and 90’s as of late. The best of them, such as Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, have managed to evoke the original show’s appeal while also offering something new. Since Ninja Turtles struck a cord with children years ago, the people behind the new series felt even more compelled to do such a ridiculous concept justice. The result is a series that can appease both nostalgic audiences and a new generation of viewers alike.

Even many original series largely pay homage to the past. Regular Show is comprised of unique characters and stories, but it drapes itself in old school technology like VCRs, the Power Glove, and LaserDiscs. It also constantly makes references to Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, The Warriors, and other movies from over thirty years ago. These references are clearly more for nostalgic grownup viewers than today’s kids. Similar retro callbacks can also be seen in other cartoons like Gravity Falls and Adventure Time, both of which have fan bases comprised of all ages.

We’ve got plenty more nostalgic movies on the horizon with a 90’s Nicktoons crossover movie rumored at Paramount Pictures. Some people may view this decade of nostalgia as a sign that we’ve run out of ideas and this current generation has no identity of its own. To some extent they’re right, as we do get plenty of throwbacks that only want to manipulate us with nostalgia. For every Poltergeist, however, there’s a Toy Story 3 or Jurassic World. We’re also getting numerous original movies like The Artist, Boyhood, and even The LEGO Movie/em>, which explore what nostalgia and childhood means to us.