I saw Benji back in 2013, when I was 8 years old. My 3rd grade teacher had an old paperback novelization of the movie in her classroom bookshelf, and it had a bunch of black and white stills from the movie inside it. It was specifically the cover photo of Benji, and a black and white picture of the kidnapped Paul and Cindy, which enticed me so much, that that same day after school, me and my mom went out and bought the DVD that included 4 of the Benji movies on it from Dollar General, where I had remembered seeing the DVD set before.
I remember watching it for the first time and how exciting and powerful everything was. There is a scene that will stay with me, where a dog gets kicked really hard, eight year old me had to fight back tears, because my brother was in the room:), but it was a thrilling experience and actually made an impact. Simply just spending time, in a cozy little town, and living life through the eyes and heart of a dog and his adventures, wholly unfiltered by obvious "movie" crap and clichés. For whatever reason, so many young Americans today simply just can't enjoy movies like this. There always has to be a point, to every single scene, you can never just have a moment to feel, and be in the moment of a scene, its all got to be moving, and getting your closer to the end as soon as possible. They cannot just walk with Benji, encountering all the colorfully normal people around him.
I will never forget the huge Benji obsession I went through from ages 8-11. I went to thrift stores and found more vintage books and novelizations, VHS tapes, DVDs, View-Masters, all kinds of things I collected in those ages. This film, "For the Love of Benji" and "Benji the Hunted" are really just great and underrated movies! And even Joe Camp's non Benji film: "The Double McGuffin", which I just say for the first time this year, that movie is freaking amazing, I'd write too much if I tried to get into that one. I also watched the mediocre Christmas special, and the Phenomenon of Benji special a lot when I was 9-12.
One of the reasons I love those first two movies so much though, is because of the beautiful music and songs. I mean, I must have listened to "I Feel Love" and "Sunshine Smiles" a million times when I was 9-12.
Parents (silly mothers) groan about how "dark" the movie is, but children like action and scary things, I sure did, and I think they should see movies like this at early ages, to help them grow. If they get scared and cry, that is a good thing, parents are just lazy I guess. Also, it can teach them to open their eyes and be more perceptive, which we need in this overstimulated world, we need to be able to recognize the importance of even the most seemingly normal things around us.
To illustrate the lasting appeal of these "dog/kids" movies, when I was 10, I was sent to a place called Youth Villages for boys in unstable homes, and I spent 6 months living with about 15 other boys, ages 7-13. There, I brought a lot of my own movies from home to watch, and the Benji VHS tapes were amongst them. Every single one of those boys sat and watched this movie from 1974, completely invested in the lives of the characters and the story. I remember thinking how cool that was, that they were invested. We watched all the Benji movies and some of the TV specials, and they were all enjoyed. Maybe it was because we didn't have access to phones or anything, other than what we watched on the TV, but I have heard dumb young people say how boring of a movie Benji is, and to that i have to say, you have the attention span of 4 seconds, get off your phone for a change!
Joe Camp is so underrated, as a visual storyteller and filmmaker. An underlying tone of charm and simplicity; whereas most new kid's movies will rot brains faster than you can say "woof!"
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