Do you have any comfort movies? Movies that you have watched over and over again until you can recite the whole thing word for word at the drop of the hate? Movies that you watch at 2am when you can’t sleep and need something to soothe you into drifting off? Movies that you watch when you are sick or stressed or upset?

I suppose you can guess by now that I do. I have a whole list of standards. Safe stand-bys. The usual suspects, as it were.

The first of these is Disney’s Robin Hood – yes, the animated one with the animals. I have been in love with this movie since I was a very little kid. I believe a lot of people around my age would admit that the fox Robin Hood was one of their earliest crushes (don’t lie! Admit it!). He was certainly one of mine. (And yes, Nick Wilde from Zootopia is on that list now too.) It’s Robin Hood’s VOICE, courtesy of Brian Bedford that really does it for me! It’s such a LIKEABLE voice! but the whole movie is just gold. Wolfgang Reitherman was one of Disney Animation’s greatest directors, and his direction for Robin Hood is no exception. The animation is fun, despite or perhaps even because of the amount of designs and sequences they recycled from previous productions. All the voice cast, not just Brian Bedford are fantastic. Especially Peter Ustinov, who plays Prince John – he is clearly having WAY TOO MUCH fun recording his lines, and he steals every scene he’s in. And the songs are some of the best Disney has done, in my humble opinion. “Oo-de-lally” and “Not in Nottingham,” in particular, are absolutely wonderful songs that have even been covered by contemporary bands.

My second favorite comfort movie is My Neighbor Totoro by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. I love all the Ghibli films, and I would agree with the assessment that technically the BEST of these movies are Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. However, because of its gentleness, sweetness, comfort, and pure nostalgia, my favorite will definitely always be My Neighbor Totoro. When I can’t sleep, I like to listen to something soft and familiar to hopefully lull me into drifting off, and this is one of my go-to choices. If you are familiar with Studio Ghibli’s films, you know about the high quality of their animation, the beauty of their stories, the supremacy of strong girl characters, and the absolutely STELLAR scores always written by constant Ghibli collaborator, Joe Hisaishi. Totoro is just a perfect movie to me. I do not think I single line of dialogue or single animation cell could be improved upon. And, unlike some anime dubs, the English voice-over dubbing for this movie is phenomenal as well. Dakota and Elle Fanning play the two sisters and they proved very early on as children that they were both going to be fantastic actresses. And Tim Daly (best known as Joe from the sitcom Wings, and Superman/Clark Kent from Superman the Animated Series) is wonderful as their father. The score might be my favorite part though, and never fails to comfort and calm me.

My third favorite comfort movie is not TECHNICALLY a movie. It’s Over the Garden Wall, created by Patrick McHale (creative director for Adventure Time) and released on Cartoon Network. This was actually a mini-series released in November 2014 (I cannot believe it’s been that long!) and was 10 episodes of 12 minutes each. I bought the dvd version of it the second it was available, and when you use the “Play All” option, it runs through the whole series which, without commercials, is approximately 120 mins long. Thus, it works kind of like a movie. Like Totoro, I believe this show is one of the most perfect pieces of animation ever made. I do not believe you could improve on a single element. It is one of my most favorite things in any visual media. It has such a perfect folktale/fairy-tale style and tone. The animation style is wonderfully whimsical. The characters are funny and poignant and real. The voice acting is stellar (Elijah Wood is the main character and he’s fantastic!). Parts of it are delightfully strange and wonderfully creepy. And just like with Totoro, I think the music is my favorite part. The score and songs are composed/written by The Blasting Company and I love every single one of them. There was a period between 2016-2018 when my depression was really really bad (it’s still pretty bad) and I literally watched Over the Garden Wall every single night as I fell asleep. I am not exaggerating. Every single night for two years. It is still my most common late-night-watch, but I have mixed it up a bit in the last year or so. (I am, in fact, watching it as I type this…)

I have a few more comfort movies on my list. Pride and Prejudice (2005), Disney’s Tangled, The Labyrinth, and How to Train Your Dragon are all favorites, but the three above are definitely the ones I turn to most often.

How about you? Do you have any favorite movies you return to again and again?