It recently came to my attention that two of my all-time favorite movies are undergoing make-overs, so to speak.

A new CGI-animated version of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is being made, and although the trailer I watched on Apple’s Web site looked pretty entertaining, I was a bit appalled. I had a similar reaction to the news that “A Nightmare Before Christmas” is being re-released in theaters – but now in 3-D. Because the original was so… two-dimensional, apparently, not that I know where they’re going with that, because I liked it just fine.

Maybe that’s just me. I’m not really a fan of re-making movies that were already perfect the first time around, and I’m not necessarily into big expensive computer animation, either.

But it got me thinking (always a dangerous proposition).

How many of those movies I watched as a child would I enjoy if I watched them for the first time as an adult. It does happen. My best college buddy, who shares my taste for cheesy Kevin Kline flicks, somehow managed to make it through adolescence without ever once seeing “The Goonies.”

When I found this out, I of course took it upon myself to rectify this travesty, and see to it that she saw the film, which as I’m sure many of you will agree is a classic and should not be missed.

Imagine my shock when said friend reported back to me she couldn’t even finish the movie, much less enjoy it!

What? How? But…. but… but young Sean Astin! Chunk! Sloth! The campy pirate scenes! What’s not to love?

But no, she found it irritating and unbelievable and, well, boring.

I was crushed.

But the Goonies incident prompted me to investigate how many of the movies that I remembered so fondly as a child and adolescent are really any good. I admit to not exactly being the most unbiased researcher – after all, I just said I’ve loved these movies for years, right? – but I reasoned I could make an effort to be objective, and hey, it gave me the chance to watch some fun movies all over again. My findings are as follows:

Most of the movies I watched were every bit as entertaining as I expected, which I’ll admit means nothing. What I was not expecting was how much subtext I’d totally missed when I was young and watching the movie through wide, innocent eyes.

For example, did you know that despite the proliferation of dancing muppets, “Labryinth” is actually about David Bowie’s crotch? I am not kidding. If you made “count the crotch shots” in “Labryinth” into a drinking game, you’d be plastered halfway through the film. And I don’t really have room to go into all the subtle jokes in “Ghostbusters” that went right over my head as a child, but do yourself a favor and go back and re-watch that thing, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. (“There is no ‘Dana,’ only Zuul!”)

I think my biggest eye-opener was “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” which is funny, because I must have watched that movie about 80 times. It’s not like movies now are that huge on realism really (I dare you to go watch anything with Jack Black in it and tell me I’m wrong). But you’d think someone would maybe have noticed their supposedly “dying” high school celebrity was dancing in a parade in downtown Chicago? No? I think a better answer is “who cares” because this movie still checked out as eminently watchable.

So, OK, my little foray into the past didn’t really turn up anything of substance. If anything, I enjoyed some of those movies more the second (uh, well, 22nd) time around. I don’t think perfectly entertaining movies from the 80s – or the 90s, for that matter – really need to be turned into “new and improved” versions of themselves. But this does mean I’m without a partner to watch “The Goonies” with me Friday night. Any takers?

Kat White can be reached for comment at [email protected].