New website helps find forgotten movies

Do you remember that movie that you watched every day as a kid? The one that hits you every once in awhile when you’re playing on your phone or eating Oreos, and you think, “Man, it’s been forever since I’ve seen that!” Does it bring back good memories of your childhood? Memories of sitting on the couch with your brother, for once not arguing; memories of grape Kool-Aid jammers and goldfish, the perfect screen-time snack; memories of anxiously waiting for the VHS tape to rewind (at least, it was for me) so you can watch the best movie of all time? Do you remember the name of the movie?

Sometimes, I don’t. Sure, I’ve got my all time favorites―A Bug’s Life, Son of the Mask, Blue’s Big Musical―but occasionally, I’m hit with a random scene from a movie I watched ten years ago and I can not remember the name! It’s infuriating, and I wrack my brain for hours, trying to come up with even an idea of what the title could be. Luckily, I recently found a website that solved that little problem.

Whatismymovie.com is a new website based on the technology from the University of Oulu in Finland. In the website, there is a search bar where you can type in certain things to help you find your movie. If you remember an actor, you can type in that name. If you remember the director (strange, but possible), you can type in that name. If you can’t remember either of the above, don’t fear: you can type in keywords.

For example, I remembered a scene from some cartoon movie from my childhood very vividly. The scene features a goblin, I think he was the king, who picks his nose, balls up the booger, and flicks it off to the side. This is the only scene that plays in my mind when I think about the movie. I remember some other little snippet of a kidnapped princess running through the underground caverns, but that’s about it. So, in the search bar, I type in “cartoon goblin kidnaps princess.” And you know what came up?…. The Princess and the Goblin. (You can imagine how stupid I felt.)

Perhaps you don’t feel as strongly about movies from your childhood as I do, but you have to admit that this website is handy. And yes, the website is not merely meant for your forgotten childhood movies, but I think that that’s its best use. So, go ahead and give it a try. You know you want to.