Spring is almost here, and baby talk is rife in the Luxford house.

Don’t get too excited, there are no plans for mini-film fanatics just yet, rather my little nephew Toby and his impending first visit to the cinema.

In the two years he’s been around, it’s always been joked about that he will eventually be taken to all the new kids films by his ‘Uncle Dums’ (he can’t quite pronounce ‘James’ yet).

In the next few weeks, however, he’ll be heading along with his mum to one of the special toddler screenings that have become popular with cinemas (I suspect a screening of Peppa Pig may be on the cards).

It got me and my wife talking about the movies we grew up with, a conversation also somewhat prompted by the fact that she had watched a treble bill of Disney classics that day.

Indeed, Disney was the cinematic diet of choice for both of us. We both grew up during the ‘Disney Renaissance’ era, which started in 1989 with The Little Mermaid and ended at the turn of the century with Tarzan.

It was alarming to both of us how much we realised we knew about some of these films (I can still sing at least a whole verse of Under The Sea) but generally, there were a whole group of films that were on regular rotation and still hold a place in our hearts.

Back To The Future certainly was one of those movies. Michael J. Fox seemed the prototype hero growing up – he rode a skateboard to school, talked back to his teachers, had a cool time machine, invented rock ‘n’ roll and turned into a wolf (in Teen Wolf, another favourite). The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was also on constant rotation – four karate experts who beat up bad guys and ate pizza all day – can’t imagine why that appealed to me!

Probably the biggest hero, however, was Christopher Reeve’s Superman.

The poster for the original film said “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly”; and frankly, to a five year old, that promise was fulfilled.

There was a large proportion of my early years spent running in and out of rooms with my arms outstretched, ‘Superman’ style. Of course, we all have to grow up at some point.

Turtles and Teen Wolves gave way to indie cinema, foreign language classics and action movies. I think these movies had as much a part to play in the shaping of my tastes as the later ones, however.

They set the standard for epic, imagination-stirring movies that I would grow to love, and laid the seeds for the love of movies that would develop later on.

There will of course be different heroes for my little nephew. Dinosaurs currently capture his imagination, so maybe Jurassic Park will be on the cards when he gets older.

Whatever his tastes become, his uncle will definitely be there to join in the fun (and guide him in direction of good movies if necessary!).