Although spring may just be here in some parts of the country, schoolchildren everywhere already have the summer sun in sight, ready to dump their textbooks, dioramas and number 2 pencils across the covered grass of dew and sparkling lakes that only a summer camp can provide. Haven’t picked the right one for you yet, or just want to get started in the spirit of the season? I say that it is never too early to see some summer entertainment.

Judd Apatow’s first foray into film was with the 1995 children’s classic Heavyweights, so it should come as no surprise that it took home the bar for “Best Fat Camp Movie.” Starring comic gems like Ben Stiller, Tim Blake Nelson, Allen Covert, and a young Kenan Thompson, Heavyweights focused on a group of overweight kids who are sent out every summer by their fitness-crazed parents only to find out that this year’s camp It has been bought by a weight loss entrepreneur who wants to use the camp as his own personal infomercial. Chaos, along with a few binges, junk food fights, and makeshift obstacle courses, of course, ensues.

For those of you who were theater nerds, Todd Graff’s 2003 film festival hit Camp wins the bar for “Best Drama (Camp)” and it might turn out to be the perfect fit. Following some adolescent actor / singer / dancer hybrids through a summer of showcases, audiences can glimpse the fickleness, and yes, even the friendship that comes from such intense and close training.

Sometimes the activities in the camps seem mediocre; for hours of fun the laces never failed to provide, they were actually just sharp plastic laces. That does not mean that the advisers were not well-intentioned, but perhaps, as in the following case, they were too distracted with their personal lives to realize the freedom for all that their organization had become. The 1995 Babysitters Club featured a cornucopia of Before They Were Stars (Rachel Leigh Cook, Bre Blair, Marla Sokoloff, Kyla Pratt, Scarlett Pomers, and even Schuyler Fisk) of characters who had a million things going on other than the day camp that took place. they finished. from your backyard. Claudia had to pass her summer science course; Stacy fell in love with a much older boy; Dawn had to appease her next door neighbor and defend herself from the geek boy; and Kristy’s father returned to town, a secret he tried to hide from his close friends and ended up bringing down the entire camp.

Although it received mostly negative reviews from critics who “just don’t get it” during its 2001 release, Wet Hot American Summer has become the perfect cult comedy classic for those who really are “too old to be in camp and They just want to sleep Around. “Set in the early eighties and compiled from improv comics like Janeane Garafalo, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, and members of The State, Wet Hot American Summer is a very specific kind of humor ( read: many non-sequiturs) focused on a very specific problem that is supposed to be universal: getting the girl before the camp ends.

Along similar lines is the Kristy McNichol / Tatum O’Neal cult classic Little Darlings about two friends who make a pact to lose their virginity during their time at camp. Chaste enough (and preachy enough in parts) for the censors of the 1980s, it’s a movie that’s nostalgic for grown-ups, but even suitable for today’s tweens. 1993 Indian Summer, on the other hand, is one for the older crowd, as ex-campers in their thirties gather on the grounds where they first met more than a dozen years earlier. They remember, fall in love and reevaluate the path their lives have taken.

The 1961 Parent Trap and 1995’s It Takes Two “update” are quintessential “Best Camp Gone Wrong” moments with both films featuring a group of counselors and other administrative staff who don’t seem to realize they’ve confused their campers. . However, the award for “Camp Gone Severely Wrong” has to go to The Burning (1981; a group of pranksters decide to target the creepy caretaker, only he’s back at the camp to cause his own mayhem) and his apparent upgrade. Camp Slaughter (2005; stranded motorists stumble upon a cursed camp by reliving the same day in 1981 over and over again). The latter are only good in the way-bad-have-their-moments and are not to be viewed by the squeamish, impressionable, or purveyors of taste, I might add.

Finally, for those of you who never felt like you fit into a “specialty” camp or another or just yearned to be free from parenting and responsibility all summer, Camp Nowhere is the absolute target of this list. . Starring Christopher Lloyd, Jonathan Jackson, Andrew Keegan, and Marnette (then Marnie) Patterson, it was a hit with the crowd on its 1994 release, but has stood the test of time as future generations dream of ripping off their parents too. . a couple thousand dollars and escape to a lakefront cabin to host bonfires, play with fireworks, and participate in mud wrestling competitions and cake-eating contests. Camp Nowhere is a story about the strong friendships that were formed during a summer away, if nothing else, when children from all social cliques mixed and worked toward the common goal of outwitting their parents (and government authorities) showing four fake camps. back to back, at the climax of a movie that made countless adults jealous of the level of potential those children inherently possessed.