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“E.T.” celebrates 25 years since phoning home

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

turned 25 this year. OK, so this news immediately makes me want to do three things. 1) Phone home. 2) Eat Reese’s Pieces. 3) Scream. Kind of like this.

The phoning and eating are because of the nostalgia, and the screaming, well, that’s because of the oh-my-God E.T. is 25 years old. It’s hard not to freak out when a beloved touchstone from your childhood hits the quarter-century mark. The only thing keeping me from freaking out completely is seeing how ridiculously adorable Drew Barrymore looked in pigtails back then.

The movie milestone will be celebrated with a special screening of the film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today in Los Angeles. The presentation will include an onstage cast-and-crew reunion. I’m guessing it will look something like the cast-and-crew reunion for the film’s 20th anniversary, but with a touch more gray.

And just in case you weren’t feeling old enough already, here is a then-and-now of the key cast and crew. I think the ladies have fared better, but then I’m always prone to go with the ladies.

Drew Barrymore and Dee Wallace

Steven Spielberg and Henry Thomas

So what is it about E.T. that still stirs emotions? The story mixed heart and humor and had us breaking out the hankies. Underneath all the special effects and sci-fi, the movie was a simple yet universal fable about unconditional love and the search for home. And even though he was essentially just a rib cage with a periscope head, that little alien fella was cute. Plus, dude, he made the bikes fly. Twenty-five years later, I still wish I could do that.

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