Kevin and Winnie win the small screen. But these little love birds win big on the silver screen. Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a few love lessons learned by some of the cinematically sweetest minis exploring their own wonder years and most honest time in their lives: their first love.
Vada and Thomas J.
My Girl, 1991 (PG-13)
She loves him. She loves him not. She loves him. So goes preteen Vada’s hang-ups in director Howard Zieff’s 1991 classic. Played by a pint-size Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin, the two leads carry the film through lessons in love, life, compassion and loss. Lesson: There’s no love like the love of your best friend.
Alfalfa and Darla
The Little Rascals, 1994 (PG)
Today’s modern man (and dad) could learn a thing or two from the dapper woo-meister, who serenades the apple of his eye with “You Are So Beautiful,” in the 20-year-old comedy about a bunch of neighborhood kids trying to keep these two sweethearts apart. Starring Bug Hall and Brittany Ashton Holmes as the smitten duo. Lesson: Chivalry’s not dead.
Sam and Suzy
Moonrise Kingdom, 2012 (PG-13)
Writer-director Wes Anderson may live in his own hermetic orb, but anyone with a heart can relate to the unbreakable bond shared by the film’s two main precocious characters, played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Lesson: Love will find a way. Even if it’s to an isolated island.
Hermione and Ron
Harry Potter, 2001-2011 (PG/PG-13)
Billions watched Emma Watson and Rupert Grint act out their complicated quest to cloud nine. And so what if it took about six books/movies and a half-blood prince to catapult the two into cupid’s arrow? At least they made it. Lesson: Not even Expelliarmus can keep love away.
Connie and Guy
The Mighty Ducks, 1992 (PG)
Perhaps a bit lesser known love duo, peewee hockey players Connie and Guy (Marguerite Moreau and Garette Ratliff Henson) keep things PG on and off the ice, but there’s no denying their unspoken respect for one another. Lesson: Ducks fly together.
Gabe and Rosemary
Little Manhattan, 2005 (PG)
Long before Peeta and Katniss, there were Gabe and Rosemary. Josh Hutcherson and Charlie Ray star as the young lovers who live in NYC, meet cute in pre-K, and share a love for karate. Lesson: Girls don’t really have cooties.
DeAnna Janes is the former entertainment editor of DailyCandy and lives in New York City with her husband and two cats -- who still watch Frozen on a loop (yes, the cats). She has been published on a variety of entertainment sites. When she's not screening a film or writing about one, she's running to a film's soundtrack.
