The TAFFYs (Teen Awards for Favorite Films of the Year) are over (see the Friday front page for the winners), and the results are a hoot.
The most interesting category was Best Movie Moment, mostly because of the incredible array of scenes and bits of action that caught the eyes of you teen moviegoers. Some were obvious, others were off-the-wall, a few others were surprising. The runaway Best Picture pick, “Napoleon Dynamite,” was also the leader in this category, with Napoleon’s (Jon Heder) galoshes-clad shimmy chosen as pick of the litter.
Writes Ryan Ponomar: “Sweat pouring down his face, snow boots squeaking on the tile floor, the music booming in his ears, seeming as if time has stood still, then the music stopped and there was silence.”
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A favorite moment of Martin J. Hughes was the newscasters brawl in “Anchorman.” “It was hilarious and contained good celebrity cameos,” Hughes writes.
“Finding Neverland” resonated with many TAFFY entrants, including Emily Coughlin, who liked “when Johnny Depp showed Kate Winslet ‘Peter Pan’ in her home.”
Sports-oriented teens such as Nathaniel Brautigam and John McGovern liked “Miracle,” and the moment when the U.S. hockey team defeated the powerhouse players from the Soviet Union. As Eleanor Huntington quotes from “Miracle,” “Who do you play for?” “I play for the United States of America!”
Brianna Mendoza liked the moment in “Shrek 2,” during the tense dinner party with Fiona’s family, when “everyone started shouting out each other’s name because they were upset with each other. Nobody said ‘donkey’ so the Donkey said ‘Donkey!’ It was very funny.”
Romance was also on the docket for many teens, courtesy of the conclusion of “The Notebook.” At the end of the film, they “kiss and are surrounded by white swans,” writes Michiko Nagai.
Cody Stein liked the moment when the wall of water crashes down on New York City in “The Day After Tomorrow.”
And finally, John McGovern sums it up best, when he writes, “Thanks for letting the people (ages 13-19 who actually make the gross of movies millions of dollars because we’re the ones who watch them) vote.”
Our pleasure, John.