I just watched the JJ Abrams movie “Super 8” and the 1980s kids-exploring-weird-stuff-and-falling-in-love vibe reminded me a lot of Guilded Youth. I wonder if it was an influence?
Maybe – I remember that being pretty big two summers ago, which would mean there was plenty of time for Jim Munroe to have seen it. But I think Goonies, which was made in the 80s, might be a bigger influence.
I mentioned The Goonies when I was reviewing this during IFComp. I don’t think Jim will mind me saying that he wrote me to say he had not seen The Goonies before making Guilded Youth. But he watched The Goonies afterwards and said that he saw a lot of similarities.
Super 8 actively set out to channel a lot of The Goonies and what might broadly be described as The Goonies’s ilk 
I really like films with that feel, though strangely The Goonies itself is not one that I ever liked much. Yet it seems the easiest one to mention when trying to allude to that feel.
- Wade