Happy Arbor Day's Eve, dear reader!
As I'm sure we all know, tomorrow is the last Friday of April, also known as Arbor Day. It is the annual day of observance when we celebrate our forests and trees, and encourage each other to plant trees. To celebrate this monumental occasion, I decided to rank the most iconic and memorable trees from the world of cinema. Let's do this!
10. The Honey Tree from the Winnie the Pooh franchise (1977-)
I only remember bits and pieces from the animated Winnie the Pooh movies, as I watched them as a small child and they weren't among my biggest favorites although I did enjoy them. But I do remember the Honey Tree. It was a beautiful location, with its huge interior and honey-dripping ceiling. Pooh getting stuck in the Hone Tree is quite the classic moment.
9. The Tree of Souls from Avatar (2009)
In James Cameron's Avatar, the Tree Of Souls is a spiritually significant location for the Na'vi, the indigenous people of the planet Pandora. I don't exactly remember what its spiritual significance was, because even though I've seen the film twice, the plot is a bit forgettable. What isn't forgettable is the film's mesmerizing visual imagery, and I definitely remember what the Tree Of Souls looks like. It is a fantastic piece of graphic design, beautifully glowing branches and all.
8. The Tree of Life from The Lion King (1994)
Rafiki (Robert Guillaume) lives in a large and exotic baobab tree, which is a delightful part of the magical world of the Pride Lands. The scene where (spoiler alert for people who haven't seen The Lion King, who should immediately stop reading and go watch The Lion King) Rafiki finds out that Simba (Matthew Broderick) is still alive and restores the smeared picture of Simba drawn on the trunk of the tree, is one of the most epic moments in a film filled with epic moments.
7. The Arm from Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
Okay, I'm bending the rules here, as the title of the list is "Top 10 iconic movie trees", and Twin Peaks is a television series. But, in my defense, the third season of Twin Peaks (also known as The Return) was written and filmed by David Lynch as if it were an 18-hour movie, after which it was chopped into hour-long pieces. Thus, I'd argue that it's enough of a "movie" to qualify. Hey, I don't make the rules.
Now, about The Arm. How to explain The Arm. If you remember the Man From Another Place (Michael J. Anderson) from the show's original run (he's the dancing dwarf from the Red Room), the character appears in The Return as well. But because the actor didn't want to return due to a falling-out with the director involving murderous conspiracy theories (no, really), Lynch did what any sensible director would do and rewrote the character as a tree. No, really. The tree even has some lines as it interacts with Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in the Red Room.
6. The Christmas Tree from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
The huge Christmas tree that Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) cuts down from the nearby forest is at the forefront of this comedy classic's shenanigans. The trip to get the tree, not to mention the troubles in putting it up in the house, are hilarious to follow as the film's writers clearly had Murphy's law in mind. The hijinks continue later when the larger family celebrates, as an incident involving a cigar has some exciting consequences - I won't spoil all the specifics here. Rest in peace, Fluffy the cat.
5. The Twin Pines / Lone Pine from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985-1990)
This tree (or these two trees, originally) is the key to one of the greatest subtle jokes in cinema history. In the first act of Back to the Future (1985), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) meets Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) at a place called Twin Pines mall. Later in the film, when he has travelled back in time to 1955, there are two large pines in the location where the mall would be by 1985. Marty ends up accidentally running one of the pines over with his car, and lo and behold - when he returns to his original timeline at the end of the film, observant viewers might notice that the familiar mall is now called Lone Pine mall. Absolutely genius.
4. The White Oak from The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This one is powerful. I can't say much about this particular tree and its place in the story without spoiling the one film that everyone should watch and no one should spoil for people who haven't seen it yet. Let's just say that the narrative relating to this white oak in a field in Buxton, Maine, is an important and emotional one.
3. The Whomping Willow from the Harry Potter franchise (2001-2011)
This particularly lively and violent tree from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books translates beautifully from page to screen. Whether it's smashing the Weasley family's flying car in the exciting first act of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) or serving as a secret passageway to the Shrieking Shack in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), this tree has an important role to play in the franchise. Even when it's not affecting the franchise, the unique visual imagery of the Whomping Willow adds a lot to the milieu of Hogwarts in various transition shots of the school's surroundings.
2. Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003)
I know, I know. Ents are technically not trees, and they are quite sensitive about it. But still, let's face it - they are the walking and talking version of trees and we all know it. They look like trees, they reside in forests, and they have names like Leaflock and Beechbone. I mean, Treebeard literally has the word "Tree" in his name.
Biological debates aside, if ents do count as trees for the context of this list, then Treebeard is one iconic member of the species. It is a little-known fact that John Rhys-Davies, who plays the dwarf Gimli in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, also provided the voice acting for the role of Treebeard. And what a voice acting performance it is - the character's slow and drowsy way of speaking sounds exactly like one would imagine when reading the source material. And the amazing visual effects department of the franchise did a great job with what the character looks like, making for a remarkable cinematic tree-like creature if I ever saw one.
1. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and other Marvel movies
Quite the no-brainer. Which movie tree could possibly be more lovable than this tree-like alien superhero who is played by Vin Diesel, has a sweet bromance with Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and can only speak the sentence "I am Groot"? My favorite thing about Guardians of the Galaxy is just how incredibly random the main group of heroes is, and this extraterrestrial tree monster is the icing on the cake. He has multiple moments of greatness throughout both Guardians of the Galaxy films as well as the last two Avengers films, between being hilarious and heartfelt and downright bizarre in pretty much every scene he's in. Maybe someday I'll do a post on the top 10 greatest Groot quotes.
Thank you for reading - I hope everyone has a safe and triumphant Arbor Day! I'll be back next week with a ranking of all films in the DC Extended Universe, with both versions of Justice League (2017; 2021) included separately.
P.S. my Oscar predictions were just a tad better than last year, as I got 13 out 23 correct! I'd be satisfied, if it weren't for the fact that my predictions made me lose ten euros due to an incident involving an octopus. Better luck next year!
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