Lionheart (1987)

  You ever see something as a kid and it imprints on your little brain but then no one has ever heard of it and you can't find it anywhere so you start wondering if you made it up?  That's this movie for me.  I have an intensely vivid memory of watching this at home (my town didn't have a movie theater) so it must have been a rental from the corner gas station (I am extremely old, ladies and gentlemen) but I couldn't remember the name of it and no one ever seemed to know what I was talking about when I described it.  Thank God for IMDb because I was able to look up Eric Stoltz's entire filmography and find it a few years back to add to my TBW queue.  Because of course it's not streaming anywhere.  I feel like the only person who knew it existed (with the possible exception of Mr. Stoltz).  And that is a crying shame.  Because if you are between the ages of 9- and 12-years-old, this movie fucks.  Content warning:  child endangerment, blood, mild violence

Robert (Eric Stoltz) is a young nobleman desperate to join King Richard's crusade in the Holy Land.  He runs away from home and stumbles upon two circus kids, Michael (Dexter Fletcher) and Blanche (Nicola Cowper), heading to Paris.  Michael throws knives and Blanche sees the future in her dreams.  She recognizes Robert by his golden spurs and tells him his destiny is to meet King Richard the Lionheart by the sea.  There are dangers on the way, however, in the form of the Black Prince (Gabriel Byrne, looking all kinds of evil and fine), a notorious disillusioned knight who snatches children and sells them to the Moslems (I know.  It's lazy and racist.  Just grit your teeth.)  Robert must find allies and lead his charges to safety.

I cannot emphasize enough how many boxes this checked as a kid.  You had knights on white horses, kids with magic powers, kids with bonded animals (falcon), a female knight who's too badass to be tamed, played entirely straight with the kind of urgency that is super cringy in adults but seems completely natural to children.  It is basically Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves with the cast of Oliver.

As I said, it's not streaming anywhere but LookMovie.to.  I found a DVD on Amazon for less than $9.  Physical media forever.