I'm a movie buff. Not in the sense that I know endless trivia. I just enjoy a well-told story, in black and white or color, with action or adventure or romance or comedy.

Thanks (or maybe no thanks) to DVDs, I find myself viewing more flicks from my couch these days than from the seats of a theater with a bag of tasty buttered popcorn in hand. (That's probably for the best, too.)

With a young boy at home, though, I have to say there have been few Disney or Pixar-type movies that we haven't seen opening weekend over the past several years. They come out just often enough to ease my guilt over that buttered popcorn!

This year, however, has been an unusual one. Now that my "baby" is in double digits, we are graduating to the non-animated films -- like Iron Man and Indiana Jones -- filled with just enough action and adventure for a 10-year-old. They are also coupled with some education. Seriously.

For example, after Indiana Jones especially, there was a bit of Q&A on the way home about all the historical references in the movie. If a child is curious enough to ask -- and most are -- we can be teaching them about history and antiques and their role to preserve them. What a great opportunity to mold that next generation of collectors!

I had to chuckle this morning when I saw a review for the new Pixar movie WALL-E, which opens Friday. In a nutshell, the story, set in 2775, follows the efforts of one robot to clean up "mankind's mistakes." Humans jumped ship, well literally jumped onto a space ship, to escape all the garbage on Earth.

In this one review, it sheds some light on the main character, WALL-E -- Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-class -- who is apparently the last robot of his kind still in operation. And, like Ariel in The Little Mermaid, he's accumulated a splendid collection of earthly antiques, ranging from Christmas tree lights to a Rubik's Cube to an ancient VHS recording of the 1969 film version of Hello, Dolly!

Isn't that interesting to think our collections of "stuff" today are tomorrow's antiques? Are we saving the right things? Do we care? I say, enjoy your collections today and, if they bring pleasure to someone (or perhaps a robot) 700 years down the road, that's just a bonus.

Are you collecting something today that you think will be a treasure in the future? We'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment here or email me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com.

Have fun collecting! Maybe we'll see you at the movies!