Hey guys, Jana here,

School’s out, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer and it’s about the time of year for parents to begin shipping their kids off to various summer camps. Some focus on fun, some are faith-based, others make the focal point anything from acting to sports, I even think there’s a chess camp. Talk about some trouble-makers! Woo-hoo and shit.  No matter where your interests lie, there’s a camp for that. Some of the greatest camps I’ve wanted to attend are all fictional and brought to us by both big and small screens. I’m going to give you a run down of what I think the top 10 summer camps from films are, then you can argue with me if you have better suggestions.

Starting the list for a tie are two camps that aren’t really seen a whole lot, or in one case – ever. But they’ve been ingrained in my head and I catch myself singing the song from one in particular. The movie ‘Houseguest‘ with Sinbad and Phil Hartman didn’t feature a summer camp, but it’s one of the bedrocks the film’s premise is built on. Camp Mapleridge is where Hartman and Sinbad’s characters should have met and the song is sung at least twice in the flick.

10. Camp Winnipesaukee is the fictional place where Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake spend their nights with flashlights and singing while the kooky administrator tries to keep the activity to sleeping and these two just aren’t having it.

9. For a purely nostalgic memory of a movie that made me want to go to summer camp, and/or fall in love with Michael J. Fox, I give you Camp Pinewood from the 1985 movie ‘Poison Ivy‘, not the Drew Barrymore flick. Yes, there are two of them.

8. The 1980’s gave us so many awesome things to dream about and hope for, but one camp that was on every kid’s list that I knew was ‘Space Camp‘.

7. I’m an unashamedly proud fan of Disney animation and one of my favorites was ‘The Emperor’s New Groove‘. I’m in love with Patrick Warburton’s Kronk and in ‘Kronk’s New Groove‘ he taught his troops to speak chipmunk at the aptly named Camp Chippamunka and I wished I could equally be Ms. Birdwell  and one of his campers.

6. It has to be on the list and it is – Camp Chippewa from ‘Addams Family Values‘. The camp itself seems fairly corny and typical, what I would love about attending this camp is if I could be Wednesday’s bunk-mate. I want to be a part of the Indian-led massacre with copious amounts of dead blood and a singing, dancing turkey. Who wouldn’t want this?!

5. Camp Kikakee from ‘Ernest Goes to Camp‘ is another one of those camps where I’d love to go, but only if the characters are there as well. I’m not a juvenile delinquent, but I could truly appreciate Ernest’s efforts and would have far more fun with him than if I learned how to throw a pottery bowl perfectly.

4. Camp Hope from the movie ‘Heavyweights‘ is one of the images I get in my head when I hear summer camp. The promise of a lakefront fun center that hosts The Blob, go-cart races and promises a summer of fun is ideal. When Perkis takes over the camp for a summer of no-rewards dieting is NOT when I want to be there.

3.Camp Firewood from ‘Wet Hot American Summer‘ has got to be on any list of awesome summer camp movies. I want to be a counselor there, if you’re one of the campers you’d have the time of your life because they don’t have no stinking rules at Camp Firewood! However, being an adult with access to everything restricted to minors sounds even more fun.

2. ♪♫ Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the fun? ♪♫♪ Camp Northstar from ‘Meatballs‘, Bill Murray shows us just what’s possible when you give a slacker ultimate control of the summer for 300 kids, and it’s awesome! Mom wouldn’t approve, but that just makes the ridiculous antics even more fun.

1) Coming in at #1 on my personal favorite fictional camp I’d love to attend is Camp Tamakwa from the 1993 flick ‘Indian Summer‘. It’s pure nostalgia at its finest. The shrek’s, young love, personal triumph, heartaches, and the friends that you have for a lifetime are just some of the fantastic points of this movie and they make me think back to my years growing up at summer camp. We tied our counselor to her bed and put peanut butter in her nose, putting plastic wrap over the boys’ toilet bowls for a hilarious surprise, plastic wrap full of KY Jelly attached to the outside of the boys’ dorm door frame ensuring at least one of them got covered with a face full of the substance. Midnight kitchen raids where everyone seemed to be aware of, but just turned a blind eye towards it. This is my summer camp movie and it makes me so happy when I watch it. There actually is a Camp Tamakwa, but the cast of the flick was entirely fictitious. I can’t imagine a better place to send my kids for the summer!

Let me hear it, where did I get it wrong, or where did you think it was right? What would you add? Fill up the comments people!