Scrooge McDuck’s money pit and 9 other on-screen home amenities we still want

The waterslide in Blank Check

In the same vein as Richie Rich and Cher from Clueless, the whole plot of Blank Check was about what it would be like to be a young person with limitless funds. The moral of the story in all cases seemed to be: it would be awesome. Blank Check came out in 1994, several months before Richie Rich came out the same year, suggesting the two may have been examples of that tried-and-true Hollywood pattern where two very similar movies come out around the same time. Armageddon had its Deep Impact. A Bug’s Life had its Antz. In this case, the differentiating factor between these two precocious little boys seemed to be that Preston (which, ironically, is an old money kind of name to begin with) was new money, while Richie came from a long line of wealth.

In case you forgot: Blank Check was about Preston nearly getting hit by a car driven by a bad guy, who, very stupidly offers Preston a blank check to shut him up about their near accident. Preston writes himself a check for a million dollars and goes on a dream spending spree, for a 12-year-old, which includes, yes, a sweet waterslide that goes from the upstairs of his house to the pool. (Sidenote: these movies were a bit misleading in terms of what a million dollars could actually buy you, aka not a mansion and a waterslide. Sorry.)

This movie also differentiated itself because what Preston was doing was not okay. He was essentially committing fraud, acting as if he were actually a powerful business man named Macintosh, and though we’re a little fuzzy on how the movie’s action was resolved, we can safely bet Preston wasn’t sent to federal prison as he would have been had he done this in real life.

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But if we can put all that aside and just appreciate the glory that was that waterslide, we should. Because I’m guessing that waterslide inspired many kids watching to want to earn enough money some day to install their own indoor/outdoor waterslide in their future home (and sadly, realize they needed to earn a lot more than $1 million). Or, maybe it just taught many kids that the way to be successful in life is to almost be hit by a car and write yourself a fraudulent check. One of the two. Either way, if you’ve got a slide like this at your home, please invite us over. We’ll bring snacks.