Movies for family movie night?

Aaaaahhhhhh!

Move technically completed, but I spent 20 minute trying to find the box with my deodorant this morning. And now I'm going to clean out my old apartment. Prayers welcome...

Movers awesome (I'll write an actual review so Google picks it up this weekend) and Con Ed was great, too.

Today's talk-amongst-yourself topic is a special request from RudyinParis. She would like movie recommendations. Every Friday night in their house is family movie night, and she's hoping you can give good recs.

My pick is "Drumline" with Nick Cannon  as a kid with mad drumming skillz who goes to college at a fictional HBCU and joins the drumline there. Amazing drum and band scenes. There's some mild smack-talking, and a little conflict when band members don't obey the director (Orlando Jones), and some sexual innuendo that will completely go over the heads of kids under the ages of 10. Every time my kids watch this movie they go crazy druming on everything for a week.

Comments

[liz]

Star Wars. The original one.

Miracle on 34th Street (best if viewed in July)

[paola]

Can I suggest also mentioning ages these movies are suitable for?

[meggiemoo]

I just rented "Inkheart". It would be scary, I think, for anybody maybe 6 and under, but older kids would like it. Lots of adventure and magic. We recently saw "Bridge to Terabithia," which is lovely but very sad.

I really liked "City of Ember," "Nim's Island," and "The Spiderwick Chronicles." Our 3-year-old watched "City of Ember" and "Nim's Island." A couple of thrilling moments in each, but nothing too scary.

[Jenny]

I have a 4yo who loves, loves LOVES almost all of Hiyao Miyazaki's animated films -- My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle. Some are a little more scary than others (there are some tense scenes in Spirited Away) but they are so magical it almost doesn't matter, and I can see them a nearly infinite number of times without getting tired of them. Now that's magic.

We also like The Secret of Roan Inish (selkies in Ireland), The Secret Garden, and Mary Poppins.

[Dawn]

We like musicals - Mary Poppins, especially. My five year old loves the movie Enchanted and so does everyone else in our house, luckily enough. For anyone who hasn't seen it, it's a Disney movie about a girl who lives in a fairy tale, gets transported to Manhattan by a witch, then has to transform from helpless fairy tale girl to girl who saves the boy. Amy Adams is great.

I've seen part of Nim's Island and am looking forward to watching that with my older daughter.

She also really likes Wall-E right now.

[libbyllama]

These are probably too old for preschoolers, but how about The Princess Bride and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl? I thought Kit Kittredge was going to be lame, but it was surprisingly fun and entertaining.

As a side note: Moxie, I thought of you and the Verizon mess when I saw the headline about the NH man who had to spend 2 hours on the phone with Bank of America to get the erroneous 23 *quadrillion* dollar charge removed from his bank account. Helluva a cigarette tax!

[Cloud]

@Jenny- The Secret of Roan Inish is one of MY favorite movies- it is great! I'm looking forward to sharing it with my daughter when she gets a little older. I would guess school age would be when that one becomes appropriate, but also think it would depend on the child. There is no foul language, sex or inneundo. The story line revolves around a little boy who goes missing, though, and I figure you need a child old enough to understand that before you can show the movie.

I'm also looking forward to sharing some of my favorite old comedies (Arsenic and Old Lace, Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby...) but those are also only appropriate for older kids. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's suggestions for the young kids.

I will also say that what will work at what age is probably going to be variable. My family still laughs at how I had to be carried out of a screening of Fantasia, crying. I didn't even make it to the "scary" bit (Night on Bald Mountain). I was upset that Mickey Mouse was going to get in trouble during the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

[Nell]

I second Jenny's suggestion of Miyazaki -- he's a genius. My favorite is Kiki's Delivery Service, but they are all great and withstand multiple viewings by adults. How magical are they? My kid watches them in Japanese, which he doesn't understand (much), and isn't bothered at all. I've heard other people have the same experience.

[mom2boys]

Ice Age, The Incredibles, Meet the Robinsons, Wallace and Grommit, A Christmas Story, Big, Millions, Arthur and the Invisibles (I really like this one), Hairspray.

I loved Parent Trap as a kid. I know they remade it but the original and Bedknobs and Broomsticks were two of my favorites as a kid. Oh and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but the boys just don't share my enthusiasm for that movie.

[Judy]

Don't know the age range Rudy has, but some "clean" movies I'll always love:
Princess Bride
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Sting
Big
Little Man Tate
Anything with Fred Astaire- I grew up in a Big Band household- maybe they could do a Black&White movie month?
Whale Rider
Wallace & Grommit/Chicken Run
Into the West (1992)

Could go on and on...

[maria]

I can't wait to see what people recommend. I try to have a movie night too, but my daughter is SO sensitive that it's hard to find movies that don't freak her out and that I can stand to sit through in a cozy parent-child bonding way. She couldn't make it through The Muppets Take Manhattan for crying out loud (literally… they got to the song where they're going their separate ways and she sobbed uncontrollably).

What has worked for us: Musicals – The Sound of Music and Peter Pan (the Cathy Rigby version is GREAT). Also, there's a very sweet Christmas movie called Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas that is an early Jim Henson production and has nice music and a tender little story. Mary Poppins was all right, but it didn't really hold her attention, not sure why. I've thought about trying Fly Away Home, but I'm not sure how it'll go over.

I'm going to sit back and wait for recommendations now!

[maria]

Oops sorry, forgot to mention she's 5 and a half.

[hush]

To me, a good family movie is one that won't scar the kids nor bore/annoy the parents. Here are some of my faves: "Labyrinth," "The Goonies," "The Wizard of Oz," "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," "Beetlejuice," "The Sandlot," "Murder By Death," "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," "Monsters, Inc," and "Night At The Museum" (& the recent sequel).

There is violence in all the movies I've mentioned...

[Molly]

I'm a big fan of Carrol Ballard movies: The Black Stallion, Fly Away Home, Duma. My 3-yr old loves them and so do I.

[violingirl]

My boys are 2 and almost 4 and the most often requested movies for movie night here are Ice Age, Wall-E and Wallace and Grommit. LOVE Wallace and Grommit! Wall-E is slow for me and my husband, but it's just the right pace for the kids. My older one is more sensitive about things and finds Wal-E to be very fast paced and exciting, lol.

[the milliner]

As defined by @hush (won't scar the kids nor bore/annoy the parents) here's our list of movies were planning on watching with the little guy when he's old enough:

Babe
Babe, Pig in the City (if you haven't seen it, be warned that it's darker than Babe)
Wizard of Oz (anyone want to recommend what age they think it's suitable for?)
Pixar Animated Films: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, etc.
School of Rock (Jack Black for kids! Yay!)
The Muppet Movies (might be annoying, but I LOVED the Muppets as a kid)
Fly Away Home

[Rudyinparis]

Ohhhh, this is awesome!

Similar to Nell's experience of her kid watching the Miyazaki movies in Japanese--my girls watched The cave of the yellow dog in Mongolian and were glued to the screen. So I can recommend that one. We just watched Nanny McPhee last Friday and they really liked it (me too.)

Thanks guys!

[Rudyinparis]

And my post actually posted! This is a red banner day for me. Cheers to all.

[ramy]

My daughter's idea of a great friday night--a Planet Earth episode and popcorn (she's 4.5).

Of course, this is the same girl who is obsessed with Lawrence Welk on pbs.

[Lisa]

My 2 year old has been in love with the original Wizard of Oz for a long time.... he is too young to be scared of the witch and he loves the music. And we can watch it without our eyes glazing over too....

[Eva]

1. Backyardigans' movie "International Super Spy"-- it's smart and fun even for adults
2. October Sky
3. Grease--still can't help watching this EVERY TIME it comes on TV...I saw it in the theater when it came out (I was 5) and I was obsessed with it for years!
4. Annie--obviously some sad stuff with a plot involving orphans, but I loved it as a kid and it has great heart (age 10)
5. The Rescuers
6. Excalibur (1981) for preteens and teens
7. The Toy-- Richard Pryor-- this cracked me up as a kid
8. Superman--obviously includes violence
9. James and the Giant Peach-- some scary stuff--my four year old is too young, but my nephew loved it around age 7-9
10. The Iron Giant
11. Sound of Music
12. Wizard of Oz--the monkeys used to terrify me as a kid, but my four year old seems unfazed
13. Pete's Dragon-- yes, it's sad and kind of corny, BUT I worshipped this movie as a five or six year old

[pnuts mama]

our kids (4 and 1- girl is 4) love the new tinkerbell movie- we don't mind it, and like the fact that it really doesn't have violence (which is scary for little ones! and most 'original' disney flicks have tons of violence!) also we like the simpsons movie, cause that's how we roll here. we were watching the simpsons (spin-off episode!) while pushing out the bean...

rudyinparis- i can't remember the ages of your girls, but when i was younger i just loved loved loved the anne of green gables movies- remember when they used to play on pbs? then came out on video? sigh...and i would agree that musicals are just wonderful for everyone...cause i'm a nerd too!

[CaliBoo]

@ramy: my 7 yo nephew also loves Lawrence Welk, but he thinks it's a comedy with goofy costumes. He also loves all of the physical comedy in "Signing in the Rain".
"Chicken Run" would be fun for older kids and adults, might be a little too scary for the under 5 set.
So, does this mean it's Friday yet?

[paola]

My 4.5 year old manages to find something scary in every movie he has seen, so we stick to the Thomas (and friends)and Bob (The Builder)films.

He found:

Babe, scary.
Nemo, scary in parts ( scenes with the Aussie accented Sharks, which I found a hoot)
Ratatouille, long and scary.
Down the Tube, abandoned half way thru due to scariness ( both 2.5 year old and 4.5 year old agreed)
March of the Penguins, actully watched most of that one.

[Ari]

@Judy mentioned Fred Astaire -- there was a cute article in the NYTimes recently about a man raising his daughter alone and he mentions perhaps overdoing the Astaire movies a bit when his daughter (4?) starts dressing for dinner and holding her hand out to him for a dance during dinner too. Cute.

I have nothing to add to the movie ideas though, except the little one watched Bolt during a horrible teething episode and it calmed him down nicely. Only movie he's ever watched, and it was amazing we had it in the house (co-worker lent it to us, I took it to be polite and fully intended on returning it unwatched). And I thought it was cute too, but I probably would have thought Psycho was cute if he was less miserable during viewing.

[Aaron]

Fav's in our house are Horton Hears A Who, Nemo, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo and Jungle Book. She's 2.

[Cathy]

La, age 6, is a big fan of the Parent Trap (the kind of recent remake with with Lindsey Lohan), Princess Diaries (I and II), Freaky Friday (the Lohan version) and Ice Princess.

She does not like movies where the child becomes separated from the parent (her biggest fear?) So, no Princess movies, no Peter Pan. She likes Toy Story (second one best), Robots, and Nemo. We saw Curious George in the theater. Cars. Kung Fu Panda.

For older kids, Secondhand Lions, Cheaper by the Dozen, Hoop Dreams.

[kakaty]

My nearly 3 year old LOVES Annie (and so do I - I grew up acting out the scenes in my basement with my best friend). She also just saw part of the Wizard of Oz and loved that, too.

[Moxieofmyown]

My girls like "lovely" movies in our house, so in addition to Secret of Roan Inish and The Secret Garden, don't forget A Little Princess. It's "the other" Frances Hodgson Burnett tale, about a little girl whose father is missing in WWI and she goes from princess to scullion at her boarding school.

I love the sassy little girl heroines, so that means Matilda, Harriet the Spy, Kit Kittredge, and Miracle on 34th Street (I liked the more recent one more than the Natalie Wood original). The best EVER-- To Kill a Mockingbird (some scary parts toward the end when Scout is attacked in her ham costume).

What about Harry Potter for the kids 7 and up? And the new Narnia movies? Oh, and speaking of "Up," my older (9) loved it and I did too. And I have to confess that the recent Hannah Montana movie was less bad than I expected....ahem.

Animal movies...Duma is gorgeous, about a boy raising and releasing a cheetah. Milo and Otis! Babe! Shiloh! My Dog Skip! Old Yeller (but we all know how that turns out). Where the Red Fern Grows. Benji movies were great when I was a kid in the 70s. White Fang for older kids. The Yearling.

Wow, now I want to go home and fire up the DVD!

[Christiana]

Secondhand Lions. My favorite family-friendly movie. Also, we love musicals at our house - Fiddler on the Roof, Sound of Music, Footloose... and the Disney classics like The Monkey's Uncle, Merlin Jones, Freaky Friday (the original), Candleshoe, Man from/Return to Snowy River...

[Clare]

My son loves the PIxar stuff (he's 5), but he also goes nuts for the science shows narrated by David Attenborough. Private Life of Plants and popcorn, and he's a happy kid.

[Abacaxi Mamao]

What not to do:

The Goonies terrified me when I was seven or eight and saw it. I don't really remember why.

The first movie I ever saw, Follow that Bird, is a Sesame Street movie where Big Bird gets *kidnapped* and imprisoned. That also gave me nightmares for awhile--I was four or five when I saw it. Take-away lesson: If your kid is sensitive (I guess I was?), don't, for the love of God, show movies where children (or Muppets) get lost or kidnapped. They'll think it's going to happen to them. Imminently.

I was also afraid of the scene with the cats in "An American Tail" (animated movie about Jewish Russian mice escaping pogroms and coming to America; saw it when I was 6), and ET also scared me. (I was 6-8-ish when I saw it?)

The PBS version of "Lion, Witch, Wardrobe" from the 1980s also scared me, and I saw that when I was 8 or 9. I don't remember what about is scared me.

The flying monkeys and the scene at the end, before the witch melts, in the Wizard of Oz also scared me, when I was 7-9-ish.

What did I like? There is a sweet, sweet movie called "Milo and Otis" about, I think (it's been 20+ years...), a cat and a dog who go on an adventure. It features real animals and I remember thinking it was very cute when I saw it when I was 7.

Also, I always liked musicals like The Music Man, Mary Poppins, etc. I saw Tootsie when I was pretty young and liked it.

[julie]

cars!!! awesome movie. watch it all the time.

[Cathy]

Speaking of non-fiction that young kids like, La also liked "the manufacturing show" - aka Unwrapped on Food Network. And How It's Made on the science channel.

[Katy]

My boys are 3 1/2 and just turned 2. We've only watched three movies with them so far:

Nemo - both love it (beginning part where the eel comes freaks out the 2-yr-old but then he's fine for the rest)

Cars & Toy Story - Older likes them; younger will watch a bit, but too much dialogue relative to action for him to stay interested

Movies I want to try: Lady and the Tramp (any scary parts in that one that I'm forgetting?), Toy Story II (I preferred it to the first one), Madagascar, Jungle Book

I've already written down some ideas you all have mentioned. Keep them coming!

[Mama Ritchie]

I find this site is helpful when I am looking for a movie for my 4 year old:

http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/moviereviews/main.asp?gclid=CPny8ay50JgCFQrAGgodjEMN1w

All kids have different trigger points. My cousin's 4 year old is adopted from China, and has lots of abandonment issues. So any movie that shows a character being rejected or abandoned really sets her off. This site helps you pre-screen the movie for your own particular kid. The site doesn't seem to have any particular agenda (i.e. religious slant, etc.) but I haven't used it all that much so I can't be positive about that.

[Jen C.]

My daughter who will be 3 in October loves to watch movies. The Pixars are always favorites (her #1 favorite is Toy Story 2). In the rotation lately are Shrek2, Jungle Book and the remake of The Parent Trap. I'd love her to see the original but we came across the remake on TV one weekend and now she's obsessed. She keeps asking for the movie with "the two girls".

Thanks for the post, this is great!

[akeeyu]

Not exactly movies, but you can get The Muppet Show season by season on Netflix.

Food Network shows:
Alton Brown
Unwrapped

Discovery shows:
Dirty Jobs
Mythbusters

Right now Mythbusters (including their BIGGEST EXPLODIEST EPISODES) is on Netflix's watch-it-now list, and it is wicked cool. Funny, explody, kind of sciency, and several of the Mythbusters are easy on the eyes, which sure doesn't hurt.

I always default to our childhood favorites:
The Last Unicorn
The Neverending Story
(don't be surprised when it is WAY CHEESIER than you remember it)
Ferris Beuller's Day Off
(ABC, who is in middle school, loved it, and it has held up surprisingly well)
Legend
Dark Crystal
Labyrinth

...and any old black and white movies or musicals you happen to like.

[mamanesq]

DD (2) loves nemo and the aristocats.

[mo]

My boys are 4 and are complete wooses (sp?) like their mom. We watch two movies over and over and just added a third to the mix (finally!). Our two movies:

Cars (did I mentioned my kids are boys?!) - that said, I've seen this movie too many times to count since December and I still enjoy parts of it and still laugh at some of the word play. (To give you an idea of the woosiness - definitely not a word but it works here, my boys had to skip over the Tractor Tipping part for the first 20 times we watched the movie because the combine was too scary)

Bug's Life - we had to skip over a couple parts when the boys found them scary but have since been able to watch the whole movie. As with Cars there are a couple lines that I still laugh out loud from. Cute movie.

Horton Hears a Whol - good movie. Not scary (on the most part) to the boys.

Otherwise, most of the other Pixar movies would be considered a little too scary. We tried watching Ratatouille but it resulting in a lot of crying and we had to turn it off within 15 minutes of it starting and one of my boys freaks out if he even starts to see a preview of it on one of our other Pixar movies (its a preview on the Bug's movie).

[flea]

Watching The Sound of Music resulted in my trying to explain the Anschluss to my (then) 4 year old. That was fun. I also discovered that Captain von Trapp is sexy. Somehow missed that as a kid.

We love the recent British Peter Pan. It can be a bit scary, but my kid likes to be scared, and until recently the little one didn't really follow.

Now the little one has turned 3 and this means we must watch Cars every single day. Joy. When his sister was 3 it was Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron, which has, I kid you not, a soundtrack exclusively by Bryan Adams. It's a miracle I survived that little obsession. Avoid it if you can.

[kathleen999]

I know you are doing movies, but who were your movers? We live in NYC too and have had bad experiences. I would love to hear about good movers as we will be moving soon.

[zimbabweanjen]

another vote for Horton Hears a Who...didn't really want to watch it myself but totally got sucked in...there is something great about it...and my boy loved it in january when he was two and a half. he watched it over and over and it saved my sanity when my husband had to unexpectedly leave for 3 weeks. Curious George (with Drew Barrymore and Will Ferrell) is pretty sweet too and the music really lulls me into la la land which is strangely nice...All the old school Disney are fun too but I didn't realise that the baddies are actually quite scary for littlies under 3! somehow I remembered them as less scary, but from a viewpoint of a two year old, people like Ursula the sea witch are a bit of a no no! Space Chimps was actually so good, hubby and I were surprised!

[Michelle]

Don't forget the old school movies. My 10 yr old stepson loooved ET and Gremlins. And he watches the Star Wars movies but I think Dad likes them more than he does.

I completely forgot about Milo & Otis but this a great suggestion. Brings to mind...Homeward Bound (a couple dogs and a cat take off to find their family)

Neither my stepson or my 3 yr old are really sensitive so we haven't run across much that we found ok and they didn't.

Cars is a big hit! And the Ice Age movies, we just saw the most recent one in the theater. I thought it might freak out the younger one but he loved it. Both of them really like Wall-E and the younger ones keeps asking about Toy Stor.

[KatieV]

Wall-E. I have a 4yo boy and 2.5yo girl who both enjoy watching this. 4yo is easily frightened and doesn't even like movies with too-intense music, so Wall-E was great for him.

[Erica]

I'm so glad this came up!

The Planet Earth DVD's are HUGE here, especially "Shallow Seas". My 2 & 4 yo girls want to watch this as much as their princess movies.

They also love, love, love Wizard of Oz, even my 4-year-old who is recently terrified of everything.

Mary Poppins - also good but really long to hold their attention for the whole time.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is great for the younger set.

[Anna N.]

my 3yo girl and 15 mo girl LOVE all the Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks movies - Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Cars, Emperor's New Groove, Hercules, Wall-E, Bolt, etc. We have about 3 dozen of them and we watch them over and over and over....and amazingly, only now as a parent I noticed that there's lots of violence and death and killing in the older Disneys. I try to skip through some of the more violent scenes but the older one knows when I try to fast forward and gets mad. I don't think the girls really understand all of the intracacies of the evilness (just that the person is "bad") so they haven't been effected by it. I just introduced Hoodwinked to the 3yo and she was so entranced, I don't think she blinked.

[maria]

Argh, we tried Fly Away Home this afternoon as a Special Treat with Popcorn… and my daughter is now hiding in the closet because in the 10 seconds I was off the couch and not sitting next to her SOMEBODY said SOMETHING sad and she ran from the room sobbing. Now she refuses to talk to me about it or anything else. Sigh. I assume it was something about the girl missing her mother. I feel awful about encouraging her to watch it.

[Jenny]

@Cloud -- my 4yo doesn't have a problem with the little boy going missing in Secret of Roan Inish, partly because he's obviously safe (minus the moderately tense scene where the cradle floats away) and partly because she is more focused on the fact that he's not wearing clothes

The heads-up that everyone's kids have different triggers is a good one. Actually, parents probably do, too. My daughter (who is adopted from China) doesn't seem to have any problem watching Annie, but I squirm a LOT at the horrible orphanage and mean Miss Hannigan and so forth. I find myself wanting to explain stuff my daughter doesn't seem to need explained. :)

[Shelley]

Interesting about the different trigger points for different kids.

We watched "The Rescuers," (which involves an orphan, an evil woman who wants the orphan to do things for her, rescuing mice, and in the end the orphan girl is adopted) and my 5-y-o asked incessant questions about adoption -- not that there's anything wrong with being curious, but I really loathe the way this movie presents it. I just *hate* that this movie was her first real introduction to the topic. (Jenny, I hear ya!)

Big hits with both parents and kids around here:
- The recent adaptation of "Charlotte's Web" -- lovely, lovely, lovely movie
- Cars
- Cinderella (I was surprised by what a work of art it is)
-Little Mermaid (I was amazed by how good the songs are)
-Ratatouille (inspired her to start tasting foods together to make a new taste -- super-cute)

"Mary Poppins" was fun but a lot of the stuff in it relating to the father's job as a banker went completely over her head. She got the overall theme, that parents should be involved with their kids, though -- loud and clear. Loved the chimney sweep dance scene too. Agreed that it's a little long.