Best movies for kids? Ha. Try these

I love the idea of showing kids Duck Soup and screening something beyond the Tomblyboo, but I'm pretty skeptical about some of the movies on the Times critics' list today of the 10 best films for children. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial - yes. Legally Blonde - er, no. I'd rather show my four-year-old daughter Clueless.

Around our house, some classic films have already joined the kids' heavy rotation list:

The Slipper and the Rose - Richard Chamberlain singing "I'll be slipped, into the beautiful family crypt"? Newcomer (in 1976) Gemma Craven as the sweet and likeable Cinderella? Annette Crosbie as the wisecracking, run-off-her-feet Fairy Godmother? We know all the words.

Singing in the Rain - Highlights include the raincoat song, "where the man dances with the person who's not a person" (Donald O'Connor's number) and Moses supposes his toeses are roses.

The Sound of Music - A sweet former nun is hunted by Nazis. What's not to love?

Kid-friendly excerpts from The Matrix, Pan's Labryinth - Enjoyed only in short bursts, before sandpit duty or eating pizza

Now if only I could lay my hands on a copy of Margie, a Jeanne Crain movie I loved when I was a girl... (you can see a clip here; best line: "Do you like Keats?" "I don't know, what are Keats?")

Got any of your own?

Comments

[Nikki]

Rhiannon - LOL on The Gnome-mobile. The fairies at the end catching their man is the only good bit but yes, I used to want to be one too. The DVD has been shoved to the back of our collection where it will prob never see daylight again. Some things are better off left in the past ;-)

[f c]

my daughter (11) and i spent a delightful rainy sunday afternoon watching all the best songs from a wide range of musicals on youtube including fiddler on the roof, singing in the rain, disney of course and so many others i had no idea i had seen so many - this stems from my own childhood with hours of matinees in the days of 3 tv channels and no bespoke kids tv ! sighs nostalgically ....

[Gipsy]

>>Enchanted (and to a certain degree the first Pirates of the Caribbean film) have shown that there doesn't have to be sex and violence to sell films - and surely the children's and pre-teen market is huge enough for film companies to take notice.<<

Well, you'd think wouldn't you? A friend of mine with a daughter has a huge gripe about the quality of movies aimed at pre-teens these days - namely the lack of really good female heroines. I know that in Narnia, for example, or Terabitha you have strong female characters. What he's talking about are movies where the main character is a girl, and the story is developed where she (without magic or supernatural help, or indeed without just plain co-incidence) actually makes a big difference.

[Sue]

Now that's real charity, taking another mum's children to the pictures! Good for you! (One mum I knew used to simply sleep all the way through the films, and wake refreshed and relaxed!)(I'm sure cinemas ought to offer 'sleeping lounges' for parents!)

Shrek, I must say, I never took to. I don't like that style of 'realistic but not quite' animation, and I found all the 'we're not a fairy tale ho ho ho' just irritating, and the 'anti-Disney stuff a twee, self-indulgent in-joke. However, it might have been bearable without Mike Myers quite atrocious accent, plus the horrible 'revelation' that the princess was really an ogress herself, so of course she doen'st mind ending up with an ogre herself - it would hve been a much stronger feminist message if she'd ended up married to a prince and STILL been an ogress herself! I thought that a real cop out.

[Maddilion]

"Enchanted" is a lot of fun in the Princess Bride vein.

"The Iron Giant" has got to be the best boy's animation of all time.

Posted by: Delilah

I watched Enchanted on the plane home from Oz in April and loved it, I am waiting for my 4 year old neice to hurry up and grow so I can watch it with her.

The Iron Giant was read to me at Junior School and scared me silly, to the point I have never re-read it to see why it was so bad at the time (I'm now 33 1/2)

I grew up watching Jimmy Cagney musicals, Yankee Doodle Dandee etc, M. Hulot's Holiday, Buster Keaton films and very rarely Disney films, although we were taken to see them at the cinema when they came out over half term breaks. My brother and I wore out a video of The Ladykillers and Star Wars - odd combination, but both are still firm favourites now.

I love Clueless, it's one of the few films of that high fashion era that hasn't aged, and Paul Judd is gorgeous in it to boot. Pixar can rarely do wrong, Toy Story 1 & 2, Nemo, Monsters Inc are on to iron to frequently and I love Shrek 1 & 2 as well.

I also love borrowing friend's children to take them to the cinema, it gives them a break for a couple of hours too; admittedly the last time I did it the Mum passed out in a coma on the couch and didn't do what she wanted to round the house, but felt like she had slept for a year afterwards.

[Aufie]

I would recommend any of the Studio Ghibli animations for kids, in particular 'Howl's Moving Castle' and my personal favourite 'Spirited Away' (both 'U' rated). I enjoyed them immensely as an adult, and wish I had seen them as a child. Beautifully animated, with incredibly imaginative and original plots.

[Aufie]

I would recommend any of the Studio Ghibli animations for kids, in particular 'Howl's Moving Castle' and my personal favourite 'Spirited Away' (both 'U' rated). I enjoyed them immensely as an adult, and wish I had seen them as a child. Beautifully animated, with incredibly imaginative and original plots.

[Sue]

I agree! There's something immensely satisfying about watching a film with your own children that you watched when you were young (or younger!). We particularly enjoyed watching the Star Wars trilogy with ours, saying they were much better on the big screen than on the telly! (with children saying how primitive the special effects were!)It's a great bonding time, I think, and binds the generations together very nicely.

My sister in law and her daughter love the old Hollywood musicals, and have great 'sessions' watching them together, enjoying both the music and 'all the frocks' etc.

Similarly, it can be great for sons and dads to watch the old war films together, especially as these days children seem to spend a lot of their history lessons doing the Second World War, and you could probably study the whole thing just through the Hollywood films they made of every 'big battle', etc.

[Eve]

It is a pity they don't run the old black and white epics / early colour musical films during the weekday afternoons and weekends, on BBC2 like they did when we were kids in the 1970s. My sister and I adored them, Ginger and Fred, the singing, the dancing, the glamourous frocks... and my granny used to be tickled pink that her favourites stood the test of time.

[Sue]

I agree about Grease. Never liked the film - there was a horrible song about getting pregnant, and then the whole message 'look like a tart and you'll get your man' is abhorrent. I don't find it endearing in the slightest.

[meg]

can't believe that 'grease' was on the original list! horrible film - despite the great songs - with a vile message!

[Sue]

Just wanted to say that I think the only 'nasty bit' in the new Indiana Jones is the army ants carrying off one of the bad guys (he's pretty nasty, but even so..not a nice ending!). Its maybe 20 seconds, but definitely cover eyes I think. I don't recall anything else gory, so far as I can remember. I wish they hadn't put that bit in, it sticks in your mind and you wish it didn't.

(But, that said, I ban the second of the old Indi Jones, the Temple of Doom, which is sicko all the way through.)

Overall, I agree that I deplore the 'adultisation' of childrens/teens films, whether its violence, sex or language. It's one of the reasons I like the old films, as you know you are pretty safe with them in that respect. (Though the Child Snatcher in CCBangBang is pretty damn grim, perhaps far more so in this era of missing and murdered children.)

I do wish that cinemas would show 'expurgated' versions of a whole bunch of films though. Sometimes there are very good l5 films, especially the historical/blockbuster types, that would be great for kids/teens if it weren't for what is often only a small amount of footage. Surely cinemas could see that if they got some kind of dual rating for a film they could get twice the audience in for it?)

[Sho]

My girls are bursting to see the Iron Giant, but will have to wait for the DVD to enter our house.

This list is very disappointing if only for the omission of the spectacularly brilliant Princess Bride. And I'll second (third? Fourth?) calls that Enchanted is equally as good. (if my husband can enjoy those two, it is high praise indeed)

Blade Runner? Definitely not, unless they are much older teens.

If we're talking modern films, what about Bridge to Terebithia (it's a 4+ Kleenex though so be warned) or Eragon? Narnia has been a great hit (and this is one mum who is very eagerly awaiting Prince Caspian).

We've recently seen a fair few really good family films here in Germany, I'm not sure if all of them are available in English though. Die Rote Zora was most excellent, as are the Wilden Kerle films (5 and rising) which are more targetted at boys. For the girls there are Die Wilden Hühner. I can't think of any English language equivalents - but they are sort of early teen-type films and have lead to some really good discussions about "life stuff".

What we need are more films like The Amazing Mr Blunden (wish I could find that on DVD) these days. Enchanted (and to a certain degree the first Pirates of the Caribbean film) have shown that there doesn't have to be sex and violence to sell films - and surely the children's and pre-teen market is huge enough for film companies to take notice.

As long as they stop with the High School Musical stuff now. 2 is more than enough.

I'll also echo Gipsy's comment: if they make sure to include eye-candy for the mums and dads, their box office takings will go through the roof.

[Delilah]

Actually, there are so many great films coming out this summer, there's hardly time to spend with the oldies.

BTW, am I the only one to be repeatedly pissed off to find that the latest "family blockbuster" has had enough unecessary sex, violence and sadism inserted in it to put it into the PG13 teenage category? "Stardust" being a case in point - despite being a family of (very) Grimm's Fairy Tales addicts I decided my 5-11 year olds didn't need to see a woman having her heart cut out, animals disembowelled, or people being threatened with having their fingers broken one by one. Looks like Indiana Jones is out, much to my 8-year-old son's dismay; and Transformers, which we all wanted so much to see (and when we finally did, on TV with my 11-year-old in tow, the PG 13 bits added so little to the film you had to wonder why they felt they had to do it. It was still a pain having to explain what masturbation was, though).

"Enchanted" is a lot of fun in the Princess Bride vein.

"The Iron Giant" has got to be the best boy's animation of all time.

[Mr Potarto]

I'm disappointed no one has mentioned Bugsy Malone yet. Gangsters, splurge guns, pedal cars, singing and Jodie Foster demonstrating her fearsome acting talent at 14.

"We're rotten to the core
My congratulations no one likes you any more..."

[Lazy Mummy]

Thanks for posting this thread - I read the original list & thought it was pretty much utter rubbish and more aimed at teens than children (big differences when it comes to these things). Heathers? Please! If you're going to talk about American High School/teenager movies at least do the decent thing & talk about Pretty in Pink or Gilbert Grape or The Breakfast Club!

Films for pre-schoolers:

Jungle Book
Aristocats
Finding Nemo
101 Dalmations (that's next on our list)
(Btw, if you prefer shorts, you can buy DVDs of old BBC classics like Ivor the Engine & Mr Benn).

Films for slightly older children (8-11 year olds)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Magnificent Men - Flying Machines
All those old swashbucklers like Crimson Pirate, the Errol Flynn films
My Fair Lady
James Bond (once you get to about 8)
Goodbye Mr Chips
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
The Moon & Sixpence (am I remembering the name right?)
Oliver
The Great Escape

Films for teenagers (these again divide between young teenagers & older teens):

LOTR
Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Gandhi was highly influential to me as a teen
The Italian Job
For 15-yr-olds up, anything by Billy Wilder, the Pythons, are good.
And of course The Princess Bride (thank you, whoever said that).

[rhiannon]

The Gnomemobile! I loved that film - my sister and I would spend hours arguing which fairy was the best in the end scene where they chase the young, eligible gnome.

I also really liked Heathers, but I suspect it was because I saw it during my rebellious phase rather than because it was a good film.

[SarahL]

Bushra - if you loved Princess Bride then I would definately recommend Stardust. Perhaps not quite as good as Princess Bride but a really great film in the fantasy vein nonetheless - very sweet and funny.

[Sue]

I agree, some of the best children's films are really the best family films - or, if not for all the family, then for kids+mum or kids+dad. Most of the Disney films are excellent at putting in something for grownups as well, to make them smile - I can remember the 'take an obscure relative to work day' comment in Monsters Inc which made me laugh, but the children looked blank at.

And some of the best children's films are actually the best films per se - such as LOTR, which is incredibly visually and emotionally powerful (even if the ROTK was hideously cut re the 'mums bit' of Eowyn getting Faramir as her consolation prize!)

[Gipsy]

Toy story - yes! To infinity and beyond!

And while we're on it, what about Toy Soldiers? I thought that was really well done, with a good story line.

Personally, my top children's movies of all time are any that I can stomach to watch and watch and watch again as an adult, because ultimately that is what happens.

Ditto with going to the cinema. If I'm going to have to sit through two hours of mind numbing drivel there has to at least be a buff man on the screen for five minutes preferably more. Or a sexy voice in the case of a cartoon/cgi (along the lines of Antonio Banderas in Shrek II for instance) or a fit Antonio Banderas in Spy Kids or maybe they could just flash semi-naked Antonio Banderas onscreen subliminally during all kids movies.

Ummm where was I? I seem to be distracted...

[Gipsy]

Good point. And why Heathers and not Lord of the Rings? I would have rated the latter much higher just on being a better made film alone. Also, I know far more girls and boys who enjoy that, than who would want to watch Heathers.

I loooooove Clueless. It is the absolute perfect updating of the Emma story. The person who wrote it is brilliant, in my opinion :)

[Sue]

Is Clueless based on Emma? I must look out for it - thanks.

I wonder if anyone's ever thought of giving Mansfield Park a Hollywood makeover. Now, there's a challenge! Though, thinking about it, it would probably work perfectly well. Playing Mary Crawford would be fun.

BTW, no one's mentioned any of the Harry Potter films, which I'm sure a whole heap of children must be enjoying. Perhaps they don't count because there are so many of them, and they are really just versions of the books, and if you don't like the books you probably wouldn't like the films either.

[Mumofboyz]

I saw Heathers when I was about 16 and loved it, so I'll defend it - although it's definitely one for older teens.
What about Toy Story? Surely a classic.

[RVP]

Not sure if this book is available in the UK but in the US - The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together by Ty Burr - is utterly fabulous as a guide for all age groups and genres. It also highlights possible talking/explanation points that might be needed. He has made his 2 daughters watch them all!

[L]

The old style Hollywood musicals are amazing: the King and I, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Airplane (1 and 2), Cool Runnings.

Clueless is based on Emma.