By Gabrielle. Poster by Wonchan Lee.
Question:
Hi Design Mom. You mentioned that your older kids watched You’ve Got Mail, and I’d love to know what movies you watch as a whole family. Are there movies that the younger kids and older kids both like? I need a list for our own movie nights. Thanks! — Joanna.
Answer:
Such a fun question, Joanna! As you know, we love a good movie party at our house. : )
Before I share a list of favorite titles, I feel like I should give some kind of parental guidance warning. We don’t consider ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R) super accurate at our house. School of Rock is PG-13, but we watch it as a whole family. On the other hand, Skyfall is rated PG-13, but we won’t let our kids see it — even the older two who are 13+. And The Kings Speech, which is rated R, would definitely be on my approved list for my teens. So if there’s something on our list that would offend your kids, forget my recommendation and stick to your own instincts.
Here’s a list of 15 of the favorites at our house in no particular order. These are movies the whole family can watch together and everyone seems to enjoy them.
– The Incredibles (We actually love lots of Pixar movies, but The Incredibles is our favorite. Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo are probably next in line.)
– The Princess Bride (Love these posters!)
– School of Rock
– Mega Mind
– PeeWee Herman’s Big Adventure
– Tangled
– Nanny McPhee Returns (We like it better than the first one.)
– Babe
– Nightmare Before Christmas
– Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron (Not to be confused with Spirited Away, which is also very cool, but my kids felt it was toooo long.)
– Napoleon Dynamite
– Fantastic Mr. Fox
– Spy Kids
– Back to the Future
– Nacho Libre
How about you? What are some of the favorites on your family’s list? We’re always looking for good recommendations and I’d love to hear!
P.S. — Minimalist movie posters.
Happy to see you mention MegaMind, since I worked on it in editing for three years! Also did a bit on Spirit, for DreamWorks Animation.
Yellow Submarine!
The first ‘grown up’ movie I let my daughter watch was The Help. She was 7 and I had already read the book so I knew what to expect. The movie leaves out quite a bit so I didn’t have any problems with it. her school is named after a female civil rights leader and the movie opened up some important conversations. We are a mixed race family in NYC, she was very surprised at how people treated each other in the movie.
i’m so grateful for the websites that review movies so that we can make informed decisions about what we see or don’t see! here are some of my girls’ favorites (ages 9,7, 4) that you didn’t mention:
Matilda
Emperor’s New Groove
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Bedtime Stories
Despicable Me
Tale of Despereaux
they also love old Bewitched episodes that I’ll record for them– i’m selective about which ones though!
A recent family favorite is A Cat in Paris.
I watched more musicals and old movies as a kid and was recently given Ty Burr’s book ‘old movies for families’. It has lots of good recommendations that my kids love like bringing up baby and Charlie Chaplin silent films that I never would’ve shown to the kids while they were so little had i not read the book. ET is another one they can watch over and over. We are currently taking a break from Fantastic Mr Fox because I was so tired of my 3 year old saying “what the cuss” all the time.
Matilda
My Girl
Mrs. Doubtfire
Now and Then
Dennis the Menace
Harriet the Spy
Jumanji
It Takes Two
Baby’s Day Out
Monkey Trouble
Baby Genious
The Secret Garden
The Wizard of Oz
Rent-A-Kid
Stuart Little (2)
…..did I just give away my age?
Pingback: Happy Weekend! | Crazybananas
Cool Runnings! A great movie that kids love!
Recently we saw The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet at the movies: an independent and beautifully filmed story with a fantastic cast and long-lasting messages. A must see for families of tweens and teens. PS My two girls were two mesmerised to take much note of the two swear words in passing.
My top 5 favorite family comedy live action films of all time:
1.The Goonies
2.Problem Child 1 and 2
3.Home Alone 1 and 2
4.Dennis the Menace
5.Mrs. Doubtfire