I am a movie lover and have been known to sit through many a teen-angst B movie on a Saturday afternoon because the movie-ness is so delicious and it's completely mindless entertainment. Sometimes you just need that. I can watch all kinds of movies: action, comedy, thriller, horror, romance, drama, whatever. I like good movies, so-bad-they're-good movies, and even some lame movies. I can just as easily sit through Pride & Prejudice as I can Twilight or 10 Things I Hate About You. You know what kills me though? Kid movies.
To say I'm unimpressed with children's movies is an understatement. I loathe children's movies. Everything is too over-the-top, have-to-outdo-the-competition. They are loud, garish, and unimaginative. It's a sad state of affairs when the last children's movie that I *loved* was The Incredibles. Nothing since then has really floated my boat–or my kids' boat, for that matter. I have been entertained, mind you, but it wasn't sensational. Current movies don't strike me the way movies did when I was a child. I would tend to think it's because I'm watching with different eyes now, but my own children don't seem to be impressed with the movies any more than I am.
You know what has them talking? The movies I watched when I was a little girl. So far I've shown them the following:
- Escape to Witch Mountain (Fun fact: The actress who plays Tia is Paris Hilton's aunt.)
- Return from Witch Mountain
- Back to the Future
- Back to the Future 2
- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
- The Hobbit
- Candleshoe
- The Little Rascals/Our Gang
- Riki Tiki Tavi
- ALL of the Star Wars movies (granted 1-3 came out while I was an adult; I still showed 4-6 first!)
- Clue
- The Private Eyes
They loved every single one of those* and asked to watch them over and over. I could have predicted the cool factor of the light saber, but who knew a flying Winnebago would be so enticing?
(* OK. Chlihead, Jr. did not like Clue or The Private Eyes. She disliked them because she viewed it as confirmation that anyone could be murdered any time for any reason and that scared the dickens out of her. Lesson learned on my part. I honestly thought the humor would outweigh the obviously fake murders. I saw The Private Eyes when I was her age and loved it. It's very un-PC, though. Seriously. So if that offends you, stay away.)
We have a DVD case that holds 200 DVDs. It's not completely full, but it's getting there. Nothing in that case has been watched (except for The Little Rascals) unless there is absolutely no other choice or we're on a road trip. I'm loathe to purchase any more movies. Indeed, I've told the kids they have to pony up their allowance for any new movies. Not that they've asked because guess what? Nothing's good enough to buy. Right now I think we're all content to let Netflix ship us the next blockbuster from the 70s and 80s.
We currently have in our Netflix queue:
- For the Love of Benji
- Splash
- Ghostbusters
- Teen Wolf
- Old Yeller
- Adventures in Babysitting
- Big
- What About Bob?
- The Karate Kid
- Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
- Back to the Future 3
It's true: none of those are earth-shattering choices with great lessons to be learned. But you know what? They don't have all the dazzle; they just have jokes. Most of them have an interesting story to boot.
I understand that many of these movies also contain language not fit for little ears. I was never restricted in what I could or couldn't watch while I was growing up and I think I turned out OK. I generally know what my kids can handle and they know what our rules are. Just because some guy in a movie says a certain word, doesn't mean it can come out of your mouth without a consequence. You can absolutely laugh at it, though.
What about you? What movies do you remember from your childhood that you think today's kids would enjoy? Have you shown them to your kids yet? I need some more ideas.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
The Never Ending Story is a biggie in this house. They loved Pee Wee’s Big Adventure too.
We watched the Goonies last weekend. I didn’t realize how much language was in it but we kind of live by your same philosophy. I watched it when I was a kid and was not scarred for life..that I know of.
I’m thinking of renting the old Muppet Movies next.
Don’t forget about Herbie! I loved those movies.
Movies OnDemand are a hit around here. My boys loved the Superman with Christopher Reeve. You should also try The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Really fake, but the kids loved the kitchy-ness.
My pre-teen loved Ever After and Castaway recently.
Adventures in Babysitting was the first PG-13 movie I was allowed to watch. I loved it. The movie I remember watching most as a kid was The Secret of Nimh. I recently bought it on iTunes and am looking forward to watching it with my husband who has never seen it. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.
Many of my favorites have been mentioned already so I’ll stick to some original suggestions.
One of these days I hope to show Princess the Dr. Doolittle from 1967 with the giant pink sea snail. I loved that one.
Don’t forget to have your Reeces Pieces handy for E.T. And who doesn’t love Mrs. Doubtfire.
Twister – my boy loves it as much as I do
The Parent Trap (the original one!)
The Mighty Ducks
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Here are some that we love. The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Jaws, The Adventures of the Wilderness Family, Grease (even though we have to censor it for our 7 year old!), Breaking Away, The Muppet Movie, the Superman movies, the Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones movies. I’m with you, Chili! I have no problems sitting in the theater by myself watching any kind of movie. I LOVE MOVIES! lol
I’m also a movie lover and will go to the theatre alone if my husband doesn’t want to see a particular movie. I love all those mentioned. Did you know they were remaking the witch mountain movie? The preview looks pretty good but I don’t understand why they keep remaking movies when there are so many great books out there. They are even remaking The Karate Kid!
i’m just glad to be reminded of Clue. that movie is SO funny.
My kids love the old musicals like Annie, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, and the Family Band. Obviously they don’t understand why the family is running away at the end of The Sound of Music and they don’t know who Grover Cleveland is that they keep singing about in The Family Band, but they all have music, kids, and family so they are hits.
I still love Clue! (And Noises Off, but that’s probably a little mature still…)
The Princess Bride was the first movie of this caliber that we showed our little one. She LOVES it as much as we do!
I can’t wait until she gets a little older so we can enjoy some of the movies that the hubs and I enjoyed as kids. Many of the ones you have listed are on our roster!
I don’t restrict my kids much either. They know what’s bad and what they are not allowed to copy. Like you said, I watched all kinds of garbage growing up and I’m totally awesome!
Green’s favorite? Saturday Night Live’s Best of Chris Farley!
I HATE kid movies. HATE them. And everyone always looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that.
I did like Nanny McFee and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I’m embarrassed to say that I liked High School Musical 1 & 3 but not 2.
I like the old Disney– Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. And I, like you, liked The Incredibles. But most of new Disney? Not so much.
I HATE kid movies. HATE them. And everyone always looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that.
I did like Nanny McFee and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I’m embarrassed to say that I liked High School Musical 1 & 3 but not 2.
I like the old Disney– Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. And I, like you, liked The Incredibles. But most of new Disney? Not so much.
I HATE kid movies. HATE them. And everyone always looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that.
I did like Nanny McFee and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I’m embarrassed to say that I liked High School Musical 1 & 3 but not 2.
I like the old Disney– Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. And I, like you, liked The Incredibles. But most of new Disney? Not so much.
i daughter loves all the old movies/musicals. she also loves the princess bride ( my all time favorite ), space caamp, the parent trap ( the original ), mary poppins, chitty chitty bang bang.
i loved reading your listabd the comments and remembering some of the movies i had forgotten about that i know she will love. like the goonies!! i know almost all the words to that movie! “hey you guys…..”
blessings ~
I HATE kid movies. HATE them. And everyone always looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that.
I did like Nanny McFee and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And I’m embarrassed to say that I liked High School Musical 1 & 3 but not 2.
I like the old Disney– Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. And I, like you, liked The Incredibles. But most of new Disney? Not so much.
Thank you for all of your suggestions! I’ve updated our Netflix queue accordingly.
My children are smaller than yours, so my movie choices may not peak their interest, but like you I get the movies I grew up watching. The old Disney Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, Herbie, Apple Dumpling Gang. The library is a treasure trove for those and we keep the movies for 2 weeks which is nice when it’s too cold to set foot outside for days!
Oh, and the Muppet Show. My kids love it.
My kids have seen the majority of these (although my boys were not nearly as impressed by the Witch Mountain ones as I was when I was their ages).
I started the kids on their Jedi training very early, we have the Back to the Future series also and my boys are fond of the Indiana Jones (can’t watch with the sisters cuz of the scary/icky stuff).
Never thought about Bill & Ted, I’ll add that to my “to do” list!!! Good call!
Let’s not get crazy people. Some of the recent movie offerings have been horrible but there are some gems scattered among them: In no particular order…
Kung Fu Panda
The Emperor’s New Groove
Hercules
The Incredibles
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Meet the Robinsons
Treasure Planet
Mulan
All full of good stuff…and memorable lines. Which if I’m doing my job their childhood will also be full of both.
Oh wow. Adventures in Babysitting was my son’s favorite when he was young. I didn’t consider the fact that anyone else has ever seen that.
You forgot Labyrinth.
My favorites were Wizard of Oz and Cinderella. How utterly droll.
You hit most of our old family favotites: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Ghostbusters, Old Yeller. (Can you tell our kids grew up in the 80s?) But two more of our all-time faves are The Sound of Music and The Princess Bride. Of course, we also loved all the Nat’l Lampoon Vacation movies, only because “Clark” is the same person as “Jim.” You know what I mean.
Aunt Laurie
As far as current stuff may I suggest “Stardust”. It’s not exactly a kids movie but I doubt seriously it will scare them or be too out-of-bounds for them, we thought it was great and would show Trevor. (incidentally, R. Dinero(sp?) steals the show imo)
As far as our generation, I did not see either, “Labyrinth” or “The Dark Crystal”, which were favorites of mine. I wouldn’t show them to our boys yet, they might not understand and perhaps get a little scared, but yours shouldn’t bat an eyelash considering their a lot older. Chili Jr. might love Fizzgig. Sigh. I miss Jim Henson’s genius.
Crap! I wish we could edit after posting for pitssake!
“They’re” not “their” at the end there pls. I know YOU know what I meant, but I needed to correct nonetheless. I may abuse the hell out of punctuation and syntax but generally, I gots it down wit the vocab.
If you are a dog lover, “Where the Red Fern Grows”. Best book I read as a kid and a great movie adaptation.