Now that my kids are older, ages 9 and 6, we enjoy watching movies together. It can be a challenge, though, to find appropriate movies that appeal to both boys and girls, 9-year-olds and 6-year-olds, and parents and kids. The following 5 movies are flicks we all like and, for one reason or other, aren’t as obvious as, say, Finding Nemo or Shrek.
I’m sharing our faves today in hopes that there’s a title below that you have yet to discover and enjoy!
1. Swiss Family Robinson
It’s the 1800s and a family is shipwrecked while traveling to New Guinea. Mother, Father, and their three sons build an elaborate home in the trees, frolic with exotic wildlife, meet new island friends, learn to love the simple life, and ward off pirates in this Disney classic. 126 minutes, 1960, so old it’s not rated, but probably would have been a G or PG.
2. Furry Vengeance
A man moves his family to a house in the woods so the construction company he works for can build a new subdivision. The woodland animals are not amused and fight back! My son loves the potty humor (i.e., the dad gets trapped in a port-a-potty) and my daughter loves the animals. I like the bad guys, played with goofy fun by Ken Jeong (The Hangover) and Angela Kinsey (The Office). 92 minutes, 2010, Rated PG
3. Aliens in the Attic
An extended family rents a home on Lake Michigan for their summer vacation. Small aliens land on the house and take control of all the adults, including Kevin Nealon (Saturday Night Live) and Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond). The kids, however, are immune to the aliens’ mind control and fight back. Watch for Ricky, the teenage daughter’s legally adult boyfriend who everybody hates, to be manipulated in silly ways by the aliens. 86 minutes, 2009, Rated PG
4. Harry and the Hendersons
The Henderson family literally run over Bigfoot in the woods near Seattle. Thinking he’s dead, they take him home, where he promptly wakes up and wreaks havoc in their house. While they come to see Harry for the gentle, kind beast he is, most of Seattle fears he is a monster and hunt him. Will Harry survive? Will he return to the woods? Is Bigfoot real? 110 minutes (a little long for the preschool crowd), 1987, Rated PG, with the s— word!
5. The Land Before Time II – The Great Valley Adventure
This is a cartoon tale of dinosaur kids who become friends and try to survive in prehistoric times. I’ve listed the second of the series of twelve because that’s the one we started with and loved the most. Sometimes the dinosaurs sing, which is a good or bad thing depending on your mood!
I don’t know what it is about The Land Before Time series, but my kids loved them all for at least 2 summers. I was sad when my 9-year-old finally outgrew it last year. 73 minutes, 1994, Rated G
Honorable mention goes to Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo 2, Mountain Family Robinson, and Paul Blart, Mall Cop (seriously!)
What are your favorite family flicks? Please share in the comments!
Image courtesy of digitalart/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thanks for this list. These are some good ones to introduce to my own family. My boys definitely love all things Star Wars and anything super heroes. I’d like to introduce them to E.T. And we love the holiday favorites – Rudolph, Polar Express, etc.
Kerry recently posted…It Wasn’t Meant To Be … Wisdom From My Mother-in-Law
Oh, speaking of Holiday movies, we love Home Alone around here!
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…5 Family Friendly Films You May Have Missed
Thanks. Im going to forward this to a couple of my friends…
Thanks, Tara! I bet there’s some good ones out there that we haven’t discovered either.
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…5 Family Friendly Films You May Have Missed
My kids like the first two Harry Potter movies and The Narnia series. I also have access to a bunch of the Planet Earth documentaries about animals at work and they love those!
Rabia @ TheLiebers recently posted…Five Minute Friday: Imagine
For whatever reason, my kids aren’t into Harry Potter. I forgot about Narnia. I think I’ll try those! And I love the Planet Earth ones. So interesting. 🙂
Katy @ Experienced Bad Mom recently posted…5 Family Friendly Films You May Have Missed
Great ones!!! I will have to try a few I don’t know about! I am all about “Cheaper by the dozen” movies and “RV” and “Mrs. Doubtfire”- oh I could go on and on… what about “Patch”?? Oh how I love that movie!!!
Chris Carter recently posted…Parenting: It’s All Relative
Great movie suggestions. Aliens in the Attic looks like so much fun. Visiting from Sharefest. Have a great weekend.
Debra@AModernTranslation recently posted…Fashion Collage #5
Thanks, Debra!
Watched #1 and #4 with my kids a LONG time ago. Love, love, love Swiss Family Robinson.
Visiting from SITS.
Patty@homemakersdaily.com recently posted…Basil Chicken Strips
Swiss Family Robinson is so good that we wanted to immediately fly to Disney’s Magic Kingdom to climb thru their tree house!
Oh, my goodness. I haven’t seen Harry and the Hendersons in years. What a fun film that is. And we’ve love The Land Before Time movies since my kids were little. I haven’t seen the others. Maybe we’ll look into them. Thanks for the recommendations. It’s always nice to have something clean to watch. They can sure be hard to find sometimes.
Happy Sharefest. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
misssrobin recently posted…Trying to Be Brave
{Melinda} Thank you for these! It is getting harder and harder to find family-friendly movies to watch with the kids. Mine are older now, but I know many moms will appreciate having some options that they may not have thought of/known about. 🙂
Mothering From Scratch recently posted…God took a vacation. why can’t i?
You took me back with “Harry and the Hendersons”. That was a good one. When my kids get a little older, I plan to introduce them to the original Ninja Turtles movie.
Nicole Robinson @TheBookWormMama recently posted…3 Things Wise Parents Do Before Saving for Their Child’s College Education
Hi Katy,
I just wondered some of your postings and I am really interested with this list. I will bookmark it to give alternative for my kids’ favorite cartoon movies. They really like the toonami channel. Thanks for sharing
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