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I graduated college and am living at home with my mom and four little siblings for a few months. The kids are 6, 8, 10 and 16.
My family rents a LOT of movies, and, this being a small town, the only movies they can get are pretty darn retarded. They get the hot new blockbusters and everything done by Disney and random TV shows on DVD.
So, I decided to sign my family up for Netflix. $18 a month is kind of expensive, but I'm sure my mom pays more than that renting movies at the grocery store for $2 each that you can keep for one day.
Here's my request: I want to get them all the good movies they need to see. When left to their own devices, they watch things like The Haunted Mansion, but they really enjoy movies I pick out like Flight of the Navigator and A Wrinkle in Time. They're also old enough that they can enjoy a lot of musicals and adult classics - they love West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof.
What do you think are the essentials? What should every small child see? Also - if you've got any recommendations for grown-up movies (my mom and sister and I like foreign & independent films, just about anything that's not violent and not rated R) we welcome those as well. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Princess Mononoke Both Shrek films My little cousins loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail at that age, not sure whether anyone else concurs on that.
Posts: 1550 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Mmm. I don't agree with Princess Mononoke-- too much gore and violence. It's a beautiful film, though.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Singing in the Rain. Kids and adults, must see. Then you can practice singing the tougne twisters afterwards.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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They've seen just about everything ever done by Disney, though I agree that Monsters, Inc. is one of the best films ever. And they love The Sound of Music - my little brother has a pair of lederhosen and when I babysat for a week last year, I dressed him in them for church. He went around telling everyone - "Look at me! I'm the Sound of Music!"
Ela - that's funny, because when I was little and we watched Willy Wonka, it scared my mom! She wouldn't let us watch it anymore.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Kiki's Delivery Service. Best movie ever. It's a shame that this one Miyazaki movie isn't released yet, it's an excellent story about a little girl who wants to be a writer. I totally can relate to it. Then you have Castle in the Sky. Whale Rider is a little slow, but it's so good! And get Finding Neverland when that comes out on dvd. Finding Nemo was so cute and wonderful too. And Lilo and Stitch. You know what else is good? Secret of Roan Inish. Slow, but beautiful.
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I was thinking about Spirited Away... is it dubbed? I don't know if they're old enough to keep up with subtitles.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Kiki's Delivery Service has been released (distributed by Disney) as has Castle in the Sky. I think they're even out on DVD.
OSC has a copy of Kiki's, by the way. Maybe if you ask REALLY nicely. . .
We have a DVD of Spirited Away, and enjoy it very much. There is a dubbed option, a subtitles option, and a Japanese option.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I made my son sit down with me and watch it on Christmas Eve while we wrapped presents. He really liked it, especially the barn raising scene.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Totoro is great, but no one has the original Japanese version, which is what I want!
MATILDA! How could I forget that! That's one of the best book to movie adaptations ever! Then there is The Secret Garden and the Little Princess. The modern versions of those movies is very good.
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Does anyone else remember the TV version of Alice in Wonderland? Actually, maybe it was Through the Looking Glass - or both. It had the really creepy Jabberwocky. I wonder if they'll put that on DVD.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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The Trouble With Angels (1966). Stars Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell.
This is one of my favorite films and has been since childhood. It follows two girls through four years of high school in a convent school. There's lots of silly fun, but serious moments as well. The girls are pretty wild (for 1966 ) at first - they don't want to be at this school, but the film is really about growing up, and also about devotion to friends.
If you've ever heard someone say that they have a "scathingly brilliant idea", this is the film that popularized that phrase.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote: Does anyone else remember the TV version of Alice in Wonderland? Actually, maybe it was Through the Looking Glass - or both. It had the really creepy Jabberwocky. I wonder if they'll put that on DVD.
I remember an old miniseries (covering both of the books) that was chock full of celebrity cameos. It was a musical. It was weird. But for whatever reason, my sister and I loved it.
"Jam tomorrow jam yesterday, but never ever jam today."
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Ah, yes. I was too young to know a lot of the celebrities. I just had this "feeling" that that's what they all were. me
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Yup, Pixar is responsible for anything good that has recently "come from" Disney. I actually feel sorry for them now that Pixar has picked up and left their sorry butts.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I had a random thought the other day that I would like to share here.
It seems that over the past decade and a half, Disney's main theme has been "the misfit" finally finding it's place or purpose in life.
On the other hand Pixar seems to have a theme of "looking at things from a new perspective". Living toys. A society of bugs. Sympathy with closet monsters. How a fish would feel about you catching their family member. That sort of thing.
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I just hope that when the separation becomes final Disney does not make a mess of Pixar characters. I would love to see an Incredibles 2 only if it is done properly by Pixar. And why does Disney keep making these straight to video sequels? What next? Bambi 2? Snow white, The Queen is back even though she fell off a cliff?
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote: My little cousins loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail at that age, not sure whether anyone else concurs on that.
For KIDS?
I agree with the musicals. Older children might like Oliver! the 1960s movie of the musical, which incidentally, won an Oscar for Best Picture. 10 is probably the bottom age for that though.
(or, if they're old enough for West Side Story, it's about the same level of adult themes)
Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music are musts, of course.
More modernly, I liked Fly Away Home and the new Little Princess and the new Secret Garden.
I dested Matilda but I'm most definately an inside-my-head Dahl purist and it just was wrong for me- just wrong. It should have been adapted by BBC. The Witches, on the other hand, is very good, in my mind.
Finally, the Railway Children. I love love love that movie. I could watch it over and over.
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You know what I've noticed along those lines, bev? Pixar films have always stressed the importance of family, community, and that, most of all, adults and children can and should interact happily and respectfully. It seems to me that most of the Disney films I've seen over the past 20 years begin with the assumption that adults and kids, especially parents and kids, are completely different species that can't ever possibly get along, except for maybe a grudging 5 minutes at the end. Adults are always portrayed as either incompetent and helpless, or evil and cruel.
So I thought that was just the way kid's movies had to be, since that was pretty much the only way they were ever done.
Then along comes Pixar, with movies like A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.... and it really hit me. They work so hard to portray adult-child interactions as they really are, or at least as they should be. Both adults and children treat each other with respect, and are aware that they both need each other. I don't feel like I ever really see that in kid's movies from other studios, especially Disney.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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The original Parent Trap All three (or are there more now?) Wallace & Gromit movies The Dark Crystal The Neverending Story The Muppet Movie The Great Muppet Caper
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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