Tangled sees the return of the classic Disney Princess movie, but changes the traditional structure so that it can appeal to the whole family, instead of just little girls who wear plastic tiaras and glittery, puffy dresses. The movie takes the classic tale of Rapunzel and adds a few twists to make it a fun, adventure movie – while still allowing young girls the chance to indulge in a sweet, romantic princess story.
Top 10 family movies
We saw this movie in the cinema recently with the kids and we all just loved it! Jim Carey stars as a business man whose life is turned up-side-down when he inherits six penguins. The penguins are beyond cute and there are plenty of laughs for kids and adults alike. Mr. Popper's Penguins is out on DVD now.
This movie from Pixar opens with a moving 10 minute prologue following the entire lifespan of a woman from her childhood to her death and will reduce many adult viewers to tears. However, youngsters seem to be less affected by this beautiful montage as there is plenty to distract them including a house flying through the air with thousands of balloons attached to the roof, a hilarious talking dog, a slapstick giant bird and a fantastic airship battle. While this is a fun, exciting, visually spectacular film, it takes on some weighty themes of memory, mortality, and loss. Parents will need Kleenex – kiddies will be in knots laughing.
A group of animals who reside in New York’s Central Park Zoo, find themselves shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar and have to learn how to survive in the wild. While the main characters are lots of fun (and all voiced by various celebrities), it’s the side characters that truly make this a roll-on-the-floor-laughing kind of movie. The penguins kick start the movie with a brilliant prison-break sequence. The crazy lemurs are adorable yet ridiculous, and their leader, King Julien, provides the best laughs of the movie. If you love this, there is also a sequel available and another movie planned for summer 2012.
A nervous little clownfish sets on a mission to rescue his son after he is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney. This movie was a massive hit when it was released and had a lot of hype around it…the reason being, it’s simply brilliant. The story is touching and there are plenty of laughs with the fabulous, forgetful fish Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) stealing the show.
Will Ferrell is generally associated with more adult movies such as Anchorman and Zoolander, but his performance as Buddy, a man who grows up in the North Pole thinking he’s an elf, makes this one of the funniest, endearing Christmas movies in the last decade. There are a few jokes slipped in for adults but because the story is told through the innocent eyes of Buddy, it’s a movie that can be enjoyed by both young children and grown-ups. There are plenty of slapstick moments (Buddy getting knocked down by a taxi never grows old no matter how many times you watch it) and of course it has that warm, fuzzy, feel-good factor that is essential to any Christmas movie.
When visiting a pet farm, the main attractions tend to be cute little rabbits, waddling geese or hyper puppies…not pigs. Well after watching ‘Babe’, both you and your kids will have a change of heart. This touching tale of a piglet who wants to be a Sheep-Pig (like a Sheep-Dog…but not a dog) is both sweet and engaging. Your kids might refuse ham sandwiches for a few weeks after though so have some tuna ready just in case!
Many of us mums will remember watching ‘E.T.’ as children. While you might have loved it yourself, you may think that it could seem a little dated for kids today. Not to worry though, this classic is still a huge hit with children so feel free to put it on and indulge in an afternoon of nostalgia. Some younger kids may not be fans of the funny looking alien, however, so we recommend that it be shown to kids over the age of six. A great story about friendship, family and flying bicycles, this is definitely one for the family DVD collection.
This movie may have set ridiculously high standards for childminders across the world, and it loses a bit of its Englishness with Dick Van Dyke’s laughable cockney accent, but ‘Mary Poppins’ is a colourful, chirpy movie with great songs that the whole family can sing along to. You cannot help but fall in love with Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music is another fantastic Andrews movie, although didn’t quite make the cut into our top ten – we couldn’t decide if the Nazi plot allowed it to be classified as a family movie!) and the songs, such as ‘A Spoon Full of Sugar’ and ‘Chim Chim Cheree’, will be stuck in your head for days after.
This classic family tale is one of the greatest kids’ movies ever made, yet can be very scary at times so if your children are young, we recommend that they do not watch it alone. The Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys add a slight touch of horror to the movie but with munchkins, catchy songs, and bit of magic, children will still love The Wizard of Oz. While it over 70 years old, it is still a family favourite and proves that even with all the advancements in special affects and computer animation, you simply cannot beat a good story.
