# Flicks for the whole family **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859 "2001-10-22T14:18:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/1 "2001-10-22T14:18:54Z")
Wondering if anyone would like to share their experiences/recommendations for films that their whole family enjoyed. I have 3 kids, ages 10-13, and it is often tough to choose a film to watch that both the parents and the kids will enjoy. To toss out a couple of examples of what I’m talking about: Toy Story 1&2 To Kill a Mockingbird The Princess Bride I find this is a tough category, because not only do you have the basic chick-flick/guy film dichotomy, but you stretch it across generations. A video rental we recently enjoyed as a family was **A Knight’s Tale**. My youngest daughter wanted to see it because the star was “so cute!” My son wanted to see the jousting. And my other daughter wanted to see it for the romance. My wife and I were a little trepidatious. But we were pleased to find there was quite a bit of humor, some of the filming was quite nice, and the sound track absolutely rocked. No, it was not a great film. But it was certainly a pleasant way for our family to spend a couple of hours together, rather than in seprate rooms. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/2 "2001-10-22T14:21:51Z")
a lotta Disney films Yellow Submarine King Kong, Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young Babe and its sequel Ray Harryhausen movies, especially The SEventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts Rugrats movies (look for all the in-jokes that only adults will get) Muppet Movies (ditto) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/3 "2001-10-22T14:28:35Z")
How about the classics? Pre-1960 movies are great for families, as the sex n’ violence is kept to a minimum. You DO have to get them over the “Hey, why isn’t this in COLOR?!?” problem. My 11 year old daughter has enjoyed, over the past few years, THE THIRD MAN NORTH BY NORTHWEST DR. STRANGELOVE CITIZEN KANE THE MALTESE FALCON WEST SIDE STORY THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN THE DEVIL AND DAN’L WEBSTER TOP HAT ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES INTERNATIONAL HOUSE (a wacky ensemble comedy from 1932) On the other hand, she fell asleep during CASABLANCA, thought REAR WINDOW had too many slow patches, doesn’t _quite_ get the Marx Brothers yet, and felt that SUNSET BOULEVARD was “creepy.” …oh, Disney’s THE FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (1986) is pretty cool, too. The SF concept is intriguing enough for the grown-ups, and the kids will get off on the cool alien spaceship with the voice of Pee Wee Herman. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/4 "2001-10-22T15:41:33Z")
One of the finest animation films of recent years (and one of the most badly marketed) is **The Iron Giant**. This is a great film. It’s got a nice message for kids and adults and I came out the cinema smiling. “i]I am not a gun\*” - The Iron Giant ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/5 "2001-10-22T16:13:17Z")
And I just remembered **The Goonies**! That’s a must for all kids. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/6 "2001-10-22T16:25:34Z")
I whole-heartily second **The Iron Giant**. Other movies our family has enjoyed together: **The Rocky Horror Picture Show Finding Forrester Hoops Tremors Fools Rush In** On preview, I see that your children are 10 and 13. You might want to skip Rocky Horror and Hoops because of the mature content. ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/7 "2001-10-22T16:45:59Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Biggirl \* > **Tremors** _\* The first rated R movie I ever saw was Tremors. My parents bought tickets for me and my brother and we saw it together. The theater was also playing Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and this one jackass my brother was friends with at the time saw us outside the theater, and kept making all these really stupid, “heheheh. I wanna see that movie. hehehe,” jokes. On a related note, I imagine that the Wallace and Gromit movies would be a good family film. ---
**Author:** ![Limerick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Limerick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limerick)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/8 "2001-10-22T16:47:55Z")
MMMMmmm…I was going to say **The Trouble with Angels** , but your son might not be thrilled with that one. It’s Hayley Mills driving nuns crazy while in catholic school. Great movie for kids and adults to enjoy together, but I’m not sure boys would enjoy it so much. ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/9 "2001-10-22T17:37:18Z")
Cats And Dogs was pretty good, as was Spy Kids. Dr. Doolittle 2 is going to be released on video this week, and it’s good. If there’s ever a night when your son’s gone, I recommend 10 Things I Hate About You and Bring It On for your daughter. (10 Things does deal with sex a bit, but in a good way that encourages some discussion and it’s based on Taming Of The Shrew.) An older movie, but I still love The Adventures Of Buckaroo Bonzai Across The 8th Dimension for some good fun. I also liked Legend Of The Drunken Master for some eye-popping martial arts and other than people beating on each other, no cursing or sexual themes. (I think it’s also rated PG) ---
**Author:** ![SteverinoAlaReno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SteverinoAlaReno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteverinoAlaReno)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/10 "2001-10-22T18:31:25Z")
Here’s a list of my all-time favorite family films: The Secret of Roan Inish The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao Dumbo (There are plenty of good Disney animated features, but this one’s my favorite) Godspell (Not really a kid movie, but my kids love it) A Bug’s Life Iron Giant (echoing other posters) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/11 "2001-10-22T18:40:57Z")
**Back to the Future**. I actually did see that one for the first time with my parents…It rocks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/12 "2001-10-22T19:05:55Z")
Thanks for all the great recommendations. I think most such suggestions would fall into two categories - movies I saw and enjoyed and want to share with my kids, and movies neither the adults nor kids have seen before. One of the great joys of having kids is introducing them to good movies. A great low effort bonding activity. What I would be most appreciative of at this time, are recommendations in the latter category. Relatively recent flicks that we may not have caught at the theater, that we can rent at the video store. Too often, the temptation is to rent an adult movie and a kid movie, and have us go to different sets in different rooms. Which has its place. But at times we’d like to watch new movies as a family. We enjoyed \*\*10 things I hate … \*\* and **Finding Forrester.** Another good one was **The Mexican.** Lots of the F-word but, other than that, I couldn’t really figure out why it was rated R. My son is going through a major James Bond stage right now - reading the books and going through all of the films. Not my fave, but we really enjoyed what I think is the most recent one with Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh. Maybe **The World Is Not Enough?** Another (older) choice is the **Die Hard** movies. It seems Bruce Willis is somewhat more acceptable to women than Sly or Arnold. In the older category, I bet they’d enjoy **The Breakfast Club.** I hadn’t thought of **Tremors** in a while. Not sure if my youngest wouldn’t try to tell me it was too scary. Older films I enjoyed as a kid are always kinda risky. I had a thread a while ago titled something like {b]I actualy liked that dreck?\*\* A couple of my big failures were A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Parent Trap, and It’s a Mad Mad … World. Really disappointing when you give the film a big build up and the kids keep asking, is this supposed to be the funny part? ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/13 "2001-10-22T19:36:15Z")
When we recently saw **The Dish** we felt it was a movie we could comfortably watch with out parents. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/14 "2001-10-22T19:43:23Z")
Anything by Pixar, especially the **Toy Story** movies. Ditto the recommendations for **The Iron Giant** – Warner Bros. executives should hang their heads in shame for not promoting the bejeebers out of that movie. I also recently watched and will recommend **The Emperor’s New Groove** for sheer slapstick zany animated comedy. Disney does Chuck Jones, and it’s better than it sounds. For live-action, the **Back to the Future** trilogy is a good one. I’ll also be zany enough to recommend the two **Bill and Ted** movies – they have a few “questionable” moments, but the movies overall are clean innocent fun. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/15 "2001-10-22T19:52:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > **two categories - movies I saw and enjoyed and want to share with my kids, and movies neither the adults nor kids have seen before…What I would be most appreciative of at this time, are recommendations in the latter category.** Let me get this straight, **Dinsdale** , old bean…you’re asking us to recommend movies we’ve NEVER SEEN BEFORE? Or movies that we liked that YOU’VE never seen before? If the latter, please post a list of every movie you’ve ever seen, and we’ll see what we can do. (insert smiley here) ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/16 "2001-10-23T06:12:41Z")
Here’s a few other movies I thought of while at work…hope there’s something you havent seen yet. Birdy Bringing Up Baby Charlie’s Angels Mulan (my favorite Disney flick) Big Momma’s House Final Fantasy is released on video Tuesday (I haven’t seen it, so I can’t tell you if it’s appropriate or not) Pump Up The Volume (Bit of sex and cursing, though) Kuffs Dudes Silverado ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/17 "2001-10-23T15:41:36Z")
I’m on a Singing in the Rain-recommending kick. My younger children love it. Older boys especially might grump about all the dancing, but the plot is so much fun, they might actually appreciate the skill and athleticism. I loved Emperor’s New Groove also, and the Rugrats movie. Spy Kids is good. (Antonio Bandaras is there for the mommies. :D) I didn’t like Shrek as much, but then again computer animation annoys me in general. (One of my standing arguments is that it’s all right for inanimate objects, like toys, or bugs and such but it doesn’t work when the characters are supposed to be real people, sort of. I maintain Toy Story would have been better if just the toys were animated and the people, live-action. (Don’t ask me how to do it; I leave that up to Hollywood.) More of our favorites: Oklahoma!, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music (it does have slow parts), Steel Magnolias, Young Frankenstein and all the recent Disney animations (The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Hercules, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/18 "2001-10-23T15:52:55Z")
I’m on a Singing in the Rain-recommending kick. My younger children love it. Older boys especially might grump about all the dancing, but the plot is so much fun, they might actually appreciate the skill and athleticism. I loved Emperor’s New Groove also, and the Rugrats movie. Spy Kids is good. (Antonio Bandaras is there for the mommies. :D) I didn’t like Shrek as much, but then again computer animation annoys me in general. (One of my standing arguments is that it’s all right for inanimate objects, like toys, or bugs and such but it doesn’t work when the characters are supposed to be real people, sort of. I maintain Toy Story would have been better if just the toys were animated and the people, live-action. (Don’t ask me how to do it; I leave that up to Hollywood.) More of our favorites: Oklahoma!, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music (it does have slow parts), Steel Magnolias, Young Frankenstein and all the recent Disney animations (The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Hercules, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/19 "2001-10-23T15:56:08Z")
I HATE it when that happens! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2001, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859/20 "2001-10-23T21:57:17Z")
_Eraserhead_. But seriously, try _Gregory’s Girl_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flicks-for-the-whole-family/88859.md?page=2)