i am looking for movies which small children (4-7 years, give or take) could watch. Your suggestions should meet the following parameters:
No vulgarity;
No violence (to animals, to other people, to themselves…)
No scary, nightmare-inducing scenes (the flying monkey scene in the Wizard of Oz is a good example of this.
I don’t care how old the movie is, I just want a fun, G-rated movie that a group of kids could watch and not scar them for life.
I was thinking back on my childhood, and it seems that every movie I think of has something in it that was disturbing in some way.
I mentioned the flying monkeys in the “TWoO”. I thought of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, but that movie had that freaky guy with the big nose that sniffed out kids, and trapped them in that cart and dumped them in a cave. I saw that movie as a child and that guy scare pd the crap out of me! :eek:
Even the standard Disney movies I remember have either characters or scenes or themes that aren’t always happy… “Cinderella” has the evil stepmother, 1"01 Dalmatians has the evil Cruella", “Snow White” has the witch. I never thought about it before, but these “G” rated Disney movies seemed to have a standard template, and they used it with great success. But there seems to be an evil character, a death of a character (Bambi’s Mom, or Mustafa in “The Lion King”).
I would like to show a movie where the kids have a great time, are not scared out of their little heads, have to deal with the death of another person, animal, or character in the story, or have to deal with any heavy emotional issues. I just want them to laugh and have fun.
Whatever you do, don’t watch ‘Babe,’ the movie about the pig. We put it on for our 4 and 6 year old tonight, and they both started bawling 10 minutes in. It’s rated G, but like so many kids movies, there’s an element of separation from one’s parent thrown in almost immediately. Why does Hollywood insist upon this trope?
I am amazed st how hard it is to find movies that are just happy. Adult themes may make the parent’s time go by a bit easier, but kids don’t need to feel stressed out… They have the rest of their lives to deal with that crap.
Babe is out!
So is Chicken Run, and every Pixar movie I’ve seen. Maybe there is one out there that fits the bill, but they all have more adult themes than you initially realize.
A three year age gap is almost insignificant at most stages of human life, but when they’re that young the difference is huge. There’s lots of stuff that’s perfect for 4/5 year olds that 6/7 year olds would think to be babyish- especially considering your concern for scary stuff.
I’m going to go ahead and recommend The Hero of Color City.
It is very much a G movie, which I gather is important to you. It’s more G than a lot of G movies. It’s a little adventure story about what crayons do during the night while children are asleep. The main character is Yellow and she frightens easily but almost everything that scares her is revealed, almost immediately, to not actually be scary. There is a character whom all of the main characters are afraid of for most of the story, but he is revealed to be friendly- the misunderstanding proves to be a lesson in not judging others.
It is definitely more for the 4/5 year olds than the 6/7 year olds. It wasn’t well received by critics but I thought it was cute.
It is available for streaming on Netflix. So, if you have Netflix it’s an easy one for you.
Full disclosure: part of the reason I’m recommending it is because the songs were written by friends of mine. They’re a musical husband/wife team, she’s actually the daughter of well-regarded film score composer Basil Poledouris (Robocop, The Hunt for Red October, and of course SDMB favorite Starship Troopers).
I heartily endorse the first Curious George movie. Mary Poppins has a spooky moment or two, but should be okay. Clifford’s Really Big Movie (about Clifford the Big Red Dog) is another good choice.
If you don’t mind children’s TV shows on DVD, you could get Curious George ones or Sophia the First.
This site, Common Sense Media, is a pretty good resource for nitpicking kids’ movies before showing them to your kids. Even if you don’t agree with the ratings/reviews you can get a much better picture of the content than you would with any reviews (such as noting something like the sad parts in Babe).