Suggest movies for a 2-year-old and his semi-movie snob dad

Cafe Society
1

Toy Story: 250 times.
Shrek: 200 times.
Finding Nemo: 100 times and counting.
Something else that father and son can both agree on: priceless

Others that (almost) made the grade:
Incredibles: a bit too violent for him.
Shrek 2: too contrived for dad (WTF with the cat switching sides so fast – and where was the dragon during all this???)
Toy Story 2: meh.
Madagascar: kid loves it, dad hates it.
Monsters Inc.: Scares the child, bores the dad (after 10 viewings, otherwise pretty good).

2

Bugs Bunny Superstar. Kid will like the wabbit, dad will like the backstory. Plus, it has Orson Welles in it.

Transformers: The Movie. Surprisingly good for this type of movie, and what kid doesn’t love big robots? Plus, it has Orson Welles in it.

George Pal did lots of stop-motion animated stuff, usually with a European toys theme. Track it down. In a fashion, it’s as amazing as Pixar, especially to a two year old.

3

Wallace and Grommit- Curse of the Were-rabbit

Lion King

Beuaty and the Beast

Aladdin
plus old classics for a dollar a time in the basket at Walmart! - young uns seem to really love cheap old cartoons!

4

Ice Age?

5

My best friend’s parents played Koyaanisqatsi for him when he was 1 year old and onwards every day for as many as 200 times.

6

The Triplets of Belleville :smiley:

7

The Gods Must Be Crazy
Fantasia
Dumbo
Wallace & Gromit - all of them
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Castle In The Sky
Edward Penishands

8

Lilo and Stitch - if you like Elvis
Ice Age - the whole post dinosaur thing in action

The dudley moore “wild animals” series. Forget what its’ really called, but nature series with dudley moore narrating and about baby animals.

9

Porco Rosso (as my friend told me, it’s Casablanca…with a pig)
My Neighbour Totoro
The Cat Returns

10

Loved the movie – but the part with the frogs would totally freak out a kid.

11

Nemo
Mulan (this was a biggie)
Iron Giant
The Incredibles
Robots
Lilo & Stitch

  • were in regular rotation for a while.

To a lesser extent:

Ice Age
The Shreks
Monsters, Inc.
Toy Story
Cinderella

Snow Dogs (might offend your sensibilities but it has good doggie stuff in it)

I played Baraka once. Oops I forgot about the cremations and the tone of despair.

The girls sing along to Koyannisqatsi sometimes, but they eventually tire of it, as do I.

We tried to get them into Prince of Egypt but they haven’t bitten. I think they’ll come around.

Olsen twins movies if you can stand it.

They like Babe. Pig in the City didn’t really do it for me.

12

A Bug’s Life is very popular at our house.

13

Miyazaki films:

Kiki’s Delivery Service
Castle in the Sky (Unless you’re a Spanish speaker at home)
My Neighbor Totoro
Porco Rosso
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (borderline on the violence)
Spirited Away
and when it comes out: Howl’s Moving Castle

**Do not assume that Princess Mononoke is likewise child-suitable. **

Not Miyazaki, but…

Nadia: Secret of Blue Water

you might enjoy Utena, too. A bit surreal, but colorful enough that The Monster liked it.

14

Maybe the old Garfield short movies and TV show? At least the TV show is now available on DVD.

I grew up watching a copy of Winnie the Pooh my parents taped off broadcast (this was the mid-80s and VCRs were still fairly new.)

How about the Looney Tunes shorts? They’ve got about 150 out on DVD by now.

15

My three year old girl loves:

Kiki’s Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
Spirited Away
The Wizard of Oz
Cinderella

16

Antz was pretty decent.
James and the Giant Peach–depending on how close he is to 3 anyway–it might be a bit much for a 13 month old.
And a BIG second for Iron Giant, great movie.

17

Old episodes of the Muppet Show. They have the whole first season out on DVD.

18

All of The Land Before Time movies. I loved them as much as my daughter did.

Here’s a link to the site.

19

Likewise, Fraggle Rock is out on DVD - might be suitable for younger viewers than the Muppet Show.

China Guy, are you referring to The Adventures of Milo and Otis? If so, I heartily second that one. Great movie. (Cheap too! I may need to pick up a copy for myself.)

Also Faerie Tale Theatre is also out on DVD. I have fond memories of this series, but I don’t know how well they hold up 20 years on.

20

I think I loved this movie as much as my son did.