The Wizard of Oz Eighty-four years after its release this endures because at its heart it’s a simple tale of friendship and self-discovery – plus it’s got a green witch who cackles and flies on a broomstick. The Lego movies Forget Barbie: you want toy movies full of smarts, catchy music and amusing comment on consumer culture? This insanely entertaining quartet of brick-built animations wrote the book on it, keeping adults as happily on side as children. All three films are a super entertaining tribute to the power of overcoming mental – and physical – obstacles. How to Train Your Dragon 1-3 Hiccup, Astrid, Snoutlout and chums occupy a sweet spot between dragony lore, zippy aerial adventure and affecting school-age tensions, albeit of the Viking variety. Some pretty nifty songs too, from Disney old stagers the Sherman brothers.Īlice in Wonderland Since done over a thousand decibels louder by Tim Burton, the Disney cartoon adaptation from 1951 is an altogether nicer, kindlier experience, and was a key influence on the lysergically inclined generation of the 60s – though not entirely necessary, perhaps, to explain this to the kiddies. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/AlamyĬharlotte’s Web There have been a few screen adaptation’s of EB White’s evergreen barnyard classic, but it’s the 1973 cartoon, featuring Debbie Reynolds as the voice of the helpful spider, that best distils the original’s gentle charm. What’s more, the songs are still instant earworms. Pixar shorts Bundled with Disney+ are these little gems, with all of Pixar’s wit, imagination and perfectly judged sentimentality distilled into dialogue-free shorts of 10 minutes or less – perfect for under-2s, whose attention can quickly wander.Ĭinderella Not too scary and not too saccharine, Cinderella is the perfect classic Disney starter film with its singing mice, dress-making birds and the all-important fairy godmother. This magical realist tale, set in Colombia, is a Disney first in other ways too, featuring an all-Latin American cast and boasting a protagonist who wears glasses.Ĭloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Plotted as if by a six-year-old who keeps saying “and then”, this movie – in which boffin invents machine that turns water into food, mayhem ensues – has an unrivalled psychedelic visual splendour: tiny ones will gawp hypnotised, while older siblings will chortle at the gastronomic chaos. Meanwhile Farmaggedon (an alien baby crashlands near Mossy Bottom) includes some superlative burping moments, for those who like that sort of thing.Įncanto There can’t be many children’s movies that set out to tackle generational trauma, but Encanto smooths the path with endless explosions of colour and a soundtrack that bangs far beyond breakout hit We Don’t Talk About Bruno. Shaun the Sheep Movie There isn’t a slack second in this superb Aardman story in which our plucky sheep accidentally sends the farmer on a runaway caravan into the big city, where he develops amnesia and requires rescue. My Neighbour Totoro “We’re happy as can be!” chirps the theme song, but the wonder of Studio Ghibli’s enchanting 1988 animation is how it combines abundant joy with aching sadness in its tale of sisterhood, a beaming catbus and a humongous cuddly forest spirit. The brilliant stop-motion animation by former Tim Burton protege Henry Selick gussies the whole thing up, but includes enough of Dahl’s grit to keep it respectable. James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl’s yarn is possibly the most kiddy of his major books, meaning it translates beautifully to the screen for the smallest viewers. Photograph: Walt Disney/Kelvin Jones/Allstar Predictably brilliant, helped by game guest voice stars Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. The film sees the duo working as humane pest controllers, summoned by Lady Tottington who finds her castle grounds overrun with bunnies on the eve of the village vegetable show. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit “Just a bit of harmless brain alteration, that’s all,” Wallace reassures his side-eyeing beagle in this Aardman foray into cackling horror. The childlike psychedelia lends itself to a simple plot even little ones can follow, and what’s to be lost by getting them to listen to the likes of Nowhere Man and All Together Now so early in life? Yellow Submarine The Beatles might not have anticipated that the animated movie inspired by their 1966 hit single would become a bewitching Technicolor vision for the ages, but that’s what happened. Songs such as The Bare Necessities and I Wan’na Be Like You are rightly hailed as classics there’s not a wasted second in the whole thing. The Jungle Book The ultimate toe-tapping, child-friendly cartoon musical, reworking Rudyard Kipling’s India-set stories into an irrepressible blast of fun.
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