Because it’s always tough to find movies that will please the whole family, the staff at Lakewood Public Library has compiled the following list of suggestions to keep most everyone entertained on family movie night. Unless otherwise noted, all movies listed below are available on DVD or video at the library. To check availability, the library catalog can be accessed at lwpl.sirsi.net/uhtbin/cgisirsi/F5s4mutyFt/MAIN/82540069/60/1180/X. For guidance in choosing movies for children and longer movie reviews, go to the Internet Movie Database at www.imdb.com/.
Anne of Green Gables: 1985, made for TV
In the early 1900s, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla live on a farmstead in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. They decide to adopt an orphan boy to assist with farm work. They instead receive a twelve year old girl named Anne Shirley. Anne's a dreamer with an unusual point of view, far removed from Marilla's pragmatic ways, and it's only on trial that Marilla agrees to keep Anne...if Anne can keep out of trouble. As Anne falls into a series of scrapes (and off a roof), makes a bosom friend, searches (and finds) several kindred spirits, Matthew and Marilla discover that their lives have become a great deal richer, now that Anne is at Green Gables.
Babe (1995) and Babe: Pig in the City (1998): G
Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. He has a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand, the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly, the dog he calls mom. Babe realizes he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hogget knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs, Babe learns that a pig can be anything he wants to be.
Babe: Pig in the City, a film that seems too odd to be truly made for kids, is a vivid fantasy about a talking pig with a bloated ego (presumably because he's a hero from the first film) who makes the trip to the big city and has to make his way in a house full of animals when "their" humans disappear. There is grown-up social satire as Babe rescues a pit-bull who uses his muscle to enforce the pig's utopic vision of animal community. The finale features a crazy group rumble a la Marx Brothers that will please everyone in the audience. Each of the film's many characters is carefully developed; each dog, cat, goldfish, bird, or monkey adds something uniquely "human" to Babe's experience in the city.
Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero: Unrated, 1998, animated
Mr. Freeze is living in the arctic with his cryogenically-frozen wife. When a submarine destroys her containment capsule, he has to find someone to "donate" a new heart for her. His search turns up one donor with the right blood type: Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon. Her kidnapping sends Batman and Robin on a hurried chase to free her in time.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks: G, 1971
In August of 1940 in the English village of Pepperinge Eye, three cockney orphans are sent to live with Eglantine Price, who is studying to become an apprentice witch. When she receives a letter from the Correspondence College of Witchcraft in London, she and the children fly on a bed (by way of a magic bedknob) to London to meet the headmaster of the defunct school, Emelius Brown. At a townhouse where Mr. Brown is staying, Miss Price finds half of a book called THE SPELLS OF ASTOROTH. For the other half, they deal with a shady character known as the Bookman.
Big: PG, 1988
A young boy makes a wish at a fairground machine to be big. He wakes up the following morning to find that his wish has been granted and his body has grown older over night. But he is still the same 12 year old kid on the inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups, including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman. Tom Hanks stars.
Cats and Dogs: PG, 2001
There's a secret war being waged in the homes and neighborhoods of Earth that the humans don't even know about; an eternal struggle between two great armies: the Cats and the Dogs. The film follows a Cat's plan to destroy a new vaccine that, if developed, would destroy all human allergies to Dogs, and the Dogs' efforts to stop the Cats. Specifically, it's the story of a young pup whose job it is to guard the vaccine. Other dogs include a wise older dog who watches out for him, a large friendly dog, and a small dog who serves as an electronics expert. Jeff Goldblum is the human scientist that invented the vaccine.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: G, 1968
A weird inventor (Caractacus Potts) invents an amazing flying car, which drives by itself. It takes him and his family to Vulgaria, where the sinister buffoon Baron Bomburst kidnaps the car. The baron has made children illegal, and Caractacus and Co. have to try and rescue the children of Vulgaria.
Dark Crystal: PG, 1982
1000 years ago the Dark Crystal was damaged by one of the Urskeks, and an age of chaos began. Now the time of the great conjunction of the three suns is near. If the crystal is not healed now the control of the evil Skekses will last forever. Jen the last of the Gelflings nearly exterminated by monsters controlled by the Skekses starts his dangerous journey to find the missing shard of the crystal. Will he be able to heal the crystal and restore order on the planet?
Flight of the Navigator: PG, 1986
A 12 year old boy goes missing in 1978, only to reappear once more in 1986. In the eight years that have passed, David hasn't aged. It is no coincidence that at the time David comes back, a flying saucer is found entangled in electricity cables. Filmed around Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, it is still a cool movie for kids...teenagers...a little bit of something for everyone. Great humor, cool special effects.
Fly Away Home: PG, 1996
Amy is 13 years old when her mother is killed in an car crash in New Zealand. She goes to Canada to live with her father, an eccentric inventor whom she barely knows. Amy is miserable in her new life until she discovers a nest of goose eggs abandoned when developers began tearing up a local forest. The eggs hatch and Amy becomes "Mama Goose." The young birds must fly south for the winter, and with a pair of ultralight airplanes, Amy, her dad and their friends must find a way to do it. Anna Paquin plays Amy, a character better developed and more complex than in most films aimed at adults. The cinematography is beautiful; the dusky, autumnal scenes are captured in an explosion of reds and yellows and oranges, and the final flight sequence is a wonderful closing to an incredibly refreshing film.
Galaxy Quest: PG, 1999
Eighteen years after their sci-fi adventure show "Galaxy Quest" was canceled, the actors are making appearances at sci-fi conventions and store openings in costume and character. They're wallowing in despair and at each other's throats until aliens known as Thermians arrive and, having mistaken the show for fact, take them into space to save them from the genocidal General Sarris and his armada. Galaxy Quest had everyone in the theater laughing. It cuts across ages and backgrounds with a very simple premise--you are what you believe yourself to be.
The Goonies: PG, 1985
The film follows a group of misfit kids as they search for buried treasure in a subterranean cavern. Here they cross the path of lady criminal Mama Fratelli and her outlaw brood. Fortunately, the kids manage to befriend Fratelli's hideously deformed (but soft-hearted) son, who comes to their rescue.
Gremlins: PG, 1984
Sure, he's cute. Of course you can keep him. But heed these three warnings: Don't ever get him wet. Keep him away from bright light. And the most important thing, the one thing you must never forget: no matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs . . . never, never feed him after midnight. With these mysterious instructions, young Billy Peltzer takes possession of his cuddly new pet. He gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.
Great Muppet Caper: G, 1981
Kermit and Fozzie are newspaper reporters sent to London to interview Lady Holiday, a wealthy fashion designer whose priceless diamond necklace is stolen. Kermit meets and falls in love with her secretary, Miss Piggy. The jewel thieves strike again, and this time frame Miss Piggy. It's up to Kermit and Muppets to bring the real culprits to justice.
King of the Hill: PG-13 for thematic elements, 1994
I watched this movie with my 10-year-old niece and 70-year-old mother, and they both loved it. If you can find a copy, it is definitely worth watching as twelve-year-old Aaron Kurlander struggles on his own in a run-down motel after his parents and younger brother are separated from him in Depression-era St. Louis. Available on VHS at the Rocky River Public Library.
Kiki's Delivery Service
In this animated film from Japan, Kiki leaves her family and flies off to a faraway city where she starts her own business as part of learning her craft as a witch. As her job opens up a world of fun-filled escapades and new friendships, Kiki discovers that the confidence she needs to overcome the challenges of growing up is within herself and not in her magic.
Lorax: 1972
A young boy goes to meet a ruined industrialist in a treeless wasteland and hear his tale of what happened to him. His tragic story is about how he began a thriving business with a useless fashion product derived from the trees of a forest. As his business booms, the forest and its inhabitants suffer as he wantonly clearcuts without regard to the warnings of a wise old creature called the Lorax about the dire consequences of his greed.
Millions: PG-13, 2004
The UK is about to switch its currency from Pounds to Euros, giving a gang a chance to rob the poorly-secured train loaded with money on its way to incineration. But, during the robbery, one of the big bags falls literally from the sky on the playhouse of Damian, a 5-year old given to talking to saints. The boy then starts seeing what the world and the people around him are made of. Ethics, being human and the soul all come to the forefront in this film.
The Muppet Movie: G, 1979
Story of a frog, a bear and a pig (portraying themselves are Kermit the Frog, Fozzie the Bear and Miss Piggy) on the road to Hollywood. While on their nationwide trek, they encounter Doc Hopper who plans to make Kermit his spokesman for his Frog Leg restaurant chain. Muppet characters' first outing in the movies features cameos in the double digits and safe family fun.
The Neverending Story: PG, 1984
An unhappy boy is bullied by older youths and seeks sanctuary in a bookstore. The owner gives him a magic book in which he is able to follow the adventures of a boy who is everything he believes he is not: brave, strong, successful. He begins to understand that he is a part of the story and that the survival of the world about which he has been reading is in part up to him.
Nightmare Before Christmas: PG, 1993
It is the story about undead skeleton Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, who lives in Halloweentown. He is thought to be the scariest being in the entire world. One day he goes through a door in a tree and arrives in Christmastown and sees how happy and beautiful it is. Back in Halloweentown, he suggests doing Christmas this year instead of Halloween. But things do not go as planned when an evil gambling boogey man named Oogie Boogie plots to play a game with Santa Claus's life! Christmas Eve arrives soon after. Although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer, hoping to deliver presents to children around the world.
Pee Wee's Big Adventure: 1985
The love of Pee-wee Herman's life is his bicycle. When it is stolen, he is sent on a wild cross country adventure after a fortune teller tells him his bicycle is in the basement of the Alamo. Along the way, Pee-wee encounters an escaped convict, a waitress with wanderlust, a jealous boyfriend and a mysterious female truck driver.
Peter Pan: PG, 2003
In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story, when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland. Wendy and her brothers join Peter and the Lost Boys in an exhilarating life--free of grown-up rules--while also facing the inevitable showdown with Hook and his bloodthirsty pirates. For young and old, this is definitely a must-see film. Children will be able to enjoy the story on the full-blown adventure/fantasy scale, while adults will be deeply moved by the underlying emotion of Barrie's classic tale.
Princess Bride: PG, 1987, directed by Rob Reiner
Return to a time when men were men and swamps were fire swamps, full of quicksand and rodents of unusual size. Lagoons were inhabited by shrieking eels, and the most beautiful woman in the world was named...Buttercup? Well, it's a bent fairy tale, complete with all the fencing, fighting, chases, and escapes.
School of Rock: PG-13, 2003
When his band votes him out due to his embarrassing musical antics, Dewey has to make the rent somehow. After intercepting a call for his substitute-teacher roomie Ned, Dewey finds himself in front of a class of elite elementary school students. Dewey decides to take on the music program and makes it his goal to teach them the gospel of rock and roll.
Spirited Away: PG, 2002, animated
From Hayao Miyazaki comes this magical animated adventure about 10-year-old Chihiro, who, along with her parents, is trapped by a witch in a mystical spirit realm. Chihiro struggles to break the spell that's turned her folks into pigs and find the way home.
Sydney White: PG-13, 2007
A contemporary retelling of the classic “Snow White,” this movie has the tomboy Sydney going off to college and attempting to fit in at her deceased mother’s sorority. When she is kicked out by the jealous president, Rachel Witchburn, Sydney is taken in by the seven dorks down the street. A truly funny film that is also fairly sweet and innocent.
Teacher's Pet: PG, 2004
Classic hand drawn animation from Disney, Teacher's Pet is based on the Emmy-Award winning TV show, which depicts the adventures of a dog named Spot who desperately wants to be a boy. He dresses up in pants, glasses, and a beanie, dons the name Scott, and goes to school with his master, Leonard Helpermen. In the movie, Spot (voiced by Nathan Lane) has been left at home depressed as Leonard and his mother leave on vacation to Southern Florida. When Spot learns of a mad scientist in Florida who can turn animals into humans, he stows away with his family disguised as his alter ego, Scott. The doctor turns him into a middle-aged man, because that's what he is in dog years.
The movie starts out pretty cute, but it slowly gives in to some edgy and dark humor.
Toy Story (G, 1995) and Toy Story 2 (G, 1999)
We all know our toys come to life as soon as we leave the room, right? A toy cowboy named Woody has it all. He is the leader in Andy's toy room, Bo Peep has the hots for him, and most importantly, he is Andy's favorite. But when Buzz Lightyear, a toy who thinks he is a real space ranger, arrives on Andy's birthday and instantly wins over Andy and the toy gang, Woody's world is turned upside down. Jealousy, revenge and true friendship emerge as Woody and Buzz travel through a parallel universe in this well-cast, enchanting tale from Pixar Studios.
In Toy Story 2, Andy goes off to summer camp and the toys are left to their own devices. Things shift into high gear when an obsessive toy collector kidnaps Woody, who is actually a highly valued collectible. It's up to Buzz Lightyear and the gang from Andy's room - Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex and Hamm - to save their pal from winding up as a museum piece. A worthy sequel to the original.
UHF: 1989
An unemployed visionary finds a job as the manager of a television station his uncle owns. Unfortunately, due to gambling debts, the uncle is forced to consider selling the station to a rival station's owner. With popular less-than network standards of programming, George and his friends try to save the town's new favorite station.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit: PG, 1988
Roger Rabbit is a cartoon character who (along with many others) exists along side of real humans. Eddy is a private eye who has seen better days and has been on the skids since the death of his brother at the hands of a Toon (cartoon character). Rogers' boss hires Eddy to see if his sexy wife has other male interests, but things get out of hand as Roger is framed for murder with no one but the Toon hating Eddy to go to for help.
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