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One of the staples of afternoon at our house lately has been movie time. I think the new kids enjoy some down time where nothing is expected of them. I’ve found that the promise of a movie is a powerful motivator to when it comes to getting school work and jobs done. And I benefit from the break as well.
The trickiest part of afternoon movie time is picking the movie. I want the movie to be fairly clean, to have a racially diverse cast of characters, and to not be too old for the 5 year old who will also be watching. Forget anything PG-13. Actually even a fair number of PG movies don’t thrill me. The 9 and 12 year olds, however, want action and excitement and ‘older-kid’ stories– AND they’re becoming disdainful of animation. I tell you, it’s a rare movie that meets all those parameters. But here are some of the movies that have pleased both parents and kids at our house lately.
I’ve mentioned the Rogers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella. Our Ethiopian daughters were disappointed at first when they asked to watch Cinderella and I pulled out this one. They expected the animated version that they had watched in Ethiopia. But one viewing of this version and they were hooked. I’ve probably watched this movie a dozen times and I love it every time.
Akeela and the Bee is another hit at our house. It is an inspiring story about a high-achieving kid and a spelling bee. It turns out that our girls saw this one at Layla house too, and really enjoyed it.
Another colorful movie featuring the actress from the Akeela movie is Jump In the story of a jump rope competition. If your kids are like mine, they’ll head outside with the jump ropes after watching this one!
Finally, I am probably the last mother in the universe to discover this movie. But why, oh why did I not know about
High School Musical until last week? This is a G-rated movie with fun music and a diverse cast and an old enough ‘feel’ to the story to be appealing to older kids. I know that musicals are not everyone’s favorite thing. But I happen to be a sucker for them. This movie was enjoyed by every single one of my 10 kids. In my mind that is a unquestionably a hit.
Do you have a colorful and clean movie to add to my list? Leave a comment and tell me all about it.
Don’t forget high school musical two. It just came out a couple of weeks ago. It should be hitting video stores soon. But it’s on the disney channel all the time. We have the same problem with movies. I”ve gone back to some oldies like Raiders of the lost ark. Also Back to the Future is good but not racially diverse by any means. Cute movie tho’. I’ll keep thinking.
It’s me again. The Disney channel produces a lot ot their own movies. They put them in the video stores as well as play them on their channel. Now that I need names I’m drawing a blank but their website might have a list. A really cute one is about a bunch of poor hispanic girls creating their own cheerleading team. really cute! Once again I’ll keep thinking.
I have all tween girls so this may not be what the littles or the boys want but I also like diverse movies that have a decent message.
Whale Rider (it is pg-13, due to one word that my kids have missed everytime)
Cheetah Girls 1&2(another Disney one)
Ice Age (ok not different races but different species becoming family)
Space Camp (this is straight out of the 80s)
Harriet the Spy (too emotional for some kids)
Mary, those sound like fun movies. How do your older boys feel about them? Are they entertained? Some of them sound a little more girl-oriented to me.
I found High School Musical Two to have a little too much “dating” content for my littler kids. It was fairly innocent, but girl and boy sneaking into a pool after it closes, etc. was a little more risque than I had hoped!
They are not racially diverse, but I think you can’t go wrong with
Sound Of Music
Mary Poppins
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Bednobs and Broomsticks
Facing the Giants is amazing, not sure if the little ones would sit through it. Eight Below and Cheaper By The Dozen are also very good but I don’t think racially diverse. I just have to say thanks for this post because it’s something I’ve never even thought of. We are praying about adopting two little ones that are African American and it’s little things like this that you tend to take for granted.
Shana, We’ve ended up with a bit more focus on ‘girl’ movies lately. But our boys liked all the movies I mentioned except the Cinderella one…
Mary
PS– The kids watched ‘Akeela and the Bee’ at Layla too…
“Rudy” is a great movie. It makes my husband and I cry every time we watch it (and it’s football, so it should appeal to those boys)
Thought of a movie in the middle of the night (yes I am one of those people who wakes up remembering things I was thinking about before I went to sleep)
Yours, Mine and Ours with Dennie Quade
(one of the families is adoptive with African American and I think Korean children)
There is also Disney’s “Cool Runnings” and “Mighty Ducks.” There’s also a great one with Cuba Gooding Jr., can’t remember the name of it, but is a sled dog race one, adoption themed. There are a bunch of sports themed ones that are good. Also, we purchase seasons of old TV shows, like Hogans Heros, Mork and Mindy, Quantum Leap, etc, and watch them one episode at a time.
Here are a few to consider. The list is diverse, although individual films may not be:
The Story of the Weeping Camel
The Miracle Maker
Fiddler on the Roof
The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion Returns (more diverse)
Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bette
My Neighbor Totoro
Spirited Away (and anything Miyazaki)
Zozo
There’s a great discussion of films for kids here: http://artsandfaith.com/index.php?showforum=51
And you can harvest a bunch of film names from the NY Int’l Children’s Film Festival at gkids.com.
I can’t recommend Duma enough. A beautiful story, gorgeous cinematography.
oh, I love Mad Hot Ballroom.
It’s a documentary about the ball room dancing program in New York’s public schools and the city wide competition. It’s so much fun to watch the kids dance and get better, my very small children liked it, and it’s very racially diverse in the casting. My son said to me the second time we watched it, he was 4, “Mommy, someday when I grow up and become a brown boy maybe I could dance like that too?”
Which of course cracked me up.
These are not incredible racially diverse but great family movies.
Princess Bride, Sandlot, the remake by Disney of Where the Red Fern Grows (very well done), Second Hand Lions (has a unique family unit).
This is great by the way, there are some movies on here we have never seen and I am anxious to go to Block Buster and get a few at a time!
Thanks:)
Second Hand Lions is awesome. We also love Nanny McPhee. One that appeals to all my children is the animated Warner Brothers version of Wind in the Willows. Another good sports one is Rookie of the Year.