Family Night movie recommendations

[isaoma]

We've decided to implement a movie night (Fridays) for our 28 month old dd. Movie night consists of pizza and a movie with the whole family .

She told me that she didn't see benefit of becoming bigger and I wanted to do something special that she wasn't able to do before. We really don't watch tv at home and she is only minimally exposed to children's programs.

She has watched bits and pieces of movies like Cinderella and Ratatouille at friends homes during get togethers, but always left the room because found them too scary. Most of the movies (i.e. Disney) I see for children seem like they would be too intense or loud. Any suggestions or thoughts? What do you think about documentaries such as "flight of the penguins" or "Planet Earth" for a two year old?

[flowers]

My Neighbor Totoro is a lovely story without villains or scary stuff. I heard about it here and it has turned into a family favorite.

[Rsmom]

Thanks for posting this. I'm curious as well. We've been renting movies from the library but I get nervous even watching G rated stuff sometimes. Ratatouille surprised me that it was rated G. When the mean chef guy said "Welcome to Hell" I was like "Whaaaaat?". And I agree, Disney movies always have something scary or someone dying...ugh...she's 4. We just want to be entertained. lol

If you like Curious George, that movie was pretty cute.

[Girlprof]

Try Winnie the Pooh and Little Bear. These are very gentle and have been favorites at our Family Movie Night for a long time.

[Thalia the Muse]

Flight of the Penguins -- there's a movie I'd pay to see.

At that age, I'd go for very gentle movies indeed -- how about:

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (it's the gentlest Disney, although there's one sequence where Rabbit is mean to annoying Tigger by trying to lose him in the fog, but of course Rabbit gets his comeuppance)
That's Entertainment -- all singing, all dancing, excerpts from old musicals
Charlie and Lola episodes on DVD -- we LOVE Charlie and Lola!
Wallace and Gromit shorts -- depending on the kid, the suspense may be too much
I heartily second My Neighbor Totoro, which is just a complete charmert. Also, Kiki's Delivery Service

[SquishyBuggles]

Hmm...my kids tend to have kind of weird tastes.
My Neighbor Totoro is good, I second that rec. Also in the same vein, Kiki's Delivery Service
I've not seen them, but apparently all of the Barbie movies have really good messages, I guess making up for the fact that it's Barbie? haha
OH, my 26 month old absolutely LOVES the Little People movies. Loves them.
Mary Poppins?
If you can stand it, she also loves Dora and the Backyardigans, wonder Pets, etc. All of those Nickelodeon/Noggin shows. We don't have cable but she likes to watch the dvds on occasion.
Muppet Movies!
Fraggle Rock
Happy Feet
Cars
A Bug's Life
Milo and Otis
Charlie and Lola!

[reezley]

I love the suggestion of That's Entertainment! We'll add that our list - and then we'll institute a family movie night sometime when ds2 gets just a bit older.
The kids watch the original Winnie-the-Pooh movie sometimes (about a 1/3 of it at a time), which is great. 4yo ds has seen the "Grand Adventure" one but I don't let ds2 see it since it's more scary.
Curious George movie might be fine - but just to share our experience of it: ds1 saw it when he was 3ish and we didn't get much past the beginning because he thought it was too intense -the music and the darkness (literally) of it.

[Rsmom]

Originally Posted by reezley

I love the suggestion of That's Entertainment! We'll add that our list - and then we'll institute a family movie night sometime when ds2 gets just a bit older.
The kids watch the original Winnie-the-Pooh movie sometimes (about a 1/3 of it at a time), which is great. 4yo ds has seen the "Grand Adventure" one but I don't let ds2 see it since it's more scary.
Curious George movie might be fine - but just to share our experience of it: ds1 saw it when he was 3ish and we didn't get much past the beginning because he thought it was too intense -the music and the darkness (literally) of it.

I almost didn't get through Curious George when they called The Man With the Yellow Hat "Ted". Since when is his name Ted???

[Surfer Rosa]

I also rec My neighbor Totoro and Kiki's delivery service-big hits over here with our 3 YO!
She also loves Mary Poppins, Annie (just the songs, really), Sound of Music (she watches just til the scene where the kids go to bed), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...can you tell she likes musicals?

[isaoma]

:

Thank you, thank you, there are lots of great suggestions. I'm glad I started this thread because there are so many films I haven't even heard of before!

[BonMaman]

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[ceilydhmama]

My dd was happier with nature movies or things like Dance and Cirque du Soleil when she was smaller. We also kept them pretty short.

The other thing we did at that age - if movie night is too much, was family games night. We played simple games like concentration or games that involved counting. We also did family activity night and went swimming, ice skating or for a walk.

My dd is an organizer...

[MamaE]

Ooh -I second 'Charlie and Lola' - we adore them. They are just sweet, sweet, sweet!! My 20 month old (who isn't really allowed to watch TV) has been read a few of the books and caught glimpses of the video and is just in LOVE with Lola. Too cute!

Other than that, I can't really think of many gentle movies right off the bat. I just wanted to add that my DD wasn't able to watch a movie until she was almost 5. She's very sensitive and most "children's" movies just aren't really made for kids, IMO. We did watch 'March of the Penguins' with her when she was 3'ish and it was fine. We just started movie night on Saturdays ourselves - isn't it fun?

[unfrozncavegrl]

nak
the Curious George movie is a perfect preschool movie. totally gentle and funny, no intense conflict and some great laughs for the adults.

we love totoro, byt my 4yo was scared when totoro roared.

[Theoretica]

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[LynnS6]

if you mean "March of the Penguins" - no, no way for a 28 month old. We saw it last year when dd was 3 1/2 and ds was 6 1/2 and dd especially found it heart wrenching. Several eggs freeze in the cold, several baby penguins die, several mothers get eaten by a leopard seal. When a mother penguin got eaten, dd cried "but what about her BABY?"

28 months is really pretty young for movies. I'd recommend either very very gentle movies or TV shows on DVD:

Winnie the Pooh
Thomas the Tank Engine
Bob the Builder A Christmas to Remember

There Goes A .... Series (There goes an Airplane, Firetruck, Garbage Truck, Bulldozer, Police Car...)
Hard Hat Harry Series (similar to the There Goes.. series only a bit more detailed, they run 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes)


There's a series by Scholastic of "Storybook Treasures" that has things like Corduroy and others.

I'd also check out "Common Sense Media" I find their reviews helpful and their age ratings pretty good for my kids (who are on the sensitive side).

[Jenelle]

Originally Posted by isaoma

She told me that she didn't see benefit of becoming bigger

Am I the only one who read this and thought, wow, at 28 months? That sounds like a pretty intellectual conversation to me!

[EnviroBecca]

Our library has several DVDs of children's books "brought to life" mostly by showing and slightly animating the illustrations while the story is read aloud, sometimes by multiple readers. We got a very nice one with stories by Ezra Jack Keats. Another one had as its main feature a movie version of Corduroy (somewhat different from the book) plus many other charming picture books read aloud.

Wallace and Gromit shorts

The only Wallace and Gromit I'd recommend for a very young child is "A Grand Day Out". My son and I watched "The Wrong Trousers" when he'd just turned 2, and I'd forgotten that the evil penguin SHOOTS A GUN at them repeatedly in the big chase scene. (Luckily, my son was busy being excited about seeing a train and seemed not to notice the shooting.) "A Close Shave" has a scary machine, scary bulldog villain, and a lot of dangerous-looking car chase. The one about rabbits, I forget the title, is heavy on the suspense and gloom. I love W&G, but I think they're best for age 7+.

[isaoma]

Thanks for all of the recomendations. We went to the library today and dd picked a movie called "A Diary of a Worm" (she loved the title because of the "Diary of a Wombat" book). It was from Scholastic Treasures and looked like a pretty safe story line - we also picked up a "Care Bears" movie just in case.

Originally Posted by LynnS6

if you mean "March of the Penguins" - no, no way for a 28 month old. We saw it last year when dd was 3 1/2 and ds was 6 1/2 and dd especially found it heart wrenching. Several eggs freeze in the cold, several baby penguins die, several mothers get eaten by a leopard seal. When a mother penguin got eaten, dd cried "but what about her BABY?"

28 months is really pretty young for movies. I'd recommend either very very gentle movies or TV shows on DVD:

Winnie the Pooh
Thomas the Tank Engine
Bob the Builder A Christmas to Remember

There Goes A .... Series (There goes an Airplane, Firetruck, Garbage Truck, Bulldozer, Police Car...)
Hard Hat Harry Series (similar to the There Goes.. series only a bit more detailed, they run 60 minutes instead of 30 minutes)


There's a series by Scholastic of "Storybook Treasures" that has things like Corduroy and others.

I'd also check out "Common Sense Media" I find their reviews helpful and their age ratings pretty good for my kids (who are on the sensitive side).

Thanks for the info about "March of the Penguins" - I know that it had lots of great reviews, but I didn't know much about the documentary.

I will definately check out the link to the media website.

Thanks!

[isaoma]

Originally Posted by Jenelle

Am I the only one who read this and thought, wow, at 28 months? That sounds like a pretty intellectual conversation to me!

She didn't actually say "I see no benefit..." But, there have been many conversations lately about the fact that she dosen't want to get bigger - mainly because she sees getting older as being away from mom. She has said that she doesn't want to grow up and go to college -- we read a book this summer about a little girl who eventually grows up and goes to college, she loved the book so why this is bother her now, I don't know.

She also has lots of friends who have weaned and she knows that *someday* she won't nurse anymore. I've also noticed lately that she gets really frustrated when she can't do something exactly as she thinks she should, like color in the lines. She'll just quit and say I'm too little... Anyway, movies weren't on my radar at this age, but thought if we gave her a "big girl" priviledge, it might make her feel better about herself. Sorry for the long response. Dd is taking a nap and I finally have some time to myself