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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I'm a huge Buster Keaton fan - I own the box set of his work, in fact, but I'd never put The General on a list of kids movies... despite the fact that I agree, as do most critics, that it's probably his best movie. No... if you want Keaton at his best in a style more suitable for children, I'd go with Sherlock Jr. It's a shorter, more disjointed, but more action packed and just plain funny introduction to maybe the greatest physical comedian who ever lived.
The Sandlot
OK, maybe it isn't the most intellectual or thought provoking movie ever, but for sheer fun The Flight of the Navigator can't be beat! This has been one of my family's favorites, along with The Neverending Story.
For older kids of course. But I remember loving this in grade school.
Balto
Whale Rider
The Black Stallion
Never Cry Wolf
The Walking w/Dinosaurs-Prehistoric Beasts series
Heidi
It seems like this movie is always showing on Animal Planet, and all the kids I know loved it, and most of the adults. This is the live-action of the two dogs and a cat that have to find their way back home over I think 2000 miles. Animal voices by Sally Field, Michael J Fox and Don Ameche. An all-ages classic.
'nuff said...
The (2004?) Curious George movie is awesome. I don't know if that counts as a blockbuster or not. As a bonus, it got my (then) two year old hooked on Jack Johnson. For a while, I picked kid flicks by the soundtrack, so we watched Over the Hedge for the Ben Folds music, and Open Season (which really isn't that good of a movie) for Paul Westerberg.
two with Diane Keaton:
Baby Boom--my daughters love this movie
Father of the Bride--still a fav. in our house
Well said downthread, I'm just repeating this because it is so true.
"Graveyard of the Fireflies" was mentioned in an earlier post, but I can't imagine a film more inappropriate for young children; it's emotionally wrenching and both main characters die horrible deaths. It's an excellent film, but for teens and up.
It is a brilliant, honest film, but children can't handle it. I could barely handle it. I highly recommend every other Studio Ghibli film for kids (Princess Mononoke is a little violent), but not this one.
Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrar's 's magical musical fantasy from 1953 will break hearts of young and old alike. And mere puppets were never more believable characters than here. Warning: your kids will be singing "Hi lili hi lili hi-lo" for the rest of their lives.
THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T (1953). For those who feel Gilliam and Burton's weirdness is just too weird a might dark for the smaller tots, this oddity may be more to your liking. A live-action movie from the mind of Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel - an original screenplay, not adapted from one of his beloved books. A Musical fantasy about kids not wanting to do their piano lessons with some of the ingenious rhyming Seuss wordplay concoctions plus inventive, colorful sets make for memorable fun in the WIZARD OF OZ vein.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! (1969). I'm a huge Western fan but I know you don't start 'em off with Peckinpah, Leone, Ford and Eastwood so this charmer is a good, fun introduction to the genre for kids. Starring James Garner at his easygoing charismatic best, it's a gentle parody of Westerns minus the raunchy older ingredients found in BLAZING SADDLES, but still with plenty of laughs and slapstick to keep an eight or nine-year-old giggling and interested. Marvelous supporting cast of Western veterans including the scene-stealing Bruce Dern, Jack Elam, Harry Morgan and the hilarious Walter Brennan. A few people have mentioned CAT BALLOU and that's a good start too, but for my money SUPPORT YOU LOCAL SHERIFF! is consistently funnier. But both are better than the likes of THE CASTAWAY COWBOY (1974) or THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG (1975) which young kids may enjoy but parents will likely be bored by.
If you want to turn a slightly older kid onto the genre SHANE (1953) with the story seen through the eyes of a boy is the best of the classics, but those craving a bit more action in the eleven and up crowd should delight to BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) and THE PROFESSIONALS (1966). I know I did.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973). Of all the many, many versions of this story, Richard Lester's is by far the best and most enduring. Led by Michael York as D'Artagnan with Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay as the Musketeers and a perfect supporting cast including Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Geraldine Chaplin, Christopher Lee and Chuck Heston as Cardinal Richelieu, it is endlessly fun. I was introduced to this version at ten or eleven and it was my favorite movie not containing the words "Star Wars" or "Lost Ark" for years. Lester and the entire cast are also great in the filmed-at-the-same-time sequel THE FOUR MUSKETEERS (1974), though be warned it has the darker moments of the Alexandre Dumas story. There are some moments that border on the bawdy, but they mostly have to do with Spike Milligan and others fumbling for Raquel's ample cleavage...which much to my dismay, now and then, nobody ever gets a good hold of.
The 1948 MGM version of THREE MUSKETEERS with Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Vincent Price, Keenan Wynn, Gig Young and Angela Lansbury is good and definitely preferable to the atrocious 1993 Disneyized version with Charlie Sheen, Chris O'Donnell and Kiefer Sutherland (despite the best efforts of Oliver Platt and Tim Curry), but the Dick Lester flicks from the '70s are in a class by themselves and not to be missed by anyone, ages ten to a hundred and seven.
While this film is way too hard to find, Margie, starring Jeanne Crain is a classic. I wish Turner Classics would play it sometime.
But here's a couple someone missed (hey, that rhymes!):
1. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T - Based upon the book by Dr. Seuss (who also wrote the screenplay!), this is a delightful movie for kids between roughly 7 and 11. Great old Technicolor, wonderful production design, and Hans Conreid as the villain.
2. Return to Oz - Directed by the editing legend Walter Murch, this film turned into a complete disaster for Walt Disney Productions because it was incompetently marketed. I should know, because I was working as an usher (remember those?) at a cineplex in my hometown when the film was released in the summer of '85. The first two days we had HUGE crowds of people, all with LOTS of little kids, because the marketing and advertising hype had proferred the film as a sequel to "The Wizard of Oz." Murch, using the second and third books as inspiration, never intended it that way. But that was only the beginning of the problems.
The movie begins with Dorothy (played by a very young Fairuza Balk) being taken for electro-shock therapy because of her incessant talking about the events that took place in "The Wizard of Oz." (!) Then there was the Gump, basically a moose-like head trophy that comes to life and starts to talk...yeah, no problems there. Last but not least were the evil princess who steals heads (all too realistically) and the Gnome King (voiced by Nicol Williamson). The cast is rounded out by Piper Laurie and Jean Marsh. And in fact it is VERY good. I recommend it for kids over the age of 10, but ONLY kids over the age of ten. Why? Let's go back to the that first day....
About 30 minutes into the movie, the doors to the auditoriums where it was being shown burst open and outraged parents - carrying screaming toddlers - poured into the lobby, demanding to see the manager. Our manager didn't want to come down from the projection mezzanine, because he had watched people's horrified reactions to the film. But come down he did, and defused the potentially riotous situation by offering refunds for anyone who wanted them. Only a handful rejected this offer.
The next day was exactly the same. Thankfully I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off the following week. By the time I got back to work on Thursday night, the auditoriums showing "Return to Oz" were deserted and the story of Disney's folly was all over the news because scenes like those I witnessed were replicated all over the San Francisco Bay Area and the nation.
But kids 10 and over will still love this movie!!
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