What Kids’ Movies Are You Watching?

late here! My 2 year old son is OBSESSED with Turning Red. My baby daughter has red hair and he was staring really intently at her the other day and then said… ‘Gracie’s a BEAR!’ (he calls the film and the character ‘Big Red Bear’)

I’m very late to the party but I’m just here to agree how absolutely wonderful Turning Red is. My 6yr old daughter and I have watched it at least 3 times already since we got Disney. This post was definetly one of the reasons I signed up casue I didn’t want to miss this cultural moment.
(p.s sharing from South Africa, where Disney+ was launched a couple of months ago)

Last night, my son (17 yrs old and turning 18 today) and I watched Encanto followed by Turning Red. We both love these 2 shows. Both movies stressed the importance of family. We are Asian/Canadian so Turning Red’s story about Mei and her family really resonated with us. :-)

The Michells vs. The Machines on Netflix is so good. Helluva ride. I absolutely love the villain too.

Love all of these! Putting in a vote for My Octopus Teacher and My Neighborhood Totoro as well.

Thank you for all these ideas – taking notes! Some goodies that we enjoyed recently that haven’t been mentioned:
Queen of Katwe – The true story of a young girl from Kampala, Uganda whose life changes when she learns to play chess.
On the Way to School (2013) – a documentary that follows a bunch of children in different parts of the world going to school. Heart-warming and eye-opening.
My Octopus teacher (2020)
Champions (2018) (Campeones – the original was a Spanish movie) – it’s a wonderful take on disabilities, funny, warm and uplifting. The actors are interviewed at the end (behind the scenes) and it is really touching. Perhaps more for the teens bracket. Our kiddos are tweens and they enjoyed it with us.

44 and child-free so I never watch kid’s movies…but I felt called to watch the Turning Red trailer and all I can say is WOW!!! How far we have come from the days of the standard-definition-of-beauty, princess-meets-prince movies that was all we had growing up. Despite all the negativity we are hit with every day, sometimes I am truly SO HAPPY at the direction we are headed with media for the future generations.

I have a 6 and almost 4 year old. Cars 1 and 3 (but NOT 2) are long-time favorites and not too annoying for adults to watch. Encanto and Moana are more recent hits in our house. We finally stopped listening to the Encanto soundtrack every minute of every day. For TV, they like Ada Twist Scientist, Grizzly and the lemmings (not a parent favorite at all), and Bluey (definitely a parent favorite. at this point, the parents might like Bluey more than the kids).

A couple of recent hits with my kids (6, 8, 10):

-The BFG. My 8yo adored this book and the movie didn’t disappoint (I was concerned it would be too intense for my 6yo and had a back-up plan ready for her, but she ended up being okay).

-The Great Canadian Baking Show (based on the British one). They were so excited about it they made their grandparents watch two episodes with them on a recent visit! It’s the first “reality” show they’ve seen.

Our 6 year old boy/girl twins love crafty competition shows. They’re very into Making It, Lego Masters, Blown Away. I decided to watch Free Willy with them recently ( childhood nostalgia!) and they loved that too.

Wow, I can’t wait to watch Turning Red with my three boys – what a great story! I just watched the original 1982 version of Annie with my 6 & 9-year-old last weekend and proudly belted out all the songs. A more questionable parenting choice was watching Titanic with my 11-year-old. He was sobbing by the end and saying, “Is Jack dying? Is Jack going to die?? IS JACK DEAD??!” Not my finest moment.

Our 10 year old is sensitive and sometimes media is stressful. We have enjoyed watching Making It (and Baking It) lately. They are sweet and supportive of each other while they make stuff. Win!
The 2 Japanese anime that we love are Yuru Camp and Flying Witch. They have both a relaxed pace and are beautiful.

My daughter (5) is obsessed with the She-Ra original series on Netflix and it’s so fun! My son is into Pokemon, I think he’s watching the Master Journeys series. I am bringing them through Avatar the Last Airbender slowly.

As an Asian American I’m all for representation, but I was seriously NOT expecting to be triggered as hard as I was while watching Turning Red. The squealing over boy bands with girlfriends, the awkwardness of my braces and glasses and super frumpy bangs, the overwhelming frustration and bottled up rage at dealing with old-school Chinese parents who just didn’t listen, didn’t understand and in my case didn’t care about my life beyond me conforming to their insane ideal of the Perfect Daughter and doing whatever they wanted me to whenever they wanted — it all brought me right back to that feeling of pre-pubescent powerlessness and crushing hopelessness. My mother too never allowed me to go have fun with my friends, only she was motivated not by love but rather envy and resentment (her marriage to my dad was as toxic and dysfunctional as they come and she took it out on us kids), and it was like I didn’t exist if I didn’t bring home perfect grades and the right kind of friends. School and books were my refuge, and I was basically juggling 2 separate lives — I was oppressed at home but at school I had more freedom to explore my identity away from my suffocating parents, including latent messy hormonal urges and a more modern, American mentality that clashed with their very traditional Confucian mindset of revering elders above self and never talking back or having an opinion of my own. I related so hard to Mei that it literally took my breath away. The menstruation angle was a bit oblique but I wish this movie had existed when I was a kid. Kudos to Pixar for tackling a more realistic take on teen girls’ inner lives, warts and all.

I don’t have kids, but I love Paddington!

Watch Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale. It’s an incredible story of sadness and happiness and it’s a true story.

making it (on hulu) with amy pohler and nick offerman is our fam fave. funny, creative and so loving.

Not with my girls and not a movie, but my husband wanted to watch Last One Laughing on Prime Video with me and it was such a welcome relief to finally laugh at something together. I have a fond memory of watching Airplane, Moonrise Kingdom and Raising Arizona practically the same week-end with my daughter and enjoying them as much as she did, even if she didn’t get everything. The most re-watched movies are the Miyazaki movies!

2 boys 8 and 10, including a dog lover too! We recently loved:
– Wonder
– Vicky and her Mystery (a french movie bout a little girl that adopts a dog that’s actually a wolf)
– Wolfwalkers
– Yes day
– Stuck together (life of neigbors in an apartment building in Paris during the pandemic)
– Diary of a whimpy kid, on repeat!
Not a movie but they are obsessed with Gravity falls!

Encanto and vivo are on a loop over here !
When we can’t find a movie we default to Gridlessness channel on YouTube. A Canadian family with lots of kids living off grid and building hunting and having fun. That and Johnna Jinton ..

My six year old is at a strange stage where she still loves the BBC gem Sarah & Duck (the most brilliantly lovely quiet thoughtful surreal funny and delightful show for littles), and yet is also thoroughly obsessed with Avatar the Last Airbender (which is a complex study in human emotions and actions, but for kids!). It’s a wild ride. Plus, so much Scooby-Doo! We have recently made her watch Annie and The Princess Bride, to mild success.

I watched Turning Red with my daughter (7) and son (3). My son loved the panda and that was enough for him. For my daughter, it prompted a lot of questions. I haven’t talked to her about periods yet, but the movie (and Joanna’s thoughtful article about it with her sons!) prompted me to make the leap and have that conversation with my daughter. She was HORRIFIED lol. I’m sure it’s the first of many such conversations (hopefully they will get less horrifying for her as time goes on), but I’m so grateful that a movie like this exists.

Not movies, but TV: I’ve been going through a major nostalgia phase as my bf and I get to know each other. We have a Saturday morning ritual of him making me breakfast and we alternate picking the cartoon of choice. It’s like making a fun Venn diagram of where our childhood tastes overlapped. The limited series Over the Garden Wall was enchanting and poignant (him). Powerpuff Girls is *funnier* than I remember with all the puns (me). And Doug is a solid classic (us).

I watched Turning Red over the weekend with my 6yo daughter and she was not a fan. I think the secondhand embarrassment was too much for her (she spent most of it hiding behind a chair). But as a child of Chinese immigrant parents, who also remembers being a supremely awkward and cringey teenager….it definitely hit close to home for me (maybe a little too much lol).

Things I’ve watched with my daughter that we’ve enjoyed recently are Encanto, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (she’s also previously seen Kiki’s Delivery Service, Ponyo, and Totoro, which I have an unending love for), and Sailor Moon. She found Sailor Moon Crystal on Netflix and liked it and then I completely blew her mind when I told her I watched Sailor Moon when I was a kid in the 90’s, and the whole series is available on Hulu so she’s been working her way through that.

My son is only 17 months so we don’t watch movies with him often, but on the weekends we do watch some Bluey! I love Bluey way more than I should.