I've been reflecting on movies lately and my gripes with the industry and my search for good, clean and positive movies. We have been wanting to buy some family movies that we can all sit down and watch together (I have an almost 3 yr old and 4 yr old), but this process has proved to be as hard as understanding geometry.
We think, Disney, perfect, those movies are geared for kids. Well, I've decided they're not geared for my kids. It seems that you either have to watch Dora for 20-30 minutes for a truly clean, non-scary movie, or watch a feature length that we'll end up fast forwarding bits and pieces throughout.
I know a lot of kids don't care about the scary parts, but mine do right now, esp my older one, and I'm not interested in changing that. I don't see a good reason to try to desensitize them, life will be all too real with all the scary dirty stuff all too soon. And on top of that, it affects them. Hazel is already cursed with that great imagination I have and wakes up from nightmares regularly with loud and sudden cries in the night. And that's without the influence of a mildly scary scene in a G-rated Disney movie.
We just went to Disneyland (which was heaven on earth, I'll try to post soon) and I really wanted to be able to show them movies about the different princesses before and after, but each princess story minus Cinderella (as far as I can remember) has a pretty scary bit to them.
Ariel--the gigantic octopus is first totally rotten and mean and then gets ginormo and stabbed with flames all around--right?
Sleeping Beauty--not only is there the freaky dark witch/queen? but the dragon and the fight with that thing too.
Beauty and the Beast--besides the wolves, which would definitely freak them out (and me if it were a "real" scene--that's sort of how I have to look at it to be in their eyes)--there is the beating down of the castle door by an angry mob carrying weapons and after lots of fighting the stabbings at the end and eventual fall of Gaston to his death. I could keep going, but you get the point.
Snow White--freaky witch trying to kill the princess with poison.
I'm not a fan of teaching my kids about murder, killing, stabbing, whatever. I don't want them to know about bad guys chasing innocent people. I've given them talks on safety, but I don't really want to get that confused with the way movies portray the villains in animated movies and if there are such scary stories, it doesn't usually end happily ever after, so I'd rather just keep that all at bay for a while.
Enough about my frustrations. On to my good news.
We bought Mary Poppins and we've had to break it up into two viewing sessions so far and we're only about half way, but we all have loved it. Josh and I have enjoyed it partly from nostalgia and the great music, but because our kids have been loving it. It is so nice to be able to enjoy a movie all together and not because it's an effort to bond.
During the movie tonight we were all cuddled on the couch with pillows and blankets and Hazel said, "It's great that we have a tv and can watch this." I thought that was pretty funny and sweet at the same time. It was nice she recognized she was having a really good time with us all together and enjoying something fun.
(And Josh just asked me if I wrote that I love Burt and Mary Poppins together and no I didn't, so I came back to add that I adore those two characters together for so many reasons and wish they'd end up getting married. It's been so long that I don't remember the end, but I don't think they do :(. Still, I love watching them together:).
So our current list without thinking much is:
-Mary Poppins
-Cinderella
-Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (although we did fast forward a few intense parts)
-Toy Story 2
-Cars (although I just heard that I've missed some subtle innuendo slipped in for adults--but hey, if I missed it, I'm not so worried about them.)
-Ratatouille (with some parts fast forwarded--and they swear once or twice in it too)
-The Emperors New Groove (with a few of the intense scary-ish scenes with the freaky looking lady fast forwarded)
That's our family movie list and I'm really looking to expand. Do any of you have any good recommendations for family movies that are feature length and not scary? I may have scared some of you away with my possibly freakish screening process, but please share any ideas anyway, esp if there is a movie where there is just an easy scene or two to skip past instead of where a scary part keeps popping up (like in the G rated Princess and the Frog--our first and only movie we've ever taken Hazel too. Nice.) For example, "The Emperors New Groove" was really fun to watch together and we just skipped through a couple of semi-scary looking scenes and enjoyed the rest of the movie. As long as the villain is a funny, that helps a lot!
Q: What are your favorite family movies for families with young children together?
5 comments:
Here are my ideas: 1. The Very First Noel. It's a Christmas movie, but you should buy it right now. We watch it year round. 2. Charlotte's Web, the original cartoon from the 70s.
dumbo: very non scary except the pink elephant part is kind of weird. finding nemo: sharks are a bit scary, but its only about 10 minutes of the movie. my favorite.... the jungle book (animated one): fighting at the end with the tiger that is kind of scary but most of it is very silly. lady and the tramp: scary rat trying to attack a baby, but a short scene. if your girls like mickey, donald, goofy, etc. they have great collections of those kind of cartoons on DVD... my kids LOVE them and there's not really any scary stuff. google "disney classic cartoon favorites." good luck!
Veggietales. Have you seen them.? We love all of them. You might also like Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It's another classic Disney. There are references to WWII as it is set in wartime Britain but the big climactic fight seen is done like the dancing brooms in Fantasia.(That's another one the girls might like. Lots of music.)
Afton, I so understand. I probably get weird looks for how intently I screen our movies, but our kids are really too young to understand the line between real life and not, and I am completely content with letting them have their happy little innocent childhoods because reality will hit later anyway, disney movies at age 4 or not. We recently rediscovered Mary Poppins again, too, and two weeks later, we're still breaking out into song. I like checking out movies on kids-in-mind. com or org (can't remember which). They completely dissect movies and tell exactly which bad words are used, etc, without giving away the plot or ending. Their movies are as recent as about 1997, I think. One that we like alot is Pride and Prejudice (the 6 hour A&E one), which does have two scenes I distract them during, but they're so fast you can't even fast forward. We've also seen some of Planet Earth, which is so far fine. They tend to give just enough of the animals going after each other scenes to get the idea, but not dwell on them (some more than others, though).If you have any more suggestions, though, I'd love to hear them, since we're looking for some, too!
Sound of Music...I just stop it after the final preformance and my oldest loves it!
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