Some recommendations in addition to the usual Disney/Pixar/HBO-Family stuff:
- Animals Are Beautiful People
- Remember the narrated documentary bits from The Gods Must Be Crazy about flora, fauna, and tribal life in the Kalahari desert? This is a whole movie of just that (by the same narrator and filmmakers), humorous in many places and a minimum of nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw.
- Apollo 13
- If you skip the preliminaries and go straight to the blast-off, and keep your child informed about what’s happening in the story and that it all happened in real life, it’s great.
- Batman (1966)
- A ton of fun, if you don’t mind your 3-year-old watching cartoonish fistfights.
- Benji
- Some small kids will be frightened by the peril of the (spoiler) kidnaped children, but you can assure them that (spoiler) it all turns out OK.
- Chicken Run
- From the Wallace and Gromit folks.
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
- Clearly some of the filmmakers behind Mary Poppins were trying to reproduce that film’s success, and missed — but not by too much.
- The Court Jester
- Plenty of great Danny Kaye silliness if you don’t mind the (cartoonish) sword-fighting and jousting.
- Curious George (the Ron Howard movie)
- Much maligned by Curious George purists, but we love it.
- A Hard Day’s Night
- You can’t start ’em on Beatles fandom too early.
- The Muppet Movie
- When your kids O.D. on typical inane children’s programming, show them this as an antidote.
- The Music Man
- Teach your kids to lithp along with little Ronnie Howard — fun! Then tell them he grew up to make two of the other movies in this list and blow their minds.
- Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
- Apart from its numerous other charms, it includes a play on the word but/butt. Three-year-old gold.
- A Pocketful of Miracles
- Actually most of this one will probably bore your three-year-old, but it’s a Christmas tradition at our house and my kids seem to tolerate it well enough.
- School of Rock
- Like all other parents, I’m hoping to get a couple of musicians out of the deal.
- Silent Movie
- You’ll have to read the title cards for them, and (if you’re like me) edit out the running “Fags!” gag.
- Singin’ in the Rain
- If your kid isn’t red-faced with laughter after “Make ’em Laugh,” consult your pediatrician.
- Star Trek: the animated series
- Not-half-bad kid-oriented sci-fi stories from the 70’s with the original cast doing voices and plenty of respect for science, alien races, etc.
- What’s Up, Doc?
- Very young kids will of course get a lot less out of this than older ones, but they still get plenty. This one’s in frequent rotation at Casa Glickstein.
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
- Pure magic. And for the record, I love Johnny Depp, but he can’t hold a candle to Gene Wilder.
- Yellow Submarine
- The Blue Meanie invasion of Pepperland is a little much, especially if you’re a gun-averse parent. But see “can’t start ’em on Beatles fandom too early” above.