Being a big kid at heart I love children’s movies. I have to say I’m definitely more of a fan of the old school style of movie making rather than the computer animated variety which seems to have taken over our movie screens. To my way of thinking you really can’t beat Dick Van Dyke leaping around singing away cheerfully. I grew up on classics such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and nothing made in recent times seems to even come close to those musical masterpieces. My parents got some really strange children’s movies out from the library and video stores for me when I was a kid – sci-fi classics such as The Last Starfighter and Flight of the Navigator – but I loved them and still do to this day.
My all-time favourite children’s movie has to be The Princess Bride. I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve seen this movie and can quote it verbatim. I even own a t-shirt with Inigo Montoya on it quoting one of my favourite lines from the movie ‘My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.’
My top 5 are:
3. Mary Poppins
4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (original musical version)
5. The Goonies
I’d really like to get other people’s opinions on what their favourite children’s movies are so please post a comment and let me know.
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 
I like your choices Zac, especially The Princess Bride. I’ve got the badge like your t-shirt!
Other movies I am looking forward to watching with my 4 month old (I really like ones with music) … Annie, Beauty and The Beast, Bugsy Malone and Finding Nemo.
See the subject heading Children’s films to see what the library has.
Is “The Princess Bride” a kids movie? I guess it is. I never really thought of it that way, to be honest. But it is awesome and I live in fear that someone somewhere is pitching a remake starring Lindsay Lohan (GAH!!!!)
Goonies is definitely a goodie but I would eschew “Mary Poppins” in favour of “The Sound of Music” any day of the week. But again, maybe not really a kids movie?
In modern times I think Shrek will stand the test of time.
C’mon 80’s people! What about “The Labyrinth”!? Bowie rocks! I found the goblins a bit scary though… Same with R.O.U.S. in Princess Bride 😛
All of your choices are awesome too and I totally agree. I had a hard enough time just trying to pick what my top 5 were!
My top five (god its hard to choose):
1. Bugsy Malone
2. Labyrinth
3. Howl’s Moving Castle
4. Abracadabra (random Aussie animated musical version of pied piper we watched so many times as kids)
5. The Secret of Nimh
Hey Lu, any luck tracking Abracadabra down? I’d have to add Flight of Dragons from the Peter Dickinson book. The only tune I every tried to pick out on the piano. And life wouldn’t be complete without the ridiculously romantic Cinderella musical the Slipper and the Rose… not sure its really a children’s movie but it was our de facto Christmas movie for many many years.
Oh my gosh, I remember Abracadra I think. Was John Farnham one of the voices?
The Neverending Story! First movie I remember seeing at the cinema. It wasn’t as long as I was expecting.
bah dum ching (that is the best phonetic approximation of a double drum beat followed by a cymbal that I could come up with).
Or would would a “waka waka waka” be more appropriate?
I watched that movie once, its name seemed perfectly descriptive for the amount of time it seemed to take to finish.
It’s so long since I was a child I had to think really hard about this. 101 Dalmations (Disney version) – I loved Crealla de Ville. The railway children with Jenny Agutter- the part at the end where the children’s daddy comes back always makes me cry. Fantasia -another Disney classic, who could beat Mickey as the sorceror’s apprentice? Island of the Blue Dolphins, from the book by Scott O’Dell.
It’s an odd discussion for those of us with a few miles on the clock. In the days of no VHS/DVD the chances of seeing any movie more than once were small unless the movie had a long run in my hometown (most unusual) or you had an awful lot more pocket-money than I did. When I think about kids movies it is always the ones my children have loved on tape…Dumbo, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz (really, really creepy and not a musical).
I agree. Return to Oz was really creepy! I’m sure it wasn’t what alot of people were expecting after Wizard of Oz. It’s making me shiver just thinking about it.
What? No Star Wars? I saw it at the Savoy when I was seven.
How could I miss that one! Unfortunately I wasn’t a kid when it came out. Toy Story certainly hit all the right buttons as well but more for me as an adult than for the kids.
Zac, you have forced me to procrastinate and spend hours thinking through this important question. I have struggled to choose five, and the peer pressure of fellow bloggers has made my choices seem weak.
But I will push through and say:
1. Sound of Music
2. Labyrinth
3. Land Before Time
4. Splash (Not a children’s movie. Actually fairly dodgy. But I loved it!)
5. Mary Poppins (How did she fit all those magical things in that carpet bag?)
So many brilliant children’s movies. I have to say that in terms of newer films I would vote for: Ice Age, Monster’s Inc (“Put that thing right back where it came from… so help me, so help me.”), Emporer’s New Groove, Road to Eldorado. All masterpieces.
I’m sure everyone around me just wondered why I cracked up laughing! I have to agree with Monster’s Inc, definitely one of my favourite in recent years. I’m so glad you put Land Before Time in your top picks! I loved Little Foot, Duckie, Sarah and Petrie and I can remember having had puppets from McDonalds of each of the characters.