With any luck, March Break will be sunny and we’ll all be spending the whole week outdoors. But for that one inevitable rainy (or snowy!) day, it’s good to have an indoors back-up plan. One great option to entertain the little ones is with a movie day. Make an outing of it by heading to the theatre (Paddington and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water are currently in theatres, Cinderella opens March 12), or stay at home and choose from one of these beloved titles.
New and notable:
If you didn’t happen to catch animated blockbusters The LEGO Movie, Big Hero 6, or How to Train Your Dragon 2 when they were in theatres, now’s the time to share these popular flicks with your little ones. In the case of The LEGO Movie, just be prepared for non-stop renditions of the Oscar-nominated tune ‘Everything Is Awesome’ when you’re finished.
Modern classics:
We had a hard time coming up with our favourite family films from the past two decades, but we admit we’re a little biased toward Pixar’s offerings. You really can’t go wrong with the Toy Story trilogy, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, or WALL-E (to name our top picks from the animation studio).
Other animated films your children are sure to love include the heartwarming tale of friendship The Iron Giant, the hilarious Chicken Run (from Wallace & Gromit‘s Nick Park), or our favourite pair of Roald Dahl-inspired films, James and the Giant Peach and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Among our favourite non-animated family films are Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (we never expected to include a Scorsese film in this list, but Hugo was a lovely change of pace for him), Babe, our favourite cinematic pig, the recent reboot of The Muppets, with Jason Segel and Amy Adams, and the Tom Hanks comedy, Big.
All-time favourites:
Some family films are timeless, and deserve to be seen by every generation. Among the titles we can watch over and over again? Steven Spielberg’s classic E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. And while there are far too many Disney classics to include in this list, we’re partial to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mary Poppins, and Fantasia.
What’s your favourite family-friendly film? Share your picks in the comments below!
Top photo: Baymax, from Big Hero 6, and Lily James as Cinderella