I forgot to include this cute classic movie story in my last post on this subject. While in Disney, we rode the Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios. You sit in a kind of giant car and are driven from room to room, each one meant to immerse you in the set of a famous movie. So one room was Muchkinland from The Wizard of Oz, and another was the snake/temple room from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

One of the rooms featured the movie Alien. Our car was parked inside a metallic-looking tube, with red emergency lights and dry-ice smoke all around, and then the Alien jumps out at you from an overhead opening. During this part of the ride, the girls were plenty scared but the Captain totally FREAKED OUT.

This is going to sound rather Bad Mommy of me, but I was kind of delighted that he was freaking out so much. He’d spent the whole week declaring himself to be unscareable – Pirates of the Carribean and Haunted Mansion were “totally not scary at all, MOM,” and rides like Space Mountain and Tower of Terror were super! fun! and not remotely terrifying. So to see him completely beside himself on the movie ride, where grandmothers go to have a mid-afternoon air conditioned break, was a tiny bit satisfying.

Score one for the movies!

I found this movie list much harder to put together than my book list. I feel like everyone can agree on certain book classics but movies are more all over the place. Movies I saw as a teenager had a huge impact on me and they are possibly, just POSSIBLY, not that great of a movie. So should I put them on my movie list? Or should I keep to the established greats?

Also, I wanted to make a list of family-friendly films, since we are hoping to establish a family movie night, but also, I had a list of really classic movies that were required viewing for Their Movie Education. I also had to admit that some of the classic movies were not appropriate for group viewing. I’ll forever be scarred by the time when I was in high school, watching Dangerous Liasons over at my friend Laura’s house, and her dad walked in right in the middle of a sex scene. HORRIFYING.

So I thought I would break the list up by type of movie, like, family viewing versus classic versus Adults Only, but some fit into more than one category, like say The Wizard of Oz, and then I almost threw my hands up in despair due to my complete lack of focus and inability to whip my list into submission. GACK.

But I promised you a list, at least to get the conversation going, so here’s what I came up with. Side note: if you see something on this list you’re interested in showing to your kids, but aren’t sure if it is appropriate for their age level, I recommend checking Common Sense Media – they have an excellent ranking system, I absolutely trust their age suggestions, and they also give a great overview of discussion points that might arise from viewing so you can be prepared.

Family Viewing – The Must-Watch List

A Christmas Story
Annie
Beauty and the Beast (Disney animated version)
Babe
Back to the Future
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (maybe when they are a wee bit older)
Ghostbusters
Home Alone
How To Train Your Dragon (a modern classic, highly recommended)
The Karate Kid (we watched this together on Family Day, after the wax-on-wax-off reference came up during our trip to Disney somehow. Now everyone around here is doing crane kicks. Hi-ya!)
The Lion King
Mary Poppins
The Muppet Movie (and I would also recommend the new one, The Muppets – it’s perfect)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
The Princess Bride (our kids hate this movie. We will be forcing them to watch it over and over in A Clockwork Orange type fashion until they LOVE IT, DAMMIT)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Spirited Away (CONFESSION: I have never seen this one, or any others from the same makers like Howl’s Moving Castle or Ponyo. I SUCK. Will get on that promptly.)
The Sound of Music
Star Wars
Tangled (I know, it’s recent – but already my most favourite Disney movie evah, so it’s in)
Toy Story
Toy Story 2 (actually much less scary than the original Toy Story, I recommend this movie as a first full-feature length for young kids)
WALL-E
White Christmas
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (again, maybe for a slightly older crowd)
The Wizard of Oz

Family Viewing – Entertainment for Your Dollar (this will be my ongoing Family Movie Night list)

Every other Pixar Movie: Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars, Toy Story 3 (if you can take the sadness)

Most every other Disney animated movie: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tarzan, Mulan, Pocahontas, The Princess and the Frog, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Fantasia, Tinker Bell, Phineas and Ferb Movie, Winnie the Pooh (the new one is so cute), Robin Hood, The AristoCats (a favourite of Little Miss Sunshine), 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp

Alvin and the Chipmunks (ANNOYING. Yet my kids ADORE.)
Big
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Beetlejuice
Benji
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Bolt
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I actually prefer the Johnny Depp version, I KNOW, sacrilege!)
Chicken Run
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cool Runnings
Curious George (love, love, love this movie – highly recommended for your 2-4 year old)
Despicable Me
Enchanted
Escape to Witch Mountain
Fantastic Mr. Fox (God, how I LOVE this movie)
Flushed Away
Fly Away Home
Free Willy
The Goonies
Happy Feet (about a cute dancing penguin – gave all three of my kids nightmares, we had to turn it off due to their shrieking in horror. WHAT UP?)
Harry Potter movies (I guess, although I want them to read the books first)
Herbie The Love Bug
High School Musical (I KNOW. Yet I love them. I am ashamed.)
Honey I Shrunk the Kids
Homeward Bound
Hugo
The Iron Giant (maaaaaaybe…I shy away from films where I am going to cry like my dog died)
James and the Giant Peach
Jumanji
Kung Fu Panda
Liar Liar
Madagascar
The Mighty Ducks
Miracle on 34th Street
Men in Black
Monsters vs. Aliens
Mrs. Doubtfire
National Velvet
The Neverending Story (but first! assure your kids that THE HORSE WILL BE OKAY)
Night at the Museum
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Parent Trap (old version or new version, both are good)
Piglet’s Big Movie
Pirates of the Carribean series
Puss in Boots
The Shaggy Dog (the original)
Shrek (I guess, although this series really bugs me)
Sneakers
Spider-Man
Spy Kids (really, this series is just awful, awful, awful, but my kids ADORE it, go figure)
Superman (the Christopher Reeve ones)
Swiss Family Robinson
Transformers
Tron
Wallace and Gromit
What a Girl Wants (not a good movie, but on our list for sentimental reasons)

The Classics We Can Watch Together When They Are a Little Older

Alien
Aliens
All About Eve
Annie Hall
Apollo 13
Arsenic and Old Lace
Batman Begins
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Casino Royale
Charade
Citizen Kane
Die Hard
Donnie Darko
Easter Parade (my all-time favourite movie musical)
Fargo
A Few Good Men
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (my favourite Marilyn Monroe film)
The Godfather parts I and II
Gone With the Wind
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Grease (actually not one of my favourites, but it’s so famous it’s a must-watch)
The Great Escape (one of Sir Monkeypants’ favourites)
Groundhog Day
How to Marry a Millionaire (my sisters and I watched this about 1000 times as teens)
High Noon
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jaws
Jurassic Park
King Kong (the original 1933 version, if such a thing can be acquired)
Lagaan
The Lord of the Rings (Discuss: is it a requirement to read the books first?)
The Matrix
The Magnificent Seven (LOVE this movie)
Memento (looking forward to seeing their MINDS BLOWN)
Moulin Rouge
North by Northwest
Ocean’s Eleven
The Philadelphia Story
Rear Window
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rebel Without a Cause
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Say Anything
Saving Private Ryan (oh hell, and every other Speilberg film ever)
Some Like It Hot
Star Trek (the J.J. Adams one – not because I think it’s the best, but because it introduces all the characters)
The Sixth Sense
The Terminator (hm…does have a sex scene, may have to move to the Awkward category)
Titanic
Top Hat
The Usual Suspects (another of Sir Monkeypants’ all-time favourites)
West Side Story
The Wrath of Khan
X-Men

The Classics I Will Recommend They Watch Then Politely Find Something Else To Do

Apocalypse Now
Dirty Dancing
Fight Club
Ghost
Goodfellas
Love Actually
Pulp Fiction
Psycho (only because I can’t survive watching it again)
Scream (ditto)
The Silence of the Lambs (I am seriously weak-stomached)
Top Gun
When Harry Met Sally