We greatly enjoy gathering as a family on Friday evenings and commencing our weekend with a movie. Recently, we all snuggled up to watch, Barbie – The Princess and The Popstar. It can be hard to find the perfect movie since Plum is 10 and Bluey is 4. But we do our best and generally find success with our choices. We utilize Common Sense Media to help us determine if a movie will be one that our family would find appropriate. We find their reviews to be on target about 75% of the time.
Our rules for movie night are simple:
- Everyone changes into PJs.
- Dinner is picnic style on the living room floor.
- If interest wanes, the movie can be finished up at some later date.
Here is a short list of some movies that we’ve greatly enjoyed since starting our movie night tradition:
- Shaun the Sheep – highly recommend (ages 3 and up)
- My Neighbor Totoro – highly recommend (ages 4 and up)
- Tinker Bell – Secret of the Wings – highly recommend (ages 3 and up)
- Wall-E – highly recommend (ages 4 and up)
We had less success with Ponyo as Bluey found Ponyo’s father to be frightening and the story was a little too esoteric. Homeward Bound 2 had cheap jokes, was too mean, and had some questionable language. Toy Story was disappointing as the characters constantly yelled at each other and labeled one another “stupid” ad nauseum.
What movies do you enjoy with your family that you can recommend to us?