If you’re looking for ideas for your next family movie night, we’ve got just the thing for you! Here is an A to Z of fun family films to watch with the kids that includes some of our all-time favourites!
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If you’re stuck in a movie night rut, work your way through our A to Z list of 26 fun family films. With a diverse selection that includes classics, musicals, animations and new releases, there’s definitely something for everyone.
So, start popping the corn, grab a blanket, and get the film ready to go – it’s movie time!
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A to Z of Fun Family Films
Annie
An orphan in a facility run by the mean Miss Hannigan, Annie believes that her parents left her there by mistake. When a rich man named Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks decides to let an orphan live at his home to promote his image, Annie is selected.
While Annie gets accustomed to living in Warbucks’ mansion, she still longs to meet her parents. So Warbucks announces a search for them and a reward, which brings out many frauds.
Beethoven
One of our favourite fun family films!
When the family of George Newton decides to adopt a cute St. Bernard puppy, the patriarch soon feels displaced by the dog. Before long, the adorable canine, dubbed Beethoven, has grown considerably, leading to household mishaps.
While George’s wife and kids dote on Beethoven, it takes time for him to see the pooch’s finer qualities. However, Beethoven’s life with the Newton family is jeopardized when a scheming vet tries to nab the dog for a deadly experiment.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
While truant from school, young siblings Jeremy and Jemima meet the beautiful Truly Scrumptious, who falls for their widowed father, Caractacus Potts, played by Dick Van Dyke, and his various oddball inventions, including the family’s noisy rebuilt car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
One day at the beach, Caractacus tells Truly and the children a fanciful fable about the villainous Baron Bomburst and his evil designs on the Potts family car.
Despicable Me
Arch villain Gru hatches a plan to steal the moon with the help of his army of little yellow minions.
But nothing in his calculations and groundwork has prepared him for his greatest challenge: three adorable orphan girls who want to make him their dad.
E.T.
A young boy, Elliot, discovers and befriends a gentle alien who becomes stranded on Earth, and brings him home.
Elliott introduces E.T. to his brother and his little sister and the children decide to keep it secret. But when E.T. falls ill, the government arrives and Elliott has to decide how to help the loveable alien.
Frozen
The hit phenomenon, Frozen, tells the story of two royal sisters Elsa and Anna. When their kingdom becomes trapped in perpetual winter, Anna travels with Kristoff an ice-seller and his reindeer sidekick to find Queen Elsa to help break her icy spell.
They encounter mystical trolls, a comedic snowman called Olaf, and more adventure before they can find out if they can save their kingdom from winter’s cold grip.
Ghostbusters
After the members of a team of scientists lose their cushy positions at a university in New York City, they decide to become “ghostbusters” to wage a high-tech battle with the supernatural for money.
They stumble upon a gateway to another dimension, a doorway that will release evil upon the city. The Ghostbusters must now save New York from complete destruction.
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
When kids sneak into inventor Wayne Szalinski’s upstairs lab to retrieve an errant baseball, his experimental shrink ray miniaturises them. When Szalinski returns home, he destroys the device, thinking it’s a failure and dumps it in the trash, throwing out the kids along with it.
The four children, now 1/4-inch tall, must survive the journey back to the house through a yard where sprinklers bring treacherous storms and garden-variety ants stampede like elephants.
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Ice Age
Set twenty-thousand years ago, during prehistoric times and the start of the Ice Age.
A human infant is lost by the migrating tribe and a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a woolly mammoth try to return him to his tribe.
Watch out for Scrat, a cross between a squirrel and a rat, who is always trying to catch an acorn!
Jumanji
Siblings Peter and Judy find a curious, jungle-themed game called Jumanji in the attic of an old mansion. When they start playing, they free Alan Parrish (played by Robin Williams) who has been stuck in the game for decades.
If they win Jumanji, the kids can free Alan for good but that means braving all sorts of adventures, including giant bugs and stampeding rhinos!
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Kiki is a trainee witch who has to spend a year of independent life away from her family. She finds somewhere to stay near a bakery and supports herself by running an air courier service on her broomstick.
This heartwarming story of someone finding their place in the world is sure to appeal.
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Labyrinth
One of the classic fun family films on our list is the ever-popular Labyrinth.
Teenage Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) journeys through a maze to recover her baby brother from a goblin king (played by David Bowie).
With the exception of Connelly and Bowie, most of the film’s significant characters are played by puppets produced by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
Matilda
Based on the Roald Dahl book, Matilda Wormwood is a gifted girl forced to put up with a crude, distant father and mother. Even worse, Miss Trunchbull, the evil principal at Matilda’s school, is a terrifying bully.
However, when Matilda realizes she has the power of telekinesis, she begins to defend her friends from Trunchbull’s wrath and fight back against her unkind parents with the help of her sweet teacher Miss Honey.
Night at the Museum
A divorced father wants to settle down and impress his son. He takes a job as a night watchman at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History where he discovers that the exhibits, animated by a magical Egyptian artifact, come to life at night.
But he has to work out how to get everything back in its place by morning!
Oliver
An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, in which an orphan called Oliver Twist escapes a miserable apprenticeship and then meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master Fagan.
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Paddington
Paddington, the marmalade loving bear, has grown up deep in the Peruvian jungle with his Aunt Lucy who, inspired by a chance encounter with an English explorer, has raised her nephew to dream of an exciting life in London. When an earthquake destroys their home, Aunt Lucy decides to smuggle her young nephew on board a boat bound for England, in search of a better life.
Arriving alone at Paddington Station, Paddington soon finds that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family, who find him with a label tied around his neck which reads ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ They offer him a temporary home whilst he searches for the explorer who impressed Aunt Lucy all those years before. But when Paddington catches the eye of a sinister, seductive taxidermist, it isn’t long before his home – and very existence – is under threat…
The Queen’s Corgi
When the Queen’s favourite dog, Rex, becomes lost, he must make new friends and embrace new adventures in order to find his way back to the palace.
Rookie of the Year
A freak accident causes 12-year-old Little League player Henry to become such a powerful and accurate pitcher that the Chicago Cubs sign the junior high student to a contract.
Unprepared for such a high-pressure environment, Henry falters until aging fastballer Chet Steadman takes him under his wing and teaches him how to play in the big leagues. Meanwhile, his mother’s nasty boyfriend tries to sell Henry’s contract to a hated opposing team.
School of Rock
Overly enthusiastic guitarist Dewey Finn gets thrown out of his bar band and finds himself in desperate need of work. Posing as a substitute music teacher at an elite private elementary school, he exposes his students to the hard rock gods he idolizes and emulates, much to the consternation of the uptight principal.
As he gets his privileged and precocious charges in touch with their inner rock ‘n’ roll animals, he imagines redemption at a local Battle of the Bands.
The Sound of Music
Another classic family movie, this one is based on the true story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world’s best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II.
Julie Andrews stars as Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
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Up
Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year-old balloon salesman, is about to fulfill a lifelong dream. Tying thousands of balloons to his house, he flies away to the South American wilderness.
But curmudgeonly Carl’s worst nightmare comes true when he discovers a boy scout named Russell is a stowaway aboard the balloon-powered house.
Valiant
The whole world is looking for a hero, and it’s up to a little pigeon named Valiant to step up and bravely serve his country. Valiant and his fine, feathered friends take to the sky on a wing and a prayer to prove that it’s not your wingspan but the size of your spirit that truly counts.
Together this rag-tag squadron of birdbrains engages in hilarious aerial adventures at a spitfire pace. From the first bumbling day of basic training through the final feather-raising mission, the flock of comical characters swoops their way toward victory.
https://youtu.be/dX7WHw1kt0o
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Based on the Roald Dahl classic book “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory”, this is the story of Charlie Bucket who wins one of five golden tickets for a tour to the mysterious nearby chocolate factory.
The Chocolate Factory owner is the quirky Willy Wonka who leads the five young winners Charlie Bucket, Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Mike Teevee and Violet Beauregarde on a thrilling and often dangerous tour of his factory.
Young Sherlock Holmes
A teenage Sherlock Holmes meets and befriends his future sidekick, the bemused and bespectacled John Watson. During their first semester of boarding school, a series of deaths occur on campus. Intrigued by the crime, Holmes looks into it and soon comes to suspect a poisonous hallucinogen.
And then, in the midst of their investigation, Holmes and Watson stumble on a bizarre cult with a penchant for human sacrifice — after which they must struggle to escape.
Zathura
Two young boys, Walter and Danny, are left in the care of their teenage sister, Lisa, as their dad has to go to work. They are told they must stay inside.
Walter and Danny begin playing Zathura, a space-themed board game, which they realize has mystical powers when their house is shot into space. With the help of an astronaut, the boys attempt to return home.
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Which of these fun family films is your favourite? Leave a comment below and let us know – we’d love to hear from you!