So bring the kids along it's good clean family fun...

Family Films

Now that our son is three we watch movies with him from time to time. Then again, I would have seen these movies even if he wasn’t around.

5. Finding Nemo (2003) – My son’s favorite movie tends to change every few months. (Right now it’s Robin Hood, the 1973 Disney movie.) Regardless of what his favorite movie of the moment is, Finding Nemo is the one he has liked the most and for the longest. His birthday party this summer had a Finding Nemo theme. I’m glad he wasn’t as concerned as I was with the fact that we ate a cake that looked like Nemo and then beat the hell out of a piñata that looked like Nemo. Anyway, this movie has a great story and it’s really funny too. At least it was really funny the first 100 times I saw it.

4. The Incredibles (2004) – Aden hasn’t seen this one yet. I can’t bring myself to let him watch a movie that begins with a car chase and lots of shooting. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t like it though. This film gets lots of cool points for featuring the voice of Sarah Vowell.

3. Holes (2003) – This is another one that Aden hasn’t seen. He hasn’t developed patience for non-animated entertainment yet. I haven’t read the book that this is based on, but Amy has and she says the movie is very faithful. This movie was incredibly refreshing to me. Most times when you see this age group in movies or TV shows they are really annoying or playing above their actual maturity level. This movie let kids be kids and had an entertaining story to go along with it. (While I’m thinking about this…Scott, did you guys ever see this one?)

2. Monsters, Inc. (2001) – Those PIXAR people are 10 kinds of great. I like this one better than Finding Nemo, but Aden does not. He does like Monsters, Inc. but he’s not as devoted to it as with FN. My guess is because the two main characters are grown-ups in this movie whereas he can really identify with Nemo because Nemo’s a kid that has a dad and goes to school just like him.

1. The Harry Potter Movies – Again, Aden hasn’t seen these but watching them reminds me of the movies I really liked when I was a kid. I appreciate and admire the ability of people to create complete new worlds that are fascinating and completely engulf you while reading about them or watching them. I haven’t seen the one that is in theatres right now. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to while I’m off work for Christmas.