By Sophia Richards
We have a standing Friday tradition at our house: somebody gets to pick the movie, somebody else is in charge of the popcorn, and we all pile onto the couch together for the next couple of hours. I cannot tell you how many times a great kids movie has turned what would have been a chaotic end to the week into something genuinely sweet. A good film makes kids laugh, ask questions, feel things, and sometimes — the very best ones — start conversations you didn’t know you needed to have. This roundup of the best kids movies is the one I wish someone had handed me years ago — timeless classics and newer favorites, sorted by age.
What makes a movie truly good for kids? My short answer: it has to be watchable for the grown-ups too. The best kids movies have layers — a surface story that hooks a six-year-old and enough underneath to keep a parent genuinely engaged. They don’t talk down to children, and they don’t try to be edgy for the sake of it. They’re just honest, well-made stories about things that matter: friendship, courage, family, loss, and finding your place in a big world.
This list of best kids movies skips the calendar entirely. There’s no "of 2009" or "this year’s." These are movies I’d hand to any family, at any point, organized by the age group they tend to land best with — though you’ll find plenty of overlap. Before you queue anything up, Common Sense Media’s movie reviews are my go-to for checking age appropriateness; they flag content details that trailers gloss over.
Best kids movies for preschoolers (ages 2–5)
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Little ones need movies that move at their pace: bright colors, simple stakes, and characters they can root for without having to track a complicated plot. The best preschool picks stay gentle in tone — nothing too scary, nothing too rushed — while still giving kids something real to feel. You’ll notice these titles hold up through what I call the "hundredth rewatch" test, because that is exactly what your preschooler will put them through.
Toy Story (1995). Woody and Buzz’s rivalry-turned-friendship is one of the warmest story arcs in family film, and small children connect instantly to the idea that their toys might have feelings.
Finding Nemo (2003). A dad who would swim across the entire ocean for his kid resonates with parents as much as it does with children, and the ocean world is genuinely beautiful.
Moana (2016). Moana’s courage to sail beyond the reef without waiting for anyone’s permission is the kind of quiet role modeling that sticks with little girls (and boys) long after the credits roll.
The Lion King (1994). Even at preschool age, kids absorb the message that running away from hard things doesn’t work — and the songs give them something joyful to carry home from that lesson.
Encanto (2021). This one hits especially hard for kids who feel overlooked, and its message that you don’t have to be extraordinary to be worthy is one every child should hear early.
The Little Mermaid (1989). A classic Disney musical with a heroine who is all curiosity and longing — and a villain flamboyant enough to be scary without being genuinely disturbing for most preschoolers.
Best kids movies for school-age children (ages 6–10)
School-age kids are ready for a little more complexity: a villain with actual menace, a friendship under real strain, a protagonist who makes a genuine mistake. The best kids movies for this age group respect that growing capacity without pushing into territory that keeps them up at night. These films tend to be the ones families quote at the dinner table for years — the ones that become part of a family’s private shorthand.
Coco (2017). A Mexican family’s multi-generational love story, wrapped in one of the most visually inventive animated worlds ever put on screen. It handles death with such warmth that kids come away from it less afraid, not more.
Matilda (1996). Smart, funny, and deeply satisfying for any kid who has ever felt misunderstood by the adults around them. Miss Trunchbull is a villain for the ages.
Paddington (2014). Genuinely kind without being saccharine, this film about a small Peruvian bear navigating a big city is also quietly one of the most humane movies on this list.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). The friendship between Elliott and E.T. still works exactly as well as it ever did, and the emotional gut-punch at the end is the kind of cathartic cry kids (and parents) secretly need.
Home Alone (1990). Pure comedy that lets kids feel satisfyingly competent — Kevin McCallister outwits grown-ups, and every child in the audience is completely on his side.
The BFG (2016). A gentle giant and a brave little girl make an unlikely team in Roald Dahl’s story, which keeps the whimsy intact without losing the underlying tenderness.
Holes (2003). One of the rare live-action kids movies that takes its characters seriously enough to give them real backstory and real stakes. Kids who like reading often discover this film and then immediately find the book.
Inside Out (2015). Perhaps the single most useful film for teaching emotional vocabulary to school-age children — it makes the inside of a kid’s head visible in a way no conversation quite manages.
Best kids movies for tweens (ages 10–13)
Tweens are tricky to please because they’re simultaneously outgrowing "little kid" movies and not yet ready for most content rated for adults. The best kids movies for this age sit in that productive tension: stories about identity, belonging, and facing things alone, delivered with enough craft that tweens don’t feel they’re being handled. These are also the films most likely to prompt actual post-movie conversation — the kind that happens in the car on the way home when no one is making eye contact, which somehow makes it easier.
Spirited Away (2001). Studio Ghibli’s most celebrated film is strange and dream-like in the best way — a girl has to find her own power to save her parents, and the world she moves through is unlike anything else in animation. Many tweens call it their favorite movie, full stop.
Coraline (2009). A stop-motion masterpiece that earns genuine suspense without gore. The central idea — that a world designed to be exactly what you want is the most dangerous kind — lands differently as kids get older.
The Princess Bride (1987). Endlessly quotable and genuinely romantic in a way that doesn’t embarrass a tween, this film threads adventure, comedy, and real emotion into something that holds up on every rewatch.
School of Rock (2003). Jack Black’s charisma carries the whole film, but there’s a real message underneath: the thing you’re passionate about deserves to be taken seriously, even when adults don’t see it.
The Goonies (1985). A group of kids saving their neighborhood with zero adult help — and having a genuinely exciting adventure along the way. Tweens respond to being trusted to handle this one.
Knives Out (2019). PG-13 but mostly clean, this mystery is wickedly smart and keeps tweens engaged at every twist. A great choice if your eleven-year-old has declared animated movies officially beneath them.
Jumanji (1995). The stakes are real enough to feel dangerous, the humor lands across age groups, and Robin Williams is incomparable. A gateway film for kids who want the dial turned up a little more.
Best kids movies for the whole family
The holy grail of family movie night is a film that genuinely works for everyone in the room at the same time: kids aren’t bored, parents aren’t tuning out, and nobody feels like they compromised. These best kids movies earn that by doing something harder than aiming at one age — they tell stories that are simply true, in ways that resonate differently depending on how much life you’ve lived. Cue one of these on a rainy Saturday afternoon and you’ll probably still be talking about it at dinner. For more ideas for at-home entertainment, our rainy day activities for kids guide has you covered when the weather turns.
The Incredibles (2004). The superhero family dynamics work as pure fun for kids and as surprisingly sharp satire for adults — the "everyone is special, which means no one is" speech lands differently depending on your age.
Up (2009). The wordless opening sequence is one of the most emotionally rich ten minutes in cinema, and it sets up a film that earns its joy through real grief. Parents often cry; kids often don’t understand why, yet.
Shrek (2001). A fairy-tale structure that kids love, loaded with enough adult humor and genuine heart to make parents laugh too. The message that worth isn’t about appearance still matters.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Understated British humor and extraordinary craftsmanship — this stop-motion feature rewards patient viewers of every age, and the gags work on different levels simultaneously.
Babe (1995). A pig who wants to be a sheepdog is not a premise that sounds like it produces genuine emotional weight, and yet it does. One of the kindest films in this whole list.
The Iron Giant (1999). A giant robot and a lonely small-town boy in Cold War America — underappreciated on release, now considered a near-perfect film. The final act hits adults very hard.
Paddington 2 (2017). Often described as the best-reviewed film of its year, and it genuinely earns that. Paddington’s consistent goodness in the face of people who are unkind to him models something worth watching together and discussing.
Moana (2016). Listed again here because it’s one of the very few films that honestly works the same way at three and thirty-three. The soundtrack helps.
Onward (2020). Brothers, grief, and magic in a suburban fantasy world — not Pixar’s most celebrated film but possibly one of its most emotionally specific. Families who have lost someone will feel it.
Spirited Away (2001). On both lists for good reason — the whole family experiences it differently, and that difference is worth talking about afterward.
The role of movies in your family’s life
Good films — and the best kids movies especially — don’t just entertain. They give families a shared reference point, a language for talking about things that are otherwise hard to bring up. A kid who watched Coco will be a little less afraid to ask what happens when someone dies. A kid who watched Inside Out has words for the feeling when something is sad and funny at the same time. That’s worth more than a quiet evening, though a quiet evening is also genuinely nice. If you’re building a routine around family time, our guide to the importance of play connects to why intentional shared experiences — including films — matter for child development.
For preschoolers especially, movies pair well with the books that inspired them. Our reading routine reboot guide has practical ideas for turning film favorites into reading discoveries. And if you’re looking to pair movie night with longer stretches of family time outdoors, summer activities for kids rounds out the season.
One practical note on watching best kids movies with young children: runtime matters more than you might expect. Preschoolers genuinely struggle past 80–90 minutes. School-age kids can usually manage a full two hours if the pacing is right. Tweens can handle full-length films without issue, but their engagement still depends heavily on whether the story respects their intelligence. When in doubt, watching thirty minutes of something together and then deciding is always a legitimate option.
FAQ
What age are kids movies appropriate for?
It depends on the film and the child. G-rated films are generally appropriate for all ages, though even gentle films can surprise sensitive two-year-olds. PG films are usually fine for most children over six but are worth previewing for very young or sensitive kids. Common Sense Media's age ratings tend to be more detailed and useful than MPAA ratings alone — they flag specific content parents might want to know about.
Are there best kids movies that adults genuinely enjoy too?
Yes — many of the best ones, actually. Pixar films especially are built with two layers: a surface story for children and emotional subtext that resonates more with adults. Films like Up, The Incredibles, Inside Out, and Coco are regularly cited by adults as among their favorites regardless of their "kids movie" label. The Ghibli films have a devoted adult following for the same reason.
How do I know if a movie is right for my child specifically?
Trust your read on your own kid over any age rating. Some eight-year-olds sail through intense content; some ten-year-olds still find it too much. Watching together and being available to pause and talk through a hard scene is almost always better than pre-screening alone. Common Sense Media's movie reviews give you the specific details — not just an age number but what exactly a child might find scary, sad, or confusing.
How long should a movie night be for young kids?
Most early-childhood educators suggest keeping the sitting window realistic for the age: 60–75 minutes for toddlers and preschoolers, 90–120 minutes for school-age children, and longer for tweens who are engaged. Breaking a longer film across two evenings with young children is completely fine and sometimes builds its own kind of anticipation.
Do kids movies have to be animated to count as kids movies?
Absolutely not. Some of the best kids movies — Holes, Paddington, E.T., Babe, Home Alone, The Princess Bride — are live action. Animation gets associated with kids movies partly because it dominated the family category for so long, but the real common thread in the best kids movies is honest storytelling, not the format.
Watch the Video
Before you go, here’s a short video to go with this article — sometimes it helps to see it, not just read it.
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