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I am a mom to twin boys, full-time employee of a telecommunications company and wife to a professional musician. I work, do yoga, cook and try to squeeze in DIY projects and spending time with friends.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Classic Movies for every modern child

Mr. Unwired and I have been hosting movie night for our kids for over a year now.  For background, our kids are media deprived-- they don't have their own electronics beside e-readers, and they rarely are allowed to borrow ours.  No TV or Wii on school days, and little computer time unless for school.

Sad, isn't it?

So deprived.

Instead, they read, do puzzles, shoot each other (and us) with nerf guns, play card games, and fight, just like my brother and I did.  We lived.  And so will they.

But there came a point when we realized that their cultural education was lacking.  The media (mostly movies) they saw at camp or at their friends was G-rated dreck.  When the kids watched TV at home, they mostly saw science programming.  The kids weren't seeing any of the good stuff we watched as kids.

There are a ton of classics that are tame by modern standards, and a lot of fun to watch.  This way, we like movie night too!

Listed below are the movies through which we selected to warp our childrens brains educate our children, sharing the good stuff we watched as kids, and then some.  Most of these we streamed from Amazon or Netflix, and many are available free from the local library.

For a decent content review, check IMDB's parental reviews.  Many movies have a catalog of each bad word, sexual innuendo and aggressive moment.  If one isn't there, I can tell you that the movies we've watched might have some bad words (my kids know not to repeat them), mild violence (no spurting blood or gunfights) and a few sexual situations that are over the boys heads.

Classic Movies for every modern child:
Dr. Doolittle
Three Amigos
Young Frankenstein (pacing is slow, but funny)
Spaceballs (more bad words than I recalled, but really funny)
Superman
Batman (the original 1966 version.  Very campy!)
Harvey
Big (loved this one!)
Sandlot
Rookie of the Year
James and the Giant Peach
Bugs Life
Monsters Inc
Muppet Movie (I sang the entire movie, much to my kids chagrin)
Muppets Take Manhattan
Despicable Me
Hugo (beautiful!)
Back to the Future (kids loved this one!)
Ghostbusters (couldn't find streaming- we bought the DVD for $3 and have watched it many times)
Addams Family (a little too dark)
Puss In Boots
Ratatouille
Up
Wizard of Oz
Toy Story (and sequels)
Iron Giant
Finding Nemo
Shrek
Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers- humor was not inappropriate, but mature.  Kids still enjoyed it)
Night at the Museum 1 and 2 (excellent)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Incredibles
Home Alone
Antz
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Tarzan
Megamind
Mrs. Doubtfire
A Bugs Life
Robots (one of the best we've seen!)

On our list to see:
Lion King
Spellbound
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
How to Train Your Dragon
Chicken Run
Babe
Hook
Aladdin


Add your own to the comments below!  We're always looking for more great movies to share.
Post updated 1/25/14

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