Babble

These days, kids films are rarely, like Trix, just for kids. They're pitched to adults (who buy DVDs and movie tickets) and saddled with all kinds of dreary mature baggage: fraught moralistic storylines, smugly perfect parents, and irritating adult in-jokes. For me, the trend jumped the shark in Chicken Little, a film for three-year-olds that rattled off dumb gay jokes at the expense of a disco-loving pig who sang "I Will Survive" and bragged about his Barbra Streisand record collection. It wasn't just the homophobia: What kind of a four- year-old is going to get a Babs joke? (And not think it's lame?) So it's a relief that the very funny animated film Over the Hedge gets the balance right. The fast-paced plot — forest animals croweded out by a new cul-de-sac try to break into suburbia and steal processed food — doesn't overplay its green set-up into some onerous message. It just sets up rapid-fire sketches and keeps knocking them down: a turtle (Garry Shandling) who keeps getting whacked out of his shell, a hyperactive squirrell (Steve Carell) who loves caffeine and burps his ABC's, and a stinky skunk (Wanda Sykes) who falls in love with a housepet. Adults might bore quickly, but so what? Go watch Lost and let them kids have their fun. — Logan Hill

Aside from being some of the greatest movies of all time, Charlie Chaplin films (City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Shoulder Arms) have a child-like sensibility tailor-made for sensitive kids. Start with these three, and see how quickly any wariness your modern children have about silent films falls by the wayside.

The Circus: For very young children, this back-stage romp through a travelling circus is Chaplin's silliest and most accessible film. Elephants prance, bears dance, and the Tramp wobbles across a high-wire while a monkey dances on Chaplin's back and curls his tail around the star's itchy nose.

The Pawnshop (available on several DVD's, including Kino's The Chaplin Mutuals, Vol. 3): Chaplin plays a klutzy, conniving employee who wreaks havoc and wrecks the joint in ways that generations of slap-stick comedians have imitated. This is like a thirty-two-minute highlight reel of Chaplin's most athletic vaudevillian prop comedy, put to its most preposterous use.

The Kid: The story of a tramp who finds an abandoned baby in an alleyway, this is a "picture with a smile, and perhaps a tear," as the opening titles announce, and it's Chaplin's masterpiece heartbreaker. The Tramp and his young son live in the slums, pull cons on the street (the kid throws rocks through windows; Chaplin sells replacement glass), and run from the mustachioed policeman. There's a wild, experimental dream sequence that was radical for its time, but it's all about the connection between Chaplin and the child — and heartbreaking in its echoes of Chaplin's own vagabond childhood. — Logan Hill

LISA: [turning it on] Okay, this time it's for work, kids. Nobody enjoy this. Just describe it, and make me money.
SADIE: Let me go first! That's John and that's John. They're little men puppets. They're saying, "Hi, my name's John."
WOLF: Some parts are computer animated. Other parts are real people with "Q" and "U" on their heads.
LISA: Why do you like this better than your other movies?
SADIE: Because "C" only likes candy! Uh oh! That's trouble!
LISA: Why do you suppose moms love this, too?
SADIE: Because there's missing letters!
LISA: Moms love missing letters?...read more

LISA: [turning it on] Okay, this time it's for work, kids. Nobody enjoy this. Just describe it, and make me money.
SADIE: Let me go first! That's John and that's John. They're little men puppets. They're saying, "Hi, my name's John."
WOLF: Some parts are computer animated. Other parts are real people with "Q" and "U" on their heads.
LISA: Why do you like this better than your other movies?
SADIE: Because "C" only likes candy! Uh oh! That's trouble!
LISA: Why do you suppose moms love this, too?
SADIE: Because there's missing letters!
LISA: Moms love missing letters?
SADIE: Yeah. There has to be movies that moms like too so kids can watch it whenever they want and not drive their moms crazy and they say very gently, "I just can't take it anymore." Like when Wolfgang watches Flash Gordon.
LISA: Are you feeling this DVD is recreational or educational?
SADIE: Recreational.
WOLF: Educational.
LISA: Are you guys just arguing?
SADIE: No!
WOLF: It's both.
LISA: You're not just saying that for our advertisers, are you, driving our consumer culture?
WOLF: No, it really is educational. I know my letters, of course, but I didn't know about Zimbabwe before.
SADIE: [has to argue] It's not only about countries! It's about the ocean, too.
LISA: Did you guys know there's a song by They Might Be Giants from my youth called "Take The Skinheads Bowling"? Wait, no — that was The Dead Milkmen. Or was it Camper Van Beethoven? — Lisa Carver click to close

At the outset of this collection of choice episodes from Sesame Street's first five years, a cheeky animated character informs you that these episodes are not intended for children, but for nostalgic adults. It's a by-the-books disclaimer from the good people at the Sesame Workshop, who have done enough research to know that these prototype series — filmed with nothing but good intentions and puppets — do not live up to the exacting scientific formulas that govern more recent episodes.
   That's exactly why you should watch this with your kids: becaues these early episodes are raw and relatively guileless (rather more like a child). And even if some of the elements don't work (the nature footage is overlong, underproduced, and cored with sleepy folk revival lullabies), your kids will be full of questions. Children are almost always fascinated with adults' childhood, and this set offers a fun, sweethearted opportunity to talk to your kids about your own memories of the show. Many elements are the same (the theme song and most of the cast) but you'll get to introduce Mr. Hooper and Bob, talk about your old Oscar the Grouch pajamas (okay, maybe that's just me) and share your child's amazement that Oscar was, for the whole first season, orange. — Logan Hill

Now that spelling bees have become the leisure activity of hipsters and celebrity writers, is it fair to think that crack spellers of the future won't be so — how shall we say — antagonized for their knowledge of sesquipedalians? Not likely. But for some children — and adults — this highlight reel of the past seven national spelling bees is a nailbiter on par with the World Series. It has all the controversies, cliffhangers and underdog victories you expect in a good sporting event, except instead of a home run, we're waiting for the correct spelling of "ursprache." Chances are you'll find yourself both stumped and inspired. — Sarah Hepola

Most network cartoons are essentially advertisements, so it's easy for kids to get hooked on lame, repetitive anime like Pokemon. This payola practice isn't exactly shocking (Toons are ads? What?!), but it's still depressing, if only because it makes it easy for kids to miss truly great animators like Hayao Miyazaki.
    Open-hearted and wonderfully strange, Japanese animation great Miyazaki has an uncanny talent for conjuring far-flung dreams and grounding them in convincing child characters. His most recent work (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) has skewed toward older children and developed darker themes, so parents should introduce younger kids to these three classics, all dubbed in English:...read more

Most network cartoons are essentially advertisements, so it's easy for kids to get hooked on lame, repetitive anime like Pokemon. This payola practice isn't exactly shocking (Toons are ads? What?!), but it's still depressing, if only because it makes it easy for kids to miss truly great animators like Hayao Miyazaki.
    Open-hearted and wonderfully strange, Japanese animation great Miyazaki has an uncanny talent for conjuring far-flung dreams and grounding them in convincing child characters. His most recent work (Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) has skewed toward older children and developed darker themes, so parents should introduce younger kids to these three classics, all dubbed in English:

My Neighbor Totoro
The ultimate Miyazaki: Two young girls with move to a new town on the edge of a forest with their father. Worried about their ill mother, they distract themselves with adventures and begin discovering sprites in the woods. The title character is giant and cuddly — a fearsome, snoring softie, who commutes on a wild tabby cat-bus with an engine that really purrs. Of course, it's the littlest girl, with her spastic, bug-eyed confidence, who saves the day.

Kiki's Delivery Service
Before Harry Potter, this troublemaker was the best broom-rider in the sky — so talented, she started her own Wiccan messenger service. On her thirteenth birthday, Kiki (voiced by Kirsten Dunst) sets out to discover the world with her wisecracking cat (Phil Hartman). It's a sweet ode to independence.

Castle in the Sky
Pirates! Spies! Castles! Magic! Miyazaki mashes up traditional fantasies into a fast-paced, steampunk fantasy about two kids who attempt to save a floating, magical city (Laputa, à la Jonathan Swift) from the rapacious interests of swarthy air-pirates and wrinkled old bureaucrats. — Logan Hill click to close