The Best Movies for Families

I often rely on CommonSenseMedia for information about movies that I might want to show my girls. But as I was reminded when my family recently watched The Thief of Baghdad, Common Sense doesn't review everything, and old movies are almost never on their site. The Thief of Baghdad also reminded me that old movies are great for kids.
This sounds like a job for The Best Old Movies For Families. A film critic who refused to choke down Care Bears movies just because he had a couple of kids, Ty Burr put together a wonderful collection of Golden Age films to watch with your kids. He includes all the film buff stuff (director, stars) and basic plot summary, as well as sales pitch for why you should watch it. He also gives age estimates, and recommendations for what to watch next if the movie's a hit. He steers you around common pitfalls (not all Shirley Temple movies are kid-friendly) and spices it up with some cute stories about how his own kids reacted. Example: his oldest daughter had a Katharine Hepburn birthday party, complete with black and white screening of Bringing Up Baby.


We tried Wonder Red out on Bringing Up Baby, and she walked around for a week saying, "My favorite actress is ... what's that woman's name again, Mom, the one with the jaguar?" The second movie from the book that we tried was Errol Flynn's Robin Hood. This one she inexplicably found too scary (in the opening feast scenes, no less) which we found so disheartening that we shelved the book and gave on media for another year.
But after our success with Thief of Baghdad, I'm ready to pull the book out and try it again.