Fatherly's The 100 Greatest Kids Movies Of All Time, According to Movie Critic Dads

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From golden oldies to 21st-century instant classics, here’s our deeply curated, and surely controversial, ultimate ranking of 100 movies kids must see before they hit their 10th birthday.

by Ryan Britt, Tyghe Trimble, James Grebey, Ian Spelling, Richard Newby, Nathan Rabin and Caseen Gaines
Aug. 24, 2022

Finding great movies for kids isn’t easy. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of kids films — just the opposite. Right now, parents are swimming in it. In fact, the quantity is part of the problem. But finding, or remembering, the true quality is what makes finding great kids movies all the more difficult. The haystack is growing, and the needles are better hidden in it.

So when a parent picks up a remote, what do they do? You can rely on your own memory, but too often so-called masterpieces and “classics” suddenly seem dated and offensive today. Which is another way of saying no, Peter Pan and Dumbo are not on this list.

This isn’t to say parents should only chase new kids movies though. Otherwise, you’ll end up with things that are both mindless and boring, like Cars 2 or Hoodwinked. And to make matters worse, some of these movies star talented people and purport to be “clever.”

But it’s not just what kids want that matters. Parents wanting to watch these movies with their children matters, too. Coming up with the 100 best kids movies of all time isn’t about picking some movies you can throw on so the kids are distracted. These movies are about things to watch as a family, because, shared screen time, isn’t really a problem.

Fatherly’s goal here is to offer up movies that every kid should — nay, must! — see by the time they’re 10 years old. These are kids movies for kids at a time in their development when the world is full of wonder and magic — real magic — and jaded Hollywood critiques of films haven’t crept in yet. To do this, we got together six dads plus one film expert — all of whom are film critics — and compiled a list. There were rules: Each film had to be well-received enough to have mostly favorable reviews on respected publications like Common Sense Media or Rotten Tomatoes. These had to be films that families could find — and stream — easily. And finally, the movies had to exhibit a timeless quality, whether they were made in 1955 or 2022. In some instances, we expanded our scope beyond movies that are strictly for kids — like Star Wars — but no matter what, we strived to make sure that the films made sense for families. These are movies that families do watch and should watch together. This list isn’t about making your kids happy. It’s about watching movies together that inspire something bigger.

To rank the films, editors, and writers at Fatherly voted on a long list of films to determine the top slots. We didn’t always agree, and so, this entire ranking represents a composite of our views on the best kids movies of all time. Every movie on this list is a must-see. Even if a movie ranks low on this list, we still think this is a great movie because we put it on this list. This is a ranking of great kids movies, not a ranking of bad kids movies at the bottom and good ones at the top.

If you see it on the list, it’s a great movie. So, bust out the microwave popcorn, and dim the lights, here are Fatherly’s best 100 kids movies of all time.