10 Animated Family Films For An Uplifting Movie Night

TROLLS BAND TOGETHER is a wonderful, heartfelt, clean, moral movie about brothers and sisters learning to love each other so they can defeat evil singers trying to steal their talent. TROLLS BAND TOGETHER has great music, great character arcs, impressive amount of love and humor, with a moral theme of not letting anyone steal your talent. There is a caution for younger children, because there are some scary scenes as well as the death and resurrection of one character.

In the animated movie PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, Puss in Boots realizes he’s on his last life, so he needs to find the Last Wish star and ask for more lives. Funny and exciting, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH is well made and has a strong Christian, moral worldview that includes Christian references and promotes being less selfish and reckless, thinking of others before yourself, and loving your family, but there are some scary characters and moments.

UP, the new animated feature from Pixar and Disney, is about a 78-year-old widower and a young boy scout who find the adventure of a lifetime on a jungle plateau in Venezuela full of unknown dangers. UP is another heartfelt, family-friendly, utterly delightful animated classic from the wonderful team at Pixar and Disney.

Mike Myers plays the title role in SHREK, a fractured fairy tale about a smelly ogre who finds that it takes a princess with a punch to finally soften his heart. SHREK is a delightful computer animated comedy with only a few minor elements to take the bloom off its family-friendly rose.

RATATOUILLE is a wonderful, savory concoction from the incredible Pixar team in an incredible, but delightful story about a country rat who pursues his dream of culinary greatness among the gourmet restaurants of Paris. Some of the cartoon violence skews toward older children and teenagers, and some moral points are ignored by the dramatic action, but RATATOUILLE has a brilliant light Christian worldview with strong moral elements and very strong sentiments favoring a capitalist meritocracy.

In SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, Miles Morales runs into a society of Spider-Men or Spider-People protecting the multiverse from threats, but when they clash on how to handle a new supervillain, Miles faces a moral dilemma that affects the people he loves the most. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE is a creative, exciting, funny superhero movie with a strong, heartfelt pro-family worldview that also promotes doing the right thing, but there’s lots of animated action violence and some brief foul language, so caution is advised for older children.

The movie, SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, based on the Nintendo video game, turns on a journey-to-a-parallel-universe theme and a visit, a la Greek mythology, to an Underworld peopled by Dinosaurian descendents. Despite superlative special effects and an imaginative set, SUPER MARIO BROTHERS lags in places for want of real jeopardy or when the storyline and action become somewhat confused. Furthermore, the New Age and humanistic undertones are slightly unsettling, though, in the final analysis, this is a very innocuous action movie which does not present much that is unseemly or immoral.

INSIDE OUT is an animated comedy about a young girl who has a wonderful life, until her family moves to San Francisco and her emotions get out of control. INSIDE OUT is a well-made, delightful movie with a great plot line, excellent animation and a strong moral worldview.

Adam Sandler’s latest movie on Netflix, LEO, is a clean, clever, utterly wonderful animated musical comedy for all ages that follows a talking lizard named Leo who helps some students and their mean teacher with numerous life lessons. Leo has spent his entire 74 years of life in a glass-encased terrarium at an elementary school fifth-grade classroom alongside his best friend, Squirtle the Turtle, but now wants to see the world.

THE PEANUTS MOVIE is a wonderful animated movie based on the beloved comic strip created by Charles Schulz, wherein Charlie Brown falls for the new girl in town and tries to make a good first impression, despite his poor reputation. THE PEANUTS MOVIE is a lovable, funny, entertaining animated movie for all ages that teaches positive lessons of compassion, honesty, and selflessness, with only some slapstick and minor perilous scenes that might scary sensitive, very young children.