My Favourite Kids' Movies

I never "grew out" of childrens' stories, and I never will, although I now demand an additional sophistication to fantasies that makes it difficult for me to find books I truly enjoy.

The Last Unicorn
This is just such an incredible movie. I love it so much. It's funny how some authors' work just transfers so well to motion pictures (see last entry in list). It's brilliant, it's tongue-in-cheek, it's engaging, and the music is awesome (although vocal talents are occasionally lacking). Each character is a work of art, both by animation (amazing what lousy technology can do) and by construction of personality. Yes, I like unicorns.

The Swan Princess
You'd think an animated version of Swan Lake would become tedious after a few watches. You'd think the characters would be clichéd and the movie would be forced to rely on cheap laughs. You'd think, in short, it would turn out like most Disney adaptations of fairy tales. To cut to the chase and end the suspense, it isn't. It isn't even Disney. Every single character is shockingly well constructed and terribly likeable (none of this absolute evil and absolute good). The movie is pretty, with some nice animated dusk. And it's funny, to cap it all off. Not rolling-off-chair hilarious, but tastefully amusing. With this movie and the preceding one, it's no wonder I was such a dramatic, oversensitive, and confused child.

The Aristocats
There are some movies that, like the previous one, I watched enough to be able to recite certain dialogues. Then there are the movies that I watched until the cassette tape deteriorated and the film stopped two thirds of the way through. Did you know that there's a point in the film where Duchess' collar changes colour? Well, I did.

The original Winnie-the-Pooh series
Winnie and sequel are two of my favourite books ever, and Disney didn't mess them up so badly the first time around.

The Great Muppet Caper
Any film featuring the Muppets is worthy of mention, but I personally feel that this is the best of the bunch. The brilliance of the Muppets, like that of Winnie-the-Pooh, lies in their appeal to all ages and all manner of people. I laugh just as hard today at Gonzo's bizarre antics (an impulsive nature that may parallel my own) and Fozzie's lovable incompetence as I did when I was six, if perhaps at different points in the movie. This happens to be the only film on my list that is not animated. It also happens to NOT be the only film to feature John Cleese. (Guess the other?) And I'm jealous of the buses. Very jealous.

Monsters, Inc.
Arthi will attest to this.

Howl's Moving Castle
Obviously, I didn't watch this movie as a small child. It wasn't in existence. I don't feel I missed some sort of deep reaction, though, because I thought it was pretty incredibly good when I first encountered it at the age of...oh, fourteen? I'm not sure it's exactly a kids' movie, although I've always seen it classified as such.

And I swore to defend you.