Gentle, non-scary movie for preschooler?

January 29, 2016 8:45 PM

My preschool-age son is scared by anything even mildly action-y or scary, but otherwise loves our newly-instituted monthly movie afternoon. I'm looking for movie suggestions for it (with a few other snowflake issues inside).

We're trying to institute a once-a-month "movie Sunday" to do with my 3-year-old. So far we've had two of them, during which we watched Toy Story and Frozen. For the most part he really enjoys this tradition, and Frozen especially went over pretty well (ever since watching it we must daily pretend to be Elsa, join him in his ice palace, and so forth). He also didn't have much difficulty following at least the basic gist of either story.

However, he was also quite scared at parts that we didn't even think of in advance would be scary: the dog at the bully's house in Toy Story, and the big snowman Elsa creates in Frozen. (In hindsight I can see how they would be scary but they are such minor parts of the movies we just didn't think of them).

Anyway... movie Sunday is coming up, and we are looking for good suggestions of other movies we could use. Criteria:

- Something with a really gentle, easy-going story, with as few scary action-y bits as possible (he does okay with somewhat dark themes, it's the action parts that seem to cause problems - though a movie without either would be great).

- He is currently a huge fan of princesses, families, dancing, and rainbows, so I think something that appeals to a stereotypical four-year-old girl would probably hit the spot. Really not so much on dinosaurs or trucks. Trains are okay. Space and planets would also be awesome, or something with numbers or patterns (not that movies have that really but I'll just throw it out because he's sort of obsessed).

- Anything with singing or music would probably go over well.

- He also loves small animals like bunnies or birds, so a gentle story involving them would be good. I thought Bambi would be good except, you know, the whole "mommy dies in a scary scene" part.

- Can be decently complex but he is still very little so nothing too fancy.

I just don't remember details of a lot of movies that come to mind (e.g., Finding Nemo , Snow White or Up) but hopefully those of you who interact with small children will have them freshly there and will be able to advise if there are ANY scenes in these, or movies like them, that are scary. Thanks.

posted by forza to Media & Arts (59 answers total)

Clearly he will find his happy place with Mary Poppins!
posted by saradarlin at 8:49 PM on January 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

Specifically addressing Finding Nemo, since you mentioned it: the scene with the sharks so terrified my similarly-sensitive four-year-old that we had to shut it off.
posted by fawaffle at 8:54 PM on January 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

Winnie the Pooh is a pretty safe choice so is Cars. Happy Feet has one somewhat scary scene with a seal trying to eat the Penguins but everything works out fine.

Nemo has two scary parts. One right at the beginning when the barracuda eats the mom and all the eggs but Nemo and then once more when they are in the dark ocean and the fish with the glowing lure (angler fish?) tries to eat them.
posted by saradarlin at 8:54 PM on January 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

We have a 2.5-year-old who currently gets upset at The Very Hungry Caterpillar because the caterpillar's tummy hurts and that's just too much. Big hits in our household currently:

Cars
Fantasia -- the original, not Fantasia 2000 -- however, there are some scenes of dinosaurs fighting that may be scary, and some kids get scared during the Night on Bald Mountain scene, but ours doesn't.
Wall-E

Not movie-length, but binge-watchable:
Sarah and Duck (lovely British show)
posted by erst at 8:55 PM on January 29, 2016

If you have Amazon Prime, check out "Maya the Bee."
posted by nkknkk at 8:55 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

My son was pretty sensitive about some movies. He doesn't like Finding Nemo because of scary sharks, A bugs life had very frightening grasshoppers, he'd leave the room during Curious George because he was going to get in trouble, etc.

We had this set of storybooks on DVD

They aren't full length movies - narrated animated classic stories- grouped loosely by a theme.

I suggest these instead of movies only because there were not too many movies for a sensitive 3 year old.

A few of the stories..Alligators All Around
The Amazing Bone
Angus and the Ducks
Angus Lost
Apt. 3
Arnie the Doughnut
The Beast of Monsieur Racine
Blueberries for Sal
Cat & Canary
The Caterpillar and the Polliwog
Chicka Chicka 1,2,3
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chicken Little
Chicken Soup with Rice
Chrysanthemum
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
The Cow Who Fell in the Canal
Curious George Rides a Bike
Danny and the Dinosaur
posted by ReluctantViking at 8:58 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think he might enjoy the Tinkerbell movies (except the most recent one which is very sad and too scary for little ones). They're visually appealing, involve magic and cute animals, and it would be an opportunity for him to decide what sort of fairy or sparrow man talent he would like to have and pretend to be one of them doing their daily work for the residents of the Nevertree.
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:59 PM on January 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

Oh, and check out CommonSenseMedia.com. I used to work with a lot of their reporters and they do a wonderful job of reviewing movies and tv shows to provide warnings of exactly the kind you're looking for so you can make informed choices when planning a movie night.
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:01 PM on January 29, 2016 [9 favorites]

I just watched the movie "Home" with my 3 and 5 year old. It does have some suspenseful parts but they were pretty quickly resolved. Both kids loved it.
posted by rozee at 9:16 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a 3.5 year old and we're still trying to avoid the films with the scary parts. Some of the films he's enjoyed in the last year:

- Turbo
- Fantasia (original, skipping out the dinosaur parts)
- Winnie the Pooh (including the modern ones!)
- Curious George
- Elmo in Grouchland
- The Emperor's New Groove
- The Gruffalo/The Gruffalo's Child
- Room on a Broom
- Lilo and Stitch
- Ernest & Celestine
- Microcosmo (close ups of bugs!)
- Disneynature: The Wings Of Life (close ups of bugs! And butterflies! And flowers!)

All of these are on Netflix or Amazon Prime!
posted by saturnine at 9:23 PM on January 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Winnie the Pooh is a great one for this age group. We've watched the new one (from 2010 or so) a lot around here.

My Neighbor Totoro was OK except that there was a part where there was a strong wind that worried her (!) and she later admitted that she "didn't like the cat bus." It didn't bother her that the girls' mom was in the hospital which I thought would be the deal breaker for her.
posted by town of cats at 9:36 PM on January 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

Ponyo seems good for little kids - it's the Miyazaki take on the Little Mermaid but it's about little kids instead of romance. There's sort of a tsunami and the mom needs to go check on the old folks' home, but it's very gentle and magical. The waves do try to chase after the kids at one point.

Does your kid watch other shows?
posted by stowaway at 9:39 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cars has a scary tractor. Up has a lot of dramatic tension.

Winnie the Pooh is gentle and lovely.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:54 PM on January 29, 2016

Along the same lines as Mary Poppins, perhaps Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 10:22 PM on January 29, 2016

I recall being mildly unnerved by Mary Poppins when I was closer to 6 or 7. A lot of it is just sort of unsettling. I especially found the old man at Fidelity Fiduciary Bank terrifying, but to a lesser extent I was also somewhat afraid of Ed Wynne floating up to the ceiling when he laughed, and the lady feeding the birds. I watched much scarier movies constantly (at that age I had literally memorized the whole screenplay of The Wizard of Oz) but something about Mary Poppins just seemed uncanny to me. Maybe it was just that everyone in it spoke with an accent. In any case, I'm not showing it to my kids until they're a fair bit older then three.
posted by town of cats at 10:30 PM on January 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ugh, so many movies are scary for little kids. I was so sensitive as a kid! Most Disney movies freaked me out. Dumbo, definitely a no-go. Little Mermaid even bothered me, in the scene when Flounder almost gets fried in the kitchen.

I haven't seen Toy Story 2, but do NOT watch Toy Story 3 with him. There is a scene that brought *me* to white knuckles and tears, and I was almost 30 when I saw it.

I had a Winnie the Pooh movie on tape as a kid (80's). I'm not sure which one it was, but I'm pretty sure it was an adaptation of a book or books. I'm thinking it was this one.

That Scholastic storybook collection that ReluctantViking mentioned sounds great. I would love to watch an animated Click Clack Moo or Danny and the Dinosaur!
posted by radioamy at 10:32 PM on January 29, 2016

How about Timmy Time or Shaun the Sheep? They are very gentle. And funny.
posted by MythMaker at 10:53 PM on January 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

I think that the "Give me my money!" scene in Mary Poppins probably disqualifies that movie.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:10 PM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

No, Chitty Bang Bang has the horrifying scenes with the child catcher!

I loved parts of Fantasia: I fast forwarded through the evolution one because it was too scary, and stopped it before Night on Bald Mountain. When I was very young, the Sorceror's Apprentice scared me, too. However. Ballet hippos? Pegasus and centaurs? Nutcracker music? Hell yes!

Snow White scared me - the witch, being chased through the woods...

I really loved Disney Sing-Along videos and watched those VHSes to death, and also the Winnie the Pooh tapes (except for the one where Rabbit is lost in the woods).
posted by ChuraChura at 11:16 PM on January 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's been a while since I watched it but I knew a three year old who loved The Aristocats.

I babysat a kid who would enjoy The Land Before Time so long as I fast forwarded the scary bits with the mean dinosaur. Since your kiddo isn't into dinosaurs that's probably not worth the effort but skipping the scary bits of some of the suggestions above could extend your repertoire. I think it's good to show that you don't have to watch anything upsetting and everyone gets to decide what upsets them, there are no rules about watching every single second. I still skip through bits of shows and movies that are to gory or scary for me and sometimes that includes PG rated stuff ;-)
posted by kitten magic at 11:35 PM on January 29, 2016

How about episodes of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"? He doesn't know or care that it's not a movie.

(Much as I love Ponyo it has scenes of dangerous driving that stressed me out as a grown adult.)
posted by ottereroticist at 11:57 PM on January 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

Was going to suggest Winnie the Pooh as well. The original version is so gentle. My kids also really enjoy the DisneyNature documentaries, and we've been watching those since my oldest was a toddler.
posted by Happydaz at 12:28 AM on January 30, 2016

This site does ridiculously detailed reviews of movies including mentions of violence as small as "a man pushes another man". While I think they're pretty useless if you haven't seen the movies in question, it would be a good way to jog your memory of any possibly-scary moments in a movie you have seen but weren't analysing this way at the time.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 12:32 AM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

My Neigbour Totoro makes me cry (when they are searching for Mei).

My daughter is very easily stressed, and she was mostly okay with Walt Disney's Robin Hood - all animal cast and while is is very sad at points it relies less on fear than a lot of other movies (LOTS of sword fights and there are escape scenes so people are in peril but it isn't the big bad monster style fear, just jerkwad dude in charge and they nearly hang Robin Hood).

Room on the Broom and Gruffalo's Child was glorious, but the latter had a few scenes that were a little iffy in terms of building up tension about the monster.

Some episodes of My Little Pony scare my daughter even now - mostly the ones with monsters.

Megamind doesn't have any big monsters, but does deal with more adult stuff.

Shrek has a dragon that chases them, that's the scariest bit.

Kung Fu Panda has a lot of fighting, again, but even the bad guy is still just a guy. Well, tiger with super kung fu powers.

Tangled has very sad bits, but the most scary part is interpersonal. It is one of my favourites with some of the best music and the most fun of the recent princess crop.

(It can be super hard to judge these things for the kid - mine has lost her shit over the mammoth having a baby in Ice Age 2 and the Grinch's heart growing in The Grinch. Not the scary bits, but "the little tiny little baaaaaaaaaby mammoth" and "he has too many feelings" and complete and total sobbing wreck of a child.)
posted by geek anachronism at 1:30 AM on January 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

If he likes robots, he might love WALL-E.
posted by spinifex23 at 1:33 AM on January 30, 2016

My son is 6 and we still have to be careful with our movie picks. Winnie the Pooh is the best series for him, as are the Peanuts shorts.
posted by zardoz at 2:58 AM on January 30, 2016

People have mentioned a couple of Miyazaki films already, but I'd recommend "Kiki's Delivery Service" in particular as a very gentle film. It has no scary parts that I can recall, and Common Sense Media seems to back the memory up.
posted by Ipsifendus at 3:44 AM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

My daughter is still fascinated by the Babies documentary. You get to see how babies all over the world are born and live! It's lovely.
posted by Pardon Our Dust at 4:17 AM on January 30, 2016 [10 favorites]

I think Meet the Robinsons is awesome and super underrated. There is a bad guy but he's always getting foiled, and you end up feeling bad for him.
posted by amro at 4:18 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

The only full-length movie that my son would watch at this age was “My Neighbour Totoro”.
posted by pharm at 4:50 AM on January 30, 2016

I too have a 3 year old and Winnie the Pooh is too much for her. Heffalumps were scary.

We just have Daniel Tiger "movie night".
posted by danielle the bee at 5:05 AM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Not a movie but the BBC series "The Beatrix Potter Collectiom" (1995) is perfect for the tender-hearted and my kids practically wore a hole in the DVDs. Live action intro and outro with beautiful animation of the actual stories.
posted by Ginesthoi at 5:31 AM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

My kid would only watch Winnie the Pooh and the Jungle Book at age 2.5-3. Toy Story is much scarier! Winnie the Pooh is so gentle with fun music, and the Jungle Book is really similar in pacing and style. If you're forced to watch them repeatedly over months you realize that the same voice actors are in both movies, which is kind of mind blowing.
posted by Maarika at 5:43 AM on January 30, 2016

Cars was our go-to for this past year with my daughter. She has since moved on to tv shows which seem to fit her attention span a little better and seem generally less scary than movies - Clifford, My Little Pony, Care Bears, Barney, Arthur, Dinosaur Train. Daniel Tiger was a favorite for a while. And Elmo!
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:02 AM on January 30, 2016

It's not a movie, but what you want is Sophia the First, on the Disney Channel. Full of princesses, adorable animals, Wayne Brady as Clover and Tim Gunn as Bailiwick the butler. There's usually a song and the episodes are very gentle.

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. (Which is Pittsburgh, fyi.)

My Little Pony is hilarious, sweet for the kiddos, but plenty of adult fun.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:16 AM on January 30, 2016

Cinderella. Only actual peril I can think of is cat vs. mouse, which gets averted. Also the wicked stepfamily, but all they hurt is her dreams.

And there are singing mice that reinforce gender stereotypes.

Little Mermaid: Ursula might be a little intense.

Beauty and the Beast: Beast vs. Gaston at the end could be trouble, if the Beast himself isn't too much already.

Maybe Lady and the Tramp, maybe not 101 Dalmatians; I don't remember them well enough.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:51 AM on January 30, 2016

Seconding Tinkerbell (just not The Neverbeast). Also Lilo and Stitch. I also think shorter programs for that age group are best. Scary and tense music is so affecting at that age and longer movies can just wear sensitive kids out. TimmyTime is kind of hilarious and fascinating (even for me). Daniel Tiger, Octonauts, WildKrats are all good shows.

If he likes Princesses, I highly recommend (to any kids) the Princess Adventure Stories. They are very pre-schooler friendly. They are extensions of the Princess stories with ingenuity and the kind of mild adventure that appeals to kids that don't actually want to battle Maleficent or some such thing. The language is very open and they are very relatable as people in the world. I grumbled when this showed up with the birthday gifts a couple years back but really came around on it.
posted by amanda at 7:12 AM on January 30, 2016

Finding Nemo and Toy Story were both way too scary for my 2 year old daughter. The original Fantasia was so scary that she literally hid under the table screaming.

She really, really loves Home and Inside Out. The clown scene in Inside Out is a bit scary, but for some reason doesn't bother her at all (you might want to pre-screen it). She also loved The Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Tale of Despereaux. She loves Peanuts movies generally--we saw the new one in the theater as her first movie experience--though she gets Charlie Brown and Caillou confused. Go figure.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:12 AM on January 30, 2016

Oh, she really liked Wall-E, too.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:14 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Eloise books by Kay Thompson were made into movies: Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. If they follow the books at all, they're fairly gentle and though she's not a princess, she lives in the Plaza Hotel, so it's got that glamour element.

Kiki's Delivery Service (mentioned above) is generally very sweet, but there is one scene where she's on her broom and being chased and dive bombed by birds.

Wallace and Gromit A Grand Day Out is probably the gentlest of their movies and just involves them building a rocket to the moon to get more cheese. Plus, there's a robot!
posted by carrioncomfort at 7:18 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

My 2.5yo loves:
Home (after some reassurances that the SPOILER monster is just a daddy starfish looking for his babies) fun songs
Cinderella had him giggling at Lucifer
Curious George movies are good (3 has him in a space ship, and the Christmas one has been seen many times since Christmas, as has the Halloween one) But not the one with Owen Wilson.
Singing in the Rain is pretty great
posted by jillithd at 7:34 AM on January 30, 2016

Sincerely bookmarking this thread for gentle movies to watch myself. I am a bit in love with your kid, and I'm a bit sad that there isn't a whole industry making films that he (and I) would love, because that list is just so perfect and it was surprisingly hard to find fitting ones.

The one thing that came up in my search other than Totoro/Kiki's Delivery Service and Winnie-the-Pooh (yes to all!) was My Little Pony: The Runaway Rainbow. Oh almost forgot - Lost and Found, though might be a bit lonely.

Common Sense Media was great for checking things out peril-wise.

I loved the Gruffalo on seeing it recently - does have frightening bits though. All the ones I remember from my childhood had fright/peril to a level I didn't find exactly fun. Two gentle things that got heavy play when my younger brother was small were 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories' (is on Netflix UK, not sure about elsewhere) and 'Spider!: I'm only scary 'cos I'm hairy' (available on YouTube). Both are collections of short films; the Very Hungry Caterpillar set are very very beautiful with gorgeous music, and Spider! is short singalong songs about everyday situations (like there being a spider in the bath).

I'm having a look through the previouslies on Ask in which there's some good stuff.
posted by lokta at 8:37 AM on January 30, 2016

Lady and the Tramp has a terrifying rat, and Siamese cats that are creepy in their own right, as well as racist, and also a scene where dogs in the pound are sad. 101 Dalmatians has an intense high speed car chase at the end, and Cruella in general is terrifying.
posted by town of cats at 9:23 AM on January 30, 2016

Sarah and Duck is a series, not a movie, but it doesn't have a scary scene in any of the 40 episodes. Fully recommended.

I'd be wary of Ponyo - the waves scene looked scary to me as an adult. Totoro might be a bit disconcerting, but definitely less than Ponyo. Kiki's Delivery Service is probably the best choice.

Timmy Time is also great for that age. Shaun the Sheep can have some not-so-nice bits sometimes.
posted by gakiko at 9:29 AM on January 30, 2016

Auntie Mame. The foxhunt scene has some action, but it's all played for comedy so should be fine.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:34 AM on January 30, 2016

The driving scene in Ponyo stressed me out just the other day, ha. Plus the whole thing was extremely uncanny.

I was scared of the bird scene and the bank scene in Mary Poppins as a kid.

Gentlest-while-still-engaging series I know is the Wonder Pets.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:41 AM on January 30, 2016

Have you ever heard of "Sergeant Frog"? It's a (mostly) comedy series, and such violence as there is in it is mostly at the level of Warner Brothers cartoons.

The basic story line is that a race of space aliens with advanced technology that look like frogs are poised to invade the Earth. An advanced scouting party is discovered by some human children and the invasion is called off. But the scouting party (five frogs) are left behind with instructions to conquer the planet.

Each of the frogs ends up becoming close friends, and partners, with one human child. There isn't really any long-term plot line in the series. Once in a while it does get serious for a while, but mostly it's just fun.

The story mostly revolves around the Hinata family. The mother is Aki, the big sister is Natsumi, and the younger brother is Fuyuki. The father is away for the entire series (he returns in the very last episode). Aki works as an editor at a publishing house that specializes in mangas. She also rides a motor cycle.

The house she bought was cheap because it was reputed to be haunted -- and it is haunted, and the ghost shows up once in a while. (But she's not scary. She's actually rather nice.)

If Road Runner cartoons are too violent for your kid, then skip this one. But if that level of violence is OK, then there's a lot to like here. The characterization is very good, and there's a lot of love in the series. (Aki is a really good mother, for instance.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:56 AM on January 30, 2016

Oh, what about some of the original Wallace and Gromits - A Grand Day Out, in particular?
posted by ChuraChura at 9:59 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, came to recommend Wallace and Gromit, also Jim Henson's Tale of the Bunny Picnic, currently on Youtube.
posted by daisystomper at 11:31 AM on January 30, 2016

Parents hate him, but most little kids really enjoy Caillou. At 2.5, my daughter was a big fan of the Backyardigans (I still remember their catchy songs), Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go! She's still not much of a movie fan.
posted by mogget at 2:37 PM on January 30, 2016

Does it have to be a traditional movie? My LO quite liked Daniel Tiger at 3yo, and now at 4 really likes Stella and Sam. When we have "movie time" we'll let him watch two or three episodes. We also watch a lot of nature shows (mostly with ocean animals as the.subject).
posted by vignettist at 2:58 PM on January 30, 2016

Just supporting your sense about Bambi. My mom tells me that when I was around three she had to remove me from the theatre because I was in hysterics and inconsolable. Ditto Dumbo.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:53 PM on January 30, 2016

Dumbo was my brother's favourite movie but me, five years older, would have to leave when he watched it because it wrecked me.

Peg and Cat is another good TV series, as is Penelope.

I know it's kind of odd, but one thing I ended up doing with my kid was cooking shows - not competitions or kid's ones, just like Nigella or Jamie. It does mean I have a six year old who can ID most famous chefs now, but I found that she really got engaged with what was happening. Same with science shows (Mythbusters has some scary episodes but she mostly loves them too).

I did want to echo the thing about music - I read something about it once and it was the 'trigger' I guess, for the fear response. It can help to turn the sound off, more than closing your eyes.
posted by geek anachronism at 4:06 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

You need to watch the "Buddies" series of movies, sequels to Air Bud that feature five talking puppies having adventures. They're completely sweet and cute and feature adorable little puppies! Half a dozen are available on Netflix streaming, including Air Buddies, Treasure Buddies (a Raiders of the Lost Ark homage), Super Buddies (where they get super powers), Santa Buddies, and Snow Buddies. There's one to avoid called Spooky Buddies which features a hell hound and beagles being turned to stone.
posted by ejs at 5:41 PM on January 30, 2016

The good thing about kids that age (or, at least, my kids when they were that age) is that "movie night" just meant "watching something on a screen" -- they were just as happy to watch a bunch of episodes of a TV show as a movie. Assuming your son is the same, I'd recommend "Peppa Pig" and "Doc McStuffins. They both manage to be funny and entertaining without being remotely violent or scary. They're the kind of thing a sensitive child can watch without being scared, but a grownup can enjoy as well.
posted by yankeefog at 3:13 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

In addition to the excellent suggestions above, I'd put Kipper on the list if you're willing to expand from movies into TV shows.
posted by blessedlyndie at 11:20 AM on January 31, 2016

When my daughter was little, we watched a lot of Jack's Big Music Show and Backyardigans and I liked them, too!
posted by AJaffe at 5:14 PM on January 31, 2016

Response by poster: These are great -- thank you to everyone! We probably will expand to TV shows because there are so many excellent suggestions here (he is already a big Peppa Pig fan so that kind of thing is right on target).

For this Sunday we decided to go with Mary Poppins because we knew it and didn't have time to investigate all the other ideas. Aside from being a bit long and needing some explanation in parts, it went over very well. He enjoyed it a lot and there were no scary bits! He's been pretending to be Elsa for weeks, but after watching, he switched to holding an umbrella, pretending to float to a cloud, and trying to say "supercalifragilousticexpialidocious" just like Mary Poppins.

Anyway, we'll definitely be returning to this question again and again to mine it for all of the many great selections here. Thanks again.
posted by forza at 2:28 AM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's a really great french film animated (crudely) all with toys and randomness that's a lot of fun: 'a Town called Panic"
posted by sexyrobot at 7:09 AM on February 1, 2016