DVDs/Videos

Every family has their own favourite DVDs and videos. Here are some of our classics. The children have to negotiate between them which video to watch: the following get voted in and watched often by all three - boy and girls aged eight to four. My son is a sensitive indicator of scary bits, he has nightmares over wolves and dark scenarios even now and thumbs are kept close to the fast forward button at all times! I’ll give the Fastforward moments for each movie too.

Thomas the Tank Engine

This was the first video we ever bought our son, when he was not quite two. He watched it over and over until we could hardly bear the theme music any longer. The girls aren’t quite so enamoured but still all these years later it gets reruns.

Bambi

Still a big favourite even now my son is eight. When he was younger we had to fast forward the bit where Bambi’s mother is shot, even though you don’t actually see it. Bambi’s distress was enough to hit the FF button. Now we have succumbed to trailers advertising Bambi 2, a recent sequel, that also gets a lot of watching time and has been nominated my eight year old’s current favourite. It is amazing that this movie made in 1942 is still relevant and appealing to today’s children, who are as affected by the death of Bambi’s mother as their grandfather was at the original cinema release.

Dumbo

This one I don’t enjoy so much myself but the children watch regularly.The stork, with lots of effort eventually brings the baby elephant to the mother on the circus train. He is immediately ostracised by the other elephants because of his enormous ears. Boys laugh at him and taunt, his mother rises up in his defence and is then locked up in disgrace. Dumbo is befriended by a mouse, determined to get him recognised in a circus act. By the end Dumbo finds out he can fly and gets revenge on all his tormentors by dive-bombing them in the circus tent, he becomes famous and he and his mother are vindicated. Some uncomfortable moral messages there about the sweetness of revenge that aren’t so PC these days. There is also a weird dream sequence, that I thought must have been a sixties animators on acid thing...pink elephants morphing into each other, except that the movie was made in 1941. My son always had to FF through the bits where Dumbo was laughed at, not scary but made him uncomfortable.

Winnie the Pooh

Popular with the younger ones, but my eight year old feels too old for this one now. Nicely animated and true to the original book illustrations and story. No scary bits!

Peter Pan

This classic from the fifties never loses it’s appeal – the story includes all the elements, being able to fly, fairies, pirates, mermaids, indians. The un-pc elements pass the kids right by – stereotyped girl/boy roles, stereotyped “red Indians” etc but it’s a story and a good one right? – a totally pc world would be innocuous in the extreme - Bob the Builder every single day...!

Jungle Book

This one of the last Walt Disney classics made in his lifetime is full of catchy songs, and has been learnt by heart. Mowgli appeals to all the children with his fearless love of the jungle. They all love the bits with Baloo the bear, and the Elephant marching sequences. We have only now started to watch it all the way through. The scenes with Kaa the snake were always edited out and the penultimate scene with Sher Khan the tiger. These scenes always have the leaven of Mowgli’s brave spirit, which refuses to be cowed though.

The Little Mermaid

A modern Disney retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen story, with more great characters and some great symphonic musical numbers. Ariel is a feisty mermaid heroine who falls in love with a human prince. The big baddie is Ursula the sea witch, a dark, calculating octopus witch, scheming to get Ariel into her toils – these scenes were cut by the Ff button, but the movie though shorter was quite watchable without her!

Mary Poppins

This is a classic that still captures children’s imagination forty years on. I’m always amazed by how glued they are to the beginning of the movie, before either the children or Mary Poppins make an appearence, there are some quite grown –up situations and refernces (to the suffragettes and working in a bank) which would never go into a movie made today for children, but they all watch fascinated. I don’t think the Ff button has to be employed at all through the movie either. Mary Poppin’s magical methods of tidying up the nursery enthrall. By the end of the movie Mary Poppins has transformed the family, the formal and distant father, engrossed in work adjusts his prorities and goes out to fly kites with the children even singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with them, her work is done and she leaves as the wind changes (Chocolat could be a grown up version of Mary Poppins!)

Beauty and the Beast

Some great Broadway musical numbers here in this modern retelling of the classic story. Belle always has her nose in a book, but her beauty attracts Gaston the handsomest but most arrogant man in the village. Her eccentric inventor father gets kept prisoner in the Beast’s castle, she takes his place. The castle is populated by animated items of furniture as the spell has turned all the servants into clocks, teapots etc some great animation and characterisation here. Some dark moments in the wild woods with wolves still have to be edited out even today but it is a stirring tale where true love wins out.

Finding Nemo

This story is a long quest of a father clown fish searching for his son Nemo who has been caught by a fishing net and taken back to a dentist’s aquarium. Some great characters but for my son some alarming nightmare material. We were going to do a first cinema outing to see this movie and were relieved we hadn’t. My son aged five, was allowed to watch the DVD the whole way through, but then had major nightmares over Bruce the shark. The character is amusing for adults but rather scary for sensitive kids. The whole concept of son being lost and searched for by his father can also cause anxiety. It is a fun movie with lots of good characters, but keep the FF available for sensitive kids.

The Incredibles

Great! Kids love it, parents still enjoy watching – a Superhero movie with a solid family base and loads of humour, we all watch again and again. More real life than many other real movies – how many other Superheroes have trouble getting into their supersuits because of middle age spread?!

Shrek

We resisted this for ages as initially it seemed superficial and toilet humour based. When we watched properly though, it got under our skin and with Shrek 2 it is now one of the parents’ favourite kids movies!

Ice Age and Ice Age 2