Regardless of age, these flicks are entertaining to watch, ranging from live-action excitement to animation treats. These movies are sure to make you laugh (and maybe some tears) and are definitely guaranteed to provide 90 minutes of blissful, argument-free fun.
1. Zootopia (2016)
Here, we follow an eager bunny who has just joined the police force and her reluctant new partner, a sly con artist of a fox. They work on a case whose outcome may deeply affect their world’s social order.
2. Wreck-It-Ralph (2012)
Like Toy Story for gamers, this movie imagines that game characters live in a secret digital world whenever the arcade closes. Ralph wants to stop being the villain who always loses to the cheerful Fix-It-Felix, leading him on a quest to finally become a hero.
3. Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018)
This is a high school rom-com based on the 19th-century French play Cyrano de Bergerac. This movie is a modern love story in the style of literary adaptations like Clueless or 10 Things I Hate About You. The main character is an average-looking kid, which in rom-com land, makes her worthy of ridicule. Unlike other high school movie protagonists, however, Sierra isn’t looking for a glow-up or an invitation to the popular crowd.
4. Shrek (2001)
Monsters and outcasts deserve a happily ever after too. That’s the heart of Shrek, the insanely quotable animated classic about an ogre who agrees to rescue a beautiful princess for an awful lord to restore peace in his swamp.
5. School of Rock (2003)
This movie resonates across generations because everyone wishes they had a teacher as cool as Jack Black’s substitute imposter–turned–rock & roll guardian angel, Dewey Finn. He poses as an educator for a group of students, but his energetic passion for music and his affection for the kids are completely genuine.
6. The Sandlot (1993)
This movie is a picture of adolescence teetering between awkward and awesome. The film follows a group of baseball-loving kids who, during the summer of 1962, navigate the treacherous world of playground insults and a fearsome, ball-gobbling dog called “the Beast.”
7. Rango (2011)
Rango the chameleon has spent his life as a family pet learning how to blend in, but when his terrarium lands in the middle of the Mojave Desert, he finally gets his chance to stand out. An animated comedy with plenty of references to the world of old-school spaghetti Westerns, this movie tells the story of a hero who is named the sheriff of a small frontier town.
8. The Princess Bride (1987)
This movie sounds pretty simple: A boy meets a princess and sparks fly, but their love falters when she’s kidnapped by an evil monarch. Nonetheless, that description omits the colorful characters, bizarre adventures, and brilliant dialogue that have helped this film stand the test of time.
9. The Parent Trap (1998)
In this modern remake of The Parent Trap, Lohan plays twins who live on opposite sides of the country and switch places as a gambit to reunite their divorced parents. In her feature film debut, Lohan perfectly fills the shoes of original star Hayley Mills, delivering two memorable performances as separated sisters.
10. Paddington (2014)
Garnering a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and hailed for its charming script, family-friendly content, and excellent voice acting courtesy of star Ben Whishaw, this movie follows a young bear, who can walk and talk, travels to London from the jungles of Peru.
11. The Muppets (2011)
The story here is very slight: With the help of his girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), Segel’s Gary and his Muppet friend Walter must foil a plot by an oil-hungry baddie (played by Chris Cooper, with a full-fledged maniacal laugh) to destroy the Muppet Studio for more of that liquid gold.
12. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
This movie taps into the unexplored idea that children may embrace cinematic monsters rather than cower from them. Accordingly, the antics of two top scarers fall flat when they try to frighten a young kid, but their improbable relationship with her could completely revolutionize how the monsters interact with humanity.
13. The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
In this animated comedy, a family’s already messy road trip is thrown into further chaos when robots attempt to take over the world. As the only people left to fight them off, it’s up to the Mitchells to take out the machines and save humanity.
14. Matilda (1996)
The main character here endures awful parents (Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman) and an abusive principal, though she never loses her sense of wonder. Matilda’s hard-knock life lightens considerably, however, once she develops telekinesis.
15. The LEGO Movie (2014)
Just months before he took the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise by storm, Chris Pratt voiced a hapless LEGO figure who is mistaken for another person to keep an evil tyrant from destroying the world.
16. Labyrinth (1986)
This movie is proof that, in the right director’s hands, classic fantasy storytelling can have a modern viewing. This is the tale of a young girl (Jennifer Connelly) who must rescue her infant brother from the Goblin King’s (David Bowie) Labyrinth before the little one turns into a goblin.
17. Kung Fu Panda (2008)
This family movie sees Jack Black voice a lazy panda, Po, who must master martial arts by training under a strict, eccentric master. This simple premise kicks off an action comedy buoyed by great voice performances by true-blue action stars like Angelina Jolie and, of course, Jackie Chan.
18. Klaus (2019)
This is a Santa Claus origin story that’s enjoyable any time of year and it tells the tale of a widowed Norwegian lumberman who is recruited by the town’s new postman, Jesper, to make toys for him to deliver to prove his father, the postmaster general, wrong.
19. Inside Out (2015)
The real brilliance of this movie is that it personifies the stresses of the teenage years. When young Riley moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, her many feelings go haywire. Those emotions get voices of their own: Amy Poehler is Joy, the head of Riley’s emotional circuit board; Disgust is a diva courtesy of Mindy Kaling; Sadness is embodied by Phyllis Smith; Fear by Bill Hader; and Anger by comedian Lewis Black.
20. The Incredibles (2004)
The Incredibles is still a unique genre approach that offers us lovely family relationships rather than post-credits teasing in a world where the majority of superhero movies have turned into CGI mush. The title family is experiencing an identity problem; they are confined to the suburbs and pretend to be normal people because the government no longer wants “supers” around.
21. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
The comedy sensibilities of the 1980s are combined with a schlocky sci-fi concept evocative of the 1950s in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Rick Moranis portrays a brilliant inventor whose children are inadvertently reduced to a quarter of an inch by his shrinking technique. To be more precise, the children shrink themselves while they play in Dad’s makeshift laboratory.
22. Home Alone (1990)
A child’s dream comes true in Home Alone: During his family’s Christmas holiday abroad, 8-year-old Kevin is inadvertently left behind and gets to be the head of the household for a change. A tarantula, paint buckets, and flamethrowers are used in an elaborately violent, comic war of wits that Kevin starts when two incompetent robbers try to break into his house.
23. Freaky Friday (1976)
All teenagers and their parents should watch the original Freaky Friday; it’s still better than the 2003 version. The narrative centers on Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, a quarreling mother and daughter pair who alternate roles for a single day. Both of them discover that it’s not nearly as simple as they had thought to walk a mile in the other’s shoes.
24. Finding Nemo (2003)
Following the neurotic clownfish father Marlin and his young son Nemo, this movie is as much about family as it is about fish. Nemo’s lovely old dad is helpless to save him when his curiosity gets the better of him and he is taken by a diver.
25. Encanto (2021)
Encanto is the story of a Colombian family whose children are endowed with magical abilities. Well, all except Mirabel who seemingly has no special power but must save her kin anyway.
26. Despicable Me (2010)
Gru, a proud supervillain whose army of devoted Minions eagerly assist their commander in carrying out his cunning schemes, is the one we are urged to support in Despicable Me. Gru adopts three little girls as part of a complex plan to outdo his new evil opponent, but they win his heart more quickly than a ray gun.
27. Big (1988)
Josh, 12, longs to be “big” after being too little to ride a carnival ride and win over his sweetheart, prompted by a fortune-telling machine. The following morning, the boy awakens as an adult Tom Hanks, whose happiness at suddenly achieving his goal is dampened by his newfound responsibility and incapacity to spend time with his best friend, who isn’t so huge.
28. Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Anyone who understands the intense anguish of acting someone they’re not among loved ones may find resonance in the movie. The ultimate product is Gurinder Chadha’s incredibly watchable sports film, which also happens to be a heartwarming one, about gender, culture, diversity, and love.
29. The Addams Family (1991)
Whether or not you enjoy the original series, The Addams Family is a huge source of entertainment. When a strangely morbid tribe battles a con artist who looks like their missing relative, the goofy performances help make every crazy sequence and gothic set piece come to life.
30. Toy Story (1995)
Imagining a universe in which toys have lives of their own and reanimate whenever the children leave the room, this movie is a child’s fantasy come true. However, spaceman Buzz Lightyear, who firmly believes he is a true intergalactic ranger rather than a plaything, disrupts the established quo, which is enforced by cowboy doll Woody.
