I put "Children's Films" in quotes because a very good argument can be made that some of the most beloved kids films are actually some of the most "adult" films ever made. It's funny that when you think of the phrase "kids films" probably the first thing that pops into your mind is something fluffy & happy, but usually the most memorable moments from the best children's films are some of the saddest in the history of movies.
Sure, these movies might have cheery colors & happy, smiling faces on the DVD cover. They also usually have the righteous good rallying from hopeless odds to defeat & overcome the darkness that stands in their way. There might also be a handsome prince who comes to the rescue of some poor abused girl so they can live "Happily Ever After." But more often than not, they're also the films that peeled away a bit of the innocent way children look at the world, and opened their eyes to a possible darker reality.
So, with all that being said, what are the best children's films of all-time?
There is no villainy like Disney villainy. A couple weeks ago, Topless Robot put together a list of "The Greatest Disney Villains." There were some odd choices, as well as the order being not quite right. A couple years ago, the Nostalgia Critic put together his list of 11.
For those suffering from dial-up-itis, here's the list.
- Cruella de Vil - 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians'
"Poison them, drown them, bash them in the head... I don't care how you kill the little beasts, just do it, and do it now!"
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- Jafar - 'Aladdin'
- Scar - 'The Lion King'
- Shere Khan - 'The Jungle Book'
- Professor Ratigan - 'The Great Mouse Detective'
- Ursula - 'The Little Mermaid'
- Gaston - 'Beauty and the Beast'
- Frollo - 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'
- Lady Tremaine (aka The Wicked Stepmother) - 'Cinderella'
- Maleficent - 'Sleeping Beauty'
- Chernabog - 'Fantasia'
Even with the Nostalgia Critic's list, there are arguably some very good choices left off of it. For example, where is The Evil Queen from 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'? Or what about Pinocchio's The Coachman (a guy who kidnaps runaway boys, turns them into donkeys, and sells them off into lives of manual labor)? And finally, what about "Man," who's responsible for the death of Bambi's mother?
But enough about Disney evil. What are the greatest children's movies of all-time? I'm not going to so much create my own list, as spotlight some films to get the ball rolling, and then open up the floor.
► ['The Iron Giant']
Hogarth Hughes: I know you feel bad about the deer, but it's not your fault. Things die. That's part of life. It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die.
The Iron Giant: You die?
Hogarth Hughes: Well, yes, someday.
The Iron Giant: I die?
Hogarth Hughes: I don't know. You're made of metal, but you have feelings, and you think about things, and that means you have a soul. And souls don't die.
The Iron Giant: Soul?
Hogarth Hughes: Mom says it's something inside of all good things, and that it goes on forever and ever.
[Hogarth leaves. The Iron Giant lays back to look at the stars.]
The Iron Giant: Souls don't die.
There is a moment in the video embedded below that always makes me well up whenever I see this movie. EVERY. DAMN. TIME. When the Iron Giant says "Sup-er-man," I can feel the tears. In all of Brad Bird's films (such as 'The Incredibles' & 'Ratatouille'), there is a theme of identity & being true to oneself.
From the A.V. Club:
Coming out of Warner Brothers animation, which hadn’t (and still hasn’t) found an identity since its Looney Tunes heyday, the film stubbornly refused to conform to the industry standard. It’s a smoothly integrated hybrid of hand-drawn and computer animation, but with a look that leans decisively toward the former—it sports a simple, warm, retro style that was markedly out of fashion in the rush to CGI. Missing also were the requisite song-and-dance numbers and snarky pop-culture references in the dialogue, replaced by an austere music score and a take on Eisenhower’s America that brims with gee-whiz earnestness. In other words, merchandising opportunities were limited at best.
The Iron Giant flopped in 1999, leading Warner Brothers president Lorenzo di Bonaventura to shift the blame on the presumed box-office folly of bankrolling "smarter family movies" rather than on his studio’s ineptitude in rolling it out. (The film was sandwiched between Quest For Camelot and Osmosis Jones, to give you an idea of Warners’ dysfunctional feature-animation division.) Granted, a pacifist morality tale set during the height of the Cold War sounds more like a trip to school than fun for the whole family. But at its core, The Iron Giant is basically E.T. in reverse: same starry-eyed story of a boy befriending an alien, only here, it’s the boy’s simple wisdom that makes an impression on the alien, not the other way around.
► ['Babe']
"This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever. There was a time not so long ago when pigs were afforded no respect, except by other pigs; they lived their whole lives in a cruel and sunless world. In those days pigs believed that the sooner they grew large and fat, the sooner they'd be taken into Pig Paradise, a place so wonderful that no pig had ever thought to come back."
Speaking of identity, 1995's 'Babe' gives us the tale of a "Sheep-Pig," and whether a pig (or anybody for that matter) can be more than what everyone else thinks they should be. And it's all to the tune of Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns.
This movie was nominated for Best Picture against 'Braveheart,' and I might be in the minority, but I still feel 'Babe' should have beaten it.
► ['Up']
Of all of Pixar's films, this is probably my favorite (and that's saying something since you have to put it up against 'Toy Story,' 'WALL-E,' 'Finding Nemo,' and 'The Incredibles'). It probably has the most beautiful four minutes of film ever animated, since in those four minutes they convey great emotional depth without one word of dialogue.
► ['My Neighbor Totoro']
From Roger Ebert:
Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap.
► ['The Secret of NIMH']
From TV Tropes:
Don Bluth's first feature-length film - and, for almost all Don Bluth fans, his best film. It's long been considered one of the greatest animated features of the past thirty years, and to this day, it holds a solid 94% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a score that's all but unheard of for an animated film (at least ones not made by Pixar) and is rather rare for films in general. Nearly everything about it is superb...
The film is based very loosely on Robert C. O'Brien's Newbury Medal Award-winning novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Mrs. Brisby is a widowed mouse and mother of four living near a farm. With the spring coming, her family has to move in order to avoid the farmer's plow. However, one of the children, Timothy, has come down with pneumonia, and can't be moved for a few weeks. Taking the advice of an all-knowing owl, Mrs. Brisby seeks the aid of the rats of NIMH, a group of rats that have been made intelligent through lab experiments. Upon meeting their leader, Nicodemus, Mrs. Brisby finds out that her late husband had been a good friend of the rats, and the rats agree to help Mrs. Brisby move her home.
► ['The Lion King']
Let me come full circle to Disney Villainy; Disney's Hamlet with animated lions.