Top Five Kids Movies of the Summer
Why not end the summer holidays on a high with a family trip to the cinema? A cinema trip can be a great value treat, especially when you seek out a cut price kids club showing which many major cinema chains including Odeon and Vue offer. With tickets from just £1 taking the kids out to see a great family film needn’t break the bank – particularly if you manage to swerve the expensive popcorn and snacks vendors.
The cinema is also not weather dependable, which makes it great for those boring rainy days that we seem to have so often in good old blighty. So put those messy paints away and head to the flicks for a no mess, no fuss, end of summer afternoon out.
Here’s my run down of the top five kids movies of the summer:
Great for little ones, Cars 2 is a future Disney classic that kids of all ages can enjoy. With more Car characters than the first film, and more humour (thanks to Mater taking centre stage), this is an easy watch that will thrill car mad kids. I especially liked the Lewis Hamilton cameo – cute and clever.
All kids love the Horrid Henry books, and the movie brings to life their favourite naughty little hero in all his gross, cheeky and mischievous glory. Perfect for the under eights, Horrid Henry will have your kids in stitches with his pranks.
The fourth offering from the successful Spy Kids series of movies offers an extra gimmick for wannabe junior spy to enjoy – 4D Aroma-Scope. A scratch and sniff card which accompanies the movie will prove a talking point between you and the kids, even though none of the smells actually smell like what they are meant to smell like. Still fun though, and may engage kids that are easily bored with the movie that bit better.
Introduce your kids to one of your childhood faves, the Smurfs, with this 3D movie. The little blue characters are cute enough, and the film is full of humour that should appeal to all ages. Listen out for Katy Perry as ‘Smurfette’ for an example of genius casting.
You may have missed this one but I recently caught it at the Odeon for £2.50 per child (adults go free). We all loved this as it’s super funny with a humour that manages to tickle both kids and adults simultaneously. Adorable characters and genius casting make it a genuine joy. Get on DVD from Sept 19th if you can’t catch it at the flicks.
And the ones to avoid:
Despite the 12A rating, both X Men First Class and Super 8 (hyped as one of the best films of the summer) drop a big fat F bomb in the middle of the action. Really, why do what are essentially kid’s films do this? Transformers 3 is also on the cusp of what I would deem acceptable for a pre-teen, yet the shelves of Toys R Us groan with the official merchandise.
This is a real bug bear of mine as my boys love the X Men movies and have the others on DVD, but they will have to miss out on this one because of one irrelevant and gratuitous swear word.
Super 8, while dull as dishwater and as cheesy as stilton for adults, would have made a great ‘tween’ movie, if not for the swearing. Why movie execs? Why?
So, unless you want your kids picking up more than some ideas for ill-advised pranks or a hankering for some new Cars 2 toys from your family cinema trip then I’d advise avoiding the above. You can also check the content of 12A films at Kids in Mind – a great resource for parents worried by the ambiguity of the 12A rating.
Choose the right film, however, and a trip to the flicks can make some great family-time memories. That’s the magic of the movies!
Photography by Jimmy Mac 333, M4ik, and Jayne an dd
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