Because we are a blended family, we try to incorporate as much family time as we can because we are not all together 24/7. One of our favorite ways to spend time together is while watching movies.
What we Like
We all love Disney Movies which is perfect because they are well suited for the full range of ages in our family. From my youngest granddaughter who is 2, right on up to our son-in-law who is 22.
We are fans of Star Wars, Marvel and DC Superhero movies, and Harry Potter, but some of these movies are not suitable for all of us as they can be rated PG-13. We try to go by the guidelines on the ratings, but use our own judgement after watching the movie first ourselves. Movies that are too violent have too much language or contain too much mature content we do not watch with our younger family members. Although they get frustrated with that decision sometimes, we feel it is the right choice.
We all love other animated movies such as the Madagascar series, Ice Age series, Minion series, and How to Train Your Dragon movies. These are perfect for all of us.
If the movie has a sequel it is even better. We can binge watch a series and get added family time.
My husband has introduced our children to Japanese Anime, the English versions of course. I have to say it has been a big hit which has led to them reading Japanese Manga books as well.
I thought it would be fun to poll each family member on what their favorite movie is and share this with you.
The Verdict
Our 2 year old granddaughter’s favorite movie is Disney’s Moana. She saw it in the theaters and has been fixated with it since. My daughter plays music videos on her phone from the movie and don’t you dare interrupt her while she is watching. She will tell you “Shhhh” and go back to singing along. It is being released to video this week and we will be having a family viewing as soon as possible.
Our 6 year old granddaughter’s favorite movie is Disney’s Frozen. She loves Elsa and Anna and of course Olaf, after all who doesn’t love Olaf? It has some of the catchiest songs, How to Build a Snowman and Let It go .She sings her heart out to the whole movie and has dressed up as Elsa for Halloween. It is an adorable movie of course, one that we all enjoy watching
Our 9 year old son’s favorite movies are the Lego Movies. He loves them all, as do the rest of our children. Making movies about Lego characters was a brilliant move, what child doesn’t have a room full of them. We recently went to the theater to see the new Lego Batman movie. He came out of there saying it was the “best movie ever” and one that we will add to our collection once it is released on DVD.
Our 11 year old daughter’s favorite movie is Sailor Moon, a Japanese Anime that is a series as well as a movie. She has posters in her room and collects figurines of the characters. Recently there was a release of the Sailor Moon movie in limited theaters for one weekend only. It was the perfect Daddy-daughter date for her and her sister. It is a series that we can all watch.
Our 15 year old daughter’s favorite movie is Disney’s Cars. My little girl wasn’t into the princesses; no…she was into Cars. She would sing “Life is a Highway” every time it came on the radio. She collected every car from the series. One of her best childhood friends was a little boy that lived down the road and he loved that he could come over and play Cars with her. Now that she has a teenager, she has moved up to the Harry Potter series. She deems herself a Ravenclaw and has a wand from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter from Universal Studios; she dressed up for Halloween as Hermione and is building her stash of collectibles as well.
Our 21 year old daughter’s favorite movie is Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. She fell in love with it when she was young and the movie was first released and has been a fan ever since. Yet again, I have a daughter who wasn’t into the princesses but a skeleton from a Halloween themed Christmas movie, go figure. Because her daughters are still a little young they haven’t really gotten into this one yet, but I’m sure they will
Our 22 year old son-in-law’s favorites are action and superhero movies. Who can’t remember watching Superman, Batman, or Spiderman on Saturday morning cartoons? Most of these movies are PG13 and are a little mature for our 9 year old. But it does make for some good adult family movie time after younger children are in bed. I give him credit though; he has sat through so many viewings of Frozen with the little ones, that when the time comes that the kids are old enough to watch the superhero movies we are going to have one heck of a marathon.
My husband’s favorite movies are the Rocky series. We have just started introducing our 9 year old boy to them. He skipped the first one, it’s a little more adult content, but started him with the second. He loved it. It will be a great Father-Son bonding time for them. I remember when my husband and I were first dating he told me Rocky was a romantic movie. Funny, right? But after watching the movies with him (I had seen them all before myself) and getting his take on the movies I can kind of see how he came to that conclusion. Our daughters are mildly interested, but not quite enough yet.
My favorite movie is Gone With the Wind. I’m not even sure how that happened, or when was the first time I watched it, but I do know the 50th anniversary was in 1989 and I requested a copy of it then and I was 19 at the time. I love the Scarlet O’Hara’s feistiness and I love the time period. I would have loved to wear big dresses like that, though I would not have wanted to live during the civil war. This isn’t really a family movie yet as it is over the heads of the littler ones, but my oldest daughter has indulged me and watched the movie with me, as has my husband. I would say my family choice would be the Star Wars Movies. Believe it or not, not all of our children have seen these yet. The 11 year old and 15 year old seem less than interested and the 9 year old has watched 3,4,5, and 1, but the movies get a little more intense from there and we want him to be just a little older before he watches them. But I can see another big movie marathon when the time comes.
We all have different tastes, preferences and favorites, but when it comes down to it, it is about the family time we enjoy when we sit down with popcorn and snacks all in one room together for some good quality family time. Maybe some of these are some of your favorites too.
Hello, My Name is Stephenie and I am a stay-at-home Mom raising a blended family with 4 children, ages 21, 15, 11 and 9. Bringing two families together comes with its own successes and struggles follow along and see how my Blended Life Makes Me a Very Happy Wife
Wow! Your family likes tons of different movies–I am sure it is difficult to choose just one. I agree that it doesn’t matter what you watch but the time you spend together as a family!
I think you really can’t go wrong with Disney! Since my daughter is obsessed with Disney movies, my hubby and I have gotten into them too. It’s such a fun and inexpensive way to bond as a family! Also, I love the book Gone with the Wind!
We LOVE Moana …so much, I wrote about it on MY blog this week! 🙂 We are getting into that period where my son and daughter love to argue over what movie to watch, but this one they both enjoyed!
This is a great list of favorite movies. Mine is Shawshank Redemption, but Gone with the Wind is number four on my list. And my daughter loves all of those movies, especially Nightmare.
Disney Frozen is a big hit in my house too. My little ones get hooked on something and we watch it over and over for at least a few months until something else catches their eyes. I have never watch the Japanese Anime but this will be something that I can check out for more options.
I’ve always loved the lion king. I’m going to force it on my son pretty soon i’m sure
We love movie nights too!
Finding a movie that everyone in the family agrees on can be difficult. I like all the Disney ones — those are always winners in our house!
You can never go wrong with a good Disney film. Gosh I haven’t done family movie night for so long. xx
Recently we introduced our kids to some of the “classics” including: Mary Poppins, Swiss Family Robinson & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
We like a lot of those movies too! We just watched Moana last week and it was fabulous!