Unlike a lot of my mummy friends, I've been lucky enough to see several of the movies that are either nominated for best picture or have nominated performances.
I'm really looking forward to next week's awards show to see who takes home the awesome little statuette—partly because I like seeing grown adults fawn all over a little man decked out in head to toe gold lame, and partly because I like to watch those that don't win put on their best ‘it was a pleasure just to be nominated' face! And while I've had a great time watching as many movies as I could I thought it might be a great time to give you a rundown of some of my favourite nominated kids movies that your kids can watch while you're busy being Mr. Blackwell for an evening and making your own best dressed list! And if you're one of the lucky ones whose kids are in bed in time to watch the red carpet glam—keep this list in your back pocket for when you just want a bit of sanity!
Nominated in the best Animated Feature Film category 2006
Now a bit of a warning about out this one—it's scary! I mean, I was scared watching this movie, but my kids were enthralled with it and watched it over and over again! Great voice work and incredible visual effects make this movie about a local neighbourhood house that transforms into a real monster house sure to have your kids cuddling close together (which might be a good thing for family unity!) But unless your kids can handle scary—I would stay away from this one. But if your kids like the spooky—this is a must see!
Winner for Best Original Song 1991 (actually had 3 nominations for best song this year)
While Pixar might be the reigning King of animation these days Disney can still turn out some breathtaking movies for your kids. Aside from creating a visual extravaganza with this movie about the classic tale of girl meets beast, girl falls in love with beast, beast transforms into Prince (just ONCE I'd like to see this happen in real life!) this movie will have your children singing any one of its signature songs for days after seeing it.
Nominated for Best Original Song 1987
This is an ‘oldie' (good God when did the ‘80's become the ‘oldies' decade—ahhhh!) but a goodie. In fact when I ran my very scientific informal twitter survey asking for favourite children's movies this one ranked very high! A classic tale of Princess gets kidnapped by evil Prince, long lost love tries to save her and along the way an incredible adventure happens. Your kids might be surprised to see how much they like to watch actual real people instead of talking fish or cars!
Nominated for Best Animated Picture 2004
Every child will hope that their parents are secretly Super Heroes after watching this cute movie about a family trying to live a normal life when they are anything but normal. And of course at the end they must save the world – which is a just another day for this incredible family! Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter and Samuel L. Jackson lend their incredible voice talents to this great flick—but warning, your children might attempt to block their sibling's hits with invisible force fields or attempt to be the fastest person in your house. Just tell them to take it outside!
Nominate for Best Original Song 2006 (2 nominated songs)
Another live action movie about a princess who is banished from her animated fairy tale land to New York City by the evil step-mother. A cute movie enjoyable for all ages—I just hope that your kids don't attempt to bring the neighbourhood rodents in the house so they can try to woo them with song! And it has McDreamy in it, so we all win.
Nominated for Best Animated Picture 2001 and 2004
Another favourite in my twitter poll, the Shrek series of movies featured some of the best casting for voice work of any animated films. The trio of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy proved to be box office gold. And your kids will delight watching everyone's favourite Ogre, Princess and Jackass as they have some great adventures together.
Winner of Best Original Song 1994 (3 nominations in this category)
One of my daughter's all time favourite movies—every child—regardless of age will be captivated by the incredible music and beautiful story of a young lion cub who grows up to reclaim what is rightfully his. The wonderful friends he meets along the way make this one of my favourite movies of all time too.
Winner Best Animated Picture 2003
This was my first introduction to Pixar – the first real animated movie I owned after I had children. My daughter was born in 2002 and this was the movie that I remember most when I think of what she liked to watch. We watched this movie together when she was a toddler more times than I can count (honestly I was just happy that there was something that kept her attention for more than 2 minutes). This touching tale of a young clownfish who is separated from his father—and his father's quest to get back to his son is enough to make even a grown man tear up. Ellen DeGeneres brought her incredible comedic voice talents to the voice of Dory, the loveable but forgetful regal blue tang fish that helps Nemo's father in his journey. A visual extravaganza—this movie will keep your children captivated long enough to even catch the pre-show!
Winner of Best Animated Picture and Best Original Song 2006
I bet anyone who has a child around the age of 5 or younger in their house that they have at least one ‘Lightening McQueen' car floating around. In fact you probably have about 50 items from this movie! Cars certainly brought post-movie merchandise marketing to a whole new level—in fact Cars items are still a hot seller! But this was a cute movie (another fave in my twitter poll) that had my kids enthralled. An action packed storyline and great music make this a must-see!
Nominated for 5 Awards this year, including Best Picture, Best Animated Picture and Best Original Score
Another reason why Pixar is THE powerhouse when it comes to animated movie making, UP is not only a story that your children will love but a story the entire family will enjoy. A visual masterpiece, expertly voiced by Hollywood legends Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer, to name a few—UP is a touching story about a man who, after losing the love of his life, decides to take his house on the adventure he was supposed to take with her, in her honour. The story is beautiful and touching and funny and will have your kids yelling “squirrel” at you for days! I have no doubt that this film will take home gold on March 7 at least for Best Animated Feature.
Honourable Mentions
Here are some of the movies that I loved but didn't quite make the top 10 – but you might want to check them out anyway:
So if you need something to keep your kids occupied through the pre-show right down to the post-show grab a few of my recommendations and let me know how your kids like them. If your kids haven't seen any of these movies hit up your local video store or talk to your friends and see if you can do a trade – you can thank me for the peace and quiet later!
Kelli Catana is a 30ish mom of 4 kids under 10, wife to one lucky guy and lover of all things smutty! Her love of all things Hollywood and celebrity pop culture began sometime around the introduction of Beverly Hills 90210; when her desire to become the next Kelly Taylor and attend West Beverly High was born! Since those dreams never materialized (still holding out hope that Dylan will find her) she settled for consuming as much trashy tabloid info as possible! Her love for pop culture and celebrity gossip mags and blogs grew over the years until she became ‘the one to go to’ when any of her friends needed the goods on celebrity gossip.
It also means she can tell you what the Stars are wearing, who they are dating and which Jonas Brother is which all while running her own online business from home! She is addicted to bad reality tv, good reality tv and can navigate multiple gossip sites with ease! She knows what tabloids are the ‘good’ ones and what tabloids are useful for lining the birdcage! She can keep you up to date on who’s dating, who divorcing and who’s just plain old is hooking up! And she’s not afraid to tell you what she really thinks of all of those celebs that we love to read about!
Follow Kelli on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kellidaisy
Printer-friendly version