Favorite Children's Movies, TV Shows and Books

Labyrinth (1980) Written by Jim Henson (muppets) and Dennis Lee. Starring Jennifer Conelly and David Bowie.This movie is for slightly more mature kids (around ages 7-10) and is a fantasy movie similar to the Neverending Story . The teenage daughter is left to watch her baby brother Toby while her parents go out. While her imagination runs wild, she asks the goblins to take her brother away, and they end up taking him to the goblin king who lives at the end of the labyrinth. She has to find her way through in a certain amount of time, to find Toby. Along the way she meets all kinds of characters. Everyone that I know who has grown up in the 80's or even the 90's, has seen it. It is a classic, a must see. The puppets are interesting, and the music is great. David Bowie is awesome with both the acting and the music. Click this link for the trailer.

Shrek- Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy are the stars in this awesome animation. There was a crew over 275 people working on this project, how could it not come out good?Shrek was released in 2001, followed by Shrek2 in 2004 and Shrek in 3D in 2007. All of these were excellent, but Shrek 1 received the first ever Academy Award for best animated feature. This is just a perfect movie to watch as a family, and I have met many kids who adore Shrek, Fiona, the Donkey, don't forget about the gingerbread man! It's filled with funny, lovable characters.

Neverending Story was adapted from a book by Michael Ende, by Warner Home Video in 1984. It's directed by Wolfgang Petersen and includes many characters including a dragon that looks like a dog, and a giant turtle. A boy named Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) becomes immersed in a book filled with adventure and fantasy. I might have watched this once as a kid, but I never really knew how great it was until recently. I decided to watch it again, because it reminds my of another classic movie, Labyrinth , which I have always adored. Through my research, I discovered that many people didn't like Neverending Story, the movie; it is not much like the book. I would suggest watching the movie first, because otherwise you might be disappointed, but if you like muppet-like characters, and Labyrinth , I'm sure you will enjoy this. This is another movie that is not really for young children, but my 3 year old daughter did watch it with intensity for a little while.

Read a great review here.

Monsters Inc is the first feature-length movie produced by Pixar. BIlly Crystal plays the voice of Mike Mazowski (James P), and John Goodman is excellent as Sully. These are two interesting "monsters" who work in a scaring factory in an alternate world of monsters. They end up with a young girl from our reality, named Boo (Mary Gibbs), whom they try desperately to send back. This movie is bright and funny, great for almost any age. They are finally putting out a second movie, check out the trailer, and hear more about it.

Angelina Ballerina - heres my review

Scholastic short videos based on children's books Harold and the Purple Crayon is one of my daughters favorites. Another is Where the Wild Things Are, which was recently made into a movie (my daughter loves this one too). It's amazing that videos from the 1960s would interest them, but kids really do enjoy them. What I like about them is they seem to be more peaceful, and it's a great way to simmer the kids down when they get wound up a little too much.

Winnie the Pooh (the original) -Everyone knows about the cuddly bear named Pooh. This series doesn't really seem to fit any one category, but this is such a classic cartoon that I had to put it on my page. I don't care for the cartoon they have on today, it is nothing like the short videos that Disney put out in 1966-1968. It doesn't even come close to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh that started in the late nineties. The books were published in 1926 by A.A Milne, and the first 7 videos came directly from the book. The Honey Tree became a Disney motion picture in 1966, then The Blustery Day (which won an Academy Award) in 1968.

Sesame Street (1969- ) won 7 primetime Emmys and another 132 wins, 183 nominations.

Elmo (a furry red monster that everyone knows and loves), Big Bird, and Ernie are just a handful of the great characters from this classic tv show. There are puppets and humans that live on a special inner-city street. They teach all kinds of preschool subjects, with a letter and number of the day. Kids watch the videos intently, and love to sing along with the simple yet great songs. Since about 1982 Kevin Clash did the voice of lovable Elmo, and soon after started doing Elmos World which seemed to break out in a huge wave over the country. I will never forget watching Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and all the other wonderful characters, when I was a kid.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was first published in 1994 by Penguin, and has recently been singled out among health experts for teaching important messages about eating habits. It is captivating to young children (ages 0-3)because of the bright style of his art, and the quick moving storyline.

Here's the story: An egg lays on a leaf and then it hatches. A caterpillar emerges and is hungry so Monday-Friday he eats a lot of fruit, but on Saturday he eats a bunch of junk food and gets a stomach-ache! On Sunday, he eats a leaf, then feels better. He makes a cocoon, then comes out a beautiful butterfly.

Curious George -the first seven books of this series was published in 1941 by H.A and Margaret Reye, and Houghton Mifflin continues to sell these. I love the original ones, they are definitely classics.. Every story seems to teach an important lesson. One of the most widely known of these is the one where he learns to ride a bike. There is also one where he gets to help in an ice-cream shop. The little adventures that George has will pull kids, of any age or gender, right into his life. Everyone wants to see what George will do next, because so many interesting things happen to him. If you have never watched the cartoon on PBS Kids, it really captures the stories well, and the movie is great too, but they wouldn't be around if it wasn't for the wonderful job these great authors/illustrators did.

This is a link to a great review of an exhibit in honor of the Reyes. It has original sketches, and talks about how the Reyes escaped from Germany to America.

Good Night Moon- It is a great bedtime story, and is easy for kids to follow. You will read this and think: This is really kind of boring , but yet it is a book that will be requested over and over again.

Where the Wild Things Are is another great classic that was published in 1963. Maurice Sendak won many awards including the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration. She is the only American that was ever awarded this. A live action movie of it just came out, read a great review of it here.

The story is simple, but exciting to a young child. A boy pretending to be a "wild thing", gets a little too rough and is sent to bed. Slowly, a forest begins to grow, and then a sea with a boat. He travels in the boat to this island where these scary, but friendly monsters live. It is a very creative fantasy story, and the way Sendak tells it along with the wonderful artwork, claims the attention of every little boy and girl.

Green Eggs and Ham is my favorite by the well-loved author Dr.Suess. It was published in 1960 by Random House and is easy enough for a four year old to read. The comical story is about Sam-I-Am (some sort of friendly monster?) and his little sidekick that tries to get him to eat green eggs and ham in all kinds of ways. One interesting fact about this book is that there are only 50 words used, and "not" is use 82 times. This might have you believing that the story might be dull and too repetitive, but Dr.Suess uses these words well, and kids like things that are easy to remember and repeat. Here is a great page with loads of links and a video clip. You should check it out.