Classic Family Films

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and John Lounsbery · Rated G · 74 min

Three of Milne's stories joined together, with the gentle humor of friends who are each a little foolish and dearly loved anyway. It is a picture of friendship that bears with one another's faults.

For parents: Very mild. Pooh is chased by bees; Piglet is blown away in the wind; a dream song about Heffalumps and Woozles can unsettle little ones. No language or violence of note.

Read it first: Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner

Paddington (2014)

Directed by Paul King · Rated PG (mild action and rude humor) · 95 min

A polite bear from Peru arrives in London with a label asking someone to look after him. The film is about hospitality to the stranger, good manners and a family that learns it is better for having opened its door.

For parents: Slapstick and a villain who wants to stuff Paddington for a museum, with tranquilizer darts, a fall down a shaft and a fire; an earthquake early on kills his uncle; Mr. Brown disguises himself as a cleaning lady and a guard flirts with him (a comic gag); Mrs. Bird drinks a guard under the table in a rum drinking game; mild words ("bloody" once, "dung breath").

Read it first: A Bear Called Paddington

Babe (1995)

Directed by Chris Noonan · Rated G · 92 min

A piglet raised by a sheepdog learns that sheep respond better to courtesy than to bullying. It is a fable about gentleness, humility and a quiet farmer who sees what others laugh at.

For parents: Farm realities: a duck is killed for Christmas dinner (offscreen); wild dogs attack sheep and one ewe dies with a bloody wound; a gun is pointed at Babe; talk of pigs being eaten; mild insults and one "for God's sake."

Charlotte's Web (1973)

Directed by Charles A. Nichols and Iwao Takamoto · Rated G · 94 min

A spider saves a pig with a few well-chosen words. White's story about friendship, sacrifice and the turning seasons of farm life comes through with real tenderness.

For parents: Wilbur is in danger of being killed for meat; Charlotte dies near the end of a natural life (gently handled); a spider eats insects. No language or other concerns.

Read it first: Charlotte's Web

Mary Poppins (1964)

Directed by Robert Stevenson · Rated G · 139 min

A firm, cheerful nanny sets a London household in order, but her real work is turning a busy father's heart back toward his children. It shows that duty and delight are not enemies.

For parents: Very mild. A neighbor fires a rooftop cannon (loud, no harm); cartoon scuffles; a passing joke about a riverside spot "popular with jumpers" when Mr. Banks goes missing; the dated word "Hottentots" for soot-faced sweeps; Mary hiccups after her medicine turns to "rum punch"; the father's sherry and pipe. The nanny's magic is whimsical, not occult.

Robin Hood (1973)

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman · Rated G · 83 min

Disney's animal Sherwood Forest makes the old ballad a comedy about a greedy usurper and the loyal friends of the absent rightful king. The kingdom is set right not by revolution but by the true king's return.

For parents: Comic swordplay and arrows; a noose and an ordered execution that is stopped; Prince John slaps and bullies Sir Hiss; Sir Hiss gets drunk in a barrel of ale for a gag.

Read it first: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Jungle Book (1967)

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman · Rated G · 78 min

A boy raised by wolves is escorted back toward his own kind by a stern panther and a lazy bear. Underneath the songs it is a story about growing up and accepting where you belong.

For parents: Shere Khan the tiger menaces Mowgli; the climactic fight between Baloo and the tiger ends with a sad, tense moment before it resolves; Kaa the snake tries to hypnotize; a burning branch is tied to the tiger's tail.

Read it first: The Jungle Book

Pinocchio (1940)

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske (supervising) · Rated G · 88 min

A wooden boy who wants to be real must learn to be brave, truthful and unselfish. Few films show so plainly how small lies and easy pleasures lead to bondage.

For parents: Real moral danger: boys smoke cigars, drink beer and wreck things on Pleasure Island, then turn into donkeys and are called "jackasses" (frightening); a giant whale attack; a puppet-master locks Pinocchio in a cage and threatens to chop him up for firewood. Some scenes may scare the youngest.

Read it first: The Adventures of Pinocchio

Heidi (1937)

Directed by Allan Dwan · Rated G (1994 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 88 min

A cheerful orphan softens her bitter grandfather on an Alpine mountain and later befriends a sick girl in the city. It shows how innocence and gratitude can thaw a hard heart.

For parents: Very mild. Peter teases Heidi that her grandfather might cut her head off, and the gruff grandfather is briefly menacing early on; a cruel governess breaks Heidi's snow globe out of spite; a Romani character is portrayed negatively and called a "gypsy"; a drunk in a jail cell; pipe smoking.

Read it first: Heidi

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)

Directed by Duwayne Dunham · Rated G · 84 min

Two dogs and a cat cross the mountains to reach the children they love. It is a funny, moving picture of loyalty, and of an old dog teaching a young one to look out for others.

For parents: Mild peril: a fall into a river, a mountain lion, a porcupine, a mudhole; an older dog seems lost near the end. One animal scuffle; no serious injuries shown.

The Land Before Time (1988)

Directed by Don Bluth · Rated G · 69 min

A young dinosaur, orphaned in an earthquake, leads a squabbling band of children to a green valley. It honors a mother's last counsel and shows that a group survives by working together.

For parents: Littlefoot's mother is killed defending him from a large predator (a sad, memorable scene); a T. rex chases the children repeatedly; earthquakes and peril.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Directed by Brian Henson · Rated G · 86 min

Dickens's story, narrated by Gonzo, keeps much of the original language and all of its moral weight: a miser is shown his past, present and future and repents in time.

For parents: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is silent and dark; Scrooge sees his own grave and a future where Tiny Tim has died. Slapstick only otherwise.

Read it first: A Christmas Carol

Peter Pan (1953)

Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske · Rated G · 77 min

Disney's version of Barrie's tale follows Wendy and her brothers to Never Land, where a boy refuses to grow up and a pirate never stops scheming. Its truest moment is Wendy's song about mothers: Never Land is fun, but it has no home in it, and in the end Wendy chooses to go back and grow up.

For parents: Frequent cartoon peril: Hook fires a pistol and a cannon, the children are ordered to walk the plank, and Hook leaves a time bomb for Peter; a jealous Tinker Bell tricks the Lost Boys into shooting at Wendy (she is unhurt); a mermaid is covered only by her hair; pirates drink from a liquor jug. Preview the Indian camp scene: the song "What Makes the Red Man Red," words such as "redskins," "Injuns" and "squaw," and the children smoking a ceremonial pipe are dated caricatures, and a few remarks about girls are sharp-tongued.

Read it first: Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy)

The Little Princess (1939)

Directed by Walter Lang · Rated G (1995 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 93 min

Shirley Temple plays Sara Crewe, who goes from favorite pupil to attic servant when word comes that her father has died in the Boer War. She keeps her manners, her kindness and her hope, and the film rewards her faithfulness. It changes Burnett's novel freely (here her father is alive, and Queen Victoria appears), which makes a good conversation after reading the book.

For parents: Gentle. Sara grieves at the news of her father's death; Miss Minchin is cruel, makes Sara a servant, and accuses her and Becky of stealing and calls the police; wounded and shell-shocked soldiers are seen in a hospital (nothing graphic); Sara loses her temper and dumps ashes on a taunting girl; some kissing between a young couple.

Read it first: A Little Princess

The Kid Brother (1927)

Directed by Ted Wilde (with J. A. Howe) · Not rated (silent film) · 84 min

Harold Lloyd plays the youngest and slightest son of a sheriff with two burly older boys. Laughed at and left behind, he wins through by wit, pluck and stubborn love for his father, and the slapstick is built so cleverly that young children follow it without a word of dialogue.

For parents: Silent slapstick. A traveling showman humiliates Harold and ties him up; a medicine-show wagon burns; townspeople turn on the sheriff and there is talk of lynching; on an abandoned ship a brutish strongman turns on his partner and chases Harold through dark passages (brief menace); fistfights, ending with Harold beating the town bully.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Directed by Ken Annakin · Rated G (1968 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 126 min

A shipwrecked family builds a home from what Providence and their own hands supply. It is a joyful picture of a father and mother raising sons to work, invent, protect and give thanks.

For parents: Pirate attacks with sword fights, cannons and shooting (little blood; a wounded arm in a sling); a tiger attack and a snake scene; a son is allowed a sip of wine at Christmas; brothers joke about missing girls.

Read it first: The Swiss Family Robinson

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Directed by Michael Anderson · Rated G (1983 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 182 min

A precise English gentleman wagers his fortune that he can circle the globe on schedule. The film is a grand tour of the nineteenth-century world and of a man whose word is his bond.

For parents: Mild action: a widow is rescued from being burned on her husband's funeral pyre in India; an attack on a train in the American West uses dated portrayals of Native Americans; fistfights; smoking and social drinking. Long (just over three hours).

Read it first: Around the World in Eighty Days

The Black Stallion (1979)

Directed by Carroll Ballard · Rated G · 118 min

A boy and a wild Arabian horse survive a shipwreck and learn to trust each other on a desert island; later an old trainer helps them race. Much of it is told almost without words, through patience and attention.

For parents: An intense shipwreck: a fire, panicking passengers, a man cuts a boy's life jacket from him, and the boy's father is lost; the boy is alone on the island and faces a snake; "by God" once; some smoking and drinking.

Anne of Green Gables (1985)

Directed by Kevin Sullivan · Not rated (TV miniseries) · 199 min

An orphan with a vast imagination and a quick temper wins over the brother and sister who meant to adopt a boy. A faithful, beautiful adaptation about growing up, apologizing and keeping friends for life.

For parents: Mild. Anne's early foster home is emotionally abusive (harsh shouting and insults); Anne accidentally gets her friend drunk on currant wine mistaken for cordial, and the girl is sick; a teacher's improper flirtation with a teenage pupil leads to his dismissal; a little girl nearly dies of croup; some peril (a roof, a sinking boat); Matthew dies late in the story. Shown on TV in two parts.

Read it first: Anne of Green Gables

Old Yeller (1957)

Directed by Robert Stevenson · Rated G · 84 min

With his father away on a cattle drive, a Texas boy becomes the man of the house with the help of a stray dog. The ending teaches that love sometimes requires the hardest duty.

For parents: A dog dies: Old Yeller contracts rabies and the boy must shoot him (the shot is offscreen). Animal fights with wolves, a bear and wild hogs; Travis is gored by a hog and bloodied.

Read it first: Old Yeller

Black Beauty (1994)

Directed by Caroline Thompson · Rated G · 88 min

A horse tells his own life story, passing from good masters to cruel ones and back again. It shows how character shows in the way people treat creatures that can't speak for themselves.

For parents: Horses are mistreated (whipping, overwork); a stable fire; the horse Ginger dies (her body is carted away, not shown dying).

Read it first: Black Beauty

The Sound of Music (1965)

Directed by Robert Wise · Rated G · 174 min

A postulant from Nonnberg Abbey becomes governess to a widowed captain's seven children and brings music back to the house as Austria falls to the Nazis. It honors vocation, family and the courage to refuse an evil regime.

For parents: Nazi soldiers search the abbey and one character holds another at gunpoint; "Heil Hitler" salutes; a teen romance and a gentle kiss; some drinking and smoking.

In Search of the Castaways (1962)

Directed by Robert Stevenson · Rated G (1969 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 98 min

Two children, a French professor and a Scottish lord set out across South America, Australia and New Zealand to find a lost sea captain. Based on Verne, it is a boys'-own adventure about perseverance and loyalty.

For parents: Adventure peril: an earthquake sends the party down a mountain on a glacier, a condor seizes a boy, a flood and lightning storm, a jaguar, mutineers, a volcano. The party is captured by Maori warriors portrayed as cannibals (a dated portrayal). Note: no detailed parents guide exists for this film in Plugged In, Kids-In-Mind, Common Sense Media or Decent Films, and IMDb's guide is empty; this note is drawn from the published plot summary and reviews, and the film carries a G (1969) U.S. re-rating and a PG "low level violence" listing on Apple TV Australia.

The Railway Children (1970)

Directed by Lionel Jeffries · Rated G · 110 min

When their father is taken away under false charges, three children and their mother move to a cottage by a Yorkshire railway. The children's small acts of courage and kindness slowly set things right.

For parents: The father's arrest is upsetting; a boy breaks his leg in a tunnel (some blood); a maid slaps a boy; a doctor hides a flask; a married couple go to bed (nothing shown).

Read it first: The Railway Children

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki · Rated PG (fantasy action violence and peril) · 124 min

A mining-town boy and a girl with a mysterious crystal race soldiers and sky pirates to a floating city. It is a warning about power without goodness, and a story of two children who will not abandon each other.

For parents: Frequent shooting, cannon fire and explosions; the villain falls to his death; soldiers are lost when the city breaks apart; a street brawl played for comedy. Near the end the heroine gives a short speech about living rooted in the earth that Decent Films calls "animist-leaning"; it is brief and not a theme of the film.

Ratatouille (2007)

Directed by Brad Bird · Rated G · 111 min

A rat with a gift for cooking hides under the hat of a clumsy kitchen boy in Paris. It celebrates excellent work and craft, and shows how a lie, even with good motives, has to come out.

For parents: Remy is chased by a shotgun-firing old woman and knife-throwing cooks; a scary sewer escape; a rat nearly drowned in a jar; a shop window of dead rats in traps; the head chef plies Linguini with wine until he is tipsy; Linguini's out-of-wedlock parentage is a plot point, handled discreetly; "bloody" once and mild insults.

Up (2009)

Directed by Pete Docter · Rated PG (some peril and action) · 96 min

A grieving widower ties balloons to his house and flies to South America, only to discover a stowaway Scout on the porch. It shows a man learning that love for the dead is honored by loving the living.

For parents: The opening montage shows a marriage, a miscarriage (the couple learn they cannot have children), and the wife's illness and death; the villain tries to kill the heroes and falls to his death; dog attacks; gunfire.

Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

Directed by Walter Lang · Not rated · 85 min

The true story of efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, his wife Lillian and their twelve children in the 1920s. It is funny and affectionate about a large family run with order, discipline and love.

For parents: The father's death near the end is sudden (offscreen) and changes the tone; a teen daughter's mild flirtation; a couple of mild insults ("jackass").

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Directed by Andrew Adamson · Rated PG (battle sequences and frightening moments) · 143 min

Four children step through a wardrobe into a land under endless winter, where a brother's betrayal is answered by a lion's sacrifice and resurrection. Lewis's Christian imagery stands at the center, faithfully filmed.

For parents: The London Blitz opens the film; the witch imprisons and threatens Edmund; Aslan is bound, mocked and killed on the Stone Table (not gory but sad); large battle scenes with little blood.

Read it first: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Captains Courageous (1937)

Directed by Victor Fleming · Rated G (1973 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 117 min

A spoiled rich boy falls off an ocean liner and is pulled aboard a Gloucester fishing schooner, where a Portuguese fisherman teaches him to work and to tell the truth. One of the great films about a boy becoming a man.

For parents: A boy falls overboard; a crewman is badly injured and dies; a beloved character dies at sea, which is very sad; fish are gutted on deck; smoking and drinking.

Read it first: Captains Courageous

Johnny Tremain (1957)

Directed by Robert Stevenson · Not rated (Approved) · 80 min

A proud apprentice silversmith in Boston burns his hand, loses his trade, and finds a new purpose with the Sons of Liberty. It brings the Boston Tea Party and Lexington and Concord vividly to life.

For parents: Johnny's hand is burned in molten silver, and the crippled hand is shown when the bandage comes off; he is falsely accused of theft and tried; gunfire at Lexington and Concord, with many fallen soldiers shown but no gore; some name-calling.

Read it first: Johnny Tremain

Little Women (1949)

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy · Not rated · 121 min

The four March sisters grow up in Massachusetts while their father serves in the Civil War. A warm, faithful version of Alcott's story about sisterhood, sacrifice, ambition and growing into grace.

For parents: Mild. Worry for the father at war; Beth falls ill with scarlet fever and later dies; chaste romance and talk of marriage.

Read it first: Little Women

Scrooge (U.S. title: A Christmas Carol) (1951)

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst · Not rated · 87 min

Alastair Sim's Scrooge is widely regarded as the definitive film portrayal: a miser whose repentance on Christmas morning is believable and full of joy.

For parents: Marley's ghost and the graveyard scene with the final spirit may frighten younger viewers; a drunk man jokes about beating his wife; casual drinking.

Read it first: A Christmas Carol

Lassie Come Home (1943)

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox · Rated G · 89 min

A poor Yorkshire family sells their collie to a duke, and the dog crosses Scotland and England to return to the boy she loves. It shows loyalty and a family's honesty in hard times.

For parents: Lassie is shot at, attacked by dogs and injured; two men beat a kindly peddler and kill his little dog; pipe smoking.

Read it first: Lassie Come-Home

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

Directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner and Simon Wells · Rated PG (intense depiction of thematic elements) · 99 min

An animated retelling of Exodus that takes God's power and Pharaoh's hardness seriously, from the basket on the Nile to the parting of the sea. The film invents a brotherly bond between Moses and Rameses and makes their break the heart of the story, so read Exodus first and then talk about where the film follows Scripture and where it imagines.

For parents: Pharaoh's soldiers take Hebrew babies from their mothers and throw them to waiting crocodiles (in the opening, and again in murals and a nightmare); slaves are whipped and beaten, and a taskmaster falls to his death from a scaffold; the plagues are vivid, and the death of the firstborn, including Rameses' young son, is shown in a shadowy sequence; Egypt's army drowns in the sea; Pharaoh's priests perform their tricks in a menacing song. Men wear loincloths, Moses is scrubbed by servants (covered), and there is a comic glimpse of Rameses' backside. Departures from Exodus: Moses is adopted by Pharaoh's wife rather than his daughter and raised as Rameses' close brother; he learns he is Hebrew as a grown man, from Miriam (in Exodus 2 his own mother nurses him); his killing of the taskmaster is shown as an accidental push (Exodus 2:12 says he looked this way and that and struck him down); his slowness of speech and Aaron's role as his spokesman are left out, and Aaron is shown doubting; Tzipporah first appears as a captive at the palace; the film ends at Sinai with the tablets.

Read it first: The Bible (Exodus 1–20)

The Miracle Maker (1999)

Directed by Derek W. Hayes and Stanislav Sokolov · Not rated · 90 min

A stop-motion life of Christ, with Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Jesus, told largely through the eyes of Jairus and his sick daughter. It is reverent and close to the Gospels, from the Sermon on the Mount through the Crucifixion to a joyful Resurrection, and the parables are told in hand-drawn animation.

For parents: Mary Magdalene's torment and deliverance from demons, and the devil's temptation in the wilderness, are intense for young children; the Crucifixion is restrained but sad; John the Baptist's death is reported. Departures from the Gospels: Jairus's daughter is given a name (Tamar), and her family is placed at many events, including the road to Calvary; Jesus is first seen working on a synagogue in Sepphoris; a priest named Ben Azra is invented; Judas is a former follower of the zealot Barabbas who turns on Jesus, fearing he is a false messiah who will bring Roman reprisals (a political motive the Gospels do not give); Mary Magdalene is joined with the sinful woman forgiven in Luke 7, a long tradition the text does not state; events are rearranged and dialogue invented.

Read it first: The Bible (the Gospel of Luke)

National Velvet (1944)

Directed by Clarence Brown · Rated G (1971 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 123 min

Twelve-year-old Velvet Brown wins an unruly horse in a raffle and sets her heart on the Grand National. The film is warm about family life, especially Velvet's wise and steady mother, and it honors hard work and a girl's courage, then lets her turn down fame because the horse, not the glory, was the point.

For parents: Very mild. Horses and riders fall in the race, and Velvet collapses after the finish; she faints easily and is frightened when her horse falls ill; Mi, a drifter, plans to steal the family's money but returns it, and later gets drunk at a pub and staggers; we hear that a jockey died in a past collision; pipe smoking. Velvet disguises herself as a boy jockey to ride and is disqualified when found out.

The Yearling (1946)

Directed by Clarence Brown · Rated G (1971 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 128 min

A boy on a poor Florida farm in 1878 adopts an orphaned fawn and must learn, as the fawn grows and ruins the family's crops, that love sometimes requires a terrible obedience. Gregory Peck's gentle Penny Baxter is one of the screen's great fathers, and the film is honest about the cost of growing up.

For parents: Preview the ending with sensitive children: when the grown deer keeps destroying the corn, Jody's mother wounds it with a shotgun and Jody must shoot it himself to end its suffering; he runs away in grief and is found unconscious in a canoe. Earlier, a bear fights the dogs and one dog is badly hurt; Penny is bitten by a rattlesnake and kills a doe to treat the bite; Jody's young friend Fodderwing dies; neighbors brawl. Pipe smoking.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Directed by George Seaton · Not rated (Approved) · 96 min

A kindly old man who says he is Santa Claus is hired by Macy's, wins over a skeptical single mother and her serious little girl, and ends up in court defending his sanity. Beneath the comedy is a gentle argument that some good things must be believed before they are seen.

For parents: Very mild. The parade's first Santa is drunk, and another character is drunk later; Kris strikes a scheming store psychologist on the head with his cane; Kris is sent to Bellevue and has to prove his sanity in court; Doris is divorced, and Fred befriends her daughter before he meets her (unremarkable in 1947, but a good moment to talk about strangers); much cigar and pipe smoking.

The General (1926)

Directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton · Not rated (silent film) · 79 min

Buster Keaton's silent masterpiece follows a Georgia railroad engineer who chases his stolen locomotive, and his kidnapped sweetheart, deep behind enemy lines. The stunts are real and astonishing, and Keaton's hero never panics: he keeps thinking, working and trying again.

For parents: Silent slapstick with wartime action: a long train chase, cannon fire, a large battle scene with soldiers falling, and a burning bridge that collapses under a locomotive; Johnnie knocks out an officer. Set in the Civil War and told from the Confederate side, with Union soldiers as the villains, which older children may want to talk over. Running times vary by version.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Directed by Frank Capra · Not rated · 131 min

Prayers for a despairing man are answered by an angel who shows him what his town would have been without him. It is a profound picture of vocation: a life spent faithfully in small duties is not a wasted life.

For parents: George considers ending his life on a bridge; as a boy, George is slapped hard by the grieving druggist, who is drunk; George drinks in despair and crashes his car into a tree; Uncle Billy is often tipsy; a short fistfight; George loses his temper at home and frightens his children; flirtatious Violet; the exclamation "Joseph, Jesus and Mary"; mention of wartime deaths.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

Directed by Hugh Hudson · Rated PG · 124 min

Two British runners at the 1924 Olympics run for different reasons: one to prove himself, the other, Eric Liddell, because "when I run, I feel His pleasure." Liddell's refusal to race on the Lord's Day is one of cinema's great acts of conscience.

For parents: Mild. Some "bloody" and "hell"; the French are called "frogs," and Harold Abrahams faces prejudice as a Jew; a brief glimpse of rear nudity; mention of a theater performer who must quit because she is pregnant; social drinking and smoking; the closing titles note Liddell's death in occupied China.

Ben-Hur (1959)

Directed by William Wyler · Rated G (1969 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 212 min

Subtitled "A Tale of the Christ," it follows a Jewish prince betrayed by a Roman friend in the first century A.D., through the galleys and the chariot race, to the foot of the cross, where hatred is finally washed away.

For parents: Galley slaves whipped and chained; a naval battle with bloodied water and a man missing a hand; a brutal chariot race in which a man is trampled and badly torn; lepers in a dungeon; the Crucifixion shown with nails and blood; a dance with scantily clad women in Rome. Very long (over 3½ hours with intermission).

The Miracle Worker (1962)

Directed by Arthur Penn · Not rated · 106 min

Annie Sullivan arrives to teach the deaf and blind Helen Keller and fights the family's pity as much as the child's wildness. A powerful case for loving discipline and for language as the door to the mind.

For parents: Long, intense physical struggles between teacher and child (Helen's tantrums and a famous dining-room fight). No language, sexual content or drinking noted.

Read it first: The Story of My Life (Helen Keller)

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Directed by Simon Langton · Not rated (BBC miniseries, six episodes) · 327 min

The long BBC adaptation lets Austen's comedy breathe: a clever young woman and a proud man must each see their own faults before they can see each other truly.

For parents: Low necklines; a brief flashback of Wickham with a scantily dressed woman on his lap; Lydia's elopement and scenes of her in bed with Wickham, fully clothed; Mrs. Bennet and Lydia get tipsy; frequent "Lord!"

Read it first: Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Directed by Ang Lee · Rated PG (mild thematic elements) · 136 min

Two sisters, one restrained and one passionate, face disappointed love and genteel poverty. It shows the strength of self-command, and the cost of giving the heart away too fast.

For parents: Talk of a seduced and abandoned young woman who bore a child; Marianne's grave fever, with a bloodletting scene; a female dog is called a "bitch" in the old sense; social drinking.

Read it first: Sense and Sensibility

Sergeant York (1941)

Directed by Howard Hawks · Not rated (Approved) · 134 min

A brawling Tennessee farmer is converted, becomes a conscientious objector, and then, after wrestling with Scripture, becomes the most decorated American hero of the First World War. It treats faith and duty with rare seriousness.

For parents: Intense World War I combat: soldiers die in gunfire and shell bursts, one is shot in the eye, little blood; Alvin kills several Germans; before his conversion, Alvin's drunken sprees end in violence and he sets out to shoot a man; a man and his horse are thrown by a lightning strike; a few "damn" and "hell"; slang slurs for Germans such as "Heinie."

Shenandoah (1965)

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen · Not rated (Approved) · 105 min

A Virginia widower tries to keep his six sons out of the Civil War until it takes his youngest. It is a hard, moving film about a father's pride, the losses of war, and a man's slow return to God.

For parents: War violence; deserters murder a son and daughter-in-law at the farm (offscreen); a son is shot dead by a teenage sentry; a battle in which a boy is wounded; mild language; cigar smoking.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Directed by Rob Reiner · Rated PG · 98 min

A grandfather reads a sick boy a tale of true love, swordplay and revenge set aside. Beneath the jokes it honors faithfulness, friendship and keeping your word.

For parents: Sword fights, shrieking eels, a giant rat attack, and a torture machine with a man screaming; a villain is killed; a fleeting reference to suicide; one "son of a b----" and one "Jesus!" as an exclamation; Inigo is drunk in one scene; a reference to Buttercup's "perfect breasts"; Westley is shirtless during the torture scene.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Directed by Norman Jewison · Rated G · 181 min

A Jewish milkman in a Russian village tries to hold to tradition as his daughters choose husbands and the Tsar's authorities close in. It is a rich study of faith, fatherhood and where tradition can bend and where it cannot.

For parents: Persecution: soldiers wreck a wedding celebration, a protester is clubbed elsewhere in Russia, and the village is expelled; a girl is bullied by youths; Tevye's comic nightmare features ghostly figures that may frighten small children; Tevye disowns the daughter who marries outside the faith; heavy drinking and a hangover at one celebration.

The Hiding Place (1975)

Directed by James F. Collier · Rated PG · 150 min

The true story of Corrie ten Boom's Dutch Christian family, who hid Jews from the Nazis and were sent to Ravensbrück. Her sister Betsie's faith and forgiveness amid the camp's cruelty is unforgettable.

For parents: Concentration-camp brutality: prisoners beaten, a woman's hand broken with a rifle butt, Betsie whipped and later dies; women prisoners shown nude in a nonsexual processing scene; harsh insults including "whore" and a brief reference to prostitution; a man shot from a roof.

Read it first: The Hiding Place

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Directed by Fred Zinnemann · Not rated (released 1966; Wikidata records a later G) · 120 min

Sir Thomas More will not approve Henry VIII's divorce or his claim to head the Church, and goes to his death in A.D. 1535 rather than swear a false oath. A great film about conscience, law and the integrity of a man's word.

For parents: More's execution (not graphic); some drinking. No language or sexual content.

Secondhand Lions (2003)

Directed by Tim McCanlies · Rated PG (thematic material, language and action violence) · 111 min

A shy boy left with two eccentric great-uncles on a Texas farm learns their legendary past and receives a speech about what a man should believe in: honor, courage, virtue and that love is worth it.

Why 12+: Strong language for a family film (about two dozen "hell" and "damn," plus "bastard" and a crude word for breasts) and a boy beaten by his mother's boyfriend. Preview first.
For parents: Preview first. Language: about two dozen uses of "hell" and "damn" (mostly from Hub), plus "crap," "ass," "bastard," "pisses off," a crude word for breasts and "oh my God." Violence: the mother's boyfriend pins Walter down and beats him; the uncles shoot at salesmen to scare them off; swashbuckling flashback battles with swordplay; Hub fights off four knife-wielding young toughs. The boy's mother lies to him and leaves him with strangers; smoking, chewing tobacco and beer.

Great Expectations (1946)

Directed by David Lean · Not rated (Approved) · 118 min

An orphan blacksmith's boy is made a gentleman by a secret benefactor and grows ashamed of the people who loved him. Lean's version is one of the best Dickens films ever made.

For parents: A frightening graveyard opening where a convict threatens Pip; an abusive older sister; Miss Havisham's decaying room; a tense river climax with a death; brief fistfight.

Read it first: Great Expectations

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Directed by Peter Jackson · Rated PG-13 · 178 min

A hobbit is entrusted with a ring of absolute power that must be destroyed, not used. Tolkien's Catholic vision of mercy, humble duty and fellowship against despair comes through strongly.

For parents: Intense battle violence with swords and arrows (an important character dies pierced by arrows); frightening Ringwraiths and orcs; a wizard duel; pipe smoking and drinking; a nude statue in the background. Theatrical cut; extended edition runs longer.

Read it first: The Lord of the Rings

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Directed by Robert Mulligan · Not rated · 129 min

A small-town lawyer in 1930s Alabama defends a Black man falsely accused of rape, while his children learn about courage, conscience and their mysterious neighbor. Atticus Finch is a portrait of a father of integrity.

For parents: The trial concerns a false rape accusation, discussed in court, with Mayella's bruises described and abuse by her father implied; the "N" word is used about five times (Atticus rebukes it) and "a--" once; a lynch mob at the jail; Tom is shot dead offscreen while trying to escape; a rabid dog is shot; the children are attacked at night and Jem's arm is broken; Boo Radley kills Bob Ewell with a knife (offscreen); a drunk antagonist.

Read it first: To Kill a Mockingbird

Shane (1953)

Directed by George Stevens · Not rated · 118 min

A gunfighter trying to leave his past works for a homesteading family and finally stands between them and a cattle baron's hired killer. It shows a boy's hero worship and a man who defends the weak at his own cost.

For parents: Fistfights and realistic, though not gory, shootings with fatalities; saloon drinking and men humiliating Shane for ordering soda; a wife's quiet attraction to Shane is shown but never acted on.

Read it first: Shane

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille · Rated G · 220 min

DeMille's epic of Moses, from the Nile to Sinai, presents the Exodus with grandeur and reverence: God hears the cry of His people, and law is given to free men.

For parents: Hebrew slaves are whipped and some killed; Moses kills Baka, the master builder, after Baka tries to force himself on Lilia; Nefretiri kills a servant who knows Moses' birth; the death of the firstborn (offscreen, though a boy's body is shown); the golden-calf revels are suggestive but not explicit; glamorous costumes; "hell" once. Very long (with intermission).

Read it first: The Bible (Exodus)

Les Misérables (1935)

Directed by Richard Boleslawski · Not rated (Approved) · 103 min

A convict shown mercy by a bishop spends his life repaying it, hunted by a policeman who knows only the law. Hugo's great Christian drama of grace against legalism, compressed into one tight film.

For parents: Galley-slave brutality and barricade fighting, mild by modern standards (The New Yorker's 1935 review called both "very mild"); Fantine's ruin is softened (her prostitution is omitted, though her dress hints at her desperation) and she dies; Valjean spares Javert at the barricade; the film ends with Javert's suicide by drowning. Note: no parents guide gives scene detail for this 1935 version; this note relies on the published plot summary and contemporary review.

Read it first: Les Misérables

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Directed by Henry King · Not rated (Approved) · 155 min

The true story of Bernadette Soubirous, the poor, asthmatic girl of Lourdes who in 1858 reported visions of a lady at a grotto and held to her account through ridicule, interrogation and years of church inquiry. It is a reverent Catholic film about humility and suffering borne quietly; Protestant families will find much to discuss about miracles and the honor given to Mary.

For parents: Very mild. Bernadette is ridiculed, threatened by officials and nearly declared insane; a nun treats her with harsh suspicion; she hides a painful tuberculosis of the bone and dies at the end in a moving deathbed scene; a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of her backside as she lifts her skirt to cross a stream; casual smoking. Long (about two and a half hours).

Going My Way (1944)

Directed by Leo McCarey · Not rated (Approved) · 126 min

Bing Crosby plays Father O'Malley, a young priest sent to rescue a debt-ridden New York parish without wounding the pride of its elderly pastor. The Best Picture of 1944 is a warm comedy about patience, tact and turning a street gang into a boys' choir, and its last scene is one of the most touching in old Hollywood.

For parents: Very mild. A boy slaps another for laughs; the old pastor keeps a hidden bottle and shares a drink with Father O'Malley; a young woman who has run away is suspected of living with a young man (they turn out to be married); O'Malley meets the girl he left behind to become a priest; boys steal a turkey; a fire badly damages the church.

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

Directed by Leo McCarey · Not rated (Approved) · 126 min

Father O'Malley returns, this time at a run-down parish school led by Ingrid Bergman's determined Sister Benedict. Priest and nun disagree, pray and scheme to save the school, and the film shows holiness in ordinary things: obedience, a hard grade honestly given, and suffering accepted without bitterness.

For parents: Mild, with one adult theme: a mother abandoned by her husband hints that she has done things she is ashamed of to support her daughter, and the girl mistakes her returning father for a stranger kissing her mother. Two schoolboys fight and one is bloodied; Sister Benedict teaches a boy to box and is accidentally hit; a man nearly falls in front of a truck; a nun's tuberculosis is kept from her for a time; a cigar.

Lilies of the Field (1963)

Directed by Ralph Nelson · Not rated (Approved) · 94 min

A drifting handyman stops at a poor Arizona farm for water and is coaxed, prayed and bullied by a group of refugee nuns into building them a chapel. Sidney Poitier won the Oscar for this small, funny film about pride, good work freely given, and the way God uses stubborn people.

For parents: Very mild. A few crass expressions and one "damn"; some racist remarks; Homer gets drunk after a quarrel and comes back hungover; shirtless washing scenes; adult drinking.

Henry V (1944)

Directed by Laurence Olivier · Not rated (Approved) · 136 min

Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare begins on the stage of the Globe and opens out onto the field of Agincourt. It is the best introduction to Shakespeare's histories for a teenager: a young king who has put away his wild youth, the burdens of command, the St. Crispin's Day speech, and a battle won against the odds.

For parents: Mild. Stylized battle scenes with arrows and charging knights but almost no blood; the French kill the English baggage boys (the aftermath and grief are shown); Falstaff's death is described; old-fashioned insults among the comic soldiers; a chaste courtship and kiss at the end. Shakespeare's language will need some preparation.

Read it first: Henry V

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Directed by Harold Young · Not rated (Approved) · 94 min

Leslie Howard plays Sir Percy Blakeney, an English nobleman who poses as a silly fop while secretly rescuing French families from the guillotine during the Terror. It is a story about hidden courage, about a marriage strained by mistrust and healed by sacrifice, and about the difference between justice and a mob's revenge.

For parents: Mild. The threat of the guillotine hangs over the story, and Percy is led out to a firing squad (a ruse); Marguerite's past part in a family's arrest and execution is discussed; low-cut gowns; the minced oath "demmed" is used often and "ten thousand hells" once; social drinking.

Read it first: The Scarlet Pimpernel

Monsieur Vincent (1947)

Directed by Maurice Cloche · Not rated · 114 min

Pierre Fresnay won the best-actor prize at Venice for his St. Vincent de Paul, the seventeenth-century French priest who used his growing standing among the wealthy to build lasting works of charity for the sick, the poor and abandoned children. Filmed in stark black and white, it shows charity as hard, unglamorous work for people who are not always grateful, and a saint as blunt with the idle rich as with the idle poor. The Vatican included it on its 1995 list of great films.

Why 12+: A fleeting war montage includes a glimpse of a rape (nothing explicit).
For parents: A brief war montage includes a fleeting glimpse of a rape (nothing explicit). Other violence is brief: when Vincent arrives in his first parish, villagers terrified of plague hurl stones from their windows, and the town is stricken by plague. Poverty, hunger and sickness are shown without softening, including a tuberculosis sufferer and foundlings left in church doorways. IMDb viewers note a nursing mother's breast seen for a few seconds. Neither Decent Films nor the IMDb guide notes any profanity. In French; look for a subtitled edition.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki · Rated G · 86 min

Two sisters move to the country while their mother recovers in hospital, and the film simply lets them look: at rain, camphor trees, rice fields and a kindly neighbor. It honors patience, sisterly care and the ordinary goodness of a family waiting together.

Why 12+: Brief child nudity in a family bath scene, and Japanese folk spirituality (forest spirits, a revered tree) runs through the film.
For parents: Gentle. The father and his two daughters share a Japanese family bath (nonsexual, brief cartoon nudity, including a child's bare bottom); the mother's illness causes worry; the younger sister goes missing and the adults fear she has drowned in a pond (she is found safe). Japanese folk spirituality runs through the film: forest spirits, a great camphor tree the family greets, and the father's advice to laugh the soot sprites away. The creatures are friendly, but very small children may find them strange.

Ponyo (2008)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki · Rated G · 101 min

A loose retelling of the little-mermaid tale in which a five-year-old boy keeps a promise to a strange little fish-girl. It shows that love is proved by faithfulness, and it takes the sea seriously in both its beauty and its power.

Why 12+: Ponyo's mother is presented as a sea goddess whom sailors pray to, and her father is a sorcerer.
For parents: A storm and flood scene with peril; a boy nearly drowns following Ponyo into the sea; a mother drives fast in the storm and leaves two small children home alone at night; mild name-calling and a recurring "bug off." Ponyo's mother is portrayed as a sea goddess (sailors pray to her) and her father as a potion-making sorcerer who speaks scornfully of humans for fouling the sea. This is fairy-tale myth rather than occult practice, but worth a word with children.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Directed by Victor Fleming · Rated G (1970 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 102 min

Dorothy's journey shows three friends discovering they already have the brains, heart and courage they thought someone else had to give them, and a girl learning to love home.

Why 12+: Witches drive the story, including a "good witch" who guides Dorothy with magic, and the Wicked Witch's scenes are frightening.
For parents: The Wicked Witch and her flying monkeys are truly frightening for small children; a realistic tornado; a witch is crushed by a house (offscreen) and another melts. Glinda, "the Good Witch of the North," is a kindly guide who works by magic and sends Dorothy home with it, so the film does not treat every witch as evil; the Wicked Witches themselves are plainly evil and defeated.

Read it first: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Toy Story (1995)

Directed by John Lasseter · Rated G · 81 min

A favorite toy grows jealous of a new arrival and has to learn to share his place. It is a funny, honest look at envy, humility and loyalty.

Why 12+: Mild profanity ("damn"), double-meaning jokes, and a neighbor boy's grotesque mangled toys.
For parents: A neighbor boy tortures and blows up toys and keeps creepy "mutant" toys made from mangled parts; toys in peril; mild language ("damn" infrequently, "idiot," "shut up"); Bo Peep's flirting and some double-meaning jokes adults will catch; Buzz acts tipsy at a tea party; a dad is shown asleep by beer cans.

Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)

Directed by Norman Tokar · Rated G · 97 min

An Ozark boy works two years to buy a pair of coonhound pups and trains them into champions. It honors hard work, prayer, family and the cost of love.

Why 12+: Several uses of "hell" and "damn," a boy's death on an axe, and the dogs' deaths after a mountain-lion fight.
For parents: A boy dies after falling on an axe during a fight; both dogs die after a mountain lion attack, which is hard on anyone who has lost a pet; hunting scenes; several uses of "hell" and "damn"; a boy chews tobacco.

Read it first: Where the Red Fern Grows

The Secret Garden (1993)

Directed by Agnieszka Holland · Rated G · 101 min

A sour orphan and her spoiled, bedridden cousin are both made well by bringing a locked garden back to life. It is a parable of how work, fresh air and friendship heal what self-pity ruins.

Why 12+: A nighttime chant to "great magic" around a bonfire, invented for the film, and brief undress of a young girl that viewers report.
For parents: Late in the film the children dance around a bonfire at night chanting to a "great magic" to bring Colin's father home; the bonfire scene is the film's invention (the novel gives Colin his own sayings about "Magic," but has the children end by singing the Doxology, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow"). IMDb viewers report Mary briefly seen in her underclothes while changing and a brief glimpse of a young girl's bare chest (Kids-In-Mind lists no nudity). Mary's parents die in an earthquake in India, with fire and screaming; Colin has screaming tantrums and is obsessed with dying; a slap in the face; Mary is shunned at first.

Read it first: The Secret Garden

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Directed by Ken Hughes · Rated G · 145 min

An inventor father tells his children a story about a flying car and a kingdom that has outlawed children. Under the whimsy is a picture of a widowed father's devotion and the value of children.

Why 12+: A sensual dance in period undergarments and stockings, the Baron's comic attempts to kill his wife, and the frightening Child Catcher.
For parents: The Child Catcher is genuinely frightening for young children; children are caged in a dungeon; the Baron makes comic attempts to kill his wife (shooting at her, a falling stake) and threatens Grandpa Potts with grisly punishments; cartoonish crashes; a woman's sensual dance in vintage undergarments and stockings, with cleavage and much leg; one "ass"; a party scene with drinking and smoking.

Treasure Island (1950)

Directed by Byron Haskin · Rated PG · 96 min

Disney's first fully live-action feature puts Jim Hawkins on a ship with charming, treacherous Long John Silver. It is a rousing study of how a boy can like a man and still have to refuse what he does.

Why 12+: Bloody pirate fights with point-blank shootings and stabbings, and heavy drinking.
For parents: Pirate violence: shootings (one point-blank), stabbings, and Jim is pinned by a thrown knife; several characters die in bloody fights; heavy drinking among the crew, and Billy Bones drinks against doctor's orders; a drunk sailor goes overboard; "ass" twice in the sense of "fool," otherwise only pirate-style oaths.

Read it first: Treasure Island

The Sandlot (1993)

Directed by David Mickey Evans · Rated PG (some language and kids chewing tobacco) · 102 min

A shy new boy is welcomed onto a neighborhood ball team in the summer of 1962. It is a warm picture of friendship and of the leader who makes room for the newcomer.

Why 12+: Frequent schoolyard profanity and boys ogling a lifeguard.
For parents: Preview recommended: frequent schoolyard language, including several uses of "s--t" and "son of a b----"; boys ogle a lifeguard and one tricks her into a kiss; boys chew tobacco and get sick; a scary dog.

The Iron Giant (1999)

Directed by Brad Bird · Rated PG (tension and potty humor) · 87 min

A lonely boy in 1957 Maine befriends a giant robot built as a weapon, and teaches it that it can choose who it will be. The climax is a striking image of self-sacrifice.

Why 12+: About a dozen mild profanities, a boy drugged by an adult, and large-scale military violence.
For parents: A deer is shot by hunters (a sad moment); the government agent drugs Hogarth unconscious and threatens to take him from his mother; the military attacks the robot with heavy fire and a nuclear missile threatens the town; about a dozen mild profanities ("hell" three times, an "oh my God," "butt") and potty humor, including a laxative gag.

Hugo (2011)

Directed by Martin Scorsese · Rated PG (mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking) · 126 min

An orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station repairs a broken automaton and restores an old man to his forgotten life's work. It is about purpose: everything, and everyone, is made for something.

Why 12+: Suggestive jokes and overheard talk of a wife's affair, and a drowned man's body is briefly shown.
For parents: Hugo's father dies in a museum fire; his uncle is a drunkard who disappears and is later found dead in the river, and a waterlogged body is briefly shown; a station inspector chases orphans with a Doberman and threatens the orphanage; twice Hugo is caught on the tracks before a train, and in one sequence a train derails and plunges through the station; a few mildly suggestive jokes, and overheard phone talk, played for comedy, implying that a man's wife ran off, had an affair and is now expecting a baby that may not be his; "bloody" once; some smoking.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Directed by Richard Fleischer · Rated G · 127 min

Three men captured by Captain Nemo's submarine discover a genius who has turned his gifts to revenge. It raises the question of what a brilliant man owes the rest of mankind.

Why 12+: Talk of torture and killings, men shot and whipped, and mild profanity.
For parents: Ships are rammed and sunk; Nemo says his wife and son were tortured to death; a giant squid attack, a shark and a man shot near the end; brawls; island natives are portrayed crudely as cannibals and driven off by an electrified hull; prisoners are whipped (seen at a distance); Ned gets drunk and jokes about island girls; "hell" once, and viewers report one barely audible stronger curse from Ned near the climax.

Read it first: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

The NeverEnding Story (1984)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen · Rated PG (frightening scenes) · 94 min

A bullied boy hides in a school attic reading a book about a world being swallowed by the Nothing, and discovers the story needs him. It defends imagination, hope and courage against despair.

Why 12+: Statues with bare breasts, a bloody clash with a wolf creature, and intense sorrow and fright; Plugged In judges it heavy for young children.
For parents: The hero's horse sinks in the Swamp of Sadness (a famously sad scene); a snarling wolf creature and a brief bloody clash; bullies chase Bastian; sphinx statues have bare breasts; mild name-calling.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Directed by Steven Spielberg · Rated PG (language and mild thematic elements) · 114 min

A lonely boy in a broken home hides a stranded alien and risks everything to help it go home. It is a story of friendship, sacrifice and brothers who stand together.

Why 12+: Profanity, including "s--t" and "son of a b----," and a crude insult.
For parents: Preview recommended for language: "s--t," "son of a b----," "damn," "oh my God," and the insult "penis breath"; E.T. appears to die; government agents in hazmat suits frighten the children; E.T. drinks beer and Elliott acts tipsy at school.

Pollyanna (1960)

Directed by David Swift · Rated G (1992 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 134 min

An orphaned missionary's daughter comes to live with her wealthy, rigid aunt and changes a whole town with her "glad game." Among other things, it shows a preacher learning to preach the joy, not just the warnings, of the Bible.

Why 12+: The opening shows boys skinny-dipping, with bare backsides.
For parents: Mild. The opening shows boys skinny-dipping, with brief bare backsides; Pollyanna falls while climbing a tree to her window and is left unable to walk for a time, which is sad; a fire-and-brimstone preacher (the film's point is that he learns gentler preaching), a gloomy invalid and a lonely recluse.

Read it first: Pollyanna

The Court Jester (1956)

Directed by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank · Not rated · 101 min

Danny Kaye plays a timid rebel minstrel who must pass himself off as the king's new jester to protect the rightful infant king. It is a loving send-up of swashbucklers, full of patter songs and tongue-twisters ("the pellet with the poison"), and under the comedy a meek man learns to act bravely for a cause bigger than himself.

Why 12+: A scheming court witch who hypnotizes and poisons, a rebel tortured to death offscreen, and flirtation and a decoy seduction played for laughs.
For parents: Comic violence throughout: sword fights, a joust, men catapulted into the sea, knockouts with clubs, a man shot with an arrow; three lords are poisoned, and a rebel is tortured to death offscreen; the plot turns on protecting a baby from a usurper who massacred the royal family (told in narration), and the baby's birthmark is shown on his bare bottom. Griselda, a scheming court witch who poisons and hypnotizes, is a comic schemer, not a heroine, but parents who avoid all witch characters should know she is a running gag. Some flirting and kissing, a decoy seduction of the king that goes nowhere, men in tights and low-cut gowns.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen · Rated G (1975 re-rating; first released as Approved) · 103 min

Hollywood's switch from silent pictures to talkies, told as the happiest of musicals. Gene Kelly's dance in the rain is famous, but the story is about honesty: a vain star takes credit for another woman's voice, and the film insists that the truth come out and the real singer be honored.

Why 12+: The long "Broadway Melody" ballet includes a sultry dance that even admiring critics call suggestive for young viewers.
For parents: Mild. The long "Broadway Melody" ballet includes a sultry, leggy dance that some parents will find suggestive; Don jumps into Kathy's car and flirts pushily when they meet; a film-within-the-film shows a forced kiss; a stuntman is knocked out, and fans tear at Don's clothes; a lyric sung to a young woman ("you're over sweet sixteen"); cake-in-the-face gags; social drinking and smoking.