Best Family Movies – Part 7
Posted on 1 Jan 00:00 
Most people would agree that watching films is one of the most exciting activities besides reading novels, or any other hobbies. Family movies are among the best films one can watch while learning some good and practical lessons they contain.
1984's martial arts drama 'The Karate Kid' is one of the most interesting family films any movie buff would enjoy watching. It is the first film in the Karate Kid movies series franchise and is about a young teenage boy whose teacher trains him in karate to defend himself.
17-year-old Daniel and his mother move from New Jersey to Los Angeles where they meet Mr. Miyagi, the apartment’s handyman. Daniel befriends Ali Mills and Mill’s ex-boyfriend sends other boys from the Cobra Kai dojo to bully Daniel. Eventually, Daniel is challenged to defend himself in a tournament. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel martial arts. Daniel wins the tournament.
Director: John G. Avildsen used the script that Robert Mark Kamen had written to direct the movie.
Main Cast: Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso), Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi), and Elisabeth Shue (Ali Mills).
Awards and Nominations: The Karate Kid was nominated for several roles, including Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Golden Globe Awards, Young Artists Award for Best Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Musical, Comedy, Adventure or Drama, and the Best Actor in a Supporting Role Academy Award. The film won two awards from Young Artists Award for Best Family Motion Picture- Drama and Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Musical, Comedy, Adventure, or Drama.
Audience found 2011's 'We Bought a Zoo', a family comedy-drama an exciting family film to watch. The movie was loosely based on Benjamin Mee’s 2008 memoir 'We Bought a Zoo' .
Benjamin mourned his wife's death for six months when his 14-year-old son Dylan is expelled from school. The family makes a fresh start by buying a new house. They find an old home that has a lion, which forces him to buy a zoo and a fenced property. The zoo-seller sets out with her team to renovate the zoo. On the re-opening day of the zoo, many people arrive, and it is a success.
Director: Cameron Crowe is both the co-writer and the director of We Bought a Zoo film.
Main Cast: Matt Damon, Benjamin Mee, Scarlett Johansson (Kelly Foster), Colin Ford (Dylan Mee), and Maggie Elizabeth Jones (Rosie Mee).
Awards and Nominations: This film received several nominations, including Young Artists Award nominations for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor and Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress Ten and Under. Satellite Awards also nominated the movie for the Best Original Song. Of all the nominations, it managed to win the BMI Award for Film Music Award.
3. Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Most movie buffs will find the 2017 'Beauty and the Beast', a musical romantic fantasy film thrilling to watch. The movie is a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1991 'Beauty and the Beast' animated film that is an adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's 1756 'Beauty and the Beast' fairy tale.
It is about adventures between the lovely Belle and the Beast. An enchantress who disguises herself as an old beggar approaches a castle offers the prince a flower, when he refuses her offer, she casts spells on him, twhuch ransforms him into a beast. The fate of the prince depends on his loving and being loved back before the petals of the flower fall off. If he fails, he will remain a beast forever.
Director: Bill Condon used the screenplay penned by Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos to direct the movie.
Main Cast: Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (the Beast) are the film's protagonists. They work with other actors in the supporting roles to cultivate the movie's plot.
Awards and Nominations: 'Beauty and the Beast' had tremendous commercial and critical success. It received four nominations at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards and two nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards. Satellite Awards, Saturn Awards, and the British Academy Film Awards also nominated the movie for various awards. The 90th Academy Awards saw the film receiving nominations for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. It won the Saturn Award for Best Costume Design and two MTV Movie & TV Awards for Best Actor in Film and the Best Movie of the year, among many other awards. The movie was one of the highest-grossing live-action films in 2017, having grossed $1.2 billion on a buget of $250 million.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
This movie was adapted from J. K. Rowling’s 2000 novel, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire'. It is the fourth installment in the Harry Potter film series franchise and follows 2004's prequel called Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry Potter, is now in his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witch and Wizardry. The film depicts the of Goblet Fire chooses Harry Potter to take part in the Triwizard Tournament.
Director: Mike Newell was Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire movie’s director.
Main Cast: like the three prequels, Harry Potter and the Goblet Fire stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger.
Awards and Nominations: this film is among the most-viewed film in the Harry Potter franchise, following the higher level of maturity and sophistication of its characters, plotline, tone, screenplay, and the performances of the lead actors. It received numerous nominations, including the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design and the Choice Movie Drama Award at the Teens Choice Awards in 2006.
The 'Two Brothers' movie is about Kumal and Sangha, two Indochinese tiger cubs who are separated from their parents but are later reunited a as adults. Aidan McRory, a treasure and big game hunter, who makes money by selling the illegal artifacts and animal parts at auction in Europe. When Kumal and Sangha are born in a temple jungle in Indochina, they are happy. But, their happiness is short-lived when Aidan captures them and takes them to captivity. Though many trials and tribulations, they are reunited, and find their mother. They all live happily in the jungle temple.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud directed the Two Brothers film.
Main Cast: Guy Pearce (Aidan McRory) and Freddie Highmore (Raoul Normandin) are the movie’s starring actors. They work together with a cast of nearly forty characters to create the film’s story.
Awards and Nominations: the records did not reveal any special awards or nominations that the Two Brothers movie garnered. However, it was an average commercial success that grossed $62.2million against the $40million budget.
2014's dark fantasy adventure 'Maleficent' is a reimagining of the 1959 'Sleeping Beauty' Walt Disney’s film. It is loosely based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale, 'Sleeping Beauty'. 'Maleficent' features a fairy called Maleficent, who has a complicated relationship with the prince and the king of a corrupt kingdom. Maleficent, as a young girl, meets Stefan, who gives her what he calls a true love kiss on her sixteenth birthday. Though, when Stefan grows up, he seeks to kill Maleficent. Later, Maleficent’s raven, Diaval, informs her that Stefan's newborn daughter is getting christened. Maleficent arrives, uninvited, at Stefan's castle and places a curse on his daughter Aurora, that at her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel spindle, and fall into a permanent sleep. As the years past, a bond grows between Aurora and Maleficent . But, at sixteen, Aurora pricks her finger despite her father’s precautions to protect her from the curse. Maleficent, cannot undo the curse, and searches for a true love's kiss to save Aurora. Things work out, and Maleficent crowns Aurora the queen of Moor kingdom to unite the two kingdoms.
Director: using Linda Woolverton’s screenplay, Robert Stromberg was able to direct Maleficent film.
Main Cast: the leading actors in the Maleficent movie are Angelina Jolie (Maleficent), Sharlto Copley (Stefan), and Elle Fanning (Aurora). The three main actors are represented by other actors at their young and teen ages.
Awards and Nominations: Maleficent received numerous award nominations, including the Best Costume Design and Best Live Action Family Film Phoenix Film Critics Society awards. It also garnered several awards, including Truly Moving Picture Award by Heartland Film Festival and the Hollywood Film Awards for Hollywood Production Design. Other awards include the Favorite Film and Favorite Family Film awards by People's Choice Awards.
7. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
'20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' is a Technicolor science fiction-adventure film. The movie is based on Jules Verne's 1870 novel 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'. In 1868, the sea is a dangerous place, and sailors talk of a monster (a vicious narwhal) that is terrorizing the seas and sinking ships. Three companions, a naturalist, Professor Pierre Aronnax, his assistant, Conseil, and a professional whaler, Ned Land aboard a warship search for the beast, but it is an engine of destruction: a submarine boat. The men spot the 'monster' which rams their vessel causing them to be capsized. The monster is a metal vessel The Nautilus. Its commander, Captain Nemo, captures the trio. They accompany him on a journey of adventure and discovery as the Nautilus and her occupants travel some '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'.
Director: Richard Fleischer directed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie, which was produced by Walt Disney through Walt Disney Production.
Main Cast: Kirk Douglas (Ned Land), James Mason (Captain Nemo), Paul Lukas (Professor Pierre Aronnax), and Peter Lorre (Conseil).
Awards and Nominations: the movie was both a critical and commercial success. It won two Oscars for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction – Color at the 27th Academy Awards and the Top Ten Films Award at the 1954 National Board of Review Awards. Although it was nominated for the Best Film Editing Academy Award, it lost it.
Conclusion
While a family movie night is a delightful past time, choosing an appropriate movie to watch with the family can be difficult, and content scrutinized carefully. All of the movies are appropriate for family viewing and we recommended.
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