Childrens films

[*Liz*]

When do you think they become suitable for a LO? I am thinking of the Disney type movies, I guess??

I know one thing is sitting still - and I think J would do that if something had his attention.

But i worry about him getting frightened by some parts, and don't want to expose him to something that would upset him.

Background to this (apart from the long dreary days with nothing much to do) is that we went to the aquarium recently. Jacob loved it. I brought him a pack of plastic fish in the gift shop and he played and played and played with them  . So then I got hold of a copy of Finding Nemo and we watched it. I was so worried he was frightened by the shark bits, but he loved it, and although he did jump and look worried he wanted to watch it again and again. I only let him watch it when was sitting with him to talk him through the scary bits, and never late afternoon. But it really fired his imagination. He made playdoh fish of Nemo and dory, read books about sharks, found any fish in Megans baby toys and wanted them back again.

I bumped into a friend yesterday who was off to the cinema with her 2 boys - age 4.5 and 2.5. Obviously driven by the 4.5 year olds needs, but it just got me wondering when this sort of thing becomes and 'appropriate treat'.

What do others do please??

[Lolly]

I think T was about 2 when I started putting films on for him. If I remember right Disney Cars was one of the first and is still a huge favourite . We have had some that came with books like a Percy the Park Keeper cartoon which is about 30 mins long and just lovely, so ones like that he has watched while I am pottering around.

I had Monsters Inc which he found one day and wanted to watch, I was dubious but we watched that together and he loved it, wasn't scared at all. We can't watch that when DD is around though as she cries as soon as the film starts. I guess she has been exposed to films a lot earlier than him (seems to love Cars too ). I had Beauty and the Beast for Christmas and we have watched that together a couple of times, again he wasn't bothered by the scary bits. The only film that has really bothered him was UP! - he got very upset by the house being broken up, he spent about an hour after seeing it talking through what had happened to every one. He has chosen to watch it again and has been ok with it since.

I haven't taken him to the cinema yet whereas his little girl friend has been a lot because of her older brother. There is a new Cars film coming out in the Summer so I think I will leave it until then!

Laura

[Katet]

Ds1 was 3y 2mo when I took him to his first movie (Garfield 2) he liked it, but I made the mistake of going in too early & if we'd just been there for the movie he'd have been ok... but the last 20mins were a bit harder.

With DS2 he was 3.5yo, he fell asleep in his first 3 movies... timing wasn't great.

[~Emma~]

B watches films ALL THE TIME. Bad I know but with the weather being how its been and having baby D its been our only choice. He likes Finding Nemo, Bambi, Ice Age and absolutely adores Peter Pan. He talks about chasing his shadow all the time.  He's getting into Toy Story now and has a Woody doll that he takes everywhere.

 My friend has a DS that a few weeks older than B and he goes to the cinema all the time. I know B wouldn't take to it though. He takes what he likes from a film  and leaves the rest! Like Peter Pan, he only likes the beginning when he is chasing his shadow and when they are flying to Neverland.

 B also has a Finding Nemo obsession. 


 

[Shiv52]

M was probably over 2 when she started watching films. Before that she hadnt really any interest. Finding Nemo was our first big hit too!! Now she's very into Cinderella and toy story movies. We have a couple of action songs ones which she loves and help get rid of some energy on rainy days!

I took her to the cinema to see toy story 3 just before the baby was born so under 2.5. She was actually really good although I'd brought plenty of snacks to keep her going. About 30 minutes to the end she asked to go home but did make it to the end with M's chatting her through it. Our cinema does kids films where it costs only £1 to go so I took her to that so that if she didnt sit we could just leave.

[babybarr]

I'm just following really, O will only sit for about 20mins of a film and then has had enough, but my brother takes my neice (she is 7weeks older than O) to the cinema quite regularly I believe!

[~inbalance~]

Around 2yrs for us too I think is when T started being interested in films, and yes Cars is probably the most popular one.  He doesn't seem to be frightened by anything.  We watched Toy Story 3 which I was a bit worried about as I found it kinda scary at the end, but it didn't bother him.  The only thing that I have an issue with is fighting, even in kids movies.  For example I have Kung Fu Panda but I have been avoiding it because of all the fighting.  I don't know, my cousins two boys who are 4 and 5 are so violent and I know they get to watch anything (including UFC!  ).  I guess I feel ok having to talk him through scary bits but not ok trying to explain to him just yet that the fighting in movies isn't real and we don't act like that.  Not that he's violent at all, he's completely not, but not something I want to start, kwim?  It's hard though, I think every movie will have a little something that worries us.     I am thinking of taking him to see Cars Two this summer for his first movie.

[Deb_in_oz]

we started around 2 yrs for films (had watched dvd's starting with baby einstein at 6-9 mo probably). so funny how many kids Nemo was 1st big one - Liv's favourite from 2- 3 1/2 but alex was always scared of it.  we did not do cinema until 4yo partly because there was little on offer they would like (Madagascar 2 was the first one they saw) and partly worried about the lack of control of volume, action and no pause/fast forward button for scary bits (which liv always loved but alex seriously had to skip - it took years of viewings before she would watch cinderella the whoel way through b/c she did not like Lucifer the cat - is that his name??)

[Jaime]

one time when we were visiting ILs & dd was around 18 months, MIL was babysitting & made her sit down to watch Cinderella.     she loved it, but it was several more months before she watched it again!!!   

I was (and still am to an extent) pretty picky about what I let them watch.  We didn't let them watch anything until we pre-screened (which crossed things like Dumbo and Pinocchio off the list because they had things I didn't feel like explaining), and one of us (usually DH) would watch the movie with them the first time, to explain things.

didn't go to the movie theater until ds was about 4.5 yrs old.... some of the theaters around here have free older movies in the summer, so we tried a couple of those.  i'm still hesitant to go to a paying movie because i'm never sure just what sort of content there will be. 

[koe2moe]

I let DS watch madagascar two months ago for the first time because I needed to give him a haircut   He sat still the whole time until he saw the scissors and wanted them!  He loved it and liked the animal and we let him watch it again yesterday and when i mentioned the movie, he was already talking about what animals there were!!! 

[~*Nicole*~]

We've recently been letting Ava watch movies as well. We've mixed newer with some classics (the older ones are shorter and keep her attention a bit longer) She doesn't sit for the whole movie but she LOVES them and asks for certain ones over and over. Her favorite is Bolt. She's seen Dumbo, Jungle Book, Cinderella, Toy Story, Lion King, etc. (Maybe we'll go with Finding Nemo as it seems like it's a big hit with your LOs hehe) We watch them with her so we can talk her through any parts that may frighten her and if she were to be frightened we'd not watch them again until she was older/understood more. It also really started b/c we're feeling homebound due to the weather. The first nice day we've had recently we went across to the park for 1.5 hours! Can you tell I really want it to be spring???

We are trying to dwindle down the amount of TV we've gotten into the habit of letting her view. I don't think it will be too difficult once we can be out and about, but that's also when baby is due to arrive so we'll see.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

(which crossed things like Dumbo and Pinocchio off the list because they had things I didn't feel like explaining),

We have Pinocchio and Masyn will not be watching it...I had totally forgotten some of the stuff in it when I bought it. I've never seen all of Dumbo, only the part where the mom is caged up and singing to Dumbo.

We are big into Disney princess moveis, Spencer's fav is Cinderella (took me awhile to figure it out - she says lalalella instead!)  Masyn does get a bit worried at the parts in most of those movies when the evil witch/stepmother/etc is causing mayhem, but she talks herself through it.

Up was one movie she didn't like at all because of the thunderstorms and the mean dogs. 

[skatty]

Leorah wasn't ready to watch films until she was around 3 (did watch shows though  ) Her favourite films when she first started to watch were Open Season (with Boogie Bear), Ice Age, Dumbo (but now she gets upset when they cage his mum), Madagascar, 101 Dalmatians and The Lion King. When she was a bit older she became mad for Shrek and Toy Story but her ultimate favourite is Peter Pan, we don't own it so she doesn't watch it often. She has never liked the Princess type Disney, she likes the ones with animals, the only exception is Snow white but that is because she likes the animals and the dwarfs!

Hoe could I forget A Sharks Tale? We didn't have anything else but that film on for about 3 months until it got scratched and kept stopping (no I didn't scratch it though I did feel like it  )

[~*Nicole*~]

Ava likes Up. She doesn't remember it's called Up and asks for "the one with the balloons" hehe

[clazzat]

Mine have never been bothered by the scary bits, so I don't really worry about that.  M probably started watching films at about 2 (certainly close to when E was born), although I don't remember her sitting through a whole film very often at that age.  We have all the usual suspects - Nemo, Monsters, Cars, Ice Age etc.  Beauty and the Beast is the favourite, although I have a similar problem as Martina with the violent bits (as an aside, we went to see a stage version of B&B and at the end where the Beast kills Gaston, E piped up "Beast hit Gaston.  Say sorry!").  Fortunately we seem to still be in the 4yo black and white world where all she thinks is that it is naughty to hit.

E still won't sit through a whole film.  We quite often put one on for 20-30 minutes and therefore watch it over the course of a few days.  I haven't taken them to the cinema yet - I think M would be okay (but probably only just in the last 6 months or so), but I'm pretty sure E wouldn't be.