Movie night with the family is only as good as the film you pick, and the best animated family movies are the ones every age in the room enjoys for different reasons. The six films below come from Pixar, Studio Ghibli and DreamWorks, and each one has earned its place through years of rewatching: they are funny, beautifully made, and they treat young viewers with respect. Start with Coco, the rare family film that gets better every time you see it.
Pixar’s Heart: Coco, Inside Out and Up
Coco (2017) is Pixar at its most complete. Directed by Lee Unkrich, it follows twelve-year-old Miguel Rivera, voiced by Anthony Gonzalez, a boy who dreams of being a musician in a family that has banned music. When he crosses into the Land of the Dead on Día de Muertos, he meets the charming Héctor, voiced by Gael García Bernal, and the idol Ernesto de la Cruz, voiced by Benjamin Bratt. At 1h 45m and rated 8.2 on TMDB, it is a dazzling musical about memory, family and the people we keep alive by remembering them, and it streams on Disney+ in the US.
Inside Out (2015) takes a different kind of journey, inside the mind of an eleven-year-old girl whose emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust — run a control room in her head. Rated 7.9 on TMDB, it gives children a vocabulary for their feelings and gives adults one of Pixar’s most quietly devastating third acts. Up (2009) is just as potent: Pete Docter’s film, rated 8.0, opens with one of the great ten-minute sequences in animation, then sends widower Carl and young Russell off on a balloon-lifted house adventure that is really about grief, friendship and starting over.
Ghibli Magic: Spirited Away
Spirited Away (2001) is the crown jewel of Studio Ghibli and the only anime film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, rated 8.5 on TMDB, follows ten-year-old Chihiro into a bathhouse for spirits, where she must work to free her transformed parents. It is strange, gorgeous and completely unafraid of silence, and it is the perfect introduction to Ghibli for a family ready to graduate from lighter fare.
DreamWorks Adventures: How to Train Your Dragon and Ratatouille
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) is DreamWorks at its best. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the 1h 38m film, rated 7.9, follows Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel, a Viking teenager who befriends the Night Fury dragon Toothless instead of killing him. Gerard Butler voices his father Stoick and America Ferrera voices Astrid, and the flying sequences still thrill more than a decade later. It streams on Paramount+ in the US.
Ratatouille (2007) closes our list with Pixar’s most delicious idea: a rat named Remy who dreams of cooking in a Paris restaurant, directed by Brad Bird and rated 7.9 on TMDB. It is a film about artistry and ambition that never talks down to its audience, and it pairs beautifully with a family cooking night afterwards.
Planning Movie Night
For younger children, start with Coco or How to Train Your Dragon, both bright, musical and full of adventure. Inside Out and Up work best when kids are old enough to talk about the feelings they raise, and Spirited Away is ideal for a slightly older child ready for something dreamlike and strange. Ratatouille suits everyone, especially if dinner follows. Whichever you choose, you are picking from the strongest animated catalogues in film history — and that is a very good problem to have.
For cast details and where to stream it, see our full Coco guide.
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