Flicks and The Herald want to know New Zealand’s top ten favourite family films. You can take the poll below (it’s easy; just give us 3 of your faves and you could win the resulting Top 10), but before you do, jog your brain a bit with Flicks and NZ Herald writers’ highlights of great family films.
Steve Newall: Fantastic Mr. Fox
“Rather than delving into the memorable movies of my childhood – the terrors of The Dark Crystal, the excitement of The Empire Strikes Back – I’m going to cheat a little here. Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is the film I’d most like families to enjoy together out of anything this side of The Force Awakens (and substantially less scary). The pic includes some of my favourite memories of childhood – stop-motion animation; talking animals; the great Roald Dahl – but does so with a modern sensibility (albeit through the same melancholic, nostalgic lens as Anderson’s live-action films).” READ MORE
Chris Schulz: Home Alone
“Here’s an admission: I once wanted to be Macaulay Culkin. Not the Macaulay Culkin who hung out with Michael Jackson, had trouble with drugs and started a desperately terrible band called the Pizza Underground. No, I wanted to be Macaulay Culkin circa 1990, the time when the most excellent Christmas movie Home Alone came out. I know, I know, Culkin’s a bit of a mess now. But as a 12-year-old just starting to find fault with his parents, Home Alone resonated with me in a big way.” READ MORE
Daniel Rutledge: Labyrinth
“A trippy, beautiful and wild film that serves as a timeless ode to Jim Henson’s boundless imagination, Labyrinth is my favourite kids’ film of all time. It’s a bizarre tale set in an amazing fantasy world created with the film-maker’s trademark fusion of astounding puppetry and human talent.” READ MORE
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Liam Maguren: Ernest & Celestine
“I could easily list a platoon of family films that I loved as a kid, but I’d struggle to call most of them “timeless”. Nowadays, progressive parents might shield their children from Sleeping Beauty because of its ancient view on gender roles or The Lion King because of its ultra-capitalist leanings. But no one’s personal allegiances can affect the purity of Ernest & Celestine, an old-fashioned charmer about the unbreakable value of friendship.” READ MORE
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Lydia Jenkin: The Princess Bride
“Never has there been a greater collision of fairytales, swashbuckling action-adventure, and comedy in one film than The Princess Bride. There really is something for everyone in this hilarious masterpiece from Rob Reiner (who also directed This Is Spinal Tap). There’s a beautiful young girl named Buttercup in line to become a princess, a Sicilian crime boss, a Spanish fencing master, a kind of wizard called Miracle Max, pirates, giants, “rodents of unusual size”, locations such as the “fire swamp”, “pit of despair” and “cliffs of insanity”. And of course a masked man in black, who may or may not be out to save the princess, and may or may not really be a farmhand called Westley.” READ MORE
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Matt Heath: Elf
“A baby climbs into Santa’s sack and accidentally ends up at the North Pole where he is raised by elves and put to work in the toy workshop.” READ MORE
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Leonie Hayden: The Neverending Story
“If I had to choose, I’d say The Labyrinth was more of a childhood favourite, for its delightful range of kooky characters, excellent soundtrack and taboo romantic subtext. But for the sheer existential terror I feel on an almost daily basis, The Neverending Story is probably the film that has had the most influence on me.” READ MORE
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Matt Gibb: Wall-E
“I might seem an odd choice to write about the best family movie of all time, given I don’t have a family of my own. But while I may be childless, I still reckon I qualify given I’m blessed with a fiancee who refuses to watch any film aimed at anyone aged over 14. To be fair, Ruth’s excuses stack up. As a journalist, she can spend most of her day buried in the big issues, so a movie night offers a chance for some light relief. Who needs to watch a political thriller when you’ve spent your day covering the thrills and spills of Tony Abbott and his mates? Luckily for me, there’s Pixar, and luckily for planet earth – there’s Wall-E. ” READ MORE
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Dominic Corry: The Goonies
“Steven Spielberg didn’t direct The Goonies, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more enduring distillation of the master film-maker’s family-friendly cinematic identity. Spielberg came up with the story for the beloved 1985 adventure, and is credited as executive producer – his unmatched ability to give kids what they want can be felt in every frame of the film.” READ MORE
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