Age Recommendation for Madagascar 2/ Movie Suggestions

Here's what our two boys (4 years and 2.5 years) love to check out from the library over and over: Finding Nemo, Shrek, Spongebob Squarepants (the movie and episodes), Cars, Kipper, Pingu, Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Happy Feet. Also look for nature DVDs. Ask each child his and her favorite subject and find books/DVDs on that subject. Maybe The American Girl series for your daughter and dinosaurs for your son? They've seen Madagascar 2 and I can't think of anything really PG except a rifle pointed at a lion cub and a hippo date with a funny song. Oh, and both boys loved Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White!

Like everyone said, Madagascar 2 is cool. My son is 3yrs old. Do you have the first one? He likes that one too. My son has so many DVD's. He loves Cars as well. "Chicken Little", "Ratatoulle", "Toy Story" are a few of the ones that he really likes. "Happy Feet" is another suggestion even though I kind of thought it was boring. Hope this helps.

I think the "Curious George" DVD is the best movie for two year olds and up. It's very light, entertaining, musical, and calm. Also, "Finding Nemo" is my toddler's favorite. The bonus to "Finding Nemo" is that it all the creatures/characters are not made up, but biologically correct.

Madagascar 2 is great! That was the first movie my then 2 1/2 year old saw in the theater. He LOVED it! I can't remember a single curse word in it. I don't consider "hell" to be a curse word, so I wouldn't notice it, and if it had "damn" in there I certainly didn't notice it either. That's not much of a curse word anyway! My son picks up on curse words pretty easily, so anything worse than that would have been noticed. He also loves the original Madagascar -both are really funny!

Cars is also great, and we LOVE the "Ice Age" movies. "Finding Nemo" has been a hit, "101 Dalmations" has been watched about 800 times, and Wall-E is a big hit right now with my son (who just turned 3). Other well-loved animated films in our house are "The Jungle Book", "Lady and the Tramp", "Fox and Hound" and all the Looney Tunes cartoons on DVD. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" are also well-loved and I HIGHLY recommend "A Bug's Life" -HILARIOUS for all ages!

Another thing to consider -if it's not animated, your boy may not be too interested yet. Most toddlers are all about the cartoons!

Honestly -at the age of your children, they don't really get double entendre. Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks put that in so parents will enjoy taking their children to movies and watching DVDs with them.

We just finished watching Horton Hears A Who with my daughter, who is 3. She really liked it, and we appreciated the under-the-radar bits of grown up humor. Our local library always has a great selection of kids movies.

Madagascar 2 is fine. Just remember there are innuendos in most every movie out there! Look at Shrek-it's filled with them!
If it's a movie they like at home, they will ask to watch it in the car-novelty of watching in the car last for many years!- so every movie is new.
My kids watch most everything (they are much older) and there are still movies I haven't seen that they only watch in the car.
Most of the time, the kids sleep in the car...so the movies just play to air!
good luck

We have the same ages. We have been very careful about movies because my 5yo daughter gets upset/scared at the least and most unpredictable things. (We learned this the hard way when she came running out of the bedroom in tears in the middle of Frosty the Snowman! Who knew?) Cars is a favorite, as is Cinderella and Disney's cartoon Robin Hood. The "villains" in these are not very scary at all. There's also a cartoon Charlotte's Web they like (but I don't know how hard it is to find). My 5 year olds had listened to the book, but my 2 year old seemed to enjoy it even without being familiar with the book beforehand. Have a fun trip!

C. -

When my children were young, I use to purchase their movies from feature films for families. They are great movies with a morale lesson. Check them out and I have also seen them for sale on amazon.

Enjoy your trip.

I wouldn't show them Mad. 2 unless you watch it first without them. You know what they will repeat and won't. :) Cars is good. Finding Nemo, Peter Pan, Toy Story (all of them) are all good as well. Good Luck!

Wall-e is my 4 yr olds favorite movie right now.
I'd like to recommend something a little out side the box so to speak.

My Neighbor Totoro it's distro by Disney, but it's Japanese animation , fab story and both my kids have loved it for a few years now and they are 4 and 7.

Kiki's delivery service for the little girl, and The cat returns for both.

All 3 of these are Anime and all 3 have a great story and moral to the story.

Then theres the disney classics of peter pan, robin hood , etc, all of this are great for that age bracket.

Finding Nemo, The Rescuers (an old one), Pete's Dragon (also an old one)

We have found these older movies from our childhood do not have the "hidden" adult humor that movies now have (like Shrek, which I find completely inappropriate). So think of the movies you liked as a kid and maybe you'll be surprised that your children like them too!

If I remember right Madagascar 2 does have a few mild cuss words which is what probably got it the PG rating. I let my two boys watch the moving and sure enough they caught on to the word that is not allowed in our house. See what the local library has to check out or what your neighbors may have that are G rated.

I have found Disney movies with a PG rating usually have 2 s..., d...., or h... words in them that really could have been avoided. And of course my 2 boys would catch those words and repeat them 1 or 2 days later for classmates in Kindergarten or in front of friends/neighbors to see their reaction to them using the words.

Have you thought about any of the Leap Frog DVDs that are the word factory series? My kids really liked them at those ages.

Also, try some of the oldies but goodies...Wizard of Oz, Annie, Shirley Temple, etc.

Good luck on the trip!
Cathy

I've got a 3yr old and a 8yr old and it's hard to find a movie they can both watch togeter for them both to be happy. Our DVD players can play seperate or together which is nice, my son can watch Enstiens and my daughter watch something else or I can link them together and my daughter is able to change out the dvd. Madagascar 2 should be fine for both of them. There is always some sort of adult content in childrens movies to help us take the kids to see it or buy it for them since we'll end up sitting there watching it too. A PG rating is merly a suggestion of what age group it is approprate for but you as the adult need to make that decision for your self and your children, not someone that thinks they know what is good for the little boys and girls around the world. If someone one put out a crash test rating based on the color of the car and blue was the worst but you couldn't live without that color, would you still buy the car anyways??

Good luck! And have a safe trip!
S.

I think Cars would be entertaining for both. Disney is a pretty good source of movies for little ones but keeping in mind that one of the kids is 2, you can't assume that any Disney movie would be okay. How 'bout these: An American Tale, Mary Poppins, Charlotte's Web, Babe, The Princess Bride, Toy Story, Enchanted, The Lion King, Dumbo, Brother Bear, Cinderella, Peter Pan.