"Starter" Movies for an Almost 4-Yr-old

My oldest 4 year old son is really sensitive, so we have kept him away from anything scary as well. The movies we let him watch include some of those already mentioned: the Curious George movie and Cars are his favorites, but he also likes Charlotte's Web, The Jungle Book, and Herbie the Love Bug (the original version is the one we've seen). Some others are the Toy Story movies and The Land Before Time, but both of those have one or two little minor scary parts in them, so you might watch them/screen them first.

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Winnie the Pooh has no antagonist!
Also, Cinderella is pretty mild. The stepmother is evil, but she is subtle.
My son, 3, was afraid of Veggie Tales and cannot handle any bad guys! :)

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I can't believe no one has mentioned Curious George! It is a great, sweet movie with nothing scary in it. My kids get scared at the mean characters in Dora so we have had a hard time with this too. I agree also that Cars is brilliant and that if you laugh while watching the scene with Frank the Combine (it is pretty funny), your kid will see it as funny and not scary. Nemo is probably our next attempt although I might skip the opening scene of all Nemo's siblings getting wiped out and possibly the glow-in-the-dark fish scene. It's such a beautiful movie but does have some scary parts. Mary Poppins, Cinderella work. We've also watched parts of Singin' in the Rain and all of The Music Man. Hope you find something that works!

my granddaughter is just 3 and she has always been a Scooby Doo fan. She has all the movies. Other movies that she loves is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Benji, Free Willy, Annie, most of the disney ones and any that has Elmo in it.

You've had lots of good suggestions. I agree with those who say to watch the movie with your child the first time. Watch the movie and also watch your child so you can see if something is bothering her. Take the time to talk about it. A couple more ideas for you are "The Snowman" which has almost no talking and is a very relaxing movie. It isn't full length but is a nice one for young children. Another option is to look at Feature Films for Families...they have movies for kids of various ages and they are related to family values. The "Tiny" movies would likely be in the right age range for your daughter. I've seen a few of them and I don't think there's anything too scary in them. I don't know if they are available in stores...might have to order them on the web.

I couldn't agree with you more on the "evil villain" that Disney, especially, seems to put in every movie. Try Curious George, The Movie, with Will Farrell! It is one of the sweetest movies on the planet and I liked it so much that I bouhgt the Motion Picture Soundtrack for it!

When my son was little he really liked Lady & the Tramp, The Aristocats and Peter Pan. He loved Peter Pan. I don't know if there are boy/girl choices at that age. When we drove across country with a video player he must have watched Spirit (a white stallion horse) at least 2 dozen times. There is very little talking, Brian Adams music and horses frolicking. Each of the above has bad guys, but they're characatures. While my son did not take to the Land Before Time Series, but my niece and nephew loved them. Two other movies are Winn Dixie and UnderDog. When my son was young, I almost always watched the movies before I allowed him to watch them. My son loved anything with good music too, what about the old musicals?

Charlotte's Web, Mary Poppins, the Bee Movie

Finding Nemo is good, but I watch it w/my girls & ff through the beginning, the shark part & the angler fish part.

Horton Hears a Who is also really good, there's one vulture that is a little scary, though, but it is a short part. My girls didn't seem bothered by it at all, but I made comments during it to help also.

I've let my almost 2 year old watch Mary Poppins and he loves it.
My Little Pony movies, Charlotte's Web, Finding Nemo, Elmo in Grouchland [though it is kind of a weird movie], Happy Feet, Beethoven, Air Bud, Toy Story, Dr. Dolittle, the original Milo and Otis, the original Thomasina [as far as I remember it wasn't scary but I could be wrong] and the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen movies are good, too, and very mild.

You have so many great suggestions! We love the Backyardigans! Max and Ruby is super cute too. Some to avoid- the newest Curious George has a scary part at the beginning. Also, there is a Thomas movie that is Halloween or Spook oriented and scary to little people. I don't always screen movies like I should, and things have slipped through. I find it is best to talk about those moments and how it made them feel. It's interesting to hear them start to describe emotions and not always use them correctly so this can help them understand a little bit better. Good luck!

Try these forgotten oldie but goodies;

Chitty-chitty bang-bang (Disney 1960s) The kid catcher freaked my DH out when he was a kid, but I don't think the KC was so bad...he does get his comeupance in the end. Overall it's Dick Van Dyke at his comical best. The rest of the movies listed have no villians at all.

The Red Balloon (1960's French Classic for children - no talking, no subtitles) A large red balloon adopts a lonely French Schoolboy and they have a wonderful friendship until the local bullies get jealous and want a magical balloon of their own. Just when things seem sad, a surprise ending, wonderful cinematography, great views of the streets of France, a glimpse of European culture of yester-year.

Thomas and Magic Railroad - The beloved English train comes to life and joins Peter Fonda and Alec Baldwin as the conductors for a great adventure.

Tha Apple Dumpling Gang (Disney 1970's with Don Knotts)Very cute Old West Adventure with a group of kids.

Mary Poppins (Disney 1960's) Really hip nanny who can do some pretty special and magical stuff.

The Lovebug and Herbie goes banana's (Disney 1960's) about a Volkswagen that comes alive that has a personality and it's human owner and their many adventures.

Annie (1980's version) It's like the broadway musical about the post-depression era orphan with a heart of gold and the wealthy millionaire who adopts her.. a delightfully well-done movie format.

Madeline (1990's) Non-cartoon, full-length movie about everyone's favorite little French school-girl and her friends, and the adorable nuns at the convent school where she lives

Benji, For the Love of Benji, and Oh Heavenly Dog (Disney 1970's) Very sweet dog adventures with guest appeances by favorite actors Chevy Chase, Jane Seymore, and many others.

"The Wizard of Oz", any "Shrek", "Ice Age", "The Muppet Show" "Snow Buddies", "Alvin and the Chipmunks",then educational Leap Frog "Letter Factory" and "Word Factory" and all Dora's and Diego's movies if she is into them. I rent movies for $1 at the local video store and if she does not like, no biggie. Every kid is so different. If anything I like to get a movie that I enjoy to watch (or hear) myself, because you know you will have to :) at one point or another... After 4 she'll perhaps be more involved because she will understand and choose them better.

E.,

I would go with a full length feature of something your child already knows. There's Jonah Veggie Tales or Clifford's Big Adventure. Winnie the Pooh is another not too scary full length movie.

S.

My daughter loved the "Strawberry Shortcake,""Care Bears," and Barbie movies. Also she is addicted to "Toy Story"(we saw the play on the Disney Cruise). She turned 4 in October but during the summer she sat through "Toy Story" at the movie theater.

My son loves Cars for this reason. There is one scary scene with Frank the Combine, but I think this scene is shorter and less threatening than even some scenes in Veggie Tales--and my son actually has thought it was really funny since he first saw it at 3, and he is quite sensitive to scary images and voices. I also like in this movie that there is no "bad" character--no evil person--but simply a character who needs to change HIS character for the better, which is a message I like too.

We have a couple others that are staples at our house, but since my son is now 5 1/2, he's much more able to handle scary images, and we watch Madagascar (I don't love some of the jokes in that, though), and, actually Happy Feet (which has a lot of scary stuff in it, though it's "real life"--animals that want to eat the penguins--and not some fantastical creature--my kids tend to handle nature scary stuff better than imaginary scary stuff).

Ohhh! I just saw Mary Poppins on there; my kids have LOVED that one (our copy is currently broken) and they also like Sound of Music, which I showed them young, when they were too little to get the menace of the Third Reich. At 5 1/2, my oldest is just starting to get the concept of war, but the scenes are not scary images; you kinda have to be older (much older) to understand the menace in that movie, and my kids love hte songs.

Have to strongly second "My Neighbor Totoro". It is wonderful and only one of two videos my son at 3 gets to watch. The other is "Kiki's Delivery Service" which is also a Miyazaki film. Many/most of the Studio Ghibli (sp?) films are quite good. Not all though are dubbed for the younger consumer.

My 3 1/2 year old daughter received the Curious George movie for Christmas and loves it. Granted I haven't had a chance to see the entire thing with her myself, but she loves it. As far as I can tell there are no scary parts, the music is wonderful and there are no inuendos like Shriek where only adults would get. I do know what you mean about movies though. I've even shut off a Care Bear movie we borrowed from the library because it was too scary.

If you can manage to find it Mysterious Cities of Gold is pretty good. Its a tv show type of watch but a good kids show. Land before time movies are pretty good. Shirley Temple movies maybe. Angelina Ballerina is a cute one, I haven't seen the episodes but I've read just about all of the books.

If you don't do Netflix maybe look into it. You can do a free trial and just not continue it if you don't like it. With that you could not only rent but also watch for free off of the computer or on your TV if you have one of the devices they use for it.

My 3.5-yr-old girls love "My Neighbor Totoro" (a Japanese classic, directed by Miyazaki). It was the first one they ever watched (just past age 2), and is still among their favorites. No "bad guys," just a couple of slightly unpleasant situations (the younger girl (Mae, 4) gets lost for a while; the elder girl (Satsuki, 8-10?) worries that their mother, who is in the hospital, will die (but she's fine)). They still run around the house playing Mae and Satsuki. :) There's lots of nice music, and a loving family portrayed. I highly recommend it!

theres nothing wrong with not showing her full length movies if you choose not to.

my son is also on the bit frightened side, and im being very sensitive to that. he watches the veggietales, thomas the train, blues clues, sesame street, charlie brown, alvin and the chipmunks, and bob the builder. he also likes arthur, berenstein bears, and richard scarry.

as far as full length movies, he likes cars, both toy story movies, bee movie, the veggietales full length like jonah and pirates who dont do anything.

one thing im running into is all the movies i watched as a kid, i think about them now in the perspective of my son watching them and they can be downright horrifying! i mean, alladin! seriously? i remember being afraid of the little mermaid, but WOW. and the great mouse detective! that was my favorite, but after a recent watching of that movie, its not going to be one that hes going to watch anytime soon! how horrible! LOL. they are pretty aweful!

what i would say is to just stick with what you are doing. theres nothing wrong with watching just veggietales and that kind of thing. nothing at all. ;) besides, i LOVE the veggietales and im 26!
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My kids (I have a 6 yr old girl and 2 yr old boy) both LOVE the Disney sing-a-long videos. It's not a "movie" its a group of songs that they can sing a long to taken out of several Disney shows. I think it's important to watch all movies with your kids at least the first time around. This way they can ask questions, feel comfortable, and you can explain things as it's playing. My dtr's first movie in the theater was Curious George. She has loved many of the Disney movies. She even LOVED Wizard of Oz. However, I remember being scared of that movie when I was growing up. All kids are different. My 2 year old seems to even enjoy some movies. He seems to enjoy the movies that are not animated. I know he watched the Bev. Hills Chihuahua movie with us as well as the Hanna Montana movie. He LOVED both. Ha! Break up the movie with some popcorn or hot chocolate in the middle OR watch it over 2 nights. It can be a nice incentive over a weekend!

The Care Bears Big Wish Movie, Elmo in Grouchland.

Mary Poppins
Wallace and Gromit (short animated films compilation, plus the feature, "Curse of the Wererabbit.")
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
Winnie the Pooh (the original animation)
The Sound of Music (my 3 year-old loves the first half -- the second half doesn't have enough of all the kids singing for her)
My DD likes Beauty and the Beast and Finding Nemo, too.
Charlotte's Web