Childhood movies to introduce to kids

[Cassius Clay]

So I have 13(girl) and 8(boy) year old younger siblings who I've been trying to introduce some classic 90s movies to. The boy definitely has ADD and the girl is on her phone half the time, so it's amazing to me whenever I can actually get them to sit and watch a movie for a couple hours. Last week I tried to make them watch one of my favorite childhood movies, 'Hook,' which they seemed to enjoy, but it didn't really hold their complete attention(though it was partly because distractions beyond their control). This week I decided to try a gamble 'Edward Scissorhands', and they quietly sat glued to their seats for the entire runtime. Even asking me questions at the end, "why didn't the inventor just finish making Edward's hands before he died? he had plenty of time", "the old lady was the girl, right?"

Watching old ass movies with children that you haven't seen since you a child yourself is a pretty magical experience because you're watching with fresh eyes in two ways...not just through the eyes of the children watching for the first time, but your new adult perspective as well. So now I'm trying to make a list of the childhood movies and I'm drawing blanks. Thinking about Mrs Doubtfire...or Addams family? What else is there?
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[Eva Yojimbo]

By 13 I was already getting into classics and foreign films, but I was a weird kid. When I was younger, some of my favorites were:

-Wizard of Oz
-Labyrinth
-Dark Crystal
-Most anything Disney/Pixar (Lion King and Toy Story were favorites)
-Star Wars (original trilogy)
-E.T.
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
-Back to the Future
-Terminator 2
-Ghostbusters
-The Princess Bride
-A Christmas Story
-The Goonies
-The Iron Giant
-Babe
-Who Framed Roger Rabbit
-The Karate Kid

Though I discovered him much later, I'm guessing I would've loved Miyazaki as a kid. You can't go wrong with most any of them, but I'm guessing kids might like Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and/or Howl's Moving Castle. Princess Mononoke might appeal to the older one too.

[Raxivace]

The Goonies was one I liked when I was a kid but I'm not sure how it holds up.

Another one I liked despite the bad reputation it has was the live action Super Mario Bros. Movie. Its probably what planted the seed to get me to eventually like stuff like Blade Runner years later.

[Cassius Clay]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

I completely forgot about that Mario Bros. movie. Watched it at summer camp in '96.

What's the comparison to Blade Runner? It actually makes me think of 'The Fifth Element'.

[Raxivace]

The SMB movie I think was just the first time I actually saw that kind of cyber dystopia kind of aesthetic before, but yeah there's a lot in common in with Fifth Element too.

[Cassius Clay]

I see.

So, Princess Bride was a good call. The girl really liked it. She caught the "as you wish" by the grandpa at the end(which I'd never noticed before), making it the second movie in a row where it's revealed at the end that the grandparent was all-along a main character in the epic story they're telling a child.

The boy only paid attention to the action scenes. Which was a shame because I can tell he'd really enjoy it if he had the patience. But he's at that stage where he only wants to watch movies he already likes(I've watched Frozen 2 with this kid at least 3 times now. I know the words to all the songs.) He wanted us to watch Edward Scissorhands again. The girl, however, has started catching on to the fact that if I want them to watch a particular movie, there's a good reason for it. So she's more curious, especially after really liking Scissorhands last week. Still strange to me that it was such a hit for them. It's also wild that I'm getting so old that they've never seen or even heard of any of these classics. I think I'll go with E.T. next week.

[Cassius Clay]

They both really liked Splash. Tho I really wish I could have edited out the scene where John Candy's character looks up womens' skirts as a kid AND AS AN ADULT! Completely forgot about shit.

And the younger one really seemed into The Sandlot. Which...*sigh*...also has weird perving on girls/women scenes that are played for laughs. Fuck. I wasn't sure they'd like The Sandlot because it's an extremely American movie, and these aren't American kids...and they don't know anything about baseball. This should have been obvious to me, but the kid really gets into movies that have kid protagonists. He didn't really pay attention to Raiders a while back, but when I put on Temple of Doom and once Short Round came on screen, he was hooked.

I think I'll try Sister Act or Ghost next...Ghost is probably a little too hardcore for the younger one...tho I was younger than him when I saw it.

[Gendo]

The NeverEnding Story.

[BruceSmith78]

When I watched Ghost as a kid I thought it was funny, and when my sister and mom cried at the end I didn't get it. I was like, “What's so sad? He's going to heaven. I can't think of a happier ending."

When I watched it as an adult with my wife I cried at the end.

[Cassius Clay]

The NeverEnding Story.

Added to the list

[Cassius Clay]

When I watched Ghost as a kid I thought it was funny, and when my sister and mom cried at the end I didn't get it. I was like, “What's so sad? He's going to heaven. I can't think of a happier ending."

When I watched it as an adult with my wife I cried at the end.

Ditto

We watched Ghost last night. I made the younger one cover his eyes during the pottery scene when it started getting a little heavy. He fell asleep halfway through, but i was kinda glad because the sounds those demons make when they drag Willie and Carl to hell are incredibly creepy. Little dude woulda had nightmares for weeks. The older one loved it tho.

[Gendo]

I remember watching Ghost as a kid and thinking it was pretty scary, but not too bad. I also remember not knowing if Carl would go to hell or not when he died, because he didn't actually kill someone like Willie did. I didn't get the whole plot that Carl paid Willie to do it.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Neverending Story is great, but it nearly traumatized me as a kid. The death of the horse, especially how it's edited (that scene seems to last forever), was a lot to take! Ghost didn't do much for me as a kid, tbh. I don't like it much better now. The best part of that film is Whoopi's character.