Fun Family Flicks!

My seven year old son loves going to the movies. We've been taking him since he was about four (back in the fidgety, stand up and dance during the film days), so he's quite an old hand now, and sits through the whole movie, albeit with a fair few whispered questions for us throughout. Recently, we had two Movie Double days, where we saw two kid-friendly films on the same day (thanks to family passes I'd won and Weekend Family Flicks days at our local EVENT cinema, where all tickets were only $6). Here's the round-up!

RIO 2
The sequel to RIO, this colourful, animated film sees Blu, Jewel and their three cute kids move from the city to the wild Amazon jungle. My son loved this film. It's bright, fun and there's plenty of humour and musical sequences. The voice cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan and Leslie Mann.

POSTMAN PAT: THE MOVIE
I may have enjoyed this one more than my son, and if you're a fan of the TV show, this would be up your alley. There are evil clone-robots though, which may be scary for some kids. Featuring the voices of Stephen Mangan, Ronan Keating, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Grint and David Tennant, this film centres around a TV talent show, so there's plenty of entertaining musical numbers to keep youngsters and their parents engaged.

PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE
This Disney film is a sequel to Planes (itself a spin-off from the Cars franchise), and it centres around Dusty Crophopper, a racer whose gearbox has hit the skids. Consequently, travels to Piston Peak and trains to join the Fire and Rescue crew instead. My son really enjoyed this one. Planes: Fire & Rescue has great computer animation and an interesting story with plenty of heart. The extensive voice talent includes Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Cedric the Entertainer, Hal Holbrook, Julie Bowen and Ed Harris.

THE HOUSE OF MAGIC
Despite a promising start (The Cure's 'Love Cats' features), I was not enchanted by The House of Magic. Cute kitty Thunder is abandoned, and when looking for a place to live finds an old mansion, owned by a retired Magician. He moves in, much to the displeasure of Jack Rabbit and Maggie Mouse. The House of Magic is visually beautiful, so this may dazzle younger viewers, but for me there was just something missing. The voice cast are basically unknown. My son said this was his least favourite film out of the bunch.

Do your kids love going to the cinema?