Every Friday night the kids and I have a movie night. More often than not we decide to watch something we’ve never watched before and instead decide to watch something streaming on Netflix. I love Netflix and while it’s fairly easy to navigate it isn’t always easy to know which movies my kids are going to enjoy watching. Over the last couple of months we have watched a lot of movies that I’ve found to be not only kid friendly but also adult-friendly meaning I enjoyed watching these movies just as much as the kids did.
In order to help save you some time here are some of the more recent kid friendly movies streaming on Netflix that we’ve watched and loved. Some of them you may recognize (Hello Jumanji and Hook) while others you may not have heard of. I was so happy to see that my children enjoyed some of my favorites from my past and I hope your kids enjoy it too!
1. Earth to Echo
After a construction project begins in their neighborhood, best friends Tuck (Brian “Astro” Bradley), Alex (Teo Halm) and Munch (Reese C. Hartwig) begin receiving strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. They immediately inform their parents and the authorities, but when no one takes them seriously, the youths decide to crack the code themselves and trace the messages to their source. The youths’ curiosity leads them to a robotic extraterrestrial who desperately needs their help.
2. Zathura
After their father (Tim Robbins) is called into work, two young boys, Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and Danny (Jonah Bobo), are left in the care of their teenage sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart), and told they must stay inside. Walter and Danny, who anticipate a boring day, are shocked when they begin playing Zathura, a space-themed board game, which they realize has mystical powers when their house is shot into space. With the help of an astronaut (Dax Shepard), the boys attempt to return home.
3. Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves
A scientist (Rick Moranis) miniaturizes himself and three others, then seeks help from kids who think they’re home alone.
4. Jumanji
A magical board game unleashes a world of adventure on siblings Peter (Bradley Pierce) and Judy Shepherd (Kirsten Dunst). While exploring an old mansion, the youngsters find a curious, jungle-themed game called Jumanji in the attic. When they start playing, they free Alan Parrish (Robin Williams), who’s been stuck in the game’s inner world for decades. If they win Jumanji, the kids can free Alan for good — but that means braving giant bugs, ill-mannered monkeys and even stampeding rhinos!
5. Zoom, Academy for Superheros
Capt. Zoom, or Jack (Tim Allen), as he is now known, has long since given up his career of fighting evil and protecting the defenseless. The former superhero gets back into the game when he takes a job at a private academy, where he must whip into shape a ragtag group of heroes-in-training.
6. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl
Bullied by classmates, young Max (Cayden Boyd) escapes into a fantasy, conjuring up the action-packed lives of Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley) and Sharkboy (Taylor Lautner). But one day, Lavagirl and Sharkboy suddenly come to life — and their world, Planet Drool, needs a hero named Max. As Max escapes to Planet Drool, he battles aliens and tries to save his new friends’ planet from destruction. He also battles his bullies, who have become villains like the Ice Princess (Sasha Pieterse).
7. Hook
When his young children are abducted by his old nemesis, Capt. Hook (Dustin Hoffman), middle-aged lawyer Peter Banning (Robin Williams) returns to his magical origins as Peter Pan. Peter must revisit a foggy past in which he abandoned Neverland for family life, leaving Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) and the Lost Boys to fend for themselves. Given their bitterness toward Peter for growing up — and their allegiance to their new leader, Rufio — the old gang may not be happy to see him.
While I enjoyed all of these movies my favorite new to me movie was Zathura. It was suggested to us after we watched “Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves” and I’m so glad we decided to make that night a double feature. It was a great movie that reminded me so much of one of my favorite children’s movie, Jumanji. My Pro Tip: Make Jumanji and Zathura a double feature movie night.
What kid-friendly movies have you been streaming on Netflix? Which one has been your favorite?
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