Hello My Dear Readers!
Hope you all are doing good and having fun.
We all love weekends and look forward to it the moment, Monday hits us with work, pressure, and life goals. Come weekend, and it’s time to unwind and spend time with your family or doing what you love. In our house Saturday Night holds a special place, a tradition sort of as it is the time for ‘MOVIE NIGHT’ with
all four of us snuggling under the blanket with popcorns, cakes, hot chocolates,
and wine. We all take turns in choosing the movies for the weekend – I select
movie that imparts learning, Srinath selects movies that he has loved as a
child involving comedy and drama and Ayaansh selects movies that involve
action, animation or the Marvel World. Sundays are spent practically cleaning
the house, chilling, playing games and discussing the movie.
Last weekend as we were returning from Paris, I had casually asked Ayaansh
to name his top 5 favorite animated movies. He not only named them but also
gave us reasons about why those movies were in his top 5 list. His answers made
us realise that even children as young as seven years old can observe, learn,
and remember life lessons from movies. We also realised that children do not
care for the quality of the animation, or voiceovers but for the simple
storyline, the struggles and courage of the lead characters, the wisdom & respect
the characters portray and the simple yet happy ending.
So, here are the top 5 movies that Ayaansh recommends that all his friends,
cousins and classmates must immediately watch, if they already had not watched
it yet.
COCO
Coco is his top choice because of the characters Miguel & Hector and the
song – PocoLoco. Young Miguel who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician
like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz is desperate to prove his talent and to change
his family’s generations-old ban on music. What Ayaansh likes about Miguel is that
he is focused, persistent and ready to make new friends even in the land of dead.
Miguel’s courage to follow his dreams and stepping out of his comfort zone is
yet another takeaway from the movie.
Also, Ayaansh loves Mexican food, so this movie was screaming Mexican
culture in a good way. So, I guess this movie will remain his top most choice
till a long time.
MOANA
One of the best movies ever made by Disney, Moana is a movie for all those
who love adventure and music. It is a story about sea-loving, strong-willed
teenager Monana who is fiercely determinant to find Maui, the Demi God and
restore the heart of TaFiti that he once stole from her. What Ayaansh loves
about this movie is Moana & her grandmother’s relationship, Moana’s self-confidence,
her bravery to travel deep into the sea. Another takeaway for him was that we must
not take other’s things without permission or hurt them because if we do the
world becomes a bad place, just as Ta Fiti became Teka, rotting everything she
created from her.
THE INCREDIBLES FRANCHISE
When you love superhero and there is an entire family of superheroes with
some cool and unique powers, how can it not make to the top 3? Nevertheless,
Ayaansh said he learnt something very important out of the movie i.e. we should
always do what we love or we might become like Mr. Incredible stuck in his
office work. Also, the another takeaway was each one of us are equal with
unique superpowers and we must not underestimate or disrespect them – Jack Jack
was the example here. And of course, the most important thing he learnt and
loves is – Family is very important, so we need to be true to each other and
never hide things.
I was amazed how movies could teach such profound wisdom to children and
couldn’t stop smiling watching my child’s brain at work.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Roald Dahl is one of Ayaansh’s favorite authors and watching a chocolate factory
up close in the screen is everyone’s delight. What Ayaansh loved about the movie
is that it teaches us to be happy and content with whatever we have. Watching
Charlie, his family’s simplicity and unconditional love and Willy Wonka’s
yearning for love has made him realised how lucky many of us are to have a family.
He also observed that being Augustus Gloop, i.e being greedy will only make us alone
and sad. The other moral that the movie imparts is being patient – sometimes
the best things in life are worth the wait.
UP
The movie UP needs no introduction. We all love that flying house tied to
thousands of colorful balloons with a backdrop of beautiful sky. What
attracted Ayaansh to this movie and made it to his top 5 list are the learnings
like ‘dreams have no age’, ‘you can make friends wherever you go’ and ‘we must
always love and protect our loved ones’.
ENCANTO
Disney’s Encanto is a story about the Madrigal family with a central theme
around forgiveness and unconditional love. What Ayaansh appreciated about this
movie is the portrayal of how each of one us can contribute towards the society
and live in harmony. Another takeaway for him was that it is okay to be without
any superpower and still be confident.
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Make a Wish Box
I am impressed your son is so receptive to what he watches. I would happily watch all these movies. If a child is learning from them, then surely they have the power to help us adults also.
This was such a beautiful post to read, I love the weekend fact of choosing movie and snuggling up, coco is my kods fav and moana too… Thats a nice way to select by turns.
great list of movies. I especially admired reading his reasoning. I can imagine you two having conversations around not just movies but other topics where he demonstrates his ability and deep perceptions. We have watched / rewatched all these movies with our children – Friday nights are family movies nights in our household.
Yes, Moana and Charlie’s one of our favorite too. Rest of movies are new to us. May be your post make me think to have more movie night with our kids. 😊 Surely we will follow this new thing. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’m simply impressed by the choice of a 7-year-old. Have watched most of them with my family and my younger one simply adores COCO and Moana the most, whereas I’m biased towards UP and Finding NEMO. Will surely try watching Encanto, the only one I haven’t seen on the list.
Children are those precious beings who we should always adore. And the recommendations given by a 7 years old is nothing less than a masterpiece . I too liked watching COCO. And about the realisation you mentioned after you got these recommendations from a child is what I think too and admire.
Even as an adult I’m a huge fan of animated movies and love that your son is taking the best takeaways from them. Moana is my favourite and also Baby Boss. Have watched them multiple times with my kids!
Children what I believe are god gifted and no one understand human psychology better than them and we need to respect and appreciate their opinions. I am quite impressed to see such brilliant recommendations given by a 7 years old, trust me its no less than an adult recommendation . COCO remained my favorite of all time. I also appreciate the way you presented the post with immense appreciation for Ayaansh . I again repeat childrens are god’s gift and they too can do many things which we adults cant do.
Wow I am so impressed. Your son chose the most loved movies and he is just 7 years old. I loved all of them. My personal favorite is COCO and UP
It is so nice to see a movie from a child’s point of view. I enjoyed reading your post. We don’t give them credit for it but they are very perceptive.
Quite a smart 7 year old you have Amritha… liking a movie is one thing, giving reasons for liking it quite another. His list of movies are my family’s favorites too. Encanto is a philosophical movie n it’s amazing that it features in his favorites.
Enjoyed reading Ayaansh’s thoughts on the movies. Particularly the range of movies. Quite a few life lessons there for sure. Personally, loved Moana.
A recommendation for kids…wow! well thought of. And thank you…even an adult like me enjoyed reading this. Animated movies are for everyone, don’t you think?
Nice list-I especially love Coco and Up. You should also make him watch Big Hero 6 if he hasn’t -has such a great message
My daughter is a huge admirer of animated movies, and I love that your son is getting the most out of them. We’ve seen every movie you’ve mentioned… But we can watch these over and over again.
-Anjali
Please tell your 7-year-old that a 33-year-old is going to have a delightful day off tomorrow because of these recommendations 😀
Great recommendations from the target audience itself! I too love Moana and CATCF.
A great list have watched a few of these with my kiddo need to catch up with the rest, thanks for sharing.
These are great films. My elder one has watched incredibles series. And we have read Charlie and the chocolate factory. Moana is a beautiful film .
Great collection. Charlie and the chocolate factory remains to be a classic recommendation. 👌 post.
Not only 7 years old , these movies are my favourite too. Especially Coco and Moana I loved the whole story there. You can include The Jungle Book as well.
Love all of them! My daughters may be over 7 years old already but they sure still love these movies and still request to watch them! The stories are really eye-catching and even adults like me tend to love watching them too! Not sure about you but I love them even at the age of 36!
I love all of these movies. They are perfect to watch list on weekends to unwind. I specially love Encanto and Up. Coco is also so good. I must have watched all of these atleast 3 times till date and still love watching them.
My kids 5 years and 8 years gets screen time only once a month. They have watched Moana and liked it. I will add the other 4 too in the list for upcoming Screen time sessions.
Now thats what i call a list. holidays round the corner, much needed good movies for kids. and my elder one is 7 we have good weekends sortted then
I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that my choice is so much similar to the 7 yr old Ayansh but I am definitely going to watch Encanto and the Incredibles Franchise on his recommendation, others from the list I have watched and enjoyed a lot.
What a fabulous list. For us it’s friday. Me and my daughter watch one movie and my husband and my son watch a kid’s movie. They do not watch it in one go but it’s for 30 min. So far Lion King has been his favorite. Currently they are watching Narnia.
Wow loved your list and co-incidentally, we have watched most of these as a family. coco is our all time favorite and we have watched this in movie theater and had a great time. we did not watch the “UP” movie yet. would love to watch it with my girls soon.
Even we follow the same tradition, Saturday nights are family movie nights but we do it for only alternate Saturdays. All these movies are my son’s favorites too. Now a days, he’s into animated series, he says series is better than movies as you can keep on watching them and they never end, haha kids.
This is the amazing list of movies that almost all the kids live to watch ample number of times. Thank you for curating this wonderful movies list.
I love animated movies. And I never get tired of watching UP. Moana is my absolute fav and so is The Incredibles. Would love to check out Coco.
My grandson is also 7 and I am sure he has his list too. I am glad I have seen Moana and Charlie and the chocolate factory. Kids these days have such particular choices in everything. My younger grandson has his own so we have divided their time. We put an alarm on the phone and when the time is up one has to move for the other to watch.
These are definitely my favourites and my 6 year old has seen three from this list. This summer we will plan to watch the rest two..nice one
Wow!! I am so much impressed by the selection of movies at this age. My little one is of the same age, I will surely let him watch these.
My 7-year-old son also enjoys some of these movies and I’ll recommend he watches the ones he hasn’t seen as yet. UP is one of my favourites too – truly timeless and ageless!