By Sebastian Cannata, “Dad” Contributor
It’s summer and a fun season to make time to actually watch something together. When I was a kid, there weren’t 24-hour kids-only TV stations, animated movies being released weekly and PG-13 didn’t exist. We watched movies and TV shows with our parents, often times peeking through their fingers. I became a pretty big movie buff, but then life happened and kids came along and I’ve been behind on box office hits ever since! Now that my tween has reached the age where she can enjoy and appreciate a larger selection of films than just the animated kind, we have started to watch them together. I began a “classic movies to watch with your tween” list on my iPhone.
As I think of new movies, I add them to the list and plan our Friday evening movie nights. Summer is a great time to shift movie nights from Fridays to mid week since ‘bed time’ becomes later. Also, you can choose to watch the DVDs in other languages- now that’s fun! And a great way to practice some Espanol or French perhaps!A movie we recently saw was the new “The Three Stooges” being released on DVD on July 17th. I used to watch reruns of the Three Stooges with my dad and I thought the new version did a great job with keeping with the original which includes the eye-poking and physical comedy.While my wife complains about the violence, cigarette smoking and drinking shown in many of these older movies, and some racial undertones as well- I believe these are great conversation starters and teachable moments.Putting the issues on the table sparks great talks with our tween. We watch movies, talk about them and bond.
Classic Movies to Watch with your Tween
- Field of Dreams
- E.T.
- Beetlejuice
- Star Wars – of course, I’ll watch them in their original order so we can talk about the changes, history, ‘when I was a kid’ moments and more.
- Back to the Future
- Honey I Shrunk the Kids
- Hook
- The Sandlot
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Problem Child
- Gremlins
- Short Circuit
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- Uncle Buck
- Freaky Friday (the original)
- Mrs. Doubtfire
- Adventures in Babysitting
Some more girlie options include:
- My Fair Lady
- The Sound of Music
- 7 Brides for 7 Brothers
- Father of the Bride
Have any movies to add to ‘our’ list?
DISCLAIMER: Los Tweens was provided a review copy of The Three Stooges DVD. All views are our own.
