Most people love watching movies to relax and unwind. And there are lots of parents who want their children to watch animation movies because of their moral lessons. Here are some of the best animation movies that children must watch. It is good for the heart for both kids and kids-at-heart.

FAMILY

Finding Nemo (2003)
This is a stunning underwater adventure of an overly protected father clownfish named Martin who is looking for his son, Nemo. They become separated in the ocean when Nemo is unexpectedly taken by a diver and dumped into a fish tank. Like any father will do, Martin embarks on a dangerous journey to rescue his son and return home safely. Finding Nemo is a movie with memorable characters, humor and heartfelt emotion. This father-and-son-relationship movie will teach children to obey their parents. It is also a must-watch film for every parents as well, for this movie will also gives every parents an idea to let their children explore and to give them a little freedom.

Frozen (2013)
Different from the typical boy meets girl story of Disney movies. Frozen is about sibling relationship. When a prophecy traps a kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter because of the Snow Queen’s (named Elsa) icy spell, her fearless optimist sister Anna sets off an epic journey to find her and stop the spell. Teaming up with rugged mountain man Kristoff with his sidekick reindeer Sven, they battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction. Frozen is a nice movie for kids because of the story and humor. Also, they will surely love the snowman who wants to experience summer.

FRIENDSHIP

Toys Story (1995)
Known as the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer, Toy Story focused mainly about friendship. Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy thinks that he is Andy’s (a wide-eyed youngster owner) number one toy. But his supremacy is challenged by a space-ranger action figure who named Buzz Lightyear who thinks that he is real and not a plaything. The rivalry of Woody and Buzz turned into friendship when they are threatened to turned into hideous mutants by a nasty next-door neighbor kid named Sid. This animation film will surely give your kids a good time watching an action movie with a great moral lesson. This movie will also teach children on how to appreciate their toys. Toy Story 2 and 3 are as good as this first movie as well.

Monsters, Inc. (2001)
This story is about how monsters generate their city’s power by scaring children. Monsters, Inc. is a scream processing factory where blue-furred behemoth James “Sully” Sullivan and his one-eyed assistant Mike Wazowzki are employed. These monsters are lurking under beds and closets to scare children. But monsters are also terribly afraid of being contaminated by children. Top scarer Sully with his assistant find their world disrupted when they are followed back into the monster world by a very unafraid little girl named Boo. Monsters, Inc. is also a movie about friendship. Of how these monsters became friends with this little girl.

ENVIRONMENT

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (2012)
This movie is an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope. Lorax is a grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world. He must be find by a 12-year-old boy searching for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. This animated adventure is not only for kids and kids-at-heart but for everyone. For Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax will help us realize the importance of nature. This will teach us appreciate and protect our environment.

CHASING DREAMS

Up (2009)
Carl Fredricksen is a 78-year-old retired balloon salesman who longed to wander to the lost world (South America) of his childhood dreams in his entire life. He is ready for his last chance to fulfill his lifelong dream. One day, he shocked his neighbors by tying thousands of balloons to his house. But Carl is not alone in this high-flying excitement journey because an overeager 8-year-old wilderness explorer Russell is on his front porch. As the house touches down on the world’s second largest continent, the duo meet fantastic friends. Then, Carl realizes what true adventure means. Up is an animation movie that will teach you on chasing your dreams and to appreciate people around you. It is really a good movie to watch!

Today’s guest post comes from reader Tracy. 

When the silver screen was introduced a century ago in Germany and other parts of the world, it has become a revolution that enabled people to express themselves in moving pictures. Similar to books and music, German films as well as international ones feature stories or themes based on a person’s life, frustrations, and dreams, among many others. One of most common themes used in movies is gambling.

As playing casino games is one of the favorite activities of mankind, it wasn’t long before when people incorporated this with motion picture. From 1960 to the present, people have produced a number of titles that illustrate gambling as part of their subject’s lives. One example is The Gambler, a 2007 film of German director Sebastian Bieniek.

Apart from using real casinos in a film, there are also instances wherein filmmakers used gambling as an “under theme” in some of the scenes in their work. That being said, here is a personal list of the most memorable scenes with gambling references in non-gambling movies.

The roulette scene in Toy Story 3
When I saw Toy Story 3 on the silver screen for the first time, I didn’t expect to see a gambling scene. But I commend Pixar for treating a mature topic in such a way that the audience, especially the younger sector, would still enjoy it. The scene that I am talking about involves some of the founding toys at the preschool, including Ken. They are gathered together around a See ‘n Say, betting on where the spinner will stop. The tip of the arrow lands on the duck, making the octopus the winner.

The blackjack scene in The Hangover
Almost all of the scenes in The Hangover are in Las Vegas, so it is implausible not to see any gambling activity in the film. I included The Hangover’s blackjack scene in this short list as it is a pure homage to the Rain Man, especially when Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) descended on the escalator wearing a gray suit.

The roulette scene in Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run)
Directed by Tom Tykwer, this German film tells the story of Lola (Franka Potente) as she tries to look for money to use as substitute to the money that was lost by her boyfriend Manni. After failing in her first two attempts, Lola sees a casino and decides to put everything she’s got on the roulette table. She wins two bets with “20 black”, which gives her more than enough money to help Manni. What I love most about this scene is the reaction of the classy people when Lola entered the casino all sweaty and under-dressed.

If you are as big of a Toy Story fan as I am, than you’ll be glad to hear about about an all new limited series from Disney and Marvel Comics which will bring us a new story with the characters we’ve fallen in love with over the film series.

Hitting news stands and comic stores in March, the four issue limited series will take us back in time a little bit to the end of the first movie when Andy got Buster, a lovable puppy. What followed for Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang?

The limited series is written by Tea Orsi, with art by Teresa Quezada-Geer and Antonello Dalena, and a cover by Marco Ghiglione and Silvano Scolari.

Between the Toy Story shorts in front of Cars 2 and The Muppets and now the characters returning in comic book format, it looks like we don’t have any end in sight for everyone’s favorite toys – and I couldn’t be happier. It’ll also be great to see characters that didn’t make it to Toy Story 3 again, like Bo Peep and Lenny (assuming they are in the series). With so much time between movies there really could be an endless supply of content for future Toy Story comics (and all new short films). Lets hope the series does well enough to warrant more of them!

Best Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon
A unique story about a viking kid who befriends the most vicious kind of dragon and learns from him that the species may be misunderstood. It’s a sweet film that definitely tugs on the heart strings, with a great score, interesting characters, and huge voice talent. However, many people’s early predictions felt this slot would either go to this film or Tangled, and I personally felt Tangled was a lot better.

The Illusionist
From the director and writer of The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist is a bittersweet story about a struggling magician whose stage performances are being edged out by rock stars, so he takes a young girl under his wing and changes both their lives forever. Much like Triplets, it’s a story told completely by the visuals with hardly any dialogue to speak of, but you would never notice it because the characters interact so well and convey such personality with their actions. Unlike Triplets, though, it doesn’t have the incredible music to act as a soundtrack to this story, and it feels as though something is missing.

Toy Story 3
Woody, Buzz and the gang are back for this final installment that explores what happens to toys when their owner gets too old to play with them. When the toys are accidentally delivered to a day care center, they must learn the rules of their new home, while Woody tries to convince them they need to come back to Andy’s house. Every new character is such a great addition to the franchise, even the insanely creepy Big Baby, and some of our old characters get great subplots, like Barbie’s relationship with Ken. When the moment comes where you’re wondering if it will take a dark turn, if you’re not overcome by emotion and love for the characters you’ve seen through 3 films, then you might be a robot.

What Will Win: Toy Story 3. It wasn’t just the best animated film this year, but one of the best films.

What Should Win: There are some years where you could argue against the always front runnner Pixar, but this year isn’t one of them.

Best Sound Editing
The difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing can be a difficult one, but in the most basic terms, sound editing analyzes the actual sounds of a film, such as the practical sound taken on set and the sound effects, while sound mixing looks at how well all the sounds are put together with the music and the dialogue.

Inception
Great action = great sound, and Nolan is great at technical awards.

Toy Story 3
Pixar is always a contender, but almost never a winner in this category. It was a crying shame that Wall-E didn’t take this award home with it (the entire movie was made out of sound effects!) and Toy Story 3 doesn’t boast nearly the amount of impressive sound as that one.

Tron: Legacy
Much like the original, the sound effects for this film makes the audience feel as though they’re in a video game, but unlike the original, there aren’t enough moments in the games or fleeing the master programmers to make this sound truly great.

True Grit
A shoot em up western would be a great contender here, but True Grit gets more out of its silences than it does out of its sound.

Unstoppable
The runaway train groans and grunts like a monster, completely personified by the sound effects in this film.

What Will Win:
Inception. It’s one of the biggest action movies of the year and the sound awards tend to favor these. But with a little luck, something could surprise and come through…

What Should Win:
Unstoppable. It’s definitely the underdog here since this is the film’s only nomination, but the sound effects escalate this movie from a simple, no brainer popcorn flick, to an enjoyable action film by making the runaway train it’s main character.

This morning at 5:30 am et, the Oscar nominations were announced! Here they are…

Best Supporting Actor

• Christian Bale (The Fighter)
• John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)
• Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
• Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
• Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams (The Fighter)
• Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)
• Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
• Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)
• Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
  

Best Actor

• James Franco (127 Hours)
• Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
• Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
• Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
• Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Best Actress

• Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
• Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
• Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
• Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Best Animated Film

• The Illusionist
• Toy Story 3
• How to Train Your Dragon

Best Director

• Darren Aronofsky
• David O. Russell
• Tom Hooper
• David Fincher
• Joel & Ethan Coen

Best Picture

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King’s Speech
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter’s Bone

Continue reading for more categories…

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Guest post of the week by Deangelo Spencer.

The kids have been excited to see the film Toy Story 3 ever since we heard news that it was in production. As soon as the movie previews started to appear between watching cartoon episodes the kids started begging to go. They didn’t fully understand what it meant when I said the movie wasn’t in theaters yet but they didn’t stop asking. I agreed to take them to the first Monday matinee after it came out. I figured the Monday showing wouldn’t have as many people and matinees are a great way to save a few dollars.

I’m big into planning ahead so I bought the tickets for the 3D showing via my Clear broadband and internet bundle. I didn’t think we’d have trouble getting in but I’m not a fan of lines no matter show short. When we got to the theater I was shocked. I must have not been the only one who thought it would be a great idea to take the kids to the matinee. We had to park on the street and walk to the theater. Luckily we bought tickets ahead of time because the 3D showing was the first to sell out. The kids absolutely loved the film and won’t take their 3D glasses off unless they go to sleep. We all loved it.