All creatures great and small...
Supernanny film expert Jo Berry gives us her tips for the best animal or bug related movies!
The latest animated movie to feature a creature most grown-ups would prefer to swat rather than cuddle, Bee Movie manages to make those yellow-and-black, stinging, flying pests seem almost cute. The toddler-friendly adventure has bee Barry (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) venturing out into the big wide world, where he discovers humans have been taking the honey that bees make and selling it to each other – with poor bees never getting any of the profits. While little ones won't understand Barry going to court and suing humans, they'll get a kick out of the flying sequences and Barry's comic persistence, and grown-ups can while away the time listening out for the famous voices (Oprah, Ray Liotta, John Goodman, Renee Zellweger and, surprise surprise, Sting).
A surprising number of Disney animated movies feature the traumatic death of a parent or an orphaned child (The Lion King, Finding Nemo, The Jungle Book, Oliver And Company, etc) but Bambi has the most agonising moment of all, one that has distressed children (and adults) for over 60 years. Grown men have been known to weep as young deer Bambi's mother is shot by hunters, and it is extremely upsetting (even though you don't see anything – the sound of the gun is chilling and the expression on Bambi's face heart-breaking), but well worth the entire box of tissues you will need as the film as a whole is truly a delight. The animation is lovely, especially when a stumbling Bambi slides across an icy lake, and there are laughs from Bambi's pals Thumper the bunny and the skunk named Flower. The film follows a year in the life of the fawn as he learns to speak his first word ('bird') and learns about life in the forest. It's utterly charming, exciting and moving – just make sure your little one doesn't watch it alone as they'll need a cuddle afterwards.
Based on Eve Titus's children's novel, Basil Of Baker Street, this is a fun adventure about a mouse named Basil who is a legendary, Sherlock Holmes-style detective, complete with deerstalker hat and magnifying glass (the 'real' Sherlock does pop up, too, with Basil Rathbone's voice thanks to a recording taken from one of Rathbone's movie performances as the detective). With the aid of his assistant, Dr Dawson, Basil investigates the kidnapping of a toymaker and discovers that his nemesis, the rat Professor Ratigan (the marvellous Vincent Price), is behind it, and planning something far more sinister. A funny, entertaining introduction for younger viewers to sleuthing adventures, this is a fun twist on the Sherlock Holmes stories penned by Arthur Conan Doyle ("It's elementary, my dear Dawson," comments Basil) that will amuse grown-ups as much as the kids it is aimed at.
The slickly computer-animated A Bug’s Life follows the adventures of a lowly ant, the clumsy Flik (voiced by Dave Foley). Each year, his ant colony collects food for the bigger and meaner grasshoppers, but when Flik accidentally destroys the offering, he’s sent off into the wilderness to try and recruit an army of tough bugs to help the ants’ crusade against the grasshoppers. Of course, he manages to get this wrong as well, and inadvertantly recruits a troupe of circus-performing insects instead. Aimed firmly at a family audience, but with a few star names (Kevin Spacey, Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary) doing voice-overs to entertain the grown-ups, this is a beautifully animated and entertaining adventure.
Nick Park and Aardman Studios – the brains behind Wallace And Gromit – delivered a divinely silly yet also sharply witty tale for their first full length animated movie. Packed with smart jokes and a nod to classic wartime POW movies like The Great Escape for adults, and slapstick humour and brilliant 'claymation' for the kids, it's the story of a group of hens, led by the feisty Ginger (Julia Sawahla), who plan their escape from captivity before the evil Mrs Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) can fatten them up and put them in her soon-to-be-marketed chicken pies. The hens' attempts at escape have always been hampered by their lack of flying ability, so when a cocky rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) literally lands in their midst, Ginger is convinced he can help them finally fly the coop. Yummy.
Margret and H.A. Rey wrote the Curious George books for toddlers over 65 years ago, and this traditional animated adventure featuring the mischevious monkey stays reasonably close to their original drawings and ideas. Sweet but dim museum guide Ted (voiced by Will Ferrell) travels to Africa to secure a giant statue that could save the fate of the museum where he works. Unfortunately, he instead returns with a figurine more the size of a key ring, and a stowaway cheeky monkey who has taken a liking to him, but whose antics soon cause poor Ted to lose his job and his apartment. Sweet and simple stuff featuring a loveable central character and nice vocal performances from a cast that also includes Drew Barrymore as Ted's possible love interest and Dick Van Dyke as his boss.
A classic animated movie, this tugs at the heartstrings as much now as it did over 60 years ago when it was made. Based on a little-known book by Helen Aberson, it's the only Disney animated film in which the lead character, Dumbo himself, doesn't have a word of dialogue. But he doesn't need to say anything. From the moment that the stork brings a baby elephant to Mrs Jumbo, his big eyes say everything that needs to be said. This is one of the loveliest Disney animal movies, that will have viewers of all ages reaching for whole boxes of tissues as the little elephant sneezes, and his huge ears make their first appearance. He's teased by the other circus animals, and dubbed 'Dumbo', but his only friend, a mouse named Timothy is determined to see Dumbo live up to his true potential. There's lots of humour, of course, but also incredibly moving moments between Dumbo and his mother (and that bizarre pink elephant hallucination, too).
If the favourite Disney animated film for little girls is Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella, the favourite for boys has to be this fun adventure based on Rudyard Kipling's story. It wasn't the first adaptation – there was a live action movie in 1942 starring Sabu – but this is the one against which all other adaptations will always be measured. The animation isn't that striking, but it's the vocal performances and the songs ('Bare Necessities', 'I Wanna Be Like You') that give this movie such a large helping of charm. It's the story, of course, of young Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by wolves who decide to send him to a local 'man tribe' when they hear the villainous tiger Shere Khan is on the prowl. It's on the journey that he meets Baloo the bear and orangutan King Louie. This was the last animated movie overseen by Walt Disney, who died during production in 1966.
Like many of the early Disney feature-length cartoons, this doggy animated classic has stood the test of time, and also has enough deft humour to keep adults as entertained as their junior companions. For those with rusty memories, this is the one about the pampered spaniel, Lady, who ends up on the mean streets with vagrant hound Tramp after she mistakenly believes her owners don’t want her anymore. While the shared spaghetti-eating scene between the pair still ranks as one of the cutest romantic scenes in movie history (human and non-human), the most entertaining moments are actually sidebars to the main story – the manic tree-chomping beaver, the arrival of those malevolent Siamese cats, and of course, Peggy Lee (as Tramp’s sexy pal) being as seductive as an animated dog can be singing “He’s A Tramp”. Simply gorgeous.
One of the most successful animated movies ever made (and now also an equally successful stage musical), Disney's The Lion King combines all the classic touches you expect from Walt's studio (great songs, adorable characters, a truly scary bad guy) with beautiful, slick computer and hand-drawn animation. Simba is the young lion cub who sees his father die (a very upsetting scene no matter what age you are) and is then exiled by the new 'king' on the pride, his nasty uncle Scar (voiced in a suitably creepy manner by Jeremy Irons). Luckily Simba is befriended by Pumbaa and Timon, and with them he learns some street smarts before returning to his family to claim his rightful place. Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane and Rowan Atkinson are among the other stars lending their vocal talents to this terrific adventure, while Elton John and Tim Rice provided the memorable songs including Circle Of Life, Can You Feel The Love Tonight? and Hakuna Matata.
Although AA Milne's Winnie The Pooh stories have been adapted for the screen before, they were mainly made as shorts such as Winnie The Pooh And The Blustery Day, and the 1977 collection of short stories The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh. So, technically, this was the first feature-length movie to feature the characters who live in Hundred Acre Wood, and (hurrah!) it focuses on the bounciest of all of them, Tigger. It seems that the bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun Tigger is too bouncy for Pooh, Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo – they are getting ready for winter and don't have time to bounce with him. So Tigger decides to find others like him, and ventures out into a blizzard to find his Tigger family. Delightful stuff, this really keeps the spirit of Milne's stories alive and is a great introduction to the characters for little viewers and a welcome return of old friends for adults.