Animated Movies for 5 Yr Old Boy

Updated on February 28, 2013
J.T. asks from Marblehead, MA
22 answers

Can you mamas out there help me choose DVDs from the library for my 5 year old son? He loves Transformers but I am not sure how appropriate the movies are for him. He has watched Cars, Monsters Inc, Toy Story and liked them. He did not like Charlotte's Web.
He loves Ice Age and Kung Fu Panda series. Actually, we watched them as a family and enjoyed.
More movies that we can enjoy as a family would be great. Nothing too scary...

Also, any book suggestions you might have? He loves Mo Willems (Elephant and Piggie) and Richard Scarry books, as he loves the humor in them.

Thanks!!!

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K.M.

answers from Kansas City on

I have 3 boys (7, almost 5, and 2)...Here are some movies they LOVE:

The Incredibles
Despicable Me
Madagascar 1, 2, 3
Toy Story 1, 2, 3
Ice Age
Magic School Bus Series
Space Chimps
Barnyard

1 mom found this helpful

~.~.

answers from Tulsa on

My son is 6.

Movies: Wall-E, Shrek, Super Mario Brothers (these are older and harder to find), Thomas (he is starting to outgrow these), The Magic School Bus (also harder to find)

Books: Berenstain Bears, Any books based off of a Disney movie, Thomas

1 mom found this helpful

More Answers

K.I.

answers from Los Angeles on

Movies:
The Iron Giant
How to train your Dragon
Small Soldiers (this is an old one but my boys loved it & the message is good)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (the original)

4 moms found this helpful
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X.X.

answers from Denver on

Speed Racer! It isn't animated, but it is in techicolor (or something like that) which will keep the kids interested. DH grew up on Speed Racer. I have to admit, the first 3 times I watched the movie I couldn't STAND IT. But, on my 4th viewing I came to appreciate the movie. And the story line is great.

What else....check out some of the older Disney movies. My kids, 13 and 9, were born right after some of the greats and really enjoyed them later on. There are some they still have not seen, like Toy Story. (gasp!)

My all time favorite, the first movie i ever took DD to, was Spirit. (horses.) To this very day it is my favorite kid movie EVER. Such a great message in the movie and great music that still brings me to tears. When we moved from the south back to my homeland in the north, the message of the movie really struck me. Sorry... I'm getting sappy now. Time to play some Brian Adams :) (I'd suggest doing some research on this movie, look into how Brian Adams was tasked to write a score for a movie narrated by a horse. Very difficult undertaking, and he did a brilliant job.)

3 moms found this helpful
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G.♣.

answers from Springfield on

My boys are 4 and 6 (to give you some perceptive). They love most of the movies you mentioned. They love

Meet the Robinsons (I always cry at the end)
The Smurfs
Tangled (it's not just for girls)
Dispicable Me
Wreck it Ralf (my niece loved it to)

My oldest also likes some live action movies, but it is harder to find age appropriate movies. He wants to watch Spiderman and the Avengers. We have watched the Back to the Future Movies, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Journey 2. It's nice for us (mom and dad) that he watches some live action. Sometimes those animated ones get boring for adults.

3 moms found this helpful
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K.C.

answers from Los Angeles on

I've heard How to Train Your Dragon is great. We bought it for our five year old son but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. He's a big baseball fan, so we got him a movie called Everyone's Hero that he really likes.

Finding Nemo is another good one. He would probably also like The Incredibles and really any of the Pixar films. My son also likes Dumbo and 101 Dalmations.

2 moms found this helpful
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C.G.

answers from Atlanta on

My son likes the Incredibles. Also the newer Thomas the Train full length features.
His favorite books are the ones with the characters from Cars.

2 moms found this helpful
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K.P.

answers from Dallas on

My son is 4.5 he likes Treasure Planet, Jimmy Neutron, all of the Leap Frog movies (these are educational too which makes me feel better about tv time), Ice Age, and Cars of course. He also enjoys some that are not animated like Spiderman, The Avengers and Iron Man ( a lot of people think he is too young for these but really he doesnt even notice the more mature things he is more interested in the super heros than the actual store line)

2 moms found this helpful
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D.P.

answers from Minneapolis on

Gidget gave you some good ones that are some of our favorites...My 5 year old has kind of moved on from Cars and Toy Story. A few other favorites of ours...Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Ratatouille & Little Rascals

2 moms found this helpful

L.L.

answers from Rochester on

You can try Wall-E, and just promise him that it gets SUPER exciting as no one speaks during the first 45 minutes of the movie (or so). It is an AWESOME movie, and my oldest loved it at that age (and still does.) Don't forget about the Lion King and some of the older Disney movies...they aren't just for girls!! One that is really funny is The Emperor's New Groove and it's sequel, and it's nice because the main character is a boy.

Dr. Seuss!

1 mom found this helpful

H.A.

answers from Burlington on

Don't forget the Muppets! Can't wait until our little guy is into those because the adults in our family want to see them again.

And this may sound ridiculous, but our 4-year-old LOVES Schoolhouse Rock. He's too young to get most of the concepts, but he walks around singing the songs, usually with some very fun (for us) misheard lyrics :-)

1 mom found this helpful

V.W.

answers from Jacksonville on

Look at the other Disney/Pixar movies... The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and wasn't Up also a Pixar? We also liked Meet the Robinsons.

He might be a tad bit too young for Up (it is pretty emotional for some people as the couple ages).

My son's favorites at that age were the Rescuers movies. The Rescuers Down Under was the absolute favorite.

ETA: Didn't notice the books part of your question at first... My kids loved the Frog and Toad books. There are only I think 4 of them, and they are each filled with around 5-7 very short stories. If read correctly, they are very funny.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

Muppets
Rio
Wreck It Ralph (when it comes out)
Bernstein Bears
Shark Tale

1 mom found this helpful

A.W.

answers from Kalamazoo on

How to Train a Dragon.
The Lorax
Happy Feet
Hood Winked
Shrek 1, 2 and 3?
Robots
Wall E

1 mom found this helpful
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K.S.

answers from Detroit on

Adding to the others mentioned:
Madagascar III
Pinocchio

Books:
Mr. Putter and Tabby
Mittens series and Biscuit series (for learning how to read on his own)

1 mom found this helpful

X.O.

answers from Chicago on

My boys love all those that you mentioned, but they also love the Tinker Bell movies.

Peter Pan
Aladdin
Beauty & the Beast
The Little Mermaid
Alice in Wonderland
The Land Before Time
Curious George & Curious George 2

Charlie & Lola (tv show)
Curious George (tv show)

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M.T.

answers from Milwaukee on

Here are some book ideas for you:

Pete the Cat books
Miss Bindergarten books
Frog and Toad books
Henry and Mudge books
Mac and Cheese books
Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

iron giant!
khairete
S. (who needs to watch that one again)

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D.K.

answers from Cincinnati on

The Cars movies, Toy Story movies, and Ice Age movies are some of my 5 year old son's favorites as well. He also loves My Neighbor Totoro, Finding Nemo, Bug's Life, Dumbo, The Aristocats, Piglet's Big Movie, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, Winnie the Pooh's Most Grand Adventure, anything Thomas the Tank Engine, anything Handy Manny, A Goofy Movie, Chicken Little, and Monster's Inc. We tried Up, Bambi, Wall-E, Lion King, and Kungfu Panda, but they all scared him so we couldn't finish.

As for books, my son loves story time. He just recently started to read on his own. He has been reading with me for awhile now, but he would just look through his books if he was on his own. Two days ago, he came to me while I was cooking dinner and said "Mom, I read this book all by myself." It was just a book from his shelf, not one that we had used to practice reading before. Later he read it to me at story time. He has half the bookshelf in our living room filled with his books as well as a complete book shelf in his room full of books. Some of his favorites are the Barenstain Bears books, Clifford books, anything by Nancy Tillman, Dr. Seuss, anything by Laura Numeroff: "If you give a mouse a cookie", DK Eyewitness books (Ocean, Fish, Seashore, Time & Space, Jungle), DK's Dinosaurs Eye To Eye, The Great Animal Search (Dinosaur, Undersea), anything nonfiction describing different vehicles: construction, siren, etc..), anything by Eric Carle, Little Golden Books: Mainly Thomas and Pixar stories but a few classics as well, and Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and Two Bad Mice which were two of my favorites as a child.

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M.G.

answers from Kansas City on

The Iron Giant, Treasure Planet, Hot Wheels Movie (I'm not sure if the library would have that).

M

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.T.

answers from Victoria on

both of my kids love Max and Ruby and Pee Wee Herman he also loves Imagine ex dvd that came with his castle toy.

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E.T.

answers from Rochester on

My kids (3 and 5) LOVE the Fresh Beat Band videos. Lots of great music. They also like Wonder Pets, Olivia, Max and Ruby, and pretty much any Disney movie. My 5 year old daughter LOVES the animated Avatar series.

Books--I can give you hundreds of titles!!! I'm on a picture book committee.
A Pet for Petunia by Schmid
Another Brother by Cordell
Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Chabon (love this book!)
Cat Secrets by Czekaj (a lot like to Mo Willems books)
Charlie the Ranch Dog by Drummond
Chicken Problem by Oxley and Aronson
Chloe and the Lion by Barnett
Chopsticks by Rosenthal (my daughter loves the humor in this book)
Creepy Carrots by Reynolds
E-mergency by Lichtenheld and Fields-Meyer (lots of humor)
Good News, Bad News by Mack
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Lichtenheld
I Want My Hat Back by Klassen
I'm Bored by Black
ALL of Jan Thomas's books
It's a Tiger by LaRochelle
David Shannon's books (there are others besides the No David series)
Neville by Juster
On My Way to the Bath by Maizes
Kate DiCamillo's Mercy Watson series (great intro to chapter books)
Pete the Cat books by Litwin
Any of Chris VanAllsburg's books
Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door by Rubin
The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Winter
Z is for Moose by Bingham

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