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The live-action family film, once a cinema staple, has been made all-but-extinct by a surge in the availability of animated fare. Max is a throwback of sorts - a movie about the relationship between a boy and his dog. Lassie springs to mind as the ge...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Every year around the Christmas season, it seems impossible to turn on the television without seeing either George Seaton's Miracle on 34th Street or Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. Like Handel's "Me...

Spoiler Alert: It's virtually impossible to discuss Mouse in a meaningful way without making a revelation that some might consider to be a spoiler. It happens early in the film, so (at least in my view), it's fair game, but I put this warning here...

There's something a little annoying about a movie that tries this shamelessly to be endearing and family friendly. Typically, these kinds of films feature Santa Claus in a significant role. Here, there is no Santa but there is a 243-year old guy ...

My Family, the portrait of a Mexican-American family living in East Los Angeles, boasts a series of distinguished thematic antecedents, including Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and Zhang Yimou's To Live. Here, as in the 1972 gangster saga, t...

Nanny McPhee is an excellent movie… if you're a seven-year old girl. That's less a negative evaluation than it is a statement of fact. This isn't a "family film;" it's a "children's film." What's more, it's for girls who are old enough to unde...

Whenever a movie addresses the subject of a girl living alone on a desert island, the soft porn warning lights go on. So it may come as a bit of a surprise that Nim's Island is a family film in which no one considers skinny-dipping. What's more, i...