Children's film partially coincident with family film
A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that contains children or relates to them in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are made for a wider appeal with a general audience in mind. Children's films come in several major genres like realism, fantasy, adventure, war, musicals, comedy, and literary adaptations.United States
Early years
The Walt Disney Company made animated adaptations of Grimms' Fairy Tales before World War II, beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The period immediately before and during World War II saw the release of three significant family films in the U.S. These were Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Disney, Gulliver's Travels by Fleischer Studios, and Pinocchio (1940), also by Disney. All of these were loose adaptations of literary sources.After the war, Disney continued to make animated features that could be classified as family films given the scope of its content. According to Wojcik, the most important film adaptations of children's literature in the immediate post-World War II period were the motion pictures The Diary of Anne Frank by George Stevens (1959), Treasure Island (1950) by Byron Haskin and Luigi Comencini's 1952 motion picture Heidi.1960s to 1990s
In the 1960s, motion pictures such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Oliver! (1968), directed by Carol Reed, portrayed children as naturally innocent. Other films of the 1960s that involved children include The Sound of Music (1965) by Robert Wise and The Miracle Worker (1962). These were very successful musical motion picture that were in the genre of family films. Four of the top ten highest-grossing films of the decade were family films: The Sound of Music, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Jungle Book (1967), and Mary Poppins (1964). Hollywood also released motion pictures starring children though these were not commercially successful and they were literary adaptations nonetheless. These include ...And Now Miguel (1966), Doctor Dolittle (1967), and The Learning Tree (1969). Other family/children films of the decade include Pollyanna (1960), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), In Search of the Castaways (1962), The Sword in the Stone (1963), That Darn Cat! (1965), Up the Down Staircase (1967), To Sir, With Love (1967), Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), and The Parent Trap (1961).Children's films in the 1970s from the United States include animated films such as The Aristocats (1970), Charlotte's Web (1973), Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977), and The Hobbit (1977). The decade also had live action children's films like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Sounder (1972), Benji (1974), Tuck Everlasting (1976), The Bad News Bears (1976), Freaky Friday (1976), and A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1978), the divorce drama involving a child Kramer vs. Kramer (1978), and The Muppet Movie (1979). There were also combination live action/animation films such as 1971's Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Pete's Dragon (1977). This trend of films inspired the 1980s and 1990s productions of classic children's films from America including Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Matilda (1996).American children's and family films of the 1980s include Popeye (1980), The Fox and the Hound (1981), Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and The Little Mermaid (1989). Spielberg portrays children realistically, having to cope with issues. This is seen in E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, where the children have to cope with the issues of single parenting and divorce, as well as separation from their father. Also, in the motion picture Empire of the Sun (1987), the protagonist child Jim Graham has to deal with separation from his parents for years, to the point where he is unable to even remember what his mother looked like. He is wounded not by bullets, but by the madness and cruelty of war and separation from his parents. According to Robin Wood, in their films, Lucas and Spielberg both reconstruct "... the adult spectator as a child ..." or "... an adult who would like to be a child". Other important children's films from the U.S. in the late 1970s include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Live action films like Superman (1978) and Superman II are also important children's and family films. They have been ranked as some of the best family entertainment over the past generation. The 1970s and 1980s also include several films and their sequels as classics of family films, including: Star Wars (1977) and its sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Other similar movies and sequels include Robert Zemeckis's film Back to the Future (1985) and its sequels Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990)."Since the resurgence of Disney feature films with The Little Mermaid (1989)", writes Laurie, "high-budget animations have become part of the Hollywood box office furniture, with phenomenal successes from Pixar Studios, DreamWorks animations and more recently, Blue Sky Studios". Important animated family films of the 1990s include Disney titles such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Mulan (1998), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and the Pixar computer animated films Toy Story (1995), its sequel Toy Story 2 (1999), and A Bug's Life (1998). This decade introduced the modern fairy tale film Edward Scissorhands (1990), depicting an isolated, artificially created young man with human emotions and childlike qualities who is ultimately rejected by society while the female protagonist holds on to his memory. The 1990s also saw additional live-action family films such as Back to the Future Part III (1990), which brought the Back to the Future franchise into this decade, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Home Alone (1990) and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Hook (1991), Alan & Naomi (1992), Jurassic Park (1993), Steve Zaillian's Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), The Flintstones (1994), Babe (1995), Jumanji (1995), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Fly Away Home (1996), Vegas Vacation (1997), and October Sky (1999). Films such as A Little Princess (1995) were more successful in the home video market than in theaters. Direct-to-video became important for both animated and live-action films, such as The Return of Jafar (1994) and those starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
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