Children's 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.

Psychological aspects

Children are born with certain innate biological dispositions as a product of long evolutionary history. This provides an underlying biological framework for what may fascinate a child and also impose limitations on the same. These can be seen in certain universal features shared in children's films.Grodal Torben (2009) Embodied Visions, Oxford University Press. P 27 According to Grodal, films like ''Finding Nemo'' (2003), '' Bambi'' (1942), or Hayao Miyazaki's '' Spirited Away'' (2001) are based on certain strong emotions like fear, that lead to the activation of what Boyer and Lienard called the hazard-precaution system.
This enables the brain to take precautions in case of danger. Children's films such as these explore various topics such as: attachment to parenting agency; the development of friendship; reciprocal relationships between individuals; or deal with the necessity or need in children and young people to explore and to engage in play. Thus these diverse films deal with certain aspects that are not mere social constructions, but rather emotions relevant to all children and therefore have an appeal to a wider universal audience. While cultural aspects shape how various films are created, these films refer to underlying universal aspects that are innate and biological. University of Melbourne scholar Timothy Laurie criticises the emphasis placed on children's innate psychic tendencies, noting that "pedagogical norms have been tirelessly heaped onto children's media", and that rather than deriving from hardwired biology, "the quality of childhood is more likely shaped by social policy, political opportunism, pedagogical institutions, and youth-specific market segmentation". eds. Hannah Stark and Jon Roffe.

Family films versus children's films

In both the United States and Europe, the idea of children's films began to gain relative prominence in the 1930s. According to Bazalgette and Staples, the term "family film" is essentially an American expression while "children's film" is considered to be a European expression. However, the difference between the two terms can be seen in casting methods adopted by American and European films respectively. In American family films, the search for a child protagonist involves casting children that meet a specific criterion or standard for physical appearance. In contrast, European children's films look to cast children who appear "ordinary". Similarly, in American family films, the adult cast can be composed of well known actors or actresses in an effort to attract a wider audience, presenting narratives from an adult or parental perspective. This is shown through the casting, content of the plot, editing, and even '' mise-en-scène''. According to Bazalgette and Staples, a fine example of a family film is ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' (1989), which if it were a European children's film with a similar plot, the title would be ''Sis, Dad Shrunk Us'', explaining that European children's films are told from the child's perspective, portraying the story through the various emotions and experiences of the child. Because of these differences, American family films are more easily marketable toward domestic and international viewing audiences while European children's films are better received domestically with limited appeal to international audiences.

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

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