List of top children's movies includes some surprises

NEW YORK -- "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," Stanley Kubrick's brilliantly savage satire of the Cold War, seems a strange choice for kids, but a new book lists the black comedy about nuclear war among the top 100 picks for children's movies.

In "The New York Times Essential Library: Children's Movies" (Henry Holt and Company), film critic Peter M. Nichols looked beyond Disney and traditional forms of children's entertainment to assemble a collection of films that are stimulating for the whole family, including adults.

"I sort of picked them as sort of a survey course in the 8-12 age range," says Nichols, a father of three who has written The New York Times film column "Taking the Children" since 1994 and has covered film and video for the newspaper since 1988.

"The idea behind the book was to kind of give kids through their families a cross section of films that were more or less representative of great films," he says.

Nichols doesn't ignore Disney's contribution to children's entertainment, including classics such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) as well as more recent hits like "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Lilo & Stitch" (2002) and "The Lion King" (1994). But he also includes live-action musicals that can be just as magical as their animated counterparts: "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971), "West Side Story" (1961), "Mary Poppins" (1964), "The Music Man" (1962), "My Fair Lady" (1964), "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) and "The Sound of Music" (1965).

Nichols' most interesting choices, however, come from the days before the MPAA's rating system was in place. Before the "R" rating, films' content was much tamer in terms of profanity, overt sexuality and graphic violence, and thus the children-friendly offerings from that time are more diverse.

In the case of 1964's "Dr. Strangelove," Nichols says older children appreciate the slapstick humor, as when the president of the United States (Peter Sellers) breaks up a scuffle between American and Soviet officials by saying, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."

The book includes less subversive choices from the era that pack an equally strong dramatic punch, such as "The African Queen" (1951), "The Longest Day" (1962), "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Shane" (1953) and "Casablanca" (1942).

"Some of the really great old classics stand up very well with kids, even black and white ones, even say 'Casablanca.' It turns out if you go and look in surveys of older films that kids like, that's right up there," Nichols says. "They like the characters, they like him, they like her, they like kind of the jaunty way it goes about things."

In addition to classic dramas, the list favors genres like animal films, such as "Babe" (1995), "The Bear" (1988), "The Black Stallion" (1979), "National Velvet" (1944), "Jurassic Park" (1993) and "The Secret of Roan Inish" (1994); and space films such as "Star Wars" (1977), "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951).

A three- to four-page passage is dedicated to each film, with information on scenes that might require explanation, and any material that might be objectionable, to help parents make decisions about what is appropriate for their child.

The passages also offer plot summaries and often offer behind-the-scenes tales, such as the grammatical change in "Apollo 13" that turned astronaut Jim Lovell's "Houston, we've had a problem" into Tom Hanks' "Houston, we have a problem." Nichols also describes Disney's efforts to tone down the more gruesome aspects of the "Snow White" fairy tale, which originally killed off the stepmother by forcing her to dance wearing iron slippers hot from the fire.

To offer an amusing glimpse at long-forgotten objections to beloved films, Nichols also includes excerpts of film reviews from the time. The tongue-lashing Pauline Kael gave "The Sound of Music" in 1965 is a good example: "We may become even more aware of the way we have been turned into emotional and aesthetic imbeciles when we hear ourselves humming the sickly, goody-goody songs."

Kael's opinion aside, Nichols' collection favors films that avoid the saccharine phoniness that abounds in children's entertainment. The films were chosen based on their appeal to the whole family, including adults.

"I was aiming for films that didn't go too far over the line, but that would require in many cases some real thought on the part of kids," he says.

Nichols hopes to update the "top 100" list in future editions, and says films like "Winged Migration," filmed from the point of view of a bird in a flock, and "The Triplets of Belleville," an imaginative animated film from France, are potential adds to the list. Unfortunately, quality films for children are rarer than he'd like.

"I think that a lot of things (today) are really junk. They're very formulaic, it just seems like you're just watching the same films over and over again, and this is particularly true of the 'preteen' films. It's pretty appalling. It's just factory line stuff," Nichols says.

What to watch

The top 100 movies for children, according to "The New York Times Essential Library: Children's Movies" for children ages 8 to 12 are, in alphabetical order:

1. "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948)

2. "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938)

3. "The African Queen" (1951)

4. "Apollo 13" (1995)

5. "Babe" (1995)

6. "Back to the Future" (1985)

7. "The Bad News Bears" (1976)

8. "The Bear" (1988)

9. "Beauty and the Beast" (1991)

10. "Beetlejuice" (1988)

11. "Big" (1988)

12. "The Black Stallion" (1979)

13. "Bound for Glory" (1976)

14. "Breaking Away" (1979)

15. "Bringing Up Baby" (1938)

16. "The Buddy Holly Story" (1978)

17. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969)

18. "Casablanca" (1942)

19. "Cat Ballou" (1965)

20. "Chariots of Fire" (1981)

21. "Chicken Run" (2000)

22. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977)

23. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951)

24. "Dick Tracy" (1990)

25. "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964)

26. "Duck Soup" (1933)

27. "Edward Scissorhands" (1990)

28. "Emma" (1996)

29. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982)

30. "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971)

31. "Field of Dreams" (1989)

32. "Fly Away Home" (1996)

33. "Gandhi" (1982)

34. "Ghostbusters" (1984)

35. "The Gold Rush" (1925)

36. "The Great Escape" (1963)

37. "Great Expectations" (1946)

38. "Groundhog Day" (1993)

39. "A Hard Day's Night" (1964)

40. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001)

41. "High Noon" (1952)

42. "The Iron Giant" (1999)

43. "It Happened One Night" (1934)

44. "James and the Giant Peach" (1996)

45. "Jurassic Park" (1993)

46. "The King and I" (1956)

47. "King Kong" (1933)

48. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

49. "A League of Their Own" (1992)

50. "Lilo & Stitch" (2002)

51. "The Lion King" (1994)

52. "Little Fugitive" (1953)

53. "Little Man Tate" (1991)

54. "The Little Mermaid" (1989)

55. "A Little Princess" (1995)

56. "Little Women" (1994)

57. "The Longest Day" (1962)

58. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001)

59. "Lost Horizon" (1937)

60. "The Magnificent Seven" (1960)

61. "Mary Poppins" (1964)

62. "Monsters, Inc." (2001)

63. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)

64. "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993)

65. "The Music Man" (1962)

66. "My Fair Lady" (1964)

67. "National Velvet" (1944)

68. "Never Cry Wolf" (1983)

69. "North by Northwest" (1959)

70. "Peter Pan" (1953)

71. "Pinocchio" (1940)

72. "The Princess Bride" (1987)

73. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981)

74. "Rear Window" (1954)

75. "Rocky" (1976)

76. "The Rookie" (2002)

77. "The Secret Garden" (1993)

78. "The Secret of Roan Inish" (1994)

79. "Shane" (1953)

80. "Shrek" (2001)

81. "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)

82. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937)

83. "Some Like It Hot" (1959)

84. "The Sound of Music" (1965)

85. "Spirited Away" (2001)

86. "Star Wars" (1977)

87. "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928)

88. "Sullivan's Travels" (1941)

89. "Superman" (1978)

90. "Swiss Family Robinson" (1960)

91. "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" (1974 and 1975)

92. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

93. "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" (1995 and 1999)

94. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954)

95. "Walkabout" (1971)

96. "West Side Story" (1961)

97. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988)

98. "The Winslow Boy" (1999)

99. "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

100. "Yellow Submarine" (1968)

SOURCE:AP