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BEST MOVIE FOR KIDS (NOMINEES)
The Croods (PG): 
There are those who might’ve stayed away from this DreamWorks movie because of the name alone. But it’s not like that at all. Not really. Sure, the Crood family may be a bit rough. But bathroom humor is surprisingly minimal and the story here is just short of magical. Eep is the film’s focal point—a cave teen who longs to get out on her own while her stick-in-the-mud dad, Grug, tries to bottle her up inside the family cave. Guy is the film’s handsome, adventurous leading man who has eyes for Eep. But it turns out that this is really Grug’s story—a tale about a father trying to do the very best he can for his family in a world that’s rapidly changing.
Despicable Me 2 (PG): 
That once-nasty Gru is having a difficult time with his transition from supervillain to loving dad. Raising three adorable daughters is way more difficult than coming up with fiendish plots to rule the world. Besides that, there’s the question of a job: He’s never had a position that didn’t involve a death ray. But then a super-secret agency called the Anti-Villain League offers him employment and Gru starts getting the knack of changing careers. A lanky female agent named Lucy Wilde is helping the process. She’s a little obnoxious and overbearing, but when she starts zapping people with her lipstick Taser, it just makes Gru go all weak in the knees. This rollicking pic about adopted daughters, a reformed-baddie dad and a bunch of slapstick silliness stirs a little bit of toilet humor and some Three Stooges-style roughhousing into its crime-solving mix. But it’s still a frenetically enjoyable yarn about heroic choices, and the life-changing impact of love and family.
Epic (PG): 
Mary Katherine (who these days prefers M.K.) goes back home to spend the summer with her dad for the first time since her parents went their separate ways years before. She isn’t hoping for much, though. Quite frankly, the guy’s a little nutty—obsessed with this idea that a kingdom of small people live in the forest near his house. But when she accidentally spots a tiny person herself and is magically shrunken to the size of an ant … Dad doesn’t seem so crazy after all. Based loosely on William Joyce’s book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, this is a good-vs.-evil fairy tale that clothes itself in environmental concerns. It’s a cute story about tiny warriors who battle to keep a forest green while pushing back the crusty forces of mold and decay. Light lessons of family and reconciliation are endearing and colorful.
Escape From Planet Earth (PG): 
Planet Baab’s most famous muscle-bound heroic dude, Scorch, undertakes a rescue mission to that dark, deadly place called … Earth. And things go wrong in a hurry. Before you can say “E.T. phone home,” Scorch is captured and on his way to Area 51 in the evil clutches of the large and vengeful General Shanker. So it’s up to Scorch’s nerdy and oh-so-not-muscle-bound brother, Gary, to come to the rescue. The two blue bros don’t always see eye to eye, but somebody’s got to do the brave thing when the glugorps are down. This animated sci-fi spoof probably won’t ever be confused with a Pixar pic, but it’s fun, goofy and packed with meaningful messages about familial love, friendship and feisty fearlessness. There’s not a lot to wave a blue flag of warning over other than a bit of toilet humor and some—dun-dun-dun—SCARY HUMANS!
Frozen (PG): 
Let’s face it: Disney has the princess market cornered. From Snow White to Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog), the Mouse House has made a fortune on them, so perhaps it’s little wonder that this return-to-glory Disney flick features two—and they’re just as pretty and charismatic as we’ve come to expect. But even though there are music and balls and curses and kisses, Elsa and Anna tell an altogether different story than Disney’s told in the past. Here, true love is found not just by suitors, but sisters, and sacrifice holds the key to saving grace. Frozen isn’t perfect: Some kids may find it scary in the slick spots. But it has the power to melt the hearts of the iciest of critics.
Films in this category target kids under the age of 13. This year all of them are rated PG, and some do still come with bits of content concerns. All offer strong positive messages.
(All movie summaries are written by Plugged In reviewers Paul Asay, Adam Holz, Bob Hoose and Bob Waliszewski.)
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