12 Family-Friendly Films to Stream Right Now If You Have Kids to Entertain

Co-written by Cuban-American Phil Lord, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse centers on Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a new kind of Spidey. He’s the son of an emotionally available cop, Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), and a doting nurse, Rio Morales (Nuyorican actress Luna Lauren Velez). Both are intent on bettering the life of their artistically minded kid, who’s all too eager to skip out at night and paint some graffiti with his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali). Once the film’s central conceit makes itself known – yet another science experiment has gone haywire in the city, bringing in a number of Spider-people from different universes and now threatens to swallow Brooklyn whole – it’s up to Miles to learn the ropes of being a superhero all the while shaping what an Afro-Latino Spider-Man can look like in the 21st century.

Read Remezcla’s review.

In Pachamama, the Andes are the perfect setting for this children’s adventure, which evokes the journey-of-the-hero archetype. And every inch of Argentine director Juan Antin’s movie feels personal, ready to conjure a sense of magic that comes only from that region, its culture, its sounds and its colors – rearranged into a powerful visual tale. Antin is ready to use his icons as perfect, heartfelt, bigger than life and powerful toys, while managing to be smart enough to show the Spanish Conquest from another point of view – and still believing, above all, in magic.

Ana y Bruno is a 3D animated action adventure comedy featuring an unlikely duo: young girl Ana is hoping to find her family. To do so she’ll team up with a green-skinned monster called Bruno who introduces her to a wildly colorful roster of supporting characters, each more monstrously funny than the one before. Based on the novel Ana by Daniel Emil and directed by Carlos Carrera — who worked on the film for more than a decade — this is one of the most expensive animated films ever to be produced in Mexico.

Miguel has always wanted to pursue his passion for music. But his family, especially his abuelita, is against it. Music has been banned in their household for generations. But during this year’s Día de Muertos, he decides to go ahead and join a talent show. Yet when he steals an old guitar from Ernesto de la Cruz, a legendary singer who may well be his ancestor, he crosses over into the Land of the Dead, where he’ll have to earn his family’s blessing before traveling back. Pixar’s colorful celebration of the Day of the Dead quickly becomes a rollicking adventure through a world filled with skeletal ancestors, brightly tinged alebrijes and a trusty trickster by the name of Hector (Gael García Bernal).

Read Remezcla’s review.

Tito loves helping his scientist dad, Rufus, with his inventions; Tito’s mom, though, always a skeptic, worries that something will go terribly wrong while the two are experimenting. When Rufus’s latest invention, a machine that can understand birds, starts smoking and sparking, Tito is injured and his mom decides that, for Tito’s safety, they should live apart. Years later, people start falling ill and the epidemic begins to spread: the cause, Tito determines, is fear. Recalling his father’s research, Tito knows that the cure must be in understanding birdsong. In order to save others, Tito must resist falling victim to his own fear. Relying on his friends, Sarah and Buiú, he sets out to find his father and complete the research before it’s too late. Created using oil painting, digital drawing, and graphic animation, Tito and the Birds is brought to life through richly textured and vibrant images that add to the storytelling. It’s like every background is its own character.

This modern-day fable follows the adventures of a young boy who leaves his small village after the death of his father only to find himself immersed in a chaotic and often confusing modern world filled with strange creatures, fantastic machines and giant, impersonal monuments to human progress. Filled with idiosyncratic plays on perspective and employing a variety of techniques — including collages pasted alongside the thick, waxy lines of Crayola crayons — O menino e o mundo feels like stepping into the imagination of a child set to a joyous samba soundtrack. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2016 Academy Awards.

One of the most well-known comic strips in Latin American gets its big screen debut in Condorito: The Movie. Starring the famous condor humanoid known as Condorito, his girlfriend Yayita, his arch-nemesis Pepe Cortisona and his nephew Coné, this feature film debut sees the bumbling protagonist at the center of an action adventure that will pit him face to face with an alien race intent on destroying Earth. Boasting a stellar voice cast that includes Omar Chaparro, Jessica Cediel and Jesús Ochoa, among others, this is an ambitious sci-fi take on the beloved Chilean character created by Pepo.

Based on the famous Mexican legend about a weeping woman, this animated film tells the adventure of a group of children who fight against the ghost of a woman who wanders at night and who, burdened with guilt after the death of her children, kidnaps children in the forest. The OG film in Alberto “Chino” Rodríguez’s Leyendas films, La leyenda de la Llorona is a kiddie-friendly take on Mexican folklore that’s just scary enough to be fun for the entire family.

Amelia wants nothing more in the world than to stop time. She’s got leukemia and she’s sick of taking her medication and losing her hair. In her search to make her wish come true, Amelia meets Malachi, an angel who lives inside her cuckoo clock that’ll take her on a wild adventure through the Fields of time where she’ll meet two faires, Aqui and Ahora (“Here” and “Now”). As she travels to this fantasy universe, she’ll have to come face to face with her fears and desires as she battled No-Time and attempts to get back home.

What would happen if Toy Story and Rudo y Cursi had a baby? I mean probably something more fucked up than this movie but you get the point. Metegol tells the story of a young boy named Amadeo who must face off against his rival on the pitch with the help of his disassembled foosball team. Come for the gorgeous CGI animation, stay for how Argentine the foosball players are.

Inspired by the folklore surrounded the Day of the Dead, Jorge R. Gutiérrez directs this colorful action adventure animated film with a stellar voice cast. The film centers on Manolo (Diego Luna), a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family (aka becoming a bullfighter) and following his heart (aka his music), who embarks on an adventure that spans three fantastic worlds where he must face his greatest fears. At the core of the story, though, is a romance between Manolo and María (Zoe Saldaña), one that’s tested when María sinks into a coma and Manolo makes the choice to allow La Muerte to take him in hopes they can be reunited in death. What follows is a fantastic tale that could only be rendered in gorgeous Catrinas-inspired animation.

Anina — based on the novel Anina Yatay Salas by Sergio López Suárez — tells the story of its eponymous triple-palindrome named heroine (that’s a story point) who stands up to a bully at school only to receive “the weirdest punishment in the history of weird punishments” –- she’s given a sealed black envelope that she isn’t allowed to open for a week. Thus, begins her adventure. It’s a movie for the Matilda lover in all of us.