The best kids' movies on Amazon Prime

Yep, the pizza-scarfing, sewer-dwelling crime fighters pop culture just can’t quit are back once again. Leave it to fellow suspended adolescent Seth Rogen to give them a reboot that validates their staying power. Drawing on the original comic series in both tone and animation style, it’s a surprisingly heartfelt – and unsurprisingly very funny – coming-of-age tale, and the best film involving the heroes in a half-shell since Vanilla Ice rapped about them. Rated PG.  

It’s three orphans versus one evil caretaker in this adaptation of the popular series of children’s novels. Jim Carrey stars as the villainous Count Olaf, doing a sort of mashup of Nosferatu and his own live-action take on the Grinch. It’s a wild ride featuring some eye-popping imagery. Rated PG.

It’s 1977 and young Christmas Flint (McKenna Grace) is obsessed with the idea of going into space – but she’ll settle for having her voice on a record traveling aboard the Voyager space probe. And wouldn’t you know it? The grand prize of the upcoming Birdie Scout talent show presents just such an opportunity. Kids will love the quirky underdog tale and its period details, along with a typically stellar performance from Viola Davis as the stern-but-caring troop leader, will keep parents entertained as well. Rated PG. 

Sure, it’s a Christmas movie – the Christmas movie, really – but the message contained in this pan-generational family classic is worth absorbing any time of year. Rated PG.

An erudite Sasquatch from the Pacific Northwest (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) enlists a British cryptid hunter (Hugh Jackman) to help him reconnect with his abominable extended family in this stop-motion adventure from animation house Laika. It’s the brightest film the studio has yet produced, and, as usual, a wonder to behold. Rated PG.

Adapted from the classic children’s novel, the film version of this fable about a boy’s friendship with a wild stallion at once seems older than it is and completely timeless. The striking equine photography and long stretches of wordlessness lend the movie a dreamlike quality that’s allowed it to live in the subconscious of anyone who’s seen it. Just be prepared to explain to your kid why they can’t have a horse of their own. Rated G.

Call it ‘baby’s first heist flick’. In this crazy-fun, kid-friendly homage to Quentin Tarantino, Ocean’s 11 and other, decidedly not kid-friendly influences, a pack of criminal cartoon animals, led by Mr Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), consider changing their ways after being brought to justice, only to find themselves drawn into conflict with a new foe. A sequel is in the works. Rated PG.

Many kids can relate to the trauma of participating in the school spelling bee. (Hello, my name is Matt and my word was ‘hospital’.) Now imagine doing it at the Super Bowl of spelling. This documentary, following eight precocious, pint-sized letter slingers to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, is surprisingly suspenseful. Don’t worry, though: no one winds up in the hospittle. Aw, dang it! Rated G.

If your kid has a more literary bent, take a chance on this beautiful Irish folk tale from director John Sayles. Young Fiona (Jeni Courtney) is sent to live with her grandparents in a small coastal fishing village, where she’s treated to old family legends – including the seemingly fantastical story of her infant brother’s mysterious disappearance, which may be more truthful than it appears. Rated PG.  

In this 21st century musical update of the classic fairy tale, singer Camila Cabello steps into the glass slipper of the poor, starry-eyed orphan who dreams of being swept away from her abusive family by a hunky prince, played by Nicholas Galitzine. Also starring the great Billy Porter as the Fairy Godmother. Rated PG.

The honeymoon is over for Shrek and Fiona. Now it’s time to meet the parents, who are unaware their daughter’s new hubby is a giant green ogre. Awkward! Rated PG.

It’ll forever live in the shadow of Despicable Me, the other cartoon franchise about a supervillain-turned-hero that debuted the same year, but it might be the better movie. It arguably has the better voice cast, too, with contributions from Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, David Cross and Will Ferrell as the titular big-brained baddie who succeeds in eliminating his arch nemesis and finds evildoing not nearly as satisfying without him. Rated PG.

Every night when he falls asleep, young Nemo is whisked off to Slumberland, a magical realm he’s being groomed to inherit from the benevolent King Morpheus. That is, until he goofs up, and unleashes a great evil upon the land. Can he correct his mistake, vanquish the Nightmare King and reassume his place as heir to the throne, all before waking up? Stuck in development limbo for a decade, this wondrous Japanese-American co-production has since become a cult favourite. Rated G.

This 13-episode series starring your favorite rolly-polly Kung Fu master is full of good, silly fun. Follow four young pandas as they seek to absorb the energy of the ancient martial art of Kung Fu, and learn from Dragon Master Po. Ages 6 and up.

A tough-guy CIA agent named JJ (Dave Bautista, the former professional wrestler and six-time world champion) is tasked to watch over a family with a particularly precocious nine-year-old girl named Sophie (Chloe Coleman). Spoiler alert: He’s no match for her. Rated PG-13.

Aardman, the wonderfully wacky Brits behind stop-motion delights like Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, produced this goof pitting Stone Age and Bronze Age tribes against each other in a battle for evolutionary supremacy – on the soccer pitch. It’s not quite on the tier of the studio’s classics, but it still overflows with their signature brand of sweet-and-silly humour. Rated PG.

You know the story, but may not be familiar with this live-action British production, which gives the immortal Lewis Carroll fantasy a Wizard of Oz-ish treatment, with original musical numbers and imaginative, sometimes creepy costume design. Adults should keep eyes peeled for Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore, among a bevy of other English acting talent. Rated G.

Like Gore Verbinski’s Rango, this animated sorta-remake of Blazing Saddles seems more interested in amusing adults with winking in-jokes than entertaining its target demographic. Still, it’s pretty fun. Michael Cera voices the titular Hank, a beagle and aspiring samurai conscripted to defend a cat village from a duplicitous landlord (voiced by Ricky Gervais). Mel Brooks himself makes an appearance as the town shogun. Rated PG.  

To the Minions go the spoils. Kids just can’t get enough of those little nattering Twinkies, as evidenced by their most recent grillion-dollar success. Don’t try to understand, just give in. At least this ’70s-set prequel has a fun retro vibe, plus a pretty insane voice cast. Michelle Yeoh, Danny Trejo, Jean Claude Van-Damme and Alan Arkin? Not bad. Rated PG.

Want a movie with a gentle, nuanced message about man’s responsibility to the natural world? Go stream some Miyazaki. Want to watch Brendan Fraser, as a real-estate developer threatening to defile a pristine forest, get sprayed by skunks, bitten in the junk by raccoons and thrashed around in a portable toilet by a bear? Then this is the live-action (plus several CGI animals) Looney Tunes cartoon you seek. Rated PG.