The Black Cauldron (1985)

The Black Cauldron (1985)

[5] There was definitely potential. A dark Disney movie based on Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, about a farm boy's brave attempt to stop a demonic king from conquering the land with his army of skeletal warriors? Sign me up!…
Tea and Sympathy (1956)

Tea and Sympathy (1956)

[6] Vincente Minnelli sheds a bright light on gender politics in this story of a bullied teenager who finds solace with his college housemaster's wife. It is fascinating to watch a film deal with mysogyny and homophobia at a time…
Kick-Ass (2010)

Kick-Ass (2010)

[8] A dorky teenager (Aaron Johnson) decides to dress up like a superhero and help people in need. He encounters a few other kids with similar ambitions, and before you know it, you have a hyper-violent, low-rent, joyous abomination of…
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)

[6] Don Bluth's films (The Land Before Time, The Secret of NIMH) tend to be too mature for children and too immature for adults. Consider All Dogs Go to Heaven, where one moment you have cutsey critters singing a cringe-worthy…
Precious (2009)

Precious (2009)

[7] Precious is the kind of movie a studio exec must dread hearing a pitch about: "So, there's this girl, and she's really sad, her daddy raped her, she named her down syndrome baby Mongo, her mother violently abuses her,…
Robin Hood (1973)

Robin Hood (1973)

[6] This Disney flick may be a minor effort in comparison to the company's more perrenial classics, but there's a dated, folksy charm about this all-animal take on the classic Robin Hood legend. The simple story is populated with fairly…
9 (2009)

9 (2009)

[6] Shane Acker's computer-animated post-apocalyptic fantasy is visually interesting, but the characters are bland and the story is wobbly. The movie is a tonal quagmire, trying to balance its dark and dreary subject matter with a kid-friendly PG-13 rating. The…
Cars (2006)

Cars (2006)

[7] Pixar has an uncanny way of dressing up an old familiar formula and making it seem brand new. Cars is a story about life in the fast lane (literally and figuratively), and the dangers of forgetting to smell the…
This Boy’s Life (1993)

This Boy’s Life (1993)

[6] This film, along with What's Eating Gilbert Grape, both released the same year, made young Leonardo DiCaprio a star. DiCaprio holds his own against the formidable Robert DeNiro, here playing an abusive step-father. The performances are good, but the…
The Fox and the Hound (1981)

The Fox and the Hound (1981)

[7] Disney's The Fox and the Hound opens with a young fox being chased by a hunting dog. It scrambles through the woods and finds a hiding place to ditch the baby fox it's carrying in its mouth. Then it…