The Best Kids' Movies of 2023

From adaptations of beloved books to splashy Marvel comics and everything in between—we have all your family movie nights planned out right here!

Fact checked by Karen Cilli

Family movie night is a sacred time of bonding and connecting. Whether you're headed to the theater or looking for a cozy night at home, here are the best kids' movies of 2023. We've rounded up the top flick picks for all genres and age ranges, so there's something for everyone—even your pickiest toddlers or moodiest tweens. Just add popcorn and enjoy!

January

Dog Gone (Netflix)
Starring: Rob Lowe, Johnny Berchtold
This movie covers all the bases—life transitions, the important bond shared with pets, especially dogs, and the ever-evolving relationship parents have with their children. In this film, Fielding Marshall (Berchtold) adopts a golden retriever mix named Gonker to help him get through life after college. They're inseparable—until Gonker goes missing along the Appalachian Trail and Fielding must enlist his dad (Lowe) to help find him.

February

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly
For the Marvel-loving kids in your household, this movie holds a lot of significance. It's the third of the Ant-Man movies—but the first in phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Rudd plays Ant-Man, AKA Scott Lang, an Avenger with a suit that allows him to shrink or grow in scale. We pick up after the events of Avengers: Endgame—Ant-Man is now super famous and published a tell-all book called Look Out for the Little Guy, which tells a very different story of how Ant-Man helped save the universe from the evil Thanos.

March

Prom Pact (Disney+)
Starring: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Milo Manheim, Blake Draper
Your Disney-loving kids will be so happy to see their favorite stars such as Peyton Elizabeth Lee (of Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.) and Milo Manheim (of the Zombies movies} in this charming teen rom-com. Mandy Yang (Lee) and her best friend Ben (Manheim) are high school outsiders and quite happy to ignore prom season—despite all the 80s themed Promposals going on around them. College acceptance is all they care about—until Mandy is waitlisted from Harvard, her dream school!

Related: 6 Throwback Movies We'd Love to Revisit With Our Kids

April

The Super Mario Bros Movie
Starring: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy
The Nintendo video game we all grew up playing is bigger and more popular than ever. With the rise of the Nintendo Switch, our kids are just as enthralled by games featuring Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, the delightful Bowser, and the gang as we were back in the day! The animated movie is an origin story for brothers Mario and Luigi, explaining how the "ordinary" Brooklyn plumbers got transported to an alternate world in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret
Starring: Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams
Everything about Judy Blume's classic coming of age book transitions perfectly to the big screen. You see Margaret move to a new house in New Jersey, make new friends, try her first bra—come on, say it! "We must, we must, we must increase our bust!"—grapple with her first crush, and, of course, wonder when she will ever get her first period.

Peter Pan and Wendy (Disney+)
Starring: Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson
The story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up, has lived on through generations with the book and of course the classic, animated Disney movie. Now it's been given new life as a live action film, ensuring many more kids will be enthralled by the story of Peter Pan's magical adventure into Neverland.

Related: 11 Kids Movies Parents Secretly Love Having On Repeat

May

The Little Mermaid
Starring: Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy
If there was one animated movie just begging for a live-action update, The Little Mermaid tops that list. From the stunning imagery "under the sea" to the songs you can't help but sing-along to, this beautiful adaptation stays true to the story of a mermaid named Ariel (Bailey) who makes a deal with an evil sea witch named Ursula (McCarthy) by giving away her voice in exchange for legs to go "where the people are" and find her prince.

Crater (Disney+)
Starring: Mckenna Grace, Brady Noon
For the space-loving, astronaut wannabes in your home—this epic adventure is made for them. After his father's death, a boy raised on a lunar mining colony (Noon) goes on a journey to explore a mysterious crater—before being permanently relocated to another planet.

Rally Road Racers
Starring: Chloe Bennet, Jimmy O. Yang, J.K. Simmons
If your kids are fans of the Cars movies or are simply automobile obsessed, they'll love this high octane adventure about Zhi (Yang), a rookie race car driver, who gets the opportunity to compete against the reigning champion of the rally car circuit—but not without lots of obstacles, of course!

June

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld
In the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales (Moore) is heading back into the multiverse with his love Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld). This time around, they're on a mission to save every universe of Spider-People from a threat called The Spot. If they don't, a catastrophic disaster is imminent!

Elemental
Starring: Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie
This Pixar film is set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature—water, fire, air, and earth. It's a beautiful and multi-layered love story between fire element Ember Lumen (Lewis) and water element Wade Ripple (Athie). After Wade is summoned by a plumbing accident to the convenience store that Ember's father owns, the two meet and connect immediately. The problem? They literally cannot touch each other, because, you know, water coming into contact with fire isn't a great match. But the no touching allowed—and the disapproval of their families—doesn't stop Ember and Wade from falling in love.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Starring: Lana Condor, Annie Murphy, Jane Fonda
Don't let the mermaids and krakens fool you—this isn't your ordinary animated feature. In fact, it's the coming of age tale of sixteen-year-old Ruby Gillman (Condor). All she wants to do is fit in at Oceanside High—and be as beloved as the mermaids, like popular queen bee Chelsea (Murphy). But when Ruby discovers she's a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens—and is next in line to inherit the throne from her grandmother, the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas (Fonda)—everything changes!

Related: 23 Classic Movies and TV Shows Families Can Watch Together

July

Barbie
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling
Since the very first Barbie doll in 1959, it's been every Barbie girl's DREAM to see the iconic doll—and all her friends (including Ken!) come to life on the big screen. And now, finally, the time has come. Welcome to the dazzling—and very pink—Barbieland.

Haunted Mansion
Starring: Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis
Based on the one of the most popular—and spooky—rides in Disney World and DisneyLand, a single mom (Dawson) hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest, and a historian to help exorcise their newly bought mansion. Why? They've discovered it's inhabited by ghosts—999 to be exact!

August

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Paul Rudd
This isn't your average Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Written by Seth Rogen, it's special in how it really leans into how at the core, the Turtles are just your not-so-average teens trying to fit in! In this reboot, the Turtles are trying to win over the people of New York with their heroic acts so they can finally be seen as normal teenagers. But things get a bit out of control when they take on a mysterious crime syndicate and are confronted by an army of mutants.

Red White & Royal Blue (Prime Video)
Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Taylor Zakhar Perez
Based on the popular LGBTQIA+ romance novel by Casey McQuiston, this is the beautiful story of Alex Claremont-Diaz (Perez), the first son of the United States, and his romantic relationship with Prince Henry (Galitzine), a British prince. We're already swooning.

White Bird
Starring: Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, Bryce Gheisar
The 2019 graphic novel White Bird: A Wonder Story is both a spin-off and prequel to the beloved book (and movie) Wonder—as is the film. White Bird picks up after the events of Wonder. Julian's (Gheisar) grandmother from Paris comes to visit and shares stories of her childhood as a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. During that time, she was hidden from the Nazis by the family of a classmate whom she was not very close to.

September

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie
Starring: Kristen Bell, Taraji P. Henson, James Marsden
You’d be hard pressed to find a young family without a Paw Patrol fan in the bunch—the hit TV series about a young boy named Ryder who leads a crew of search and rescue dogs that call themselves the PAW Patrol. Those pups, Skye, Chase, Rubble, Marshall, Zuma and Everest, work together on missions to keep their town—Adventure Bay—safe. And of course the stakes are raised for the theatrical release when a magical meteor crash lands in Adventure City. It gives all the pups superpowers—transforming them into Super Pups!

October

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour 
Starring: Taylor Swift
Were there tears in your house—from both you AND your kids—over how impossible it seemed to score tickets to see Taylor Swift’s Eras tour? Okay, so it’s not exactly the same but here’s a consolation prize—the entire three hour show is coming to the big screen. You can watch Taylor perform all her mega hits from the comfort of your AMC movie theater seat. Pull on your favorite Taylor tee, make those friendship bracelets and don’t be afraid to sing along to all the hits. And just think of the perks—seeing Taylor this way means no long bathroom lines or crazy parking lots!

The Canterville Ghost
Starring: Toby Jones, Hugh Laurie, Freddie Highmore
An American family moves into Canterville Chase, a stately countryside mansion, and discovers that the ghost of Sir Simon Canterville has been roaming the castle for 300 years! He’s been desperately hoping someone would come and release him from the Canterville curse. All he needs is a  brave deed to be performed—will this family finally help him?

November

The Marvels
Starring: Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, Brie Larson
Iman Vellani stole our hearts in Disney+’s Ms. Marvel as the spunky teen Kamala Khan, a massive Captain Marvel fan, whose dream of becoming a superhero in her own right comes true. In the movie, Kamala’s fangirling is taken up a whole other level when Kamala’s powers suddenly become entangled with those of her idol Captain Marvel.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Starring: Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer
For fans of the Hunger Games (books and original films), this prequel is set 64 years before we meet Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Here, we meet 18 year old Coriolanus Snow when he was handsome and charming—not the tyrannical president of Panem he one day becomes. With the Snow family in the midst of hard times, young Coriolanus is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games—and hopeful it’ll help turn things around for his family. But then young Coriolanus is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12 . . .

Trolls Band Together
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake
Get ready Millennial (and Gen X) moms! The third installment of the Trolls movie is giving us the first all new NSYNC song in over 20 years called “Better Place!” Which is just perfect since in this film, Poppy discovers Branch was once part of a boy band with his brothers called BroZone!

Disney’s Wish
Starring: Ariana Debose, Evan Peters, Chris Pine
There’s nothing more fulfilling than ending the year with a little Disney magic. This enlightening film tells the story of a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star—but she gets more than expected when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her on Earth!

December

Wonka
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant
Talk about nostalgia—for those who grew up loving the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory—here comes an origin story for the ages. The film shares how a young Willy Wonka, the self-proclaimed “magician, inventor, and chocolate maker,” turned his daydreams into reality and became the quirky, infamous chocolatier. And, of course, we discover how Wonka met the Oompa-Loompas too!

Migration
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Kumail Nanjiani
This animated film has such a great message about the importance of taking risks, bonding with your family and stepping out of your comfort zone. The Mallard Family—a family of ducks, of course— want to leave their safe New England pond and migrate to a tropical vacation of a lifetime in Jamaica. There’s just one thing standing in their way: convincing the overbearing Mallard Family patriarch that they need to go! 

Related: Best Children's Books 2022

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents.