I did search so sorry if this was addressed and I missed it.
We are empty nesters and H had a long, long week so went to bed early. I was flipping through channels and Lion King was on…that was the first movie our oldest ever saw in a theater. It was a big deal for all of us as they are close in age but younger was not ready to sit that long so needed a sitter etc. Watching it now I am a bit horrified I took a new 3 year old to see that! So much violence!
Our younger kid’s first was Toy Story which is so sweet. Not sure about Toy Story 4. Watched TS3 with my kids as one left for college and the other entered his Sr year of high school so I pretty much whimpered through the whole movie.
Worst mom ever…I have absolutely no idea! My in-laws had a library of children movies and we watched movies there. Finding Nemo was definitely one of the firsts.
Beauty and the Beast. The little one did not make a squeak and sat through the entire movie, completely glued to the screen. It was a great movie to watch on the big screen.
My parents took D19 to see Curious George at age five. When the man sent George back to Africa in a cage, D cried so hard and so loudly, they had to take her out of the theater. It did not turn out to be the peaceful afternoon with their granddaughter that my parents pictured?.
We took our twins to the movies during Christmas in 2002 when they were two and saw The Wild Thornberrys Movie - in an otherwise empty theater. We then took them to Finding Nemo a few months later to a packed house. I expect they will always remember Nemo as their first movie, unless I’m around to correct them.
I kept detailed notebooks back in the day and could probably look it up. No trauma, no amazing insights for any of the kids. I’m guessing Disney or (ugh) Barney movie.
DD: Thumbelina, with a score by Barry Manilow, 1994. It was kind of terrible as I recall. I think we may have walked out because she was bored.
DS: I’m not sure! I think Lion King. My two big movie memories with my son are 1: Tarzan, because he wanted to stay through the credits and listen to “You’ll Be In My Heart,” and 2: The Spongebob movie, which he insisted we see but realized halfway through that it was awful. He apologized in the middle of the movie, haha!
This brings back memories of my own childhood, going to movie matinees with short films.
I do not remember the first big screen movie he liked, but I remember the first movie he liked on TV/DVD. The Little Bear Movie. He loved it! It is based loosely on the Little Bear books, which are wonderful, too.
So many TV shows were too intense for him when he was little. I remember we tried an Elmo movie and had to abandon it as soon as Elmo lost a toy in one of the first scenes…
Not quite the question you are asking, but my mother tells the story of how when she was a little girl her older sister took her to see Snow White. She says she was terrified and had nightmares for a long time. I just checked - the movie was released in 1937 and mom was born in 1935. She must have been only 2 or 3 when she saw it but she still remembers it.
I remember mine because she was afraid of darkness including in a theater. We did not take her to a movie until Happy Feet came along. Her desire to watch it overcame her fear.
I’m afraid we did not pick well - Monsters Inc. He’s was afraid of closets for years (I think he still is). Another fail was Finding Nemo - mom fish gets killed off in the first few minutes. He refuses to watch it to this day.
Can’t remember the first theater movie experience I took kids to. But Disney’s Robin Hood got played a LOT on VCR. It was one of the few I enjoyed too. Can still hear the songs. We had quite a collection of kid movies.
I do remember watching “Alien” movie on TV and covering kids eyes with my hands. My bad. Hopefully it was balanced by watching Barney a thousand times. But kid now works in movie industry so must not have been too traumatic.
I think MY first movie was Pinocchio. With a short about bears preceding it.