6 Best Family Movies Released Since 2000

Image via StudioCanal Published Jul 23, 2026, 5:09 PM EDT Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. Sign in to your Collider account Throughout the last 26 years, families who love going to the movies have had plenty to be happy about, because we're in the midst of a new golden age of family cinema. Whether it's an animated gem or a live-action masterpiece, the number of absolutely exceptional family-friendly films that have been produced since the turn of the century is nothing if not admirable. These are movies that young cinephiles have grown up with or are currently growing up with, and a few decades from now, it's quite likely that they'll still be remembered as some of the best family films of the early 21st century. It can be a film directly aimed at younger viewers, like Apple TV's Wolfwalkers; or one with a much less specific target demographic in mind, like the masterful Spirited Away. Regardless, the best family films released since 2000 are proof that just because a movie is appropriate for viewers of all ages, that doesn't make it any less prestigious or worthy of respect. Indeed, these can be counted among the greatest films of the last 26 years—It just so happens that they were made with family viewing in mind. 6 'Wolkfwalkers' (2020) Image via Apple TV Though they've produced quite a small number of feature films ever since their founding in 1999, Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon is nevertheless one of the greatest and most beloved major studios currently doing animation cinema. Why? One needn't look any further than Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart's Wolfwalkers to understand. Co-produced with the small Luxembourgish animation studio Mélusine Productions, it's a small film with a humongous heart, a beautiful father-and-daughter story with some of the most stunning animation of any movie from the 2020s. Wolkfwalkers is nothing short of one of the best hidden gem fantasy masterpieces of the 21st century, a wonderfully moving story that teaches kids how to have a healthy relationship with nature and inspires adults to fight and heal the trauma of historic colonization. It's thematically complex and emotionally stirring to the core, heavily inspired by elements of Irish folklore just like every other Cartoon Saloon production. Apple TV have made a decent number of incredible original movies throughout their short history, and the fact that one of their best is an animated family film is no coincidence. 5 'Ratatouille' (2007) Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures A film about a cooking rat controlling a young chef in a prestigious Parisian restaurant is the sort of premise that only a filmmaker like Brad Bird could have possibly made work. In Bird's hands, Ratatouille is one of the most beautiful and surprisingly moving family movies of the 2000s, praised by many as the single greatest feature film Pixar has produced to date. It's not just a funny film about a cooking rat: It's a love letter to Paris and good food, an inspiring celebration of passion and love, and a rousing tale about the democratization of art. All in all, Ratatouille is one of the most perfect animated movies ever made, a testament to Pixar's ability to make family films that resonate with equal depth with viewers of any and all ages. Yes, Ratatouille is more than charming, goofy, and funny enough to keep children coming back to it time and time again. But just like the rest of Bird's animated oeuvre, it feels like it's aimed at adults first and children second. After all, its vibrant charm feels like only the foundation for its wonderfully mature and layered celebration of living life through one's passions, regardless of what people say. 4 'Toy Story 3' (2010) Image via Pixar Animation There is a strong case to be made in favor of Toy Story 3 being Pixar's greatest film, at least of the 21st century. Released 11 years after its predecessor, it's one of the best animated movie sequels of all time, and the latest animated film to have been nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. All of that praise is entirely deserved, because as easy as it is forget with its now being sandwiched right in the middle of a franchise that many Pixar fans argue should have stayed a trilogy, Toy Story 3 truly is one of the most perfect family films of the 21st century thus far. Far from just feeling like a cheap cash-grab, Toy Story 3 fully justifies its own existence by exploring themes of nostalgia and growing up in the sort of deeply emotional and complex ways that only Pixar seems to be capable of. It's one of the most perfect animated movies of the last 40 years, and emotionally mature and at times shockingly poignant exploration of change, one unlike anything else the animation studio has put together since. Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best PictureIs Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one. 🪜Parasite 🌀Everything Everywhere ☢️Oppenheimer 🐦Birdman 🪙No Country for Old Men FIND YOUR FILM → 01 What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind. ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours? AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does. NEXT QUESTION → 03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means. AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you? AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like? AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible. AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable. AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you. ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense. NEXT QUESTION → 09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately. AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action. NEXT QUESTION → 10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want? AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days. REVEAL MY FILM → The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works. ParasiteYou are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image. Everything Everywhere All at OnceYou want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about. OppenheimerYou are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort. BirdmanYou are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all. No Country for Old MenYou are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 3 'How to Train Your Dragon' (2010) Very soon into the 21st century, DreamWorks Animation cemented themselves as strong competitors for Pixar and Disney. Since then, they've made several of the greatest animated classics of the modern era, but none have ever been better than the original How to Train Your Dragon. It's the start of one of the best fantasy movie trilogies of all time, but as incredible as its sequels are, there's simply no beating the original in this case. Based on Cressida Cowell's book series of the same name, it's pure movie magic in family-friendly form. What's not to love about How to Train Your Dragon? For one, its story is both timeless and deeply compelling for viewers of all ages, offering a tale about a forbidden friendship, a complicated father-son relationship, and a village's discovery that their hatred for a certain group of creatures has always been unwarranted. Then, there's John Powell's score, one of the best and most iconic of any animated film in history. Add to that animation that has aged wonderfully, some terrific voice acting, and a perfectly-paced story, and it shouldn't be surprising that How to Train Your Dragon is still so beloved 16 years later. 2 'Paddington 2' (2017) Image via StudioCanal "It made me want to be a better man," Pedro Pascal's character says about Paddington 2 in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. It's set up as a joke, but that is unironically precisely the kind of timeless cinematic gem that this modern family classic is. There are some films that make it pretty much literally impossible to hate them in any way, and Paddington 2 is one such film. Sweet without being saccharine, funny without being overly silly, and family-friendly without being childish, it truly is the most perfect live-action 21st-century family movie.The number of factors that make Paddington 2 one of the best adventure movies of the 21st century is simply too large to count. Bolstered by every family's favorite ursid Latino icon and Hugh Grant delivering one of the most exquisitely fun performances of his career, this family adventure has something in it for virtually anyone to enjoy. The whole movie feels like a warm hug after a cold, rainy day; and its celebration of love, empathy, and kindness manages to never feel naive in the slightest. If niceness were a film, it would be Paddington 2. 1 'Spirited Away' (2001) Image via Toho Hayao Miyazaki is almost undoubtedly the biggest legend in the history of anime filmmaking, aside from being the poster boy of the beloved Studio Ghibli. He has dedicated his entire career to making animated masterpiece after animated masterpiece, pretty much all of them family-friendly, but there's nothing quite like the Oscar-winning masterpiece that many cinephiles would gladly call the greatest animated movie of all time: Spirited Away, the animated coming-of-age adventure par excellence. Wonderfully immersive and beautifully atmospheric, Spirited Away is the crowning achievement of one of the greatest Japanese filmmakers that have ever lived. Visually striking, thematically rich, and narratively complex, it's one of the most ambitious fantasy movies ever made. And though its slow-burning, patient pacing may bore younger viewers, those old enough to bear with Miyazaki as he carefully crafts a love letter to change, bravery, and personal growth will be treated to the greatest family movie of the last 26 years. Spirited Away Release Date July 20, 2001 Runtime 125 minutes Cast Rumi Hiiragi Chihiro (voice)