Best Family Movies of 1985

A young teenager named Mikey Walsh finds an old treasure map in his father's attic. Hoping to save their homes from demolition, Mikey and his friends Data Wang, Chunk Cohen, and Mouth Devereaux run off on a big quest to find the secret stash of Pirate One-Eyed Willie.

At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley. Anne's a dreamer with an unusual point of view, far removed from Marilla's pragmatic ways, and it's only on trial that Marilla agrees to keep Anne.

Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes delightful new friends, and dangerous new enemies.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet as boys in an English Boarding school. Holmes is known for his deductive ability even as a youth, amazing his classmates with his abilities. When they discover a plot to murder a series of British business men by an Egyptian cult, they move to stop it.

The visionary dreams of three curious and adventuresome young boys become an exciting reality in Explorers, the action-fantasy from director Joe Dante, who combines keen humor, warmth and fantasy with unexpected twists. In their makeshift laboratory, the boys use an amazing discovery and their ingenuity to build their own spaceship and launch themselves on a fantastic interplanetary journey.

The first half of this film, set hundreds of years ago, shows how the man who eventually became Santa Claus was given immortality and chosen to deliver toys to all the children of the world. The second half moves into the modern era, in which Patch, the head elf, strikes out on his own and falls in with an evil toy manufacturer who wants to corner the market and eliminate Santa Claus.

Taran is an assistant pigkeeper with boyish dreams of becoming a great warrior. However, he has to put the daydreaming aside when his charge, an oracular pig named Hen Wen, is kidnapped by an evil lord known as the Horned King. The villain hopes Hen will show him the way to The Black Cauldron, which has the power to create a giant army of unstoppable soldiers.

Daryl is a normal 10-year-old boy in many ways. However, unbeknown to his foster parents and friends, Daryl is actually a government-created robot with superhuman reflexes and mental abilities. Even his name has a hidden meaning -- it's actually an acronym for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Life-form. When the organization that created him deems the "super soldier" experiment a failure and schedules Daryl to be disassembled, it is up to a few rogue scientists to help him escape.

Janey is new in town, and soon meets Lynne, who shares her passion for dancing in general, and "Dance TV" in particular. When a competition is announced to find a new Dance TV regular couple, Janey and Lynne are determined to audition. The only problem is that Janey's father doesn't approve of that kind of thing.

Garfield and his pup pal Odie go trick-or-treating, only to wind up in a house haunted by ghostly pirates. Based off the book Garfield In Disguise

Based on elements from the stories of Mark Twain, this feature-length Claymation fantasy follows the adventures of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher and Huck Finn as they stowaway aboard the interplanetary balloon of Mark Twain. Twain, disgusted with the human race, is intent upon finding Halley's Comet and crashing into it, achieving his "destiny." It's up to Tom, Becky, and Huck to convince him that his judgment is wrong and that he still has much to offer humanity that might make a difference. Their efforts aren't just charitable; if they fail, they will share Twain's fate. Along the way, they use a magical time portal to get a detailed overview of the Twain philosophy, observing the "historical" events that inspired his works.

America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. A courageous young girl confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter.

A veritable time warp of famous faces -- including Sammy Davis Jr., Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall, Sally Struthers, Scott Baio and Ringo Starr -- takes over this updated musical version of Lewis Carroll's famed children's story. Conceived by the legendary Irwin Allen ("Lost in Space") as a vehicle for 9-year-old child star Natalie Gregory, who stars as Alice, the program originally aired as a two-part made-for-television movie.

After experiencing traumatic nightmares of a time now past, the Sorceress summons Prince Adam and Cringer to Castle Grayskull to give Adam a precious, jeweled sword and send the pair to the planet Etheria to investigate its secrets.

Classic tale of a girl named Alice who follows a white rabbit down a hole into Wonderland, where she can change sizes by eating and drinking and animals talk. After escaping the disturbing Queen of Hearts, she finds that she has ended up on the other side of the looking glass in Looking Glass Land and a Jabberwocky after her.

In this special Christmas episode of the He-Man and She-Ra cartoons, their sidekick Orko accidentally gets beamed to Earth during a test of a new spy satellite. Orko manages to get back Planet Eternia, but brings along two Earth children, Alisha and Manuel, with him. Since it's Christmastime on Earth, the kids are naturally filled with the holiday spirit, but this overflowing goodwill attracts the unwelcome attention of the Horde Prime and Skeletor. Will the combined power of He-Man, She-Ra and the spirit of Christmas be enough to stop them?

Mississippi in the early '60s is the setting for this story of a 12-year-old African-American girl who, along with her white friends, tries to ease increasing racial tensions.

Rainbow Brite, and her magical horse Starlite, must stop an evil princess and her underlings from taking over the planet Spectra. When they meet Orin, the wise Sprite tries to make the two children get along and work together to stop the evil Princess. Orin tells them that they can only destroy her by combining their own powers against her. Getting in the way of their mission is the sinister Murky Dismal and his bumbling assistant Lurky who, as usual, are lavishing in the new gloom created by the darkening of Spectra, as well as trying to steal Rainbow's magical color belt.

Set on the subterranean Mine-World, a band of human worker are treated like slaves under the power of the evil overlord Zygon until one, Orin, unearths the hilt of a mythical sword that only he can master. Escaping the planet, he runs into the rogue smuggler Dagg and a pair of helpful droids and the princess, who all team up to return to the Mine-World with a plan to defeat Zygon and free Orin's enslaved people.

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

Ginny Grainger, a young mother, rediscovers the joy and beauty of Christmas, thanks to the unshakable faith of her six-year-old daughter Abbie and Gideon, Ginny's very own guardian angel.

The Great Ak calls a council of the Immortals to ask that Santa Claus be given immortality. And to justify it, he tells the history of Santa Claus. The Ak found an abandoned baby and gave it to a lioness and a fairy to raise, who named him Claus. When Claus grew up, the Great Ak showed him the evil and hardship in the world and Claus decides to live there and relieve some of the suffering. He decides to make toys for orphans, but King Awgwa, the ruler of the valley where Claus lives doesn't want the children to be happy, and there is a great battle among Immortals.

The army of the Marauders, led by King Terak and the witch Charal, attack the Ewoks village, killing Cindel's family. Cindel and the Ewok Wicket escape and meet Teek in the forest, a naughty and very fast animal. Teek takes them to a house in which an old man, Noa, lives. Like Cindel, he also crashed with his Starcruiser on Endor. Together they fight Terak and Charal.

Michael and Ellie break into a military junkyard to find a science project for Michael's class, and discover a strange glowing orb which absorbs electricity. When the orb begins to blend past, present, and future, its up to Michael and Ellie to stop the orb and save mankind.

The Patterson family learns the true meaning of Christmas when Lizzie loses her stuffed bunny.

Strawberry rids Strawberryland of a strange, horrible smelling purple cloud with the help of her new friends, the Berry Princess and her helpers, the Berrykins.

Peanut butter is the secret ingredient for magic potions made by two friendly ghosts. Eleven-year-old Michael loses all of his hair when he gets a fright and uses the potion to get his hair back, but too much peanut butter causes things to get a bit hairy.

When his mother sends Jack off with money to buy groceries, he comes home with a magic supercharged dirt bike instead. His mother is furious, but when Jack uses the magic bike to save the local hot dog stand from the clutches of corrupt big business, he becomes the town hero. Written by Concorde - New Horizons (with permission).

After Snoopy displays his usual level of courage and runs away from his sentry duty, he happens to run into a beautiful female. Smitten, he decides to marry her. Now, the gang, and Snoopy's cousin, Spike, want to help in an affair that has the usual complications

The Peanuts gang perform the classic Broadway musical. In addition to the classic songs, we see Charlie Brown and his friends perform the various comedy sketches of the play.

Charlie is a 16-year-old orphan struggling to raise her two younger brothers when she endeavors to train a wild horse she names Sylvester and turn him into an Olympic jumping champion.

The Care Bears have their work cut out for them, because Nicolas, a lonely magician's assistant, is about to fall under the evil influence of a bad spirit who lives in an ancient magic book -- it seems Nicolas will do just about anything for friends. Aside from Nicolas, Kim and Jason are in trouble because they are starting not to trust people after suffering many disappointments.

Two street urchins meet up with a sad and lonely rich kid. They become friends when the kid's shady uncle mistakes them for his nephews.

Blanche, the Wicked Witch of the North Pole, is jealous of Santa Claus. She imprisons him and his reindeer in an icy cage on a raging river, so they can't deliver their presents on Christmas Eve. Her timid sidekick, Moose the unimaginatively-named moose, tries to stop her, but she zaps him far away with her magic. The Glo Friends find out what she's done, and they set out to try and save Santa. They rescue Moose from a tree along the way, and Blanche tries to imprison them in ice flowers. But her schemes fail, as they reach Santa anyway, and face her in a final showdown to rescue him.

A boy receives a Velveteen Rabbit for Christmas. The Velveteen Rabbit is snubbed by other more expensive or mechanical toys, the latter of which fancy themselves real. One day while talking with the Skin Horse, the Rabbit learns that a toy becomes real if its owner really and truly loves it. The Skin Horse makes the Velveteen Rabbit aware that "...once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

Claymation adventures based on the popular children's book series of Frog and Toad by author Arnold Lobel

When Kris tells Sam Weatherfield, the inventor, about breaking his parent’s window and running away, Sam has Kris play a strange, colorful game called HOOMANIA. As Kris places his piece on the board, he is zapped INSIDE the game, full of life-sized animated characters like the daffy Dodo Bird or the goodie-gobbling sluggards. These crazy creatures, and others, either help or hinder Kris in his race to Mount Wisdom. Through his fantastic adventure, Kris learns the true meaning of “wisdom”.

Just Friends - A classic Australian children's telemovie about growing up, peer pressure, friendship and family. When Susan Foster moves to a new suburb she has difficulty fitting in. Susan's home life is uncomfortable with an unemployed father, a distant mother and an unexpectedly pregnant big sister. Susan seeks refuge at the local Roller Skate rink where she meets Buzz, the brash young gang leader and the best skater in town. Susan becomes part of Buzz's gang but is soon confronted with his selfish behaviour and cruel treatment of his friends. Susan must decide which is more important to her - fitting in or being fair. Just Friends is part of the Winners series of television programs created by the Australian Children's Television Foundation.

Konrad is a factory-made child, perfect in every way. When he is mistakenly delivered to the eccentric Mrs. Bartelotti, the factory demands his return. Konrad must go against everything he has been taught to stand up to his creators.

A paleontologist and her husband discover a mother and baby brontosaurus in Africa, and try to protect them from hunters who want to capture them.

Rupert Bear goes on a walk in the hills near his home, where he encounters a community of frogs who join together in a musical extravaganza.

A young British girl journeys to Paris to go to college, and is determined to find the man of her dreams and fall madly in love. However, things don't work out quite the way she planned.

Jess Aarons and new girl Leslie Burke create a world of their own and call it Terabithia and pretend to be the king and queen. They return to their magical kingdom every day after school.

Sir Peter Wright’s 1984 version of The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet, still performed by the Company, stays close to Hoffmann’s original tale. It emphasises Drosselmeyer’s mission to find a young girl – Clara – who can break the curse imposed by the Mouse King on his nephew Hans Peter and thus restore him to human form. References to Nuremberg and German Christmas traditions are present in the settings, with a kingdom of marzipan featured in Act 2.

With good King Richard away at war, the greedy Sheriff has forced the residents of Nottingham to pay all their money to him. But Robin Hood, with the help of his friend Maid Marion, a spy in the Sheriff's castle, is out to thwart the evil Sheriff and return the Kind to his rightful throne.

11-year-old Nick moves into a large old house with his sisters Jennie and Clare, left in the care of Helga the Swedish au pair while their parents are away in America. Nick is unhappy at his new school, where he is befriended by a boy named Sam and intimidated by scripture teacher Mr. Crabb, who is interested in the occult and demonology. Nick hears voices in the house and receives messages on his computer screen; he also suffers inexplicable blisters on his feet and grazes on his elbows and knees. When he dreams of burning and wakes up in a bed full of ashes, Nick tells a psychiatrist that he feels he is possessed by a demon.

In an English village, three youths see the spirit of a child who died in a 17th-century plague epidemic. They decide to learn about the town's history to find out how they can help set the child's ghost free.

Little magic and plenty of imagination turns a young man's room into a hub where various adventures await him.

Sometimes she's too big. Or much too small. Sometimes things are backwards. And there's always too much pepper in the soup! Nothing is quite right since Alice chased a very unusual White Rabbit and stumbled into an adventure that grows curiouser and curiouser. One of the greatest childhood fantasies is captured in Irwin Allen's colorful production adapted from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." The stellar cast features dozens of Hollywood's and Broadway's biggest names. Originally aired over two nights in 1985 on CBS.