Best Family Movies of 1997

This animated adventure spins a more optimistic twist on the long-mythicized story of the "lost daughter" of Russia's last czar. A wicked sorcerer places a curse on the Romanov family, and Anastasia is separated from them during their attempts to escape from a rowdy revolt seizing their palace. Years later, after growing up with amnesia in an orphanage, "Anya" encounters two Russian men seeking a reward offered by the Dowager Empress Marie, for the return of her missing granddaughter. They decide to travel together to visit the Empress in Paris. Will Anya finally be reunited with her remaining family and find a loving home at last?

An aging codger named Geri plays a daylong game of chess in the park against himself. Somehow, he begins losing to his livelier opponent. But just when the game's nearly over, Geri manages to turn the tables.

Childlike Englishman, Mr. Bean, is an incompetent watchman at the Royal National Gallery. After the museum's board of directors' attempt to have him fired is blocked by the chairman, who has taken a liking to Bean, they send him to Los Angeles to act as their ambassador for the unveiling of a historic painting to humiliate him. Fooled, Mr. Bean must now successfully unveil the painting or risk his and a hapless Los Angeles curator's termination.

Down-on-their luck brothers, Lars and Ernie Smuntz, aren't happy with the crumbling old mansion they inherit... until they discover the estate is worth millions. Before they can cash in, they have to rid the house of its single, stubborn occupant—a tiny and tenacious mouse.

Deep in the African jungle, a baby named George, the sole survivor of a plane crash, is raised by gorillas. George grows up to be a buff and lovable klutz who has a rain forest full of animal friends: Tookie, his big-beaked toucan messenger; Ape, a witty talking gorilla; and Shep, a peanut-loving pooch of an elephant. But when poachers mess with George's pals, the King Of Swing swings into action.

Professor Phillip Brainard, an absent minded professor, works with his assistant Weebo, trying to create a substance that's a new source of energy and that will save Medfield College where his sweetheart Sara is the president. He has missed his wedding twice, and on the afternoon of his third wedding, Professor Brainard creates flubber, which allows objects to fly through the air.

Danny, an ambitious singing/dancing cat, goes to Hollywood and overcomes several obstacles to fulfill his dream of becoming a movie star.

Pooh gets confused when Christopher Robin leaves him a note to say that he has gone back to school after the holidays. So Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and Rabbit go in search of Christopher Robin which leads to a big adventure.

Astonished to find the Beast has a deep-seeded hatred for the Christmas season, Belle endeavors to change his mind on the matter.

Two hapless youths lead their burger joint in a fight against the giant fast-food chain across the street.

The four-inch-tall Clock family secretly share a house with the normal-sized Lender family, "borrowing" such items as thread, safety pins, batteries and scraps of food. However, their peaceful co-existence is disturbed when evil lawyer Ocious P. Potter steals the will granting title to the house, which he plans to demolish in order to build apartments. The Lenders are forced to move, and the Clocks face the risk of being exposed to the normal-sized world.

Cinderella chafes under the cruelty of her wicked stepmother and her evil stepsisters, until her Fairy Godmother steps in to change her life for one unforgettable night. At the ball, she falls for handsome Prince Christopher, whose parents, King Maximillian and Queen Constantina, are anxious for him to find a suitable paramour.

9-year-old Alex Pruitt is home alone with the chicken pox. Turns out, due to a mix-up among nefarious spies, Alex was given a toy car concealing a top-secret microchip. Now Alex must fend off the spies as they try to break into his house to get it back.

Smart aleck lawyer, Jack Lawrence is one day visited by an ex-girlfriend who tells him her child is his. Enter Dale Putley. A depressed goofball who is also a writer, Dale meets with the same ex-girlfriend who also tells him her child is his. One day Jack and Dale meet and discover they've been told the same story—and there is now a question of who the real father is. They learn their son is following a rock band around Sacramento, so Jack and Dale must use teamwork to find him—and then find out which one of them is the real father.

A lonely boy befriends a stray dog who has a natural talent for basketball and together they experience the highs and lows of life as their friendship remains solid through a series of escapades.

Charles Dickens' classical story about the young orphan boy in 1837 England is again re-filmed in grand fashion. Richard Dreyfuss portrays Fagin, the unscrupulous leader of the young pick-pockets Oliver (Alex Trench) initially falls in with after escaping from a sweat shop and going to London to find his relatives. Written by John Sacksteder

Willy the whale is back, this time threatened by illegal whalers making money off sushi. Jesse, now 16, has taken a job on an orca-researching ship, along with old friend Randolph and a sarcastic scientist, Drew. On the whaler's ship is captain John Wesley and his son, Max, who isn't really pleased about his father's job, but doesn't have the gut to say so. Along the way, Willy reunites with Jesse

Uptight New York City executive, Michael Cromwell, pursues his soon-to-be ex-wife to South America and returns home with the son he never knew he had -- a boy raised in a tribal village in Brazil. Armed with only his blowgun, the 13-year-old Mimi-Siku discovers that the world outside his jungle home is indeed a strange place.

The first wedding anniversary of Princess Odette and Prince Derek is distracted by field fires set by Knuckles. His master Clavius, wants to conquer the world, and he needs to capture a giant orb to do that. Clavius kidnaps Queen Uberta and Odette with Derek have to save her.

The joke's on absent-minded scientist Wayne Szalinski when his troublesome invention shrinks him, his brother and their wives so effectively that their children think they've completely disappeared. Of course, this gives the kids free rein to do anything they want, unaware that their parents are watching every move.

A plague of locusts strikes the Great Valley and decimates the plants . When the adults in the herd begin fighting over the scarce resources, young Littlefoot and his friends Petrie, Cera, Ducky and Spike split off from the main group, becoming stranded on an island after their path was destroyed by a tsunami. As they search for a way off the island, they encounter an old acquaintance who may become friend or foe.

Annabelle - a calf who has a special wish for Christmas - wants to be a reindeer and help Santa Claus drive his sleigh as he delivers his presents! Annabelle's friends tell her not to get her hopes up, but to everyone's surprise, Santa does indeed meet up with Annabelle, and the calf gets to help Santa make the holiday special for one young boy.

Murray is a male fairy godmother, and he is trying to help 8-year-old Anabel to fulfil her "simple wish" - that her father Oliver, who is a cab driver, would win the leading role in a Broadway musical. Unfortunately, Murray's magic wand is broken and the fairies convention is threatened by evil witches Claudia and Boots.

Two children in 1917 take a photograph, believed by some to be the first scientific evidence of the existence of fairies. Based on a true story

Forty-something Leon is an alcoholic, ex-special forces barely scraping by when he's hired by a mobster to protect his 16 year old daughter. Not only does Leon have to clean up his act, but also handle the romantic advances of his ward and the keen attention of his dangerous employers.

When he pulls yet another prank on his little brother, Brian's parents decide to send him to a summer school which claims to be perfect. After being there a few days, though, he begins to suspect something sinister is afoot.

Dreaming of becoming a big-time writer, young Zack Beauchamp (Scott Pietrangelo) comes across a strange old typewriter and begins composing a horror story about a voracious pink blob monster -- only to discover that every word he types comes true. When the creature gobbles up the magic typewriter itself, Zack must figure out how to get rid of the beast in this episode from the spooky kids' series.

7-year old Ida has to take care of her kid brother Skrubsak, feed the family and keep the child welfare officers at stake. Ida's father has left the family for another woman, and so far Mum has found consolation in the bottle. The second of Jesper W. Nielsen trilogy: Buldermanden, Lykkefanten and Ogginoggen.

When the Morris family become lost during a road trip, they stumble upon an amusement park called Horrorland. The kids, Lizzy and Luke, love the place at first, but soon realize it is more sinister than it seems.

When Erin's special effects whiz father gives she and her friend Marty the first tickets to a new theme park ride, they think they have won the jackpot. However, when the ride breaks down midway through, things quickly go from bad to worse.

While on location in a spooky Italian villa with his Hollywood big-shot mom and her dorky boyfriend, twelve-year-old Kevin befriends a Renaissance-era girl ghost who helps him cause unrest on the set.

Sam's best friend Roxanne is determined to capture footage of a ghost on videotape, and drags Sam along with her on a visit to the local "haunted house". However, things become spooky when it appears they have found a real ghost.

The inimitable VW Beetle is losing all his races and destined for the scrap heap until mechanic Hank takes him over and gives him a new lease of life. Soon, Herbie is winning again, to the fury of his previous owner, who builds a menacing black bug to challenge Herbie to the ultimate race.

Those fun-loving eletrical appliances from the acclaimed animated hit 'The Brave Little Toaster' are back in an action-packed adventure with four all-new songs. This heartfelt and humorous full-length feature reunites Toaster, Blanky, Lampy, Radio and Kirby the vacuum cleaner--the beloved household gadgets of college student Rob. When Toaster and the gang spark freindships with the playful animals at the veterinary hospital, they soon discover their new pals are about to be sent to a testing laboratory. Through teamwork (and combined voltage), they embark on a hilarious rescue to save all the animals, including Sebastion, a wise monkey, and Maisie, the doting mother cat with kittens.Treat your entire family to 'The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue', an imaginative film bursting with colorful animation, high-energy music and characters that'll warm your heart at the push of a button!

A disgraced reporter investigates an abandoned luxury hotel where five people mysteriously disappeared sixty years earlier.

Two fishing fanatics get in trouble when their fishing boat gets stolen while on a trip.

Three brothers - Marshall, Marty and Mark dream of becoming naturalists and portraying animal life of America. One summer their dream comes true, they travel through America, filming alligators, bears and moose.

The Discworld, that is, as created by Terry Pratchett in his riotous series of sci-fi/fantasy books. Discworld is populated by a cast of characters straight out of folklore and mythology, only a whole lot funnier. Take the Wyrd Sisters, for instance (they don't like that handle one bit, by the way), whose story is brought to life in this animated series. A motley trio of hardworking witches, they get mixed up in a royal mess when a murdered king's baby son is entrusted to their care. Though they hate meddling, the witches must wrest the kingdom from the loopy duke and his she-devil wife.

A boy falls in love with a horse named Flash that's for sale. He gets a job to earn the money to buy the horse, but he's forced to sell when the family falls upon hard times.

A comedy-adventure in which three twelve-year-olds have a close encounter with a 3,000-year-old mummy. Marshall, Gilbert and Amy accidentally set the mummy free, but if they don't get him back to his resting place by midnight on Halloween, he'll turn into dust and lose his only chance of being reunited with his long-lost love.

Shy seventh-grader Spencer Griffith's life changes when the meteor falls into local junkyard and he finds a Cybersuit - the wise and strong robot from another galaxy. Spencer puts Cybersuit on and becomes a different kind of guy

In every VeggieTales video, Larry the Cucumber sings one of his special "Silly Songs with Larry". This video contains many of the most popular Silly Songs, hosted by The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (who debut a Silly Song of their own).

A prequel to the first animated/live-action Casper feature, Casper: A Spirited Beginning introduces the friendliest ghost you'll ever know and explains how Casper met and befriended the other ghouls at Applegate Manor. After being stranded, Casper meets young Chris Carson, a lonely kid who decides to teach Casper how to be a proper ghost

Mr. Magoo, a man with terrible eyesight, gets caught up in a museum robbery.

Hailed as the "rightful heir" to "The Wind in the Willows", William Horwood's critically acclaimed sequel comes to magical life in this beautifully animated feature-length classic. Join four of the best-loved characters in children's literature for their heart-warming and hilarious new adventure along the Riverbank, narrated by Academy Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave.

The legendary Power Rangers must stop the evil space pirate Divatox from releasing the powerful Maligore from his volcanic imprisonment on the island of Muranthias, where only the kindly wizard Lerigot has the key to release him. The hope of victory lies in the Ranger's incredible new Turbo powers and powerful Turbo Zords.

From the Italian 'saltare in banco' – which literally means 'to jump on a bench' – Saltimbanco explores the urban experience in all its myriad forms. Between whirlwind and lull, prowess and poetry, it takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart and soul of the modern city.

ANIMALAND consists of nine (9) animal stories, which might be compared to the characterizations and style of "Bambi". Lost for nearly fifty years, this collection contains nine animated short stories produced and directed by David Hand, one of the creative talents behind such legendary Disney features as "Snow White" and "Fantasia." Available for the first time in the U.S., and filled with lovable animated characters, this historic video collection features such endearing titles as: "The Ostrich," "Ginger Nutt's Forest Dragon" and "The Lion."

The adults decide to bring the babies and Angelica to Las Vegas on vacation. Tommy convinces the babies to help him find the tigers. Angelica hopes to sing while in Las Vegas.