Travelling with your family? Here are some movies for the whole tribe to enjoy together.
Transformers One
Transformers fans all know Optimus Prime and Megatron, but who were they before they became the leaders of the Autobots and the Decepticons, respectively?
Set entirely on the planet Cybertron, Transformers One, the animated prequel movie to Transformers, tells the story of young mining robot Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and his best friend D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry). They do not have cogs in their chests and thus cannot transform. Together with Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key), they embark on an adventure and discover a shocking conspiracy that impacts their worldviews. These events put Orion Pax on the path to becoming Optimus Prime and D-16 on the path to becoming his nemesis, Megatron.
While Transformers One was met with scepticism on its announcement, fans of the franchise came around to embrace the movie. Despite its kid-friendly exterior, it is surprisingly layered, featuring a dramatic and even moving portrayal of how two best friends become sworn enemies.
Directed by Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), the stunningly animated Transformers One features eye-catching sci-fi settings infused with an Art Deco sensibility. As an origin story, it is both accessible for newcomers and packed with enough references to the existing expansive Transformers mythology to be rewarding for longtime fans.
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The untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but who once were friends bonded like brothers who changed the fate of Cybertron forever.
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The Wild Robot
This warm, heartfelt, animated sci-fi movie is based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Peter Brown. The titular wild robot is ROZZUM unit 7134, or ‘Roz’ for short (Lupita Nyong’o). After a storm hits the Universal Dynamics cargo ship carrying Roz and other similar units, she washes ashore, becoming the only surviving robot. While escaping from the vicious grizzly bear Thorn (Mark Hamill), she accidentally crushes a goose’s nest, leaving one egg intact. The egg hatches, and Roz raises the orphaned gosling, who she names Brightbill (Kit Connor), as her own.
Roz befriends the animals on the island, including Fink (Pedro Pascal) the red fox, Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara) the Virginia opossum, Longneck (Bill Nighy) the Canada goose, and Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames) the peregrine falcon. While it takes a while for some of the animals to warm to her, they give Roz advice as she cares for Brightbill so he can learn to fly in time for the geese’s winter migration.
Director Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Call of the Wild) crafts a heartfelt tale about overcoming adversity with the help of community. While this critically acclaimed movie is easy to understand for younger viewers, older viewers will appreciate the movie’s commentary on the balance between technology and nature, and their potential to exist in harmony.
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Rozzum 7134 (“Roz” for short), a futuristic robot, washes ashore on a deserted island. A tale of survival begins when she becomes the protector to an orphaned gosling, which she names Brightbill.
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Elemental
People say opposites attract. And what greater opposites are there than fire and water? In Pixar’s rom-com Elemental, an unlikely relationship unfolds in Element City, where the Water, Earth, Air, and Fire people live together.
Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis) is a young woman and the child of immigrants Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen) and Cinder (Shila Ommi), who were both originally from Fire Land. Bernie runs a family business called The Fireplace, a shop and cafe where Ember works. The Fire people face suspicion from the other elements, so they mostly keep to themselves.
The pipes under the store burst, and Ember meets Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a mild-mannered Water person who works as a city inspector. As Ember and Wade begin to fall for each other, they must overcome the deeply ingrained societal attitudes — not to mention physics and chemistry — that keep them apart. Along the way, they come to question their respective purposes in life and what their future will look like if they want to be together.
Elemental was originally conceived as a straightforward superhero tale, in which characters with powers inspired by the elements would fight against villains. It eventually became a more personal project for director Peter Sohn, who was inspired by his own cross-cultural marriage and his Korean immigrant parents’ story. Boasting the high-quality animation that Pixar is known for, Elemental features a sweet, compelling love story wrapped in eye-catching visuals and imaginative world-building.
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Fiery Ember is tested when she meets go-with-the-flow Wade in Element City.
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Despicable Me 4
Despicable Me, the flagship franchise of animation studio Illumination, shows no signs of slowing down. At the time of writing, Despicable Me 4, the fourth main entry in the series, is the third-highest-grossing movie of 2024, having earned more than US$950 million worldwide.
Despicable Me 4 reacquaints audiences with reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carell), his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and their daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan). They welcome a new family member, Gru Jr (Tara Strong), who proves himself to be a handful. A new threat rears its head in the form of Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), Gru’s boarding school classmate who has long held a grudge since Gru overshadowed him at a talent competition. Maxime and his girlfriend/henchwoman Valentina (Sofia Vergara) plan to turn people into human-cockroach hybrids. Gru and family are forced to relocate and assume new identities to evade Maxime and Valentina, but their covers are quickly blown.
And, of course, Despicable Me 4 features what fans are really looking forward to: the return of Gru’s Minions. Dave, Mel, Gus, Tim, and Jerry are selected to become Mega Minions with superpowers, turning them into destructive forces.
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The most loveable criminal mastermind and his army of incomprehensible, yet adorable, yellow minions are back for a fourth instalment filled with outrageous adventures and family shenanigans.
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Inside Out 2
Return to Headquarters to reunite with old emotions and meet new ones in this sequel to Inside Out. Set two years after the first movie, a 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman) is selected to join an intensive ice hockey camp at the high school she is about to enter. She struggles to maintain her close friendships with Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) while trying to fit in with the members of the Firehawks, the high school hockey team.
Inside Headquarters, the control room in Riley’s brain, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) work in harmony.
Headquarters undergoes an unexpected renovation, with the arrival of new emotions, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). The newcomers upend the five main emotions’ operation as chaos ensues.
Joy and company must wrest control of Headquarters back from Anxiety and her crew as Riley undergoes a tumultuous time at the hockey camp.
This relatable movie further explores how we process emotions, and its resonance with audiences of all ages has made it the highest-grossing animated film at the time of writing.
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Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is disrupted by something entirely unexpected: new Emotions!...
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The Tiger’s Apprentice
Enter a magical world and witness a hero fulfil his destiny in this adaptation of the 2003 fantasy novel by Laurence Yep. This vibrant adventure is an entertaining take on Chinese mythology brought to life by an all-star voice cast.
Tom Lee (Brandon Soo Hoo) lives with his grandmother Diane (Tan Kheng Hua) in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Unbeknownst to Tom, his grandmother is the guardian of the Phoenix egg, and when she dies, that mantle passes on to him. Mr Hu (Henry Golding), the Tiger Guardian, trains Tom to take his grandmother’s place so that he can protect the egg from the evil sorceress Penny Loo (Michelle Yeoh).
Hu introduces Tom to the other guardians, each representing an animal from the Chinese Zodiac, including Sidney the Rat (Bowen Yang), Mistral the Dragon (Sandra Oh), and Naomi the Monkey (Sherry Cola).
Tom Lee, a Chinese-American boy, after the death of his grandmother, becomes the apprentice of a talking tiger Mr. Hu and learns ancient magic to become the new guardian of an ancient phoenix.
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Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony
Discover music’s ability to connect mankind in the 43rd film of the beloved Doraemon franchise. Nobita (Megumi Ōhara) is struggling to practise the recorder for his school recital. Drawn by the sound of his recorder, a mysterious girl named Mikka (Riana Hirano) appears before him and invites him, Doraemon (Wasabi Mizuta), and their friends to follow her.
Mikka takes them to the Hall of Music on a planet where music is transmuted into energy. She seeks a master musician to perform alongside her to restore the Hall of Music to its former glory. Nobita, Doraemon, and Mikka must defend Earth from a sinister entity that seeks to erase all music from the world.
Director Kazuaki Imai says he was inspired after observing his son singing along to a show on TV during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The musicians were all performing remotely because the concert could not be held in person, and this gave Imai the idea to make a Doraemon movie centred on music.
Nobita is practising his recorder when a mysterious girl appears. She is looking for an expert musician to play with her to revive the "Hall of Music" on a planet where music is an energy source.
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The Garfield Movie
The beloved Jim Davis comic strip creation Garfield returns to the screen in this animated adventure that takes the indoor cat and places him in the great outdoors. Garfield (Chris Pratt) was adopted by artist Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult) as a kitten and lives with Jon and the yellow beagle Odie (Harvey Guillén). Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by criminal mastermind Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), a Persian cat, who is constantly flanked by her henchmen, Shar Pei Roland (Brett Goldstein) and Whippet Nolan (Bowen Yang). Garfield reunites with his father, Vic (Samuel L Jackson), who used to be Jinx’s partner in crime. Jinx makes Vic her accomplice in a heist of Lactose Farms. Garfield, Odie, and Vic will meet allies like Lactose Farms’ washed-up mascot Otto (Ving Rhames) and enemies like overzealous chief of security Marge Malone (Cecily Strong), as they embark on a grand adventure.
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Garfield, the lasagna-loving indoor cat, is about to have a wild outdoor adventure! After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, Garfield joins a hilarious, high-stakes heist.
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Boonie Bears: Time Twist
Who says Hollywood has got all the popular animated kids programmes? Boonie Bears, a popular Chinese animated series that debuted in 2012, has gained a significant global fanbase in the past decade. Created by Fantawild Animation Inc., the show revolves around the wacky, adventurous antics of two bears, Briar and Bramble, as they thwart the efforts of a bumbling logger named Vick, who is intent on destroying their woodland home. Though the series is aimed at kids, it touches on serious real-life issues; it blends comedy and environmental themes, emphasising the importance of nature conservation and wildlife protection. Known for its vibrant animation and engaging storylines, Boonie Bears has expanded beyond TV into merchandise and feature films, including 2024’s Boonie Bears: Time Twist. The 10th feature film in the franchise, Time Twist, shines the spotlight on Vick, who must save Briar and Bramble by embarking on an adventure through space and time.
Vick's boss leads him to a client that offers Vick to restart his life as a simple logger. This choice threatens the lives of the bears and the forest, leading Vick on a journey to save them.
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