Family Movies - Summer Movies 2009

Summer 2009 Family Movies

Summer Family Movies

What to do when it's hot and you're harried and the kids are booooored? Ten family movies will be vying for your cash and your offspring's attention this summer, nearly all of them involving some element of fantasy.

We count two movies about aliens, one about museum exhibits come to life, one about a wizard (you know who), one about an old man who travels the world in his floating house, and four in which animals talk (and battle evil and other fun stuff). At least one of these is guaranteed to calm your children down ... for a couple hours, anyway.

FOX/ Disney/ Warner Bros./ FOX

'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'

Opening: May 22

Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Amy Adams, Robin Williams

What It's About: Stiller returns as a museum guard who's either a mild-mannered dad with the funnest job in the world or a delusional schizophrenic who imagines all the museum pieces come to life every night after the place locks up (we're voting for the former). In the sequel, he travels to Washington, DC, to save Jedediah (Wilson) and Octavius (Steve Coogan), and meets new animated statues on his adventure, such as America's first aviatrix, Amelia Earhart (Adams).

More on 'Battle of the Smithsonian':


• Get full movie details
• Watch the trailer

Get 'Night at the Musuem':

• Rent the DVD | Buy the DVD

FOX

'Up'

Opening: May 29

Starring: Voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger

What It's About: Pixar's second animated adventure starring people (after 'The Incredibles'), 'Up' teams a crochety old balloon salesman with a naive young Wilderness Explorer for the adventure of a lifetime: a helium-fueled, high-flying trip to the jungles of South America.

More on 'Up':


• Get full movie details
• Watch trailers & clips

Check this out:

• Top 25 Animated Movies



Disney

'Imagine That'

Opening: June 12

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church

What It's About: One summer after the fire-your-agent-type bomb 'Meet Dave,' Murphy looks geared to land another box office hit with this potentially poignant fantasy-comedy. It may look similar to 'Bedtime Stories' in theme (here Murphy's single father engages his daughter's imaginary world), but a promising trailer has us imagining much better results.

More on 'Imagine That':


• Get full movie details
• Watch the trailer

Paramount

'Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs'

Opening: July 1

Starring: Voices of John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah

What It's About: Manny (Romano) and Ellie (Latifah) are having a mini-mammoth, Scrat meets his Scratte ... and even Sid's (Leguizamo) starting a family -- though it's a dinosaur baby. But the really big news for the third installment of the half-billion-dollar-grossing series is that it's jumping on the 3D bandwagon. Now you'll feel like you're in the story, both wildly entertaining and epoch-inaccurate (mammals and dinos co-existing? pleeeze) as it is.

More on 'Dawn of the Dinosaurs':


• Get full movie details
• Watch trailers & clips

Get 'Ice Age':

• Rent | Buy

Get 'Ice Age: Meltdown':

• Rent | Buy

FOX

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

Opening: July 15

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

What It's About: The greatly anticipated sixth edition of the 'Potter' series finds Harry with a mystery to solve -- just who is the eponymous 'Prince'? -- and Ron and Hermione with some romantic tension to break. Muggles the world over were put into a state of animated suspension when Warner Bros. pushed the movie's release from fall '08 into this summer, so expect a huge sigh of relief when fans can finally catch their favorite wizard on screen again.

More on 'Half-Blood Prince':


• Get full movie details
• Watch trailers & clips
• Fun facts from the set visit

Get 'Harry Potter' movies:

• Rent | Buy

Warner Bros.

'G-Force'

Opening: July 24

Starring: Voices of Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Tracy Morgan

What It's About: OK, so the concept, involving a special battalion of highly trained small creatures (guinea pigs, a mole and a fly), sounds a tad outlandish -- but who better to fight off a billionaire trying to take over the world with attacking household appliances? See, it all makes sense now. Will Arnett provides a welcome comic (and human) presence as an agent assigned to work with the crew, and though he's just voice talent, Morgan cracks us up in any incarnation.

More on 'G-Force':


• Get full movie details
• Watch the trailer

Disney

'Aliens in the Attic'

Opening: July 31

Starring: Ashley Tisdale, Robert Hoffman, Carter Jenkins

What It's About: They're coming from inside the house! When the vacationing Pearson kids explore their new house in Maine, they find that the upstairs is already populated by alien beings ... and by that we don't mean roaches. With the help of one friendly ET, they have to find a way to keep the bad ones from making their way downstairs -- because in the attic is one thing, but having aliens in your kitchen is a total drag.

More on 'Aliens in the Attic':


• Get full movie details

Check this out:

• Ashley Tisdale Q&A

FOX

'Shorts'

Opening: Aug. 7

Starring: Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, James Spader

What It's About: Robert Rodriguez ('Spy Kids', 'Grindhouse') abandons bloodthirsty psychopaths for family-friendly fun in this comedy about a town that's disrupted when an 11-year-old (Bennet) finds a magical rainbow rock that grants wishes -- jolting the suburb out of its monotony with the sudden appearance of giant robots, tiny spaceships and faithful aliens. As the kids soon learn, however, every wish comes with a price.

More on 'Shorts':


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Get 'Spy Kids':

• Rent the DVD | Buy the DVD



Warner Bros.

'Goose on the Loose'

Opening: Aug. 21

Starring: Chevy Chase, Joan Plowright, Max Morrow

What It's About: Chase takes his first starring role in more than a decade (blame 1997's 'Vegas Vacation') and it's … a live-action family comedy about a talking goose? Chase plays a school principal looking to feast on it. The latest amusingly titled animal-themed movie, this could be a cult classic ('Snakes on the Plane'), a box office smash ('Beverly Hills Chihuahua') or never-tiresome punch line (here's looking at you, 'Space Chimps').

More on 'Goose on the Loose':


• Get full movie details

Get 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua':

• Rent the DVD | Buy the DVD

Michael Buckner/ Getty Images