IF (2024)
When a young girl moves in with her grandma amid her dad’s illness, she needs to find a distraction from everything that’s happening around her. This leads her to see a bunch of imaginary friends (or “IFs”), sending her on a journey to find them real-life humans to develop connections with.
The Tiger’s Apprentice (2024)
Tom Lee is a 15-year-old boy who discovers he comes from a long lineage of protectors called the Guardians. Armed with magical powers, they find themselves protecting an egg that can unleash evil in the world … which he finds himself involved in after an unexpected circumstance.
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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (2023)
Based on the hit children’s book by Judy Blume, this movie adaptation follows 11-year-old Margaret as she moves to a new town with her mom and grandmother. As the women in her life give her all the support she needs to adjust to her surroundings, she discovers new things about herself in this phase of her life.
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Ready to move on to the live-action adaptation after watching the 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid? Halle Bailey plays the underwater princess Ariel in the updated 2023 version. After watching this, your entire family will want to live “under the sea!”
Wendell & Wild (2022)
This stop-motion animation movie combines two film giants — horror icon Jordan Peele, and stop-motion animation legend Henry Selick — into a film that combines the best of both sensibilities. Kat is a self-proclaimed outsider who starts at a new school. When a pair of scheming demons offer her what she wants most in exchange for help coming to the world of the living, she gives in — and winds up over her head.
13: The Musical (2022)
Rarely are musicals aimed so squarely at preteen concerns. This one follows a boy named Evan who moves from New York City to Indiana right before his bar mitzvah. There are songs about first kisses, being bored, trying to sneak into an R-rated horror movie and other things important to tweens, all written by Broadway vet Jason Robert Brown.
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The King’s Daughter (2022)
This is for all the pre-teens out there who love the mystical and magical. It follows Marie-Josèphe, daughter of King Louis XIV, who unexpectedly befriends a mermaid. When she discovers the king plans to use the mermaid to try and achieve eternal life, she feels she must intervene.
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)
This comes from Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater, partially based on his own space-loving childhood and done in his signature rotoscoping animation style, which looks like it’s animated over live footage of real people. It follows the story of the 1969 moon landing through two points of view: the mission control running the landing, and an excited kid watching at home.
Yes Day (2021)
When parents Allison and Carlos start feeling like they’re always saying no to their kids, how do they decide to change the dynamic of their home? By implementing a “yes day,” where they must do whatever their children desire. It’s a movie perfect for everyone in the family, and it may even inspire you to have a day full of hijinks and fun at home!
Cinderella (2021)
Your preteen may scoff at a cartoon adaptation of Cinderella, but this 2021 version ages up the story with a new, more feminist take on Cinderella’s situation — does she even want to marry a prince? — and a soundtrack full of pop songs. Billy Porter even shows up as the non-binary Fairy Godparent.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Finally, after two movies and a reboot, we finally get some kids who get to wield a proton pack! Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows Phoebe and Trevor Spengler, grandkids of Egon, who move to Egon’s old farmhouse and wind up taking after their grandad more than they anticipated.
Enola Holmes (2020)
You’ve heard of Sherlock Holmes, but what about his kid sister? When their mom goes missing, Enola Holmes goes on an investigation of her own, leading her to unexpected places that men dare not dwell. A sequel came out in 2022, and both star Millie Bobby Brown, making them perfect for your Stranger Things-obsessed tween.
Safety (2020)
This inspirational sports movie tells the real story of brothers Ray and Fahmarr McElrathbey. Ray is accepted to Clemson University on a football scholarship, and learns his brother isn’t being properly cared for after their mother relapsed. Ray decides to take care of Fahmarr, and has to learn how to balance school, football, and NCAA rules while surreptitiously taking care of his brother at the same time.
Hamilton (2020)
Lin-Manuel Miranda makes history feel fresh to contemporary audiences with his musical take on founding father Alexander Hamilton. And if your musical fan missed the Broadway version (which they most certainly did), they can see it all on Disney+. Sure, there are some bad words and adult situations in the play, but it’s all in the sake of learning history, right?
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019)
Instead of being a straightforward adaptation of the Dora the Explorer cartoon, this movie has an almost meta attitude about the character — the other characters can’t believe she came from the jungle or is friends with a monkey. Your too-cool-for-it tween will feel right at home with them.
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
You know the basic outlines of the story: Boy finds sword, boy pulls sword from stone, boy becomes all-powerful and has to defeat an evil sorcerer with the help of his trusty knights. Only in this case, the boy is Alex, who lives in a present-day suburb of London, and he has to rally a group of his middle school friends to his side.
Little Women (2019)
Even though it’s set during the Civil War, there’s plenty in Little Women that kids can still relate to today, like the bonds between siblings, finding resilience in setbacks that families face and the concept of having to make your own fun when adults are too busy to pay attention to you. This adaptation, which stars beloved actresses like Harry Potter’s Emma Watson and Black Widow‘s Florence Pugh, might even get them to read the book.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Wonder (2017)
If your tween needs some reminders in the old empathy department, show them this film, based on the blockbuster book by R.J. Palacio. The movie follows the struggles of a boy with a facial deformity, serving as a reminder to be kind. A sequel, White Bird: A Wonder Story, is due out in October.
Hidden Figures (2016)
Hidden Figures tells the based-in-real-life story of three African American women mathematicians who worked at NASA in the run-up to the moon landing, making essential contributions while facing racism and sexism at work. Show this to any kid who thinks that math isn’t exciting, and maybe they’ll want to be the next Katherine Johnson.
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Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.
As the entertainment and news editorial assistant for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
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