Download Free Kids Movies

Before You Download Free Kids’ Movies

Unfortunately, for every Web site that is working hard to be legit and provide quality entertainment while not breaking any laws, there are many other sites that are at best shady and at worst committing serious copyright infringements. It may not matter that it’s the providers, rather than you, who would face fines and jail time for this criminal activity, because you don’t want to be an abettor. Remember, it’s not free if it’s not legal, because people are getting hurt. The last thing you want is to tacitly teach your kids that it’s OK to bend laws in the name of saving money.

Not the Latest Blockbusters

The movies that are legal for downloading are going to be in the public domain, which means they are at least 20 years old. If you’re looking for Shrek, you’ll have to go to your local video store. Likewise, Disney holds a firm grip on its copyrights, so even its oldest, most obscure titles will not be available for legal downloading.

However, if you think outside the Disney box for kids’ movies, or, for that matter, beyond animation and anything specifically labeled for kids, you’ll find a wealth of interesting material.

Start with Entertainment Magazine. This is one of the sites that has worked hard to create an archive of fascinating films the whole family can enjoy. It may seem hard to believe, but the idea of movies just for children is fairly recent. From their birth in the teens through the early 1960s, the genre of films to which parents took their children was the family film and indeed, the whole family was guaranteed amusement. While the bulk of Entertainment Magazine’s film archive consists of films from the 1950s through to the 1980s, it has many earlier gems that children and their parents can enjoy, such as:

• Mr. Robinson Crusoe, starring the original Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbanks
• Scrooge, 1935’s take on the evergreen classic A Christmas Carol
• Little Lord Fauntleroy, the charming tale by the author of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess starring Mickey Rooney
• Gulliver’s Travels, an animated version of the classic adventure made in 1939

It also has a cache of Charlie Chaplin films. Think your kids won’t like black-and-white silent films? Think again! Children will find the physical comedy hilarious and many will be enchanted by this very different form of storytelling. If your kids like clowns, they’ll love Charlie Chaplin and his even more physical colleague, Buster Keaton. The Keystone Kops were the original kings of slapstick and even the Marx Brothers, though much of the spoken dialogue is more for parents to enjoy than kids, knew how to tickle funny bones of all ages with their antics.

Downloading Is Easy

Entertainment Magazine requires no registration or special software, although you will likely need QuickTime, and there aren't any fees. You can download free kids’ movies and then transfer them to MP3 players, cell phones or PDAs. They come in several different formats, so try the various options till you find which is best for your computer, browser and connection. You can also play them online. Simply select a movie option for either broadband, DSL, cable or dial up and click.

A Word About Old Animation

Many sites that allow you to download free kids’ movies will feature interesting old animation: cartoons which traditionally were shown before a main feature, whether it was a family film or a serious drama. These cartoons were started in the silent era. Many are charming and funny, but bear in mind that many were made before the Production Code came into effect in 1934 and will have themes and images that you may not want your smaller children to view. Likewise, while there is much to be learned about depictions of people of different races from old films, a bit of explanation might be required before watching. It’s always best to watch a film yourself first, before sitting down with your child to watch it together.