Surf’s Up was a movie that was shot like a documentary but in animated style. There is awareness of the camera, and it is a coming-of-age story about what it takes to be a surfer. The surfer in the movie is actually a penguin that makes it more funny. There are several animals in the movie, all of which can talk, and this is an essential feature of most movies for kids.
Shrek movies were so successful that they produced two sequels and included lots of memorabilia that went along with the sale of the movie. Shrek wasn’t just a movie. It was a phenomenon. The Shrek movies combined all the fairy tales from years past and used them in one movie with a funny-looking central ogre character.
The Ice Age movies were some of the most emblematic children’s animated movies of all time. They were unusual for using famous actors’ voices in an ensemble cast that paired up voices with pre-historic animals that looked like characteristic caricatures of what those animals would have looked like in the past.
Hairspray was a fun remake of an original John Waters comedy that was a take on the 1950s that featured a parody of racism, sexism, and Victorian conservatism in turn and compelled audiences to take note of the big arguments being posed by the advent of the 1950s and the resulting culture clashes, civil rights battles, and societal changes that were occurring across the country.