Best Robot Movies for Kids
Movies have their own appeal for people of different ages and can be enjoyed irrespective of whether you are watching it alone, with your friends, spouse or family. Movies watched at the movie theatre or at home can be a way to relax and unwind. It is a good source of entertainment on days you cannot go out, like on days when it is raining heavily.
Watching movies or TV programmes, though convenient, should not be used as a way to keep children occupied on days they are at home, it can prove to be harmful in the long run. Children need to participate in a wide variety of activities to keep their minds stimulated and their bodies busy.
Apart from entertainment, movies can also be educational and informative. Once such category is movies with Robots. These types of movies bring science fiction to life and capture the attention of their audience. Children can easily identify with the robots and the emotions they display on screen, you may even see your young ones pretending to be one when playing.
Here is our recommendation of the best Robot movies for your preschool kids –
- Wall – E – This award winning Disney Pixar animated robot movie has a heart-warming story of an old fashioned Robot Wall-E, who meets a more advanced robot called Eve. They work together to clean and save planet earth which is filled with garbage and is abandoned by humans. The movie is filled with action, suspense, comedy, music and romance with Wall-E and Eve falling in love. The movie emphasises the environmental message of reuse and recycling.
- Astro Boy – This is a futuristic robot movie for kids that revolves around an android boy who has been created by a scientist to replace his son who died in an accident. Astro boy engages audiences with his superpowers, like fingers with lasers, fire rockets that shoot out of his limbs helping him fly, super hearing, super strength and X-ray vision. After being abandoned by this creator, Astro boy goes about finding himself, learning about the world around him and using his powers to save the things he loves.
- Flubber – This science fiction movie is about the life of an absent minded professor who accidentally invents a rubber like substance with a life of its own. The professor has a floating robot as his assistant who effectively communicates through short clips from various films and helps him along the way. This sci-fi movie has many funny scenes and is a great movie to watch as a family.
- Big Hero 6 – This movie portrays the beautiful bond shared between Hiro and Baymax, a medi-care robot created by Hiro’s brother Tadashi who dies in an accident. Hiro is a young robotics prodigy who invents “microbots”, but his invention is stolen by a villain who plans on misusing it. Hiro, Baymax and 4 other science nerds with unique abilities form the ‘Big hero 6’ team to save their city of “San Fransokyo.”
- Robots – In a world of robots, an aspiring young inventor Rodney Copperbottom dreams of meeting and working with the kind-hearted and inspirational inventor and philanthropist Bigweld at Bigweld industries. He finds out that the company is taken over by greedy capitalists who are taking advantage of poor robots that cannot afford upgrades. Rodney and his friends team up to save the day. A good movie to watch and learn about the role of big corporations in shaping our world.
- Inspector Gadget – John works as a security guard at the Bradford robotics lab. The father daughter team, Artemus and Brenda Bradford are designing a realistic robotic foot as part of a gadget programme which is to add android police officers to the local police department. John nearly dies in a car explosion after chasing a tycoon who tries to steal the cyborg foot for his own evil purposes. When John recovers he realises he is part human and part android with a gadget for every occasion. The movie revolves around John hilariously learning to use his new abilities while also catching villains.
- The Iron Giant – This movie is about the friendship between a young boy Hogarth and a Giant alien whom he finds while wandering around in a forest. The giant alien is a huge robot that has been identified as a threat. The government along with the military planned to destroy the robot alien. Despite their many differences, the robot and the little boy find common ground and become friends. As this touching movie progresses we see how Hogarth tries to save the Robot, a theme that is appealing to children and adults alike.
- Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius – Jimmy Neutron is a boy genius who loves inventing things. This makes him unpopular among other kids who make fun of him. However he does have a few friends and a robot dog, Goddard to keep him company. On a devastating day all the parents are kidnapped by aliens, it is up to Jimmy and his friends to rescue the parents and save the planet.
Along with being entertaining, Robot movies are good for children to watch as it enables them to familiarise themselves with the concepts of robots and how they function, learn about technology and its advances as well as artificial intelligence. Movies like these can spark an interest in your child about robotics, science, technology and the endless possibilities that lie ahead including the probability of turning ideas into reality.
Children can also learn about the differences between robots and humans, the obvious difference being that although Robots can be taught or programmed to do almost everything a human does, Robots do not possess emotions or feelings. Our ability to feel and have a range of emotions is what makes humans so special. Humans have free will and the ability to think and make a decision, robots need to be programmed to behave in a particular way, they cannot think for themselves.
The beauty of robots is that by using a robot as a main character, children can be taught to identify similar scenarios in their own lives, for e.g., in the movies mentioned above we learn that
- We should not depend on others to take care of our planet, it is everyone’s responsibility to do so,
- Everyone has the ability to make a difference.
- Good always wins.
- We need to work together to create a change.
- Everyone is different and each has their own abilities.
- Just because someone looks different, it does not mean that they are bad.
As parents, remember to reinforce the good values shown in the movie and encourage your child to find the good values not only in movies but also in people around.
At EuroKids, the teachers ensure that every child is treated equally and given a chance to do various tasks. Children from various backgrounds are welcomed and encouraged to share things about themselves and their families at numerous times throughout the year like when they learn about their families, different festivals celebrated, occupations and so on. Activities like these are encouraged at our centres as it brings about awareness and cultural sensitivity. Click here to find a centre closest to you and enrol your child in a school that embraces uniqueness.
