Travis Petersen | November 3, 2021

Your Guide to Watching Nostalgic Childhood Movies on DISH

Even when you outgrow children’s movies, moments from your own childhood favorites can still flood your body with nostalgia. Perhaps, the moment Littlefoot realizes his parents are gone in The Land Before Time, when the whole Imperial City bows to Mulan, or when the house in Up sails into the air on thousands of colorful balloons.

To start your jog down memory lane, we compiled a list of iconic childhood movies and anniversaries from the last 60 years. Start your own list of what you’ll watch if you get the childhood movies dream job, then scroll to the end to learn how to watch them on DISH.

Iconic Children’s Movies of the Last 60 Years

Below, we’ve listed some of the highest IMDb-rated childhood movies from 1960 to today. Movies on our list had to have a rating of at least 6 out of 10 and be classified as adventure, animation, family, and fantasy. That said, dozens of nostalgic movies didn’t make this list but still had a huge cultural impact.

For example, The Care Bears Movie (1985) scored just 5.7 but led to a smattering of TV shows as late as 2019. And tons of major series that bleed into the action genre hold childhood nostalgia for people across generations: for example, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, Spy Kids, and Marvel Universe movies starting with Iron Man in 2008.

1960s

• The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)—6.4
• The Sword in the Stone (1963)—7.2
• Pinocchio in Outer Space (1965)—6.1
• The Daydreamer (1966)—6.2
• The Jungle Book (1967)—7.6

1970s

• The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)—6.9
• The Point (1971)—7.8
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)—7.1
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1974)—7.2
• The Little Mermaid (1975)—7.5
• The Rescuers (1977)—6.9
• Pete’s Dragon (1977)—6.4
• The Water Babies (1978)—6.1

1980s

• The Secret of NIMH (1982)—7.6
• The Last Unicorn (1982)—7.4
• He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword (1985)—7.3
• Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1985)—7.0
• The Black Cauldron (1985)—6.4
• The Elmchanted Forest (1986)—8.1
• An American Tale (1986)—6.9
• Castle in the Sky (1986)—8.0
• The Brave Little Toaster (1987)—7.3
• The Land Before Time (1988)—7.4
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)—7.7
• Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)—7.9
• Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)—7.1

1990s

• The Rescuers Down Under (1990)—6.9
• FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)—6.5
• Aladdin (1992)—8.0
• The Pagemaster (1994)—6.1
• Toy Story (1995)—8.3
• Pocahontas (1995)—6.7
• James and the Giant Peach (1996)—6.7
• Hercules (1997)—7.3
• Anastasia (1997)—7.2
• Mulan (1998)—7.6
• A Bug’s Life (1998)—7.2
• The Prince of Egypt (1998)—7.1
• Quest for Camelot (1998)—6.3

2000s

• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)—7.4
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)—6.9
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)—7.6
• Shrek (2001)—7.9
• Monsters, Inc. (2001)—8.1
• Spirited Away (2001)—8.6
• Lilo & Stitch (2002)—7.3
• Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)—8.2
• Cars (2006)—7.1
• Meet the Robinsons (2007)—6.8
• Ratatouille (2007)—8.0
• Enchanted (2007)—7.0
• Ponyo (2008)—7.7
• Kung Fu Panda (2008)—7.6
• Horton Hears a Who! (2008)—6.8
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)—7.1
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)—6.9

2010s

• How to Train Your Dragon (2010)—8.1
• Tangled (2010)—7.7
• Brave (2012)—7.1
• Wreck-It Ralph (2012)—7.7
• Frozen (2013)—7.4
• Paddington (2014)—7.3
• The Book of Life (2014)—7.3
• The Lego Movie (2014)—7.7
• Inside Out (2015)—8.1
• Moana (2016)—7.6
• Coco (2017)—8.4
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)—8.4

Nostalgic Movies Celebrating Anniversaries

10 years

• November 18—The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1
• November 23—Arthur Christmas

20 years

• November 16—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• December 19—The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

25 years

• November 22—Star Trek: First Contact

30 years

• November 22—The Addams Family
• November 22—Beauty and the Beast
• December 6—Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• December 11—Hook

50 years

• November 3—Fiddler on the Roof

How to Find Childhood Nostalgia on DISH

If you apply for the childhood nostalgia dream job—or just want to share classic ’80s or ’90s movies with your own kids—you’ve got tons of ways to watch them on DISH.

At home on your Hopper DVR

With the Hopper DVR, included in the price of new customer packages, you can watch movies and TV either live, recorded, or On Demand. With hundreds of live TV channels, 200 HD hours of DVR storage, and over 80,000 titles On Demand, you can bet some of your top childhood nostalgia is available to view from home. Here’s how to find it:

1. Grab your DISH Voice Remote, hold down the mic button, and say the name of your favorite childhood movie(s). Results will include Netflix if you’re signed in on your Hopper!
2. Link your Hopper to Google or Alexa and ask for “nostalgic movies” or specific movie titles.
3. Do a manual search on your Hopper using the same terms.

Wherever you go with the DISH Anywhere app

With the DISH Anywhere app, you can take 100% of your live, recorded, and On Demand DISH TV virtually anywhere—including the favorite childhood movies you might want to take on your next road trip or to the dentist’s office to calm your little one. To find your favorite oldies on the DISH Anywhere app, type “nostalgic movies” or specific movie titles into the search bar. You can even download select titles for offline viewing.