Disney Family Movie Night

[Dad's Plan]

This is a thread for people to share how they enjoy disney movies at home! Do you do a themed dinner? Do you play games and activities that reflect the movie? Do you all just curl up under a blanket with some popcorn and enjoy the family time together with a great movie?

While there is a similar thread for Disney themed nights, this one is looking to focus more on the nights that focus on a movie, more than a ride or theme park, of course, all ideas are welcome here!!!

Share your photos, ideas, menus and plans!

At our house, we do a Family Movie Night every other Friday. It's themed to a specific movie and we have tickets, theme colors, sometimes activities, a paired menu and some great time together as a family! We just started these nights this year, and are up to 21 - but only 19 Disney.

So far, we have done the following movie nights:

• Cars
• Darby O’Gill and the Little People
• Dinosaur
• Escape to Witch Mountain
• Frozen
• Great Mouse Detective
• Jungle Book
• Little Mermaid
• Mulan
• Oliver & Company
• Peter Pan
• Princess and the Frog
• Star Wars: A New Hope
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
• Tangled
• The Pirate Fairy
• Toy Story

Please ask any questions, and post your ideas, even if they are only ideas!

 

[Dad's Plan]

I'll start it off here with Oliver & Company. We watched this one back in March, and decided to do it in the theme of New York where Oliver and Dodger have their adventure.

Our adventure started with a ticket to the event:

For dinner, we focused on all the different kind of street foods that you may find in New York City.

The dog shaped menu listed al the foods available.

BIG APPLES
Fresh Red Delicious Apples
PUP-A-RONI PIZZA
New York Style, Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza
SOFT PRETZELS
Large Soft Pretzels
Kosher Flake Salt
HOT DOGS
Boiled Kosher Hot Dogs on a Split Top Bun
Ketchup, Mustard, Relish & Onions Available
PEANUTS
Roasted, Salted Peanuts in the Shell​

And to drink, we had

WATER BOWL
Mixed Berry Gatorade (The slightly opaque style)​

And the kids decorated the table with all of their dogs and cats!

And for dessert, we had:

SWEET STREET-CART DESSERT​

Mini Belgian Waffles with Whipped Cream
Dusted with Cinnamon

To read more of the Family Movie Nights that we enjoyed, you can visit my web site and see what else we have done. I will also continue to post here as we do new ones.

 

[Dad's Plan]

OK. So I decided to post a couple more to really get the ball rolling, and to get me to that magic 10 post level!

So here was the night we did for Tangled.

We had tickets:

This was also the first movie that I made a very intricate themed menu:

I printed out the castle shaped menu, then took some yellow string and braided it to come out the window.

It is really difficult to read, so here is what we had:

Dinner

• CAST IRON CHICKEN
• Cast Iron Baked BBQ Chicken
• Peas, Jasmine Rice
• BRAIDED BREADSTICKS
• Light and Flaky Breadsticks
• PURPLE PARADISE
• Raspberry Yogurt

Drinks

• DROPS OF SUNSHINE
• Fresh Mango Smoothies

Dessert

• ENCHANTED TOWERS
• Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
• Purple Frosting

I also made up wanted posters for the kids and mom and dad and my in-laws who were visiting. If you want to see some of those, check out my site.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Over the summer, we watched Peter Pan. The theme color was Green, and everyone was encouraged to dress up, either as pirates or Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. Both kids chose to dress as Captain Hook.

Again, it all began with a ticket:

And a menu:

For Dinner we had:

• LOST BOY SWORDS
• Blueberry and Strawberry Fruit Swords
• PIRATE SHIP PIZZA WITH CANNONBALLS
• Home made French Bread Pizza
• Mini Meatballs
• CAPTAIN HOOKS
• Hook Shaped Breadsticks

For drinks:

• MERMAID LAGOON WATER
• Lemonade

And for Dessert:

• PIRATE'S PARFAIT
• Chocolate Pudding, Crushed Oreo Pieces, Whipped Cream
• SECOND STARS
• Star Shaped Rice Krispie Treats

And that was our Peter Pan Family Movie Night. All in preparation for the new movie PAN that is opening this Friday! Be sure to post any ideas you have here! And as always, check out more Family Movie Ideas at my site.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

For Flight of the Navigator, we did a space theme. We decorated the table with a black tablecloth, and some of the spaceship toys. For dinner, we raided our camping foods, and grabbed a bunch of Mountain House packs of freeze dried, or just add water foods. And to top it off, we had some great freeze-dried astronaut ice cream.

For Special Treats, we had Milky Ways and Asteroids (Just like when we did Star Wars: Episode II).

For the drink, we had Takeoff Tang. This was actually just Orange Juice, but who really wants to drink Tang, anyway.

And then we kicked back and enjoyed a blast from my past (I remember seeing this movie oh, so long ago...) with our concession boxes full of Milky Ways, Asteroids and freeze dried ice cream!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Martyb]

This is a thread for people to share how they enjoy disney movies at home! Do you do a themed dinner? Do you play games and activities that reflect the movie? Do you all just curl up under a blanket with some popcorn and enjoy the family time together with a great movie?

While there is a similar thread for Disney themed nights, this one is looking to focus more on the nights that focus on a movie, more than a ride or theme park, of course, all ideas are welcome here!!!

Share your photos, ideas, menus and plans!

At our house, we do a Family Movie Night every other Friday. It's themed to a specific movie and we have tickets, theme colors, sometimes activities, a paired menu and some great time together as a family! We just started these nights this year, and are up to 21 - but only 19 Disney.

So far, we have done the following movie nights:

• Cars
• Darby O’Gill and the Little People
• Dinosaur
• Escape to Witch Mountain
• Frozen
• Great Mouse Detective
• Jungle Book
• Little Mermaid
• Mulan
• Oliver & Company
• Peter Pan
• Princess and the Frog
• Star Wars: A New Hope
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
• Tangled
• The Pirate Fairy
• Toy Story

Please ask any questions, and post your ideas, even if they are only ideas!

This is a great idea. We do something similar. We'll have a Disney Movie night, but we'll watch a number of "classic" animated shorts before the feature film. We own all the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Silly Symphonies et. al. They make a great introduction. I like your special dinners. The plating and the creative menus are excellent. We have not gone that far, but stovetop popcorn, ice cream or milkshakes are usually on hand. My children and I started a website focused on bringing and maintain the fun of the Disney World Parks at home. We are in the early stages and admittedly our design leaves much to be desired. That said, we are determined to keep the spirit of Disney World alive and well between trips. I think your movie night coupled with at home Disney dining is an excellent idea that speaks to the theme of our website. If time permits, please visit our website disneyathomeinfo@gmail.com; I'd welcome your feedback (good, bad or otherwise). By the way, we love Disney's DR. SYN ALIAS THE SCARECROW. It has action, adventure, romance, and a bit of history albeit massaged to fit Disney's brand of storytelling. If you can get your hands on a copy, it would make for a great movie night offering. They released it a few years back in a special dvd collection.

 

[Dad's Plan]

This is a great idea. We do something similar. We'll have a Disney Movie night, but we'll watch a number of "classic" animated shorts before the feature film. We own all the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Silly Symphonies et. al. They make a great introduction. I like your special dinners. The plating and the creative menus are excellent. We have not gone that far, but stovetop popcorn, ice cream or milkshakes are usually on hand. My children and I started a website focused on bringing and maintain the fun of the Disney World Parks at home. We are in the early stages and admittedly our design leaves much to be desired. That said, we are determined to keep the spirit of Disney World alive and well between trips. I think your movie night coupled with at home Disney dining is an excellent idea that speaks to the theme of our website. If time permits, please visit our website disneyathomeinfo@gmail.com; I'd welcome your feedback (good, bad or otherwise). By the way, we love Disney's DR. SYN ALIAS THE SCARECROW. It has action, adventure, romance, and a bit of history albeit massaged to fit Disney's brand of storytelling. If you can get your hands on a copy, it would make for a great movie night offering. They released it a few years back in a special dvd collection.

Thanks for the kind comments. I checked out your site, and it looks like you are off to a great start. Your passion and enthusiasm is very evident in the way you write your posts, and I look forward to see the new additions to your site!

I looked around for Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow, but I have not been able to find it in my usual haunts for old and obscure movies, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the recommendation!

I also really like your idea of watching a couple shorts before the movies - very 1940s. I think that may be something we add to our Family Movie Nights in the future.

Keep up the great posting and passion!

 

[Martyb]

Thanks for the kind comments. I checked out your site, and it looks like you are off to a great start. Your passion and enthusiasm is very evident in the way you write your posts, and I look forward to see the new additions to your site!

I looked around for Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow, but I have not been able to find it in my usual haunts for old and obscure movies, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the recommendation!

I also really like your idea of watching a couple shorts before the movies - very 1940s. I think that may be something we add to our Family Movie Nights in the future.

Keep up the great posting and passion!

Dr. Syn was released on VHS decades ago and it is very difficult to find. About six yea ago, they released it on dvd as one of the Disney Treasures series. It's in a metal tin. You could probably find a copy on ebay today. Have fun hunting. . .it's worth it. Thank you for taking the time to look at the website and for your kind

Thanks for the kind comments. I checked out your site, and it looks like you are off to a great start. Your passion and enthusiasm is very evident in the way you write your posts, and I look forward to see the new additions to your site!

I looked around for Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow, but I have not been able to find it in my usual haunts for old and obscure movies, but I will definitely keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the recommendation!

I also really like your idea of watching a couple shorts before the movies - very 1940s. I think that may be something we add to our Family Movie Nights in the future.

Keep up the great posting and passion!

Thanks for taking the time to visit the website and for your encouraging words. Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow used to be very difficult to track down, but it was released on dvd about 6 years ago as part of the Disney Treasures series. It is sold in a tin case. One will turn up eventually. It's worth the wait. best, Martyb

 

[Dad's Plan]

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We wrapped up our Alien themed Family Movie Nights with 2002's Lilo & Stitch.

I wanted to a Hawaiian Menu, but as we live about as far away from Hawaii in the states as possible, sourcing specific ingredients might prove a bit challenging! So I went with a meal with a Hawaiian feel. So it may not be 100% accurate, but at least it was a lot of fun!

The menu was grilled chicken with Peanut Dipping Sauce, Coconut Rice and, of course, Hawaiian Bread.

Sorry, no photos of the bread and the rice...

And to drink, we had Luau Lemonade:

And since it was Halloween, the kids enjoyed some Halloween Cookies that they made in their concession boxes, which didn't really have anything to do with Lilo & Stitch!

Thanks for reading. Check out some of my other Disney Themed Nights at Dad's Master Plan.

Thanks.

 

[TinkerbellM6]

@Dad's Plan you're ideas are fantastic! I am enjoying all of your theme nights and will now check your site for inspiration! Thank you!

 

[Dad's Plan]

Thanks for the kind words! I hope you enjoy the site!!!

 

[Dad's Plan]

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

We have returned to Family Movie Nights themed to our schooling again - at least until December. So this week, while we are studying Medieval Times, we watched Disney's 1963 animated feature The Sword in the Stone. I made the menu as Medieval theme, and a dinner full of food with swords stuck in them.

And for the drink, we all enjoyed some Wizard's Tea.

Has anyone else done a Sword in the Stone Family Movie Night? I'd love to here what you did with it!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Pocahontas (1995)

In anticipation of Thanksgiving (I hope this doesn't offend anyone!), we are watching Pocahontas. Honestly, I really don't like this movie very much. But again, it's not for me, it's for the kids.

The only big change that I made to this menu when we had the Movie Night was that I changed the drink from tea (I was originally planning a Raspberry Iced Tea) but switched it out at the last minute for Apple Cider. I don't think it's particularly authentic, but it was much more seasonally appropriate!

For dinner, I put together Flat Bread with Cranberry Butter:

Considering the important par that fish played in the Native American diet here on the East Coast, we made Cod Fritters for dinner.

For the drink, as I mentioned, I changed the tea to Apple Cider at the last minute. Hence the reason the drink band was not updated - and the strange color for tea...

And finally, I made cinnamon sugar tortilla leaves for a sweet dessert snack for after the movie with the popcorn.

So that was our pre-thanksgiving Pocahontas Family Movie Night. What would you do for a Native American themed dinner? Let me know!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) / Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004) - Double Feature

December is here, and we will be enjoying Family Movie Nights until Christmas. To kick it all off, we began with a Disney Double Feature. We enjoyed Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Both are about an hour long and feature a number of short, Holiday themed tales starring Mickey and the gang.

I don't know what it is, but these two movies just do not have the same charm and heart that earlier Disney Holiday themed shorts have. This seems more slapped together to make a buck. Particularly Twice Upon a Christmas, which ditches the traditional animation in favor of CGI. And the real problem is that it is not very good CGI. It looks as though the images were never fully rendered. There is a lack of detail to the characters, and I feel that takes away from the stories. However, if you are 5, I guess that doesn't matter very much.

Here I have two movies where there is no consistent setting, location or plot, so what do you do to pair a menu to that? I thought about researching some of the restaurant menus at Disney to see if they had any Christmas fare on the menu. This way the theme could be like a trip to Disney. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that worked. So then I decided that since we are watching a bunch of little stories, why not make a dinner make of little bites. An assortment of foods that are small, and quick to eat. So I made a menu that I did not get a good picture of, unfortunately. So I made a Christmas tree, and placed ornaments on it that listed the foods that would be served. Because the photo I have is of such poor quality, here are the foods that we enjoyed:

• Cocktail Meatballs in Gravy
• Spiced Nuts
• Prosciutto, Sage & Goat Cheese Pinwheels
• Potato Puffs
• Arancini
• Mini Pizzas
• Pigs in a Blanket
• Side Salad

The other big issues I had with this movie was what to drink. When I made up the drink bands, I couldn't think of anything and came up with the remarkable generic name "Donald's Drink." Given one of the shorts, I guess that should have been hot chocolate, but I have that for another Family Movie Night this month, so I didn't want to do that... I ended up using Eggnog. Isabel loved it, Ethan hated it, so after a sip or two, he requested milk instead.

It was a big spread, and we ate while we watched the first movie. We skipped the Concession Box for this one, and instead, we all enjoyed Milk and Christmas Cookies.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Dad's Plan]

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

With the dawn of 2016, we kick off a new year of Family Movie Nights! We started it all off with Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland. Based on the poems of Lewis Carroll, the story is more of a sting of connected poems, than one long plot line. Oh, and the Mad Hatter is not a warrior, there are no dragons, and Alice never puts on armor in this version.

And for the dinner, we had, what else, a tea party with unbirthday cake.

I did not make drink bands for this as we used tea cups for the tea, and the bands didn't wouldn't work on them. We made a couple pots of tea (no photos of that - sorry) and Tea Sandwiches. In the end, I substituted the Apple Cheddar for a Ham Salad just because I had more of the Ham ingredients on hand. And for the Jam Sandwich, I made Strawberry Jam and Cream Cheese Sandwiches.

I also made fresh Apricot Scones. These turned out really well! The biggest key to success when making scones is to not over-mix the dough. By not over-mixing the dough, the scones come out very light and flaky, otherwise, it may come out a bit too dense and dry. We served the scones with Orange Marmalade and Strawberry Preserves - no clotted cream, sorry.

And we finished off our Tea Party with Unbirthday CupCakes. To make it a little more stance and more in keeping with the movie, I baked the cupcakes in tea cups. I under-filled the cups, so that when the cake rose, it would remain under the rim of the cup. That way, I when I iced the cake, I could level off the top and make it look smooth and flat, hiding the cake underneath! This was the big hit with the kids!

After our splendid tea party, we sat down as watched the movie together. It was a bit of a it and miss with the kids. They found parts funny, particularly when Alice would grow or shrink, but they did not care for the Queen of Hearts. I believe that they tend to prefer a movie m=with a more linear story, which does not bode well for our next Family Movie Night - Fantasia!

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.

 

[Disneyalea]

Here is our Snow White and the & Dwarves night!

First, you should know that I have a son and a daughter, so this night focused more on the seven dwarves than the Princess! However, it was a wishing well full of fun! We had decorations, (stuff we had lying around the house) trivia, games like a glow in the dark treasure hunt, and of course a themed dinner with a specialty drink (kid-friendly). Here's the link to the blog I wrote all about it: https://aleasalbums.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/seven-dwarves-mine-train-theme-for-mickey-monday/

 

[Disneyalea]

I'm going to post Winnie the Pooh as well. I always try to make these cool because I have a teen daughter. But Winnie the Pooh has nostalgia going for him, so so it was a cool enough night, and ended up being one of their favorites! They DisneyBounded as Pooh characters, enjoyed the themed food, and enjoyed the games and simple decorations.
https://aleasalbums.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/the-many-adventures-of-winnie-the-poohmickey-monday/

Play Bingo as you watch the movie! Look for these things/characters as you watch and see who yells "Bingo" first!

 

[The3rdDisneyBoy]

Nice. Watching....And great nights you guys have had there. We do the same. While we have done nights focused on rides/attractions/parks, we mainly do the ones focused on movies as well. Each night has a food, activity and movie. Ugh - feel like a sellout posting this in two places today but I actually have a blog where I have been documenting these nights for the past year or so as a countdown to our next Disney trip. Hope it's ok to post here...

https://weheartdisney.wordpress.com/

 

[loki85]

I found this site, http://oneclickstream.com/, you can watch every disney online for free

 

[Dad's Plan]

Inside Out (2015)

This one was a lot of fun, and as stated above, Pixar is amazing at sticking you on an emotional roller coaster throughout a movie. This was a very fun movie with a great concept, even if it did steal from Herman's Head. If you don't get that reference, you are clearly much younger than I am. Well, when thinking about what I wanted to pair with this movie, it was an easy leap to get to comfort food! And that is what we did, but more about that in a moment.

Dinner for this Movie Night was great! I made an entire meal of fun comfort food, all in bite sized bits. We had Mini grilled cheeses, which was a last minute addition, and therefore not on the menu, home made Mac & Cheese, Mini Pizzas, and French Fries. I was really pleased with the way the meal came out and it looked great.

For the concession boxes, I carried on the idea of comfort food, under the name of Bing-Bong's Bites. This dessert, as seen below, featured fresh pop corn, 3 cookies, a small lollipop, peanuts, and the two big themed items: Cotton Candy - representing Bing-Bong, and the Jelly Beans, or Memory Orbs.

For the drink, this was another movie that didn't have anything that was super specific to the drink, therefore, I was able to do a clever word play so that any drink could work. In this case, we had Wild Mood Swigs. The pun played perfectly for the plot of the movie. In the end, I think it was a strawberry juice blend.

For more Movie & Menu pairings, please check out my site at Dad's Master Plan.