25 Best Family Movies On Hulu

Endlessly scrolling through a streaming service, looking for something to watch, is a tedious bore. It can be hard to decide on any particular choice, particularly if you aren't watching alone and instead are sharing the TV screen with a family full of kids of various ages. And with that, the movie doesn't have to just strike the grown-up's fancy, it has to appeal to everyone while also being appropriate, content-wise, and thoroughly entertaining for all those disparate ages.

Well, fortunately, streaming giant Hulu has a wide array of movies, particularly films of the family-friendly variety. Here are the best all-ages movies currently available on the site, ones that parents can enjoy just as much as the kids.

Updated on January 3, 2022: As Hulu's catalog of films changes on a monthly basis, we'll keep this list updated to reflect those comings and goings. Check back each month to find the latest and best family-friendly flicks on Hulu.

As it's now the age of on-demand streaming entertainment, viewers no longer have to wait for each holiday to roll around to enjoy their favorite "Peanuts" specials featuring sad-sack Charlie Brown, fussbudget Lucy, and the one-of-a-kind Snoopy. Their anytime-appropriate feature films are available to watch at, yep, any time. 

Charles Schulz' phenomenally popular characters made their big-screen debut with the 1969 musical "A Boy Named Charlie Brown." Jumping on the opportunity to tell a long-form story, filmmakers decided to focus on Charlie Brown's ongoing existential crisis, worried that after yet another loss on the baseball diamond, he'll never win at anything, ever. Kids and adults alike will empathize with his struggle, as he desperately tries to find some avenue to success, which takes him all the way to the National Spelling Bee in New York City.

• Starring: Peter Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger
• Director: Bill Melendez
• Year: 1969
• Runtime: 86 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Time-travel movies are almost always a blast, what with the characters discovering the technology that makes them able to manipulate physics and their wide-eyed wonder when they put it to use ... and sheer panic when it inevitably messes up the chronology of history. "Clockstoppers" puts the story in the hands of Zak Gibbs, a likable teen character, who, amongst the gadgets devised by his wacky inventor father, finds a watch that doesn't so much tell time as it does slow it down, by allowing him to move about at tremendous speeds. Suddenly, his life isn't about high school problems and dreaming about his own car but all about messing with time, impressing his friends, and outrunning a government conspiracy.

• Starring: Jesse Bradford, French Stewart, Paula Garces
• Director: Jonathan Frakes
• Year: 2002
• Runtime: 94 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%

Based on Judi and Ron Barrett's widely read but almost entirely plot-free picture book about food amusingly falling from the sky, the CGI adaptation of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" plays like an apocalyptic disaster movie for kids — one that's extremely silly and packed with goofy characters and endless food puns. 

On the island of Swallow Falls, the economy and food supply is almost entirely based around sardines, and when nobody else in the world wants the island's supply, they're left to eat nothing but fish. The town's mad genius inventor, Flint Lockwood, takes it upon himself to build a contraption that turns water into food, a solution that provides some tasty variety in the short term but could end the world when it breaks and turns all water into way too much food, sending humanity ducking for cover from all the falling burgers and spaghetti tornados.

• Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan
• Director: Christopher Miller and Phil Lord
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 90 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

The first iteration of "The Croods" found a prehistoric family hunting and gathering and staying alive, their world turned upside-down when literally evolved caveman Guy joins the clan and falls in love with the Croods' teenage daughter. In "The Croods: A New Age," the family contends with immense personal and societal change in the face of the next step of human development. They come across a walled city where all needs are met and technology advances, but they bristle at living amongst the inhabitants, the snooty and pretentious Bettermans.

• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds
• Director: Joel Crawford
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

Jeff Kinney's annual "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" illustrated novels — the humorous tales of a selfish, arrogant, and conniving middle schooler — are perpetual bestsellers. And the whole family will find something to relate to in the first of many movie versions of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," as protagonist Greg suffers the minor embarrassments and indignities of going to school and trying to forge an identity amidst a woefully embarrassing family. He's got to be careful if he wants to be popular, not touch the ancient piece of cheese on the playground, avoid his metalhead older brother, and carefully distance himself from his extraordinarily goofy and wholesome best friend.

• Starring: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris
• Director: Thor Freudenthal
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

"Dog Days" is a romantic comedy driven by dogs, so there's a twisty, multifaceted plot for the adults in the room to enjoy while the animals and jaunty pace will keep the kids interested too. In the vein of "Love Actually" or "Valentine's Day," romance is all around for a handful of loosely connected citizens of Los Angeles, whose lives all seem to intersect in unexpected, endearing, and wholesome ways. For example, there's Tara, who leaves her pet at a doggy day care center, whose operator, Garrett, is in love with her, but she's in love with veterinarian Mike. Meanwhile, man-child Dax learns some responsibility taking care of his sister's dog, and pizza delivery guy Tyler helps lonely old man Walter find his missing pooch. Eventually, everyone winds up with who they're supposed to be with — romantic interest and canine. "Dog Days" plays like a grown-ups movie but one made for children.

• Starring: Nina Dobrev, Vanessa Hudgens, Adam Pally
• Director: Ken Marino
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%

"Horton Hears a Who" is one of Dr. Seuss' most widely read tales, and here, it's been adapted into a crisply animated, bright, and wacky movie with a voice cast of some of the most prominent comedy names of the 2000s. In this wildly imaginative and compellingly executed film, an elephant named Horton encounters a speck of dust in the Jungle of Nool, but that speck is actually the homeland of the near-microscopic city of Whoville, populated by Whos that Horton can hear (but not quite see). Horton befriends the Whos and swears to keep them safe from harm — if only his fellow full-size jungle residents would believe that his precious speck of dust is anything more than that.

• Starring: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler
• Director: Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Intrigued kids (and their wary parents) might well recognize Dora from "Dora the Explorer," the long-running Nickelodeon cartoon that encourages assertiveness and bilingualism. But this movie isn't about a barely animated character loudly and slowly asking young viewers at home to answer questions about Swiper and Backpack — it's a live-action "Indiana Jones"-style adventure featuring familiar "Dora the Explorer" characters with lots of good jokes and self-deprecating humor that all ages can appreciate. This time, the now-teenaged explorer doesn't solve preschool-level word problems but the truth about a lost Incan civilization while also trying to locate her missing parents with the help of some new friends and Boots the monkey.

• Starring: Isabela Merced, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña
• Director: James Bobin
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

The whole family can enjoy "Earth to Echo," a light and fun action thriller in which kids are the central characters. It also functions as a throwback to '80s movies like "The Goonies" and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," wherein tweens and teens went on grand adventures in the wilds just beyond their suburban subdivisions. 

Here, a group of friends all start getting odd, seemingly coded messages on their phones, but they can't get their parents to think it's anything serious (they're all preoccupied with having to pack up and move away to accommodate a land development). So our heroes take matters into their own hands, and soon, they discover a stranded robotic alien, who needs help both avoiding capture by wicked authorities and to get back to its broken spaceship.

• Starring: Brian "Astro" Bradley, Teo Halm, Reese Hartwig
• Director: Dave Green
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Jonathan Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels" in the 1720s, and all of the caustic satire he included is no longer relevant, so modern filmmakers might as well update it to the 21st century and play up the many fantastical elements. Most kids love Jack Black, who plays Gulliver, a low-level mailroom employee at a big city newspaper who gets a chance for promotion with an assignment in the Bermuda Triangle. Of course, that's where odd forces zap him to the land of Lilliput, which is basically medieval and full of tiny people. They enlist Gulliver, a hulking giant to them, to defend their home from enemies. While its Rotten Tomatoes score is less than impressive, Jack Black is always one charming comedian.

• Starring: Jack Black, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt
• Director: Rob Letterman
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 81 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 20%

Based on Lois Duncan's novel of the same name, "Hotel for Dogs" centers around Andi and Bruce, a sister and brother stuck in the foster care system. Though they manage to stay together, they can't bring their dog, Friday, into their latest home. Rather than abandon him, the kids end up refurbishing an abandoned hotel into a home for Friday and all the unloved dogs they can find. But when the neighborhood starts to notice odd activity (and barking) at the decrepit inn, Andi and Bruce must find a way to keep the hotel open, but secret.

• Starring: Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow
• Director: Thor Freudenthal
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 46%

"Hugo," based on Brian Selznick's popular historical adventure novel, is a movie for kids and about kids, but older viewers will find it highly watchable as well. That's because it was made with extreme care, detail, and skill by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Self-sufficient and scrappy young orphan Hugo Cabret secretly lives inside a Parisian train station, where he maintains clocks and looks after his deceased father's busted automaton. Eventually, Hugo befriends a sad toy merchant's goddaughter. Together, they try to fix the automaton and unlock its magical secrets.

• Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen
• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Year: 2011
• Runtime: 126 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

That ambitious title is both misleading and totally truthful. Legendary English author Charles Dickens didn't come up with the idea of the holiday of Christmas, but his enduring, wildly popular, endlessly adapted short story "A Christmas Carol" certainly established many of the tropes of the "most wonderful time of the year." And "The Man Who Invented Christmas" functions as a light, accessible snapshot of a biopic about Dickens during a time in his life in which his status as a massively successful 19th-century author was in decline, and he was losing money. Viewers see him turn it around with the creation of his most famous and loved work, as well as the life events and fabulous, film-invented notions that inspired his book, all with a picturesque Victorian Christmas backdrop. "The Man Who Invented Christmas" is a meta version of "A Christmas Carol," just one actually happening to its creator.

• Starring: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce
• Director: Bharat Nalluri
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 104 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

The story of Snow White is a familiar one, if not entrenched in the minds of even the youngest moviegoers. That should give them a frame of reference to jump into "Mirror Mirror," a live-action, updated, and imaginative retelling of the story made famous by the Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney. "Mirror Mirror" focuses more on the evil Queen than most other versions of the tale, with Julia Roberts playing against type as the villain who pulls every nasty trick to get control of the kingdom to which orphan princess Snow White is entitled, including throwing the young and earnest ruler into the forest to be eaten by a monster. Instead, Snow White is saved by seven rogue criminals of small stature who help her exact revenge against the Queen and claim what's rightfully hers.

• Starring: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Nathan Lane
• Director: Tarsem Singh
• Year: 2012
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Monster trucks, the kind found at big rallies and car shows and boasting monikers like "Bigfoot" and "Grave Digger," are so named because they're massive, automotive titans, outfitted with giant engines and riding atop wheels as tall as an adult. "Monster Trucks," the family film, posits a scenario in which a monster truck is an actual monster truck, a magically sentient but friendly beast. In a film that will appeal to both gearheads and sci-fi fans, Lucas Till plays Tripp, a young man stuck in a go-nowhere job at a junkyard in a go-nowhere small town where a powerful oil company drills wherever they like. After they tap too far into the ground and uncover a mysterious ecosystem, a slug creature escapes, befriends Tripp, and comes to inhabit an old truck, turning the ignition on some exciting, much-needed adventures.

• Starring: Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Rob Lowe
• Director: Chris Wedge
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 32%

"Mr. Holland's Opus" is one of those "inspirational teacher makes a difference" movies, with a major twist: It takes place over three decades, and the instructor at its center never really wanted to be a teacher in the first place. Rather, Glenn Holland fancies himself a composer. He takes a job as a Portland high school band teacher and director after getting married and starting a family. Though he starts out grumbly and grouchy, Holland learns to find deep satisfaction in sharing the music he loves with others. After 30 years on the job, he realizes his real masterpiece is his educational legacy.

• Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, William H. Macy
• Director: Stephen Herek
• Year: 1995
• Runtime: 142 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

The story of Peter Pan — the flying boy who never grows up and gets into scrapes with Captain Hook, pals around with fairies, and hangs out on Neverland — has been told many times. But "Pan" is the Peter Pan origin story, explaining how a child ever came to live such a magical existence. At this point, Peter is a London orphan who leaves for high-seas adventure with friend James Hook and a warrior named Tiger Lily who team up to save the mystical and powerful Neverland from Blackbeard (a real-life pirate). Granted, critics didn't really like the film, but if you're a Hugh Jackman fan, then you definitely need to see what he's doing in "Pan."

• Starring: Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Levi Miller
• Director: Joe Wright
• Year: 2015
• Runtime: 112 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27%

Who doesn't love adorable, fluffy, telegenic puppies? Answer: Nobody. And that means most everybody in the family will find something to enjoy in "Pick of the Litter," a sweet, fascinating, and subtlety educational film about how special young dogs are selected and trained to be assistance pets for the visually impaired. Documentarians Dana Nachman and Don Hardy Jr. track two years in the lives of five dogs, from their birth at Guide Dogs for the Blind's headquarters through their puppy growing pains and into their varied and extensive training. And finally, we watch them as they're placed in their forever homes. "Pick of the Litter" is more than just 81 minutes of excellent and wonderful puppy footage — it's a behind-the-scenes look into a seldom-explored aspect of modern life.

• Director: Dana Nachman and Don Hardy Jr.
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 81 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Famous pro wrestlers who move into acting almost always prove successful — their time in the ring involves lots of theatrics and crowd-pleasing antics, after all. The effortlessly charming and subtly funny John Cena has carved out a niche playing tough guys in broad comedies, and in "Playing With Fire," he holds his own with one of the most electric comic performers of the age, "Key and Peele" star Keegan-Michael Key. 

In the film, which feels like a throwback to bumbling duo comedies starring the likes of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby or Laurel and Hardy, Cena and Key play top-flight firefighters thrown for a loop when, after rescuing a trio of adorable little kids, they have to take care of them too. Come for the macho men fumbling with the ins-and-outs of sensitive child-rearing, stay for the silliness and sweetness that slowly emerges.

• Starring: John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer
• Director: Andy Fickman
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 96 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 24%

Out of sadness, anguish, and all manner of darkness, beauty and surprises can emerge. That's the message of "The Secret Garden," the 19th century-set novel adapted into film multiple times, perhaps never more cinematically lovely than the 2020 version. 

After her parents die of cholera, bratty rich kid Mary is sent to live on an English estate with her distant and despondent uncle. Left to her own devices, she learns she has a chronically ill cousin, and soon after, she finds a key that leads to a mysterious garden. Through a change of heart and some effort, Mary just may improve the health of both the garden and her cousin. Several generations have read the original novel in school, and this marks the first movie take where the pleasures of the hidden, walled botanical paradise can match a reader's imagination.

• Starring: Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Dixie Egerickx
• Director: Marc Munden
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Made by Aardman Animations, the studio that gave the world "Wallace and Gromit," "Shaun the Sheep" is another long-running series of cartoons featuring stop-motion and clay figures, where crafty animals routinely outwit the dimwitted humans. In the first dialogue-light film set at the sleepy and idyllic Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun the mischievous and work-averse sheep leads a plan in concert with all the other barnyard animals to make their farmer boss fall asleep for so long that they can avoid their chores. The scheme goes horribly awry, however, and the farmer gets lost in the city, his memory wiped, and it's up to Shaun and the other sheep, pigs, and whatnot to save him.

• Starring: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Kate Harbour
• Director: Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
• Year: 2015
• Runtime: 79 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

Following the success of "A Boy Named Charlie Brown," the "Peanuts" brain trust reconvened for another feature film, this time focusing on the comic strip's breakout star and universally beloved cartoon beagle, Snoopy. The dog gets his chance to shine in a film that's essentially non-stop and delightful Snoopy antics, along with a thoughtful examination of the psyche of this remarkable pooch. 

After growing miffed after a tiff with owner Charlie Brown, Snoopy gets a letter from his old master, Lila, who's fallen ill and is being hospitalized. Snoopy figures this is the ideal time to leave Charlie Brown and go visit her, and so he treks across America, Woodstock and bindle in tow, encountering friends and "no dogs allowed signs" almost everywhere. And it really feels like, at least for a while, that Snoopy may never come home again, leaving Charlie Brown even more upset than usual.

• Starring: Chad Webber, Robin Kohn, Stephen Shea
• Director: Bill Melendez
• Year: 1972
• Runtime: 81 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Video game adaptations are a mixed bag — most aren't any good, unable to translate the dynamic worlds and unique characters from the console to the big screen. But the filmmakers and cast of "Sonic the Hedgehog" got it right, fully embracing and going all in on the absurdity of the entire project and just having fun with it. As in the original Sega Genesis games from the '90s, Sonic is a cool blue hedgehog from space, capable of running at incredible speeds. When he puts out a power grid, he earns a fan in the classically over-the-top, mustachioed supervillain Dr. Robotnik (played with 100% hamminess by Jim Carrey). Sonic must use his natural gifts then to avoid Dr. Robotnik in a worldwide chase, both to save the world from this fiendish bad guy and himself from exploitation.

• Starring: Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden
• Director: Jeff Fowler
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 99 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%

The fourth feature-length entry in the "Stark Trek" franchise, "The Voyage Home" is without a doubt the most fun and family-friendly installment in the series. There are no Ceti eels in sight. Instead, we've got humpback whales.

So what do these large aquatic mammals have to do with "Star Trek?" Well, Admiral James T. Kirk would like to know the same thing. After all, there's a mysterious object hovering near Earth, causing quite a bit of destruction and trying to contact humpback whales in the ocean below.

The problem is that, in the 23rd century, humpback whales are extinct. So Kirk and company have to travel back in time, get themselves a whale, head back to the future, and introduce the big guy to these mysterious aliens. The result is a whole lot of fun, as the Starfleet officers make their way through 1980s San Francisco.

Granted, you might need to catch up on the previous films to understand everything that's happening here — especially with Spock — but never fear, Hulu has them all (including the original TV series).

• Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks
• Director: Leonard Nimoy
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

For parents who've yet to have "the talk" with their kids regarding the truth about where babies really come from, "Storks" might be an ideal and entertaining way to kill a couple of hours while perpetuating a fun, time-tested myth for just a little bit longer. "Storks" takes the oft-repeated bit of child-friendly mythology that babies are delivered to parents via bird and runs with it. Andy Samberg voices Junior, part of the fleet of storks employed as delivery workers for a massive online retail store. Then one day, the baby factory where babies are made churns out an unsanctioned infant, leading to a wild stork chase as Junior and his human friend, Tulip, try to get the little one a home before their angry boss gets word.

• Starring: Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston, Kelsey Grammer
• Director: Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 87 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%