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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Genres
  5. Children's films

Film Genres

This guide highlights library resources for some of the more popular film genres.
  • Introduction
  • Streaming services
  • Action films
  • Amateur films
  • Animation
    • Stop-motion animation
  • Animé
  • B movies
  • Biographical films
  • Blaxploitation films
  • Children's films
  • Comedies
  • Cult films
  • Crime films
    • Gangster films
  • Detective & mystery films
  • Documentary films
  • Ethnographic films
  • Experimental films
  • Exploitation films
  • Film noir
  • Historical films
  • Horror films
    • Slasher films
  • Independent films
  • Indigenous films
  • James Bond films
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Mockumentary films
  • Musicals
  • Newsreels This link opens in a new window
  • Police films
  • Religious films
    • Bible films
  • Road films
  • Science fiction
    • Star Trek films
    • Star Wars films
  • Science films
  • Shakespeare on film
  • Short films
  • Silent films
  • Sports films
  • Superhero films
  • War films
    • Anti-war films
  • Vampire films
  • Westerns
  • Zombie films

Subject Librarian

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Lucinda M. Hall
Email Me
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Social: LinkedIn Page LibraryThing Page
Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Other library resource(s)

  • Cover ArtChildren in film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Ian Wojcik Andrews
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199791286
    The child in film is a multifaceted, wide-ranging topic that considers historical, ideological, pedagogical, and theoretical questions, including those of definition. What a children’s film is depends on when films with children in them began. Real and animated children have acted in films since the beginning of cinema in the late 19th century. ...

Internet resource(s)

  • Wikipedia logo
    List of children's films
    • Link
    A list of films marketing to children.

Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

A short definition for children's films

1. Films made specifically for young people.

2. Films exhibited to audiences composed of young people.

3. Films as they relate to or affect the lives of children and young people. In the West, the 1910s and 1920s saw widespread debate and concern about the negative effects of cinemagoing on children’s moral and physical wellbeing, with consequent calls for censoring films and regulating children’s cinemagoing (see censorship; rating system). A significant shift in attitudes took place in the 1930s, however, when social scientists in Britain, the US, and elsewhere advocated a positive and research-based policy of promoting films suitable for children. This could be implemented in several ways: choosing, from films made for adults, ones regarded as suitable also for children; making films that appeal to adult and child viewers alike (see family film); separate children-only screenings (such as the Saturday matinees of mixed feature, serial, and news programming that flourished in commercial cinemas between the 1930s and the 1950s and continued into the 1980s); and making films especially for young people.

After World War II, governments and public institutions in a number of countries took an active interest in films for children, as part of promoting the national cinema, and/or as an aspect of civic education. In Britain, the Children’s Film Foundation (CFF) was founded in 1950 and, with funds from a tax on UK cinema admissions, sponsored the production of children’s films until the abolition of the tax in 1987: the theme of one of the CFF’s most successful features, The Glitter Ball (Harley Cokliss, 1977), foreshadowed that of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, US, 1982). In East Germany in 1953, the nationalized studio DEFA set up a separate section for children’s feature films (the body responsible for the much-loved Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing, Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957)); and in 1959 a children’s film group was formed within the studio’s documentary and newsreel section, with at least 10 per cent of total production capacity devoted to films for children. Other countries providing sustained state support for children’s films have included the USSR (at the Maxim Gorki Central Studio for Children and Youth) from 1919; Japan from around 1934; Poland from 1950; and Czechoslovakia from 1954 (see Czech Republic, film in the). In Scandinavia, public funding for children’s films has been sporadically available. In Iran, films made at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (including Khaneh-ye doost kojast?/Where is the Friend’s Home? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)) have been funded by the country’s Ministry of Education.

Film studies scholars inquire into the history of children’s films, children’s cinemagoing, and children in films. There is a significant body of work on child stars, and a growing interest in childhood and cinema in relation to questions of spectatorship and film aesthetics. The effects of films and cinemagoing on children became an important area of research for social scientists in the 1930s and 1940s (see audience; sociology and film); while current research on children’s cultures and children’s use of digital and screen media sometimes references films and cinema (see digital cinema).

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Children’s films. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 Sep. 2022
 

Finding library resources for children's films

  • children's films
  • children in motion pictures

Introductory reading(s)

  • Cover ArtThe children's film: genre, nation, and narrative by Noel Brown
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780231182690
    Films for children and young people are a constant in the history of cinema, from its beginnings to the present day. This book serves as a comprehensive introduction to the children's film, examining its recurrent themes and ideologies, and common narrative and stylistic principles. ...
  • Cover ArtChildren's films: a history, ideology, pedagogy, theory by Ian Wojik-Andrews
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780815330745
    This study examines children's films from various critical perspectives, including those provided by classical and current film theory.
  • Cover ArtFor kids of all ages: the National Society of Film Critics on children's movies by National Society Staff
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9781538128589
    In For Kids of All Ages, members of the National Society of Film Critics celebrate the wonder of childhood in cinema. In this volume, original essays commissioned especially for this collection stand alongside classic reviews from prominent film critics like Jay Carr and Roger Ebert. Each of the ten sections in this collection takes on a particular aspect of children's cinema, from animated features to adaptations of beloved novels. ...
  • Cover ArtIlluminating childhood: portraits in fiction, film & drama by Ellen Handler Spitz
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 56.5 .C48 S65 2011
    ISBN: 9780472117543
    While literature and the arts are rarely considered primary sources for knowledge about human motivation and behavior, people read novels, attend movies, watch television, and go to the theater not solely to be entertained but also to learn about one another and about themselves. Illuminating Childhood formalizes this quest for psychological knowledge in the domain of the arts. Starting with the premise that a gifted writer, artist, or filmmaker has the ability to teach us as much in one scene as a theorist can in a treatise or a therapist in a session, the author shares her intimate experience of eight thematically linked works in film and literature from the second half of the twentieth century, touching on issues central to parent-child relations, including toxic intrafamilial secrets, the disjunction between love and understanding, and the lasting impact of deceased parents on their children. ...
  • Cover ArtThe Oxford handbook of children's film by Noel Brown, ed.
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780190939359
    The Oxford Handbook of Children's Film is the most comprehensive study of international children's cinema published to date. Overturning common prejudices that films for children are unworthy of serious attention, it presents nuanced and wide-ranging discussions from senior and junior scholars alike of iconic and neglected productions alike from Hollywood, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Iran, Kenya, and several other countries. ...

Selected book title(s)

  • Cover ArtBritish children's cinema: from The Thief of Bagdad to Wallace and Gromit by Noel Brown
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C45 B69 2017
    ISBN: 9781784534004
    British children's films have played a part in the childhoods of generations of young people around the world for over a century. Until now, however, their cherished status has remained largely unexplored. In this book, Noel Brown relates the history of children's cinema in Britain from the early years of commercial cinema to the present day, to reveal the reasons behind its acclaim in international popular culture. ...
  • Cover ArtChildren's film in the digital age: essays on audience, adaptation and consumer culture by Karin Beeler; Stan Beeler, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C45 C465 2015
    ISBN: 9780786475964
    Films of the past 15 years have been released in a number of formats and reflect a reconceptualization of film genres, audiences and the impact of technology on adaptation. Focusing on multiple audiences, film adaptation, nationalism, globalism and consumer culture, this collection of new essays explores how children's film can be re-examined alongside recent developments in their production. These analyses consider the effect of multimedia strategies on the child audience, the opportunities for viewer participation and the pedagogical implications of films for children. ...
  • Cover ArtChildren's live-action musical films: a critical survey and filmography by Thomas J. Harris
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN1995.9.M86 H38 1989
    ISBN: 9780899503752
  • Cover ArtFilming the children's book: adapting metafiction by Casie E. Hermansson
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .C45 H47 2019
    ISBN: 9781474413565
    Just as a work of self-reflexive 'metafiction' - and the experience of reading it - differ from other types of literature, the work and the experience of viewing films that adapt metafiction are distinct from those of other films, and from other film adaptations of literary works. This book explores the adaptation of children's metafictions, including works such as Inkheart, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and the Harry Potter series. Not only are the plot devices of books and reading explored on screen in these adaptations, but so is the nature of transmedial adaptation itself - the act of representing one work of art in another medium. ...
  • Cover ArtRussian children's literature and culture by Marina Balina; Larissa Rudova, eds.
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780415978644
    Soviet literature in general and Soviet children's literature in particular have often been labeled by Western and post-Soviet Russian scholars and critics as propaganda. Below the surface, however, Soviet children's literature and culture allowed its creators greater experimental and creative freedom than did the socialist realist culture for adults. This volume explores the importance of children's culture, from literature to comics to theater to film, in the formation of Soviet social identity and in connection with broader Russian culture, history, and society.

Finding scholarly articles and journal title(s)

  • Resource logoFilm & television literature index
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    This index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
  • Resource logoWeb of science citation databases by Clarivate
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.

Selected film title(s)

  • Movie poster artThe Addams family by Conrad Vernon & Greg Tiernan
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #23140
    ISBN: 9786318019842
    The eccentrically macabre family moves to a bland suburb where Wednesday Addams' friendship with the daughter of a hostile and conformist local reality show host exacerbates conflict between the families.
  • Resource logoChild's play by Henri Fescourt
    • Video
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Streaming video
    During its second decade of existence, the Gaumont Film Company continued to prove itself an indomitable force in cultivating and advancing the fledgling art of cinema.
  • Movie poster artKirikou and the sorceress by Michel Ocelot
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16279
    Based on West African folklore, this is the story of a remarkable baby boy who is born with the ability to speak, amazing intelligence, and physical abilities. Features a musical score by music icon Youssou N'Dour and South Africa's finest vocal talents.
  • Cover ArtLes Yeux Noirs = Private Eyes by Nicola Lemay
    • Video
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Streaming video
    This 3D stereoscopic animation tells the story of Matthew, a boy who is never afraid of the dark. Since he's been in darkness all his life, Matthew has eyes where other people only have hands, feet or ears. This week is Matthew's birthday and he's very curious about the surprise his parents are preparing for him. Can he find it?
  • Movie poster artRusalochka = The little mermaid by Vladimir Bychkov
    • DVD
    Call Number: Jones Media DVD #20645
    A little sea princess, longing to be human, trades her mermaid's tail for legs, hoping to win the love of a prince and earn an immortal soul for herself.
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  • Last Updated: May 28, 2025 4:37 PM
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