*** We have updated this list to our Top Ten - please click here***

Here are our favourite non-Disney children’s DVD’s:

Fly Away Home

Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin (child star of “The Piano”) star in a story about a 13-year old who has moved in with her father following her mother’s death in a car accident. She finds some abandoned goose eggs and takes care of them. But winter is coming and the geese don’t know how to find their way south.

Because of Winn-Dixie

Opal (Ann-Sophia Robb) is the daughter of a preacher (played by Jeff Daniels again) whose mother left when she was young. She comes across a stray dog, whom she names Winn-Dixie after the supermarket she finds him in, and gradually the dog changes their lives. As the film develops the story of her mother also begins to become clear.

Laura’s Star

Animated film based on Klaus Baumgart’s children’s book, Laura and her family move to a town and she finds it difficult to settle in. When she sees a shooting star falling to earth and finds it in a park nearby, she brings it home and with her brother Tommy, discovers that it can do magical things and bring objects to life. But the longer the star stays on earth, the weaker it gets, can Laura and Tommy save the star?

Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film is the most unusual story of a girl, Chihiro who has to cross over to the spirit world to try to save her mother and father who have been turned into pigs for being greedy when they end up in a mysterious town on their way to their new home. A young boy, Haku, helps Chihiro find work in a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits and she embarks on a journey of discovery as she tries to rescue her parents.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Another Hayao Miyazaki animated film, this is the story of Kiki, a 13 year old who is training to be a witch and who has to leave home for a year to learn to live on their own. Kik, and her cat, Gigi, fly to a town where she ends up starting her own delivery service and making new friends. Kiki loses her power to fly in the course of the film and has to find out how to regain her powers and rescue her friend.

The Swan Princess

The classic Swan Lake tale has been turned into an animated musical. An enchanter, Rothbart (voiced by Jack Palance), has turned Princess Odette into a swan by day, human at night when moonlight touches the lake she is imprisoned by. Prince Derek, Odette’s childhood friend, tracks her down but Rothbert has a wicked plan to stop the two from getting together. Predictable but with a good soundtrack and good animation.