5 Children's Movies to Stream Now – The New York Times

What to Watch
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This month’s picks include a bevy of animated critters and a science-fiction fantasy.
By Dina Gachman
Watch it on Netflix.
The comedian Bill Burr as the voice of a jaded animated turtle in a kids’ movie may be enough to pique the curiosity of some parents. In “Leo,” Burr’s Squirtle is the grouchy sidekick to Leo, a septuagenarian lizard (voiced by Adam Sandler). They share a terrarium in a fifth grade classroom in Florida, and when Leo realizes he’s reaching the end of his reptilian life span, he has a sudden urge to escape and see the world. When the humorless substitute teacher Ms. Malkin (Cecily Strong) tells the students that they each have to take one of the two creatures home for the weekend to learn responsibility, Leo sees his chance. He goes home with the chatty Summer (Sunny Sandler), and reveals that he can speak. Once each kid stops freaking out about bringing home a talking lizard, Leo turns into a life coach/therapist for them. Through old-school wisdom, the children learn lessons about kindness, acceptance and confidence. The script — by Sandler, Robert Smigel (“Saturday Night Live,” “Hotel Transylvania”) and Paul Sado (“Sandy Wexler”) — doesn’t break any new ground, but there are enough cute jokes, so-so musical numbers and visual gags to hold the interest of preschool- and elementary-aged kids. Smigel directed the movie with “S.N.L.” alums Robert Marianetti and David Wachtenheim.
Watch it on Prime Video.
Take splashy heist movies like “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Reservoir Dogs,” swap out the movie stars for animated wolves, sharks and tarantulas, and you have DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys.” The animation supervisor Pierre Perifel makes his feature directing debut here, and the voice cast is stellar: Sam Rockwell (as Wolf, the leader), Zazie Beetz (Gov. Diane Foxington), Awkwafina (the hacker Tarantula), Marc Maron (Snake), Craig Robinson (Shark) and Anthony Ramos (Piranha). When a heist goes wrong, a shady guinea pig named Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) offers the crew a way to avoid prison time: Do good deeds and trick the world into thinking they’re actually good guys. When they try to save guinea pigs from an animal testing lab, though, their baser instincts take over and Snake ends up swallowing the poor creatures instead of freeing them. It’s not as scary as it sounds, so little ones will be more likely to laugh than to cry. Along the way, Wolf wonders what it would be like if the world didn’t fear them. Maybe they could become … good? It’s a story about redemption and change, based on the children’s graphic novel series by Aaron Blabey. Etan Cohen (“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”) wrote the script.
Watch it on Hulu.
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