The Best Family Movies on Disney Plus (That Everyone Actually Watches)
If you’re looking for the best family movies on Disney Plus, the answer is yes, they’re already there and ready for your next movie night.
At Chasing Pixies, we don’t just scroll and recommend. We test these during real family movie nights, with snacks, distractions, and kids who will absolutely tell us if something is boring. Our team loves the big classics, but we’re always hunting for hidden gems too. The best family movies on Disney Plus aren’t just popular, they’re the ones that keep everyone watching together.
Here are favorites we come back to again and again, plus some underrated picks you might not have on your radar yet.
Encanto
Mirabel Madrigal lives in a magical Colombian home where every member of her family has been blessed with an extraordinary gift — super strength, the ability to heal, control over the weather. Everyone except Mirabel. When the magic holding their home together begins to crack and fade, Mirabel discovers she may be the most important member of the family after all.
What makes Encanto such a perfect family movie night pick is how many different things it gives different people in the room. Younger kids are dazzled by the colors, the animation, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s irresistibly catchy songs.
Parents and older kids find something deeper because Encanto is a story about the pressure to be exceptional, the weight of family expectations, and what happens when love becomes conditional on performance. “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” will be stuck in your head for a week!
Moana
Moana is the daughter of a chief on a Polynesian island, but she’s always felt the pull of the ocean calling her beyond the reef her people never cross. When a mysterious blight threatens her island’s food supply, Moana sets sail across the open ocean to find the demigod Maui and restore the heart of Te Fiti. Moana finds herself on a quest she was never supposed to take and isn’t sure she’s ready for.
This one earns its place on every family movie night list because it genuinely works on every level. The adventure is thrilling enough to keep restless kids locked in, the humor lands for adults, and the emotional core (a young person figuring out who she is and where she belongs) is universal. The music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina is phenomenal, and “How Far I’ll Go” has the kind of staying power that means you’ll be hearing it hummed around the house for days.
Toy Story
Woody is a classic cowboy doll and the unquestioned favorite toy of a boy named Andy — until a shiny new space ranger named Buzz Lightyear arrives and threatens to take his place. What starts as jealousy and rivalry turns into an unlikely friendship when both toys end up lost far from home and have to work together to get back before Andy moves away forever.
Few movies have aged as gracefully as Toy Story. It was groundbreaking when it came out in 1995 and it remains one of the best family movies on Disney Plus simply because the storytelling is so solid. It’s funny, it moves fast, and underneath all the adventure is a surprisingly moving meditation on friendship, change, and what it means to be needed. It’s also short enough that even the youngest viewers make it to the end.
The Princess Diaries
Fifteen-year-old Mia Thermopolis is awkward, invisible, and just trying to survive high school in San Francisco. Then she finds out she’s actually the princess of a small European country called Genovia, and her grandmother (an elegant, formidable queen played by Julie Andrews) has arrived to teach her everything she needs to know. Mia has to decide whether to accept her royal destiny or walk away from it entirely.
This is the kind of feel-good movie that earns its reputation because it’s genuinely fun, not just familiar. Anne Hathaway is completely charming in her debut role, Julie Andrews is perfect, and the fish-out-of-water humor holds up well. For a family movie night when you want something light and easy with a likable heroine, The Princess Diaries delivers every time.
Luca
On the Italian Riviera, a young sea monster named Luca lives a quiet life tending fish below the surface, until he discovers that he transforms into a human boy the moment he leaves the water. He and his adventurous new friend Alberto spend a sun-drenched summer in a charming coastal town, eating gelato, riding Vespas, and desperately trying not to get caught.
Luca is a quieter movie than most Pixar films, and that’s exactly what makes it special. It’s not trying to devastate you emotionally or build to some enormous climax. It’s a gentle, beautiful story about friendship, belonging, and the bittersweet feeling of a summer that changes everything. Visually, it’s a very pretty movie that features the warm light and pastel colors of the Italian coast make every frame look like a painting. A great choice for a calmer movie night when you want something that feels like a breath of fresh air.
The Parent Trap (1998)
At a summer camp in Maine, two girls meet and immediately clash, until they realize they’re actually identical twins who were separated as babies when their parents divorced. Armed with that knowledge and a shared mission, they hatch a plan to switch places and reunite their family.
Lindsay Lohan is genuinely magnetic in a dual role, and the movie’s warmth and wit haven’t faded at all since 1998. It has that rare quality of being nostalgic for parents while still feeling fresh and funny for kids who are discovering it for the first time. The schemes, the sibling chemistry, and Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson’s easy charm make this one of those family movies you can put on any night and know everyone will be smiling by the end.
Turning Red
In Turning Red, thirteen-year-old Meilin Lee is a straight-A student, devoted daughter, and enthusiastic member of her Toronto community, until the morning she wakes up as a giant red panda. It turns out that when she gets too emotional, she transforms, and in the middle of eighth grade, avoiding strong emotions is basically impossible. Her friends think it’s kind of amazing. Her very traditional mother does not.
Turning Red is funny, chaotic, and genuinely surprising in how much heart it packs in. It’s a movie about growing up, about the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters, and about learning that who you are doesn’t have to be something you hide. Kids will love the humor and the early 2000s boy band jokes. Parents will feel more of the emotional weight — and probably recognize themselves a little too clearly in Meilin’s mom.
The Game Plan
Joe Kingman is a superstar NFL quarterback whose life is perfectly organized around football, fame, and himself. Then an eight-year-old girl named Peyton shows up at his door claiming he’s her father, and his entire routine falls apart in the best possible way.
The Game Plan flies under the radar more than it should. It’s a comfortable, crowd-pleasing movie that balances sports action, genuine comedy, and real warmth without overworking any of it. Dwayne Johnson is perfectly cast because he has effortless charm and great comedic timing, and his chemistry with Peyton is sweet without being saccharine. If your family loves sports movies or just wants an easygoing evening that feels good from start to finish, The Game Plan is a hidden gem worth pulling off the shelf.
Togo
In 1925, a deadly diphtheria outbreak threatens the children of Nome, Alaska, and the only hope is a team of sled dogs racing across more than 600 miles of brutal Alaskan wilderness to deliver the medicine that can save them. Togo tells the true story of the dog who actually led most of that journey — a dog who was overlooked, underestimated, and almost given away before his musher Leonhard Seppala recognized what he truly was.
Togo is one of the most emotionally powerful films on Disney Plus, and it’s genuinely underappreciated. Willem Dafoe gives a quiet, excellent performance, and the relationship between Seppala and Togo is portrayed with a depth that will catch adults completely off guard. Younger kids may find some of the more intense weather sequences tense, but older kids and parents especially connect with the loyalty and sacrifice at the heart of this story. Keep tissues nearby.
Holes
Stanley Yelnats is a good kid with spectacularly bad luck — a family curse, he’s told — and after a bizarre misunderstanding lands him in juvenile detention, he’s sent to Camp Green Lake, a desolate camp in the Texas desert where the boys do one thing all day: dig holes. The warden says it builds character. Stanley suspects she’s looking for something. He’s right.
Holes is one of those movies that works because the story is genuinely layered and smart. There are multiple timelines, a decades-old mystery, and real themes about justice, inherited suffering, and what we owe each other, all wrapped up in an adventure with humor and heart. It keeps everyone engaged because you’re always a little unsure where it’s going, and the payoff is deeply satisfying.
The Sandlot
It’s the summer of 1962, and Scotty Smalls is the new kid with no friends and no idea how to fit in — until he finds his way to the local sandlot where a group of kids play baseball every single day. What follows is one long golden summer of games, schemes, crushes, and one very memorable encounter with the enormous dog next door.
The Sandlot is pure nostalgia, and it earns that feeling honestly. It’s funny and easygoing, with a genuine affection for summer childhood that feels timeless even if the era is specific. Kids who’ve never picked up a baseball bat still love it because it’s really about belonging and friendship and the specific magic of a summer that feels like it will last forever. One of the best family movies on Disney Plus for a relaxed evening when you just want to feel good.
Secret of the Wings
Tinker Bell has always been curious about the mysterious Winter Woods — a place warm-weather fairies are forbidden to cross into. When she accidentally discovers that her wings have a special connection to the frost fairies beyond the border, she sets off to find answers, and finds a sister she never knew she had.
This one is especially wonderful for younger viewers. It’s shorter than most feature films, which makes it ideal for early movie nights with little ones, and the animation is genuinely lovely — the contrast between the warm fairy worlds and the sparkling blue and white of the Winter Woods is beautiful. The story about sisters connecting across a divide they were told couldn’t be crossed is sweet and satisfying without being heavy.
The Kid
Russ Duritz is a successful image consultant in Los Angeles. He is sharp, driven, and not particularly likable. Then a mysterious eight-year-old boy appears in his life who is, against all reason, a younger version of himself. Young Rusty is everything adult Russ has spent decades trying not to be: soft, awkward, and still nursing a childhood wound that never healed.
This is one of Disney’s most quietly affecting live-action films and one that genuinely tends to hit parents hard. The message — about what we lose when we bury our softer selves in the pursuit of success — sounds familiar on paper but lands with real weight in the film. Bruce Willis plays against type in a way that works beautifully, and the relationship between the two versions of the same person is funny, surprising, and genuinely moving.
Treasure Planet
Jim Hawkins is a restless, troubled teenager on a futuristic world who stumbles upon a map to the legendary Treasure Planet — a place hidden somewhere in the cosmos that’s supposed to hold the greatest riches in the universe. He sets off on a solar galleon sailing through space, where the crew sails actual winds among the stars, and befriends a cyborg cook named Silver who may not be what he seems.
This is one of Disney’s most criminally underrated animated films. It takes the classic Treasure Island story and reimagines it with extraordinary visual ambition — the design of the world, with its blend of old nautical aesthetics and science fiction, is unlike anything else in the Disney catalog. More importantly, it’s a genuinely emotional story about a boy searching for a father figure and finding something complicated and real. If your family has any interest in sci-fi or adventure, Treasure Planet absolutely deserves a spot on your watchlist.
The Mighty Ducks
Gordon Bombay is a hot-shot Minneapolis lawyer who gets arrested for drunk driving and sentenced to community service coaching a pee-wee hockey team. The team is terrible. He doesn’t want to be there. But somewhere along the way, between the chaos and the losses and the underdog spirit of the kids, something changes — for them and for him.
The Mighty Ducks is a textbook feel-good sports movie, and it earns every moment of its feel-good ending. Emilio Estevez is charming as the reluctant coach who’s forced to reconnect with who he used to be before ambition made him someone he didn’t like, and the team dynamics are warm and funny. For families who love sports stories or just love rooting for the underdog, this one delivers exactly what it promises.
A Goofy Movie
Max Goof is a teenager who is deeply, mortally embarrassed by his well-meaning but hopelessly uncool dad. Right before the most important summer of Max’s young life, Goofy decides the two of them need a father-son road trip to a fishing hole, just like the one he took with his own father. Max has other ideas, and the trip goes spectacularly, wonderfully wrong.
A Goofy Movie is funny and silly in the way all kids love, but it has an emotional undercurrent that tends to sneak up on parents. It’s about a father who can feel his kid pulling away and doesn’t know how to bridge the distance, and about a son who doesn’t yet understand how much his dad’s love actually means. By the end, most parents in the room will feel it in their chest a little. A true cult classic that absolutely holds up.
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If you’re building your watchlist, this is a solid mix of classics and hidden gems. These are the titles the Chasing Pixies team actually returns to because they work for real family nights, real attention spans, and real living room chaos. Whether you’re in the mood for something epic, something quiet, or something that will make everyone laugh and possibly cry, there’s something on this list for your next night in.
