10 Greatest Dinosaur Movies For Kids, Ranked

Dinosaurs are back in demand again in Hollywood. With last year's Jurassic World Rebirth, this weekend alone saw the release of the animated PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie and The End of Oak Street. While The End of Oak Street is being advertised as a kid-safe movie, it has a lot more violence than little kids might want. However, anything from the PAW Patrol franchise is good for kids of all ages, and this release features dinosaurs.

When it comes to dinosaur movies, there are a lot of options, ranging from kid-friendly to downright frightening. The movies made for kids are often animated, with some incredible films released in this format, although there are also live-action dinosaur movies that are at least appropriate for older kids. While not all kids should watch a movie with dinosaurs terrorizing humans, older kids can get a lot of joy out of some of these films.

Steven Spielberg showed the world how to create dinosaur movies that the entire family can watch. Even if they are a little scary, there are also animated movies that teach kids the wonder of these prehistoric beasts. From films for little kids to more sophisticated animated movies and the PG-13 dinosaur releases that pre-teens and teenagers can sit down and enjoy, nothing beats a good dinosaur movie.

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)

We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a 1993 animated movie produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation studio, which followed Spielberg's Amblin producing The Land Before Time movies. This is a very different kind of dinosaur movie from The Land Before Time series, as it transplants dinosaurs to modern New York City to help grant children's wishes through the Brain Grain cereal.

The dinosaurs here include Rex the Tyrannosaurus (voiced by John Goodman), Woog the Triceratops, Elsa the Pterodactyl, and Dweeb the Parasaurolophus. This is a kid-friendly dinosaur movie for all ages that features friendly dinosaurs and teaches that being different and kind is good. It is also a nostalgic early-1990s hand-drawn animated movie that stands out in the subgenre.

Walking With Dinosaurs (2013)

Released in 2013, Walking with Dinosaurs is a live-action/animated family movie that is based on a BBC documentary franchise. The story takes place in the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 70 million years ago, and follows an underdog dinosaur who must learn to be brave to lead his herd. Patchi is a Pachyrhinosaurus (voiced by Justin Long), and the story itself is narrated by John Leguizamo, who voices an Alexornis bird.

Every character in the movie is a photorealistic CGI dinosaur composited into real filmed landscapes, making it a visual delight. The dinosaurs are the main cast members, although there is a framing story with humans in the present day. The movie is known for adding on-screen fact pop-ups to help kids learn more about the creatures as the story goes on. It is a great educational film that also offers a gentle coming-of-age story.

Prehysteria! (1993)

Released in 1993, Prehysteria! is a live-action family movie from Moonbeam Entertainment. The story follows a farmer's kids who accidentally hatch five miniature dinosaurs from mysterious eggs smuggled into the country by a museum curator from South America. The kids and their family have to protect these little dinosaurs from the curator, who wants them back for his own greedy purposes.

The five miniature dinosaurs are named after pop icons: Elvis, Paula, Jagger, Hammer, and Madonna. This ended up as a successful franchise launch, resulting in a full trilogy of family-oriented dinosaur movies released in the 1990s. For younger viewers who might not have been old enough yet for Jurassic Park, this offered something similar but with pet-sized dinosaurs.

Baby: Secret Of The Lost Legend (1985)

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend is a 1985 live-action dinosaur movie from Disney, released under its Touchstone Films label. In this movie, an American couple discovers a family of living brontosaurs residing in Central Africa. The dinosaurs are the main conflict of the movie, as the couple fights to protect a baby dinosaur from a greedy scientist and the military who want to experiment on and use them for nefarious purposes.

William Katt and Sean Young star as George and Susan, the young couple, while Patrick McGoohan stars as the villain, Dr. Eric Kiviat. While it's a nice movie for the entire family, there are some shockingly frightening moments, such as when the military kills the father dinosaur and captures the mother, separating her from the baby. As a save-the-dinosaur movie, it works well as a nostalgic deep cut.

Dinosaur (2000)

In 2000, Disney released its most popular dinosaur animated movie with the singular-titled Dinosaur. This movie follows an orphaned Iguanodon named Aladar who is raised by a family of lemurs. He then joins a herd migration heading to a safe nesting place after a meteor shower. The dinosaurs make up most of the cast, with D.B. Sweeney voicing Aladar. Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Della Reese, Joan Plowright, and Julianna Margulies round out the cast.

This was a groundbreaking Disney animated film, creating computer-animated dinosaurs and compositing them onto real, filmed-on-location nature backgrounds for a photorealistic appearance. The movie was a monster success and presented kids with a hero's journey and adults with stunning visuals. The themes of kindness and teamwork make this a perfect kids' dinosaur movie.

Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World is the reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise, arriving in 2015 with a new cast but the same beloved dinosaurs from the earlier movies. Directed by Colin Trevorrow, the movie takes place 22 years after Jurassic Park and has the theme park dreamed up in the original movie finally coming to fruition. Chris Pratt plays a dinosaur wrangler named Owen, while Bryce Dallas Howard plays the park operations manager, Claire.

As expected, nothing goes right, and when the dinosaurs escape, the guests at the park find themselves in grave danger. The movie is not for younger kids, as it is PG-13, but for older kids, pre-teens, and teenagers, there is a lot to love about the first movie in the reboot, and seeing the theme park hinted at in the first movie pays off two decades of teases.

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (2009)

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third movie in the Ice Age franchise. The first two movies were about the prehistoric creatures living together and surviving in their era. The third movie is when the dinosaurs finally arrive and change everything. The plot sees Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) adopt three dinosaur eggs, putting him and his friends all in grave danger.

While Sid tries to raise the three baby Tyrannosaurs, their mother comes to reclaim them and pulls Sid, Diego, Manny, and Ellie into her world. This is also the movie that introduces Buck, the one-eyed weasel voiced by Simon Pegg. This remains the highest-grossing Ice Age movie, and a lot of the appeal comes thanks to the baby dinosaurs.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

One of the most underrated and underappreciated Pixar movies ever made is The Good Dinosaur. This is a Pixar original movie, and for some reason, it received lackluster reviews and a smaller box office compared to other Pixar films. The movie is set in an alternate history where the asteroid missed Earth, and dinosaurs never went extinct, going on to live as farmers and ranchers.

The story follows a young Apatosaurus named Arlo who is swept downriver and has to find his way back home. Along the way, he meets a feral young human boy named Spot, and the two end up on this journey together. It is a nice role reversal as the dinosaurs are civilized and humans are wild. It remains a heartfelt story about facing fear and bonding despite differences.

The Land Before Time (1988)

The most successful dinosaur animated franchise of all time is The Land Before Time. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Amblin and released by Universal, the first movie in the series is a hand-drawn adventure-drama about a young Apatosaurus named Littlefoot who is orphaned when his mother dies protecting him from a Tyrannosaurus. While that seems scary, the rest of the movie and the franchise are about friendship and acceptance.

The biggest theme is that Littlefoot and his young friends, all different species of dinosaurs, work together to help each other and save their families, even when their parents have biases against anyone who is not in their tribe. The first movie teaches friendship and perseverance after a loss, and the 14-movie franchise goes on to show that working together will solve problems regardless of species.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park is the best dinosaur movie ever made, and while there are some scary moments for younger kids, it is a perfect dinosaur movie for kids because of its built-in family dynamic. The movie follows a theme park that is trying to open, which will showcase cloned dinosaurs grown from the DNA of extinct dinosaurs. Three scientists are called in to explore the park and give their approval, and they end up touring the park with two young children, the park owner's grandkids.

When the security systems go down and the dinosaurs escape, everyone has to run for their lives as everything from small, quick killing machines to the giant Tyrannosaurus hunts them down. The wonder of the film, which used groundbreaking animatronics and CGI, revolutionized visual effects and looks better than most CGI movies made today. This is the gold standard for all dinosaur movies.