Upstream: Best kids movies to stream over the Easter holidays

WITH the Easter school holidays now upon us, families need to get their home-streaming act together. These are five of the best movies to watch right now.

WITH the Easter school holidays upon us, families need to get their home-streaming act together.

Lively stories in the form of both animated tales and animal adventures are among our top home-streaming picks.

Choose between superheroes, a headstrong princess or a plucky Peruvian bear starring in one of the finest family films of the modern era.

These are five of the best movies to stream at home.

THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017) *****

Foxtel Now, Netflix

The second of the Lego movies is astonishingly well-written and animated, reeling through many great jokes and much grand mayhem at blinding speed.

Subtract the jokes and it just happens to be the best superhero movie made outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the past decade.

A ripping story finds Batman looking for a lift out of a depressing dual existence: superhero by day, superzero by night.

MORE LEIGH PAATSCH MOVIE REVIEWS

Scene from The Lego Batman Movie. Picture: Warner Bros/Village Roadshow

MOANA (2016) ****

Foxtel Now, Netflix

An underrated recent effort from Disney Animation. Auli’i Cravalho voices the title role, a headstrong Islander princess who goes against her royal family’s wishes and takes to the open sea.

This intelligently scripted and accessible tale is blessed with spellbinding marine visuals (some of which surpass Pixar’s work) and earworms aplenty from composer-of-the-moment Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton).

WHAT’S ON AND OPEN IN MELBOURNE OVER EASTER

Maui, voiced by Dwayne Johnson, right, and Moana, voiced by Auli'i Cravalho, in a scene from the animated film, Moana. Picture: Disney via AP

RED DOG (2011) ****

Stan

This superb Aussie all-ages crowd-pleaser gets everything right. The title character, a copper-hued kelpie who became a living legend in WA’s Pilbara region in the 1970s, is played by a remarkably expressive pooch named Koko.

The adventures of the redoubtable Red Dog (and his hilarious nemesis, Red Cat!) unfold as all ripping yarns should, with a sly wink and a steady hand. Go with this over the sequel every time.

Australian film Red Dog.

THE FOX AND THE CHILD (2008) ****

Foxtel Now

Kate Winslet narrates the affecting, fairytale-like story of a young French girl’s friendship with a fox.

The shooting style is akin to that of a nature documentary, no surprise when you learn this is the work of the makers of the award-winning March Of the Penguins.

Winslet’s evocative description of the action is a welcome bonus for littlies looking to make sense of what is happening.

A scene from the film Paddington.

PADDINGTON (2014) ****1/2

Foxtel Now, Netflix

One of the finest family films of the modern era (as is Paddington 2, which has just dropped on digital rental platforms such as iTunes and Google).

A lively origin-story adventure takes place largely in London, where that plucky Peruvian bear Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) revitalises life inside a tired suburban household while evading the clutches of an evil taxidermist (played by Nicole Kidman!).