2025's Most Exciting New Kids Movies
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Once again we are going to look ahead to 2025’s most anticipated family movie releases in our annual mega round-up of the best family movies coming up in 2025.
Firstly the bad news; anyone hoping for a bunch of new and exciting stories and characters are going to be sorely disappointed. Almost every film listed here is a remake or a sequel to an already popular franchise.
Now this doesn’t mean they are bad movies; but one is tempted to ponder whether at some point we will run out of films remake or spin out with endless sequels. I mean, I believe in reducing, reusing and recycling but eventually every piece of material reaches the end of its life. Let’s hope that there are some new and exciting family movies being made quietly in the background without the hoopla of the big movie company publicity machines.
The movie industry is still suffering delays due to the 2023 SAG-AFRA writers’ strike. Many of the movies listed here have long since been completed but put back due to the delays caused by the strike. It is projected that the effects of the strike could continue well into 2026.
Please be aware that in the movie industry, release dates move all the time, so any dates given here are subject to change. Certificate information is also not available at time of writing – some of these films will not be completed yet.
If you want to know more at about film certificates here is an explanation of BBFC UK film ratings. All dates were correct at time of writing.
But let’s get going, so settle back and start planning your movie-going for 2025!
2025’s Best Family Movie Releases
- Dog Man
- The Smurfs Movie
- Snow White
- A Minecraft Movie
- Karate Kid Sequel
- How To Train Your Dragon
- Superman: Legacy
- The Bad Guys 2
- Zootropolis 2
- Wicked: Part Two
- The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants
- Freakier Friday
- Lilo & Stitch Live Action Movie
The first anticipated family release of 2025 is Dog Man, an animated comedy from DreamWorks which comes out on 7th February.
When a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve - and fetch, sit and roll over.
It’s based on the books by Dave Pilkey of Captain Underpants fame and features the voices of Pete Davidson (the American actor, not the former Dr Who!), Lil Rel Howery, Isla Fisher, Poppy Liu and Ricky Gervais.
Based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo this reboot of the Smurfs film series is due to be released on 14th February 2025.
No plot details at time of writing, but the film promises to be an animated musical extravaganza
The movie features a stunning ensemble voice cast including Rhianna, Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll, James Corden, Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham, Sandra Oh, Alex Winter, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russell, and John Goodman.
Held over from last year, Disney continues its series of live action remakes of its greatest animated hit movies with Snow White on 21st March. Directed by Barbie director Greta Gerwig, you probably know the plot, so you can be guaranteed a magic mirror and a poisoned apple. Some of the more old-fashioned aspects of the original are expected to be updated, as so many of the other recent remakes have.
The movie stars Rachel Zegler as Snow White, along with Gal Gadot, Katie Hardwick, Leon Ung, Andrew Burnap and Dean Nolan
It is inevitable that any popular computer game will eventually be turned into a movie franchise, so 4th April 2025 sees the release of A Minecraft Movie.
Four misfits – Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison, Henry, Natalie and Dawn - find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination.
The voice cast includes Starring Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge.
1984 saw the release of the original Karate Kid movie, starring Ralph Macchio. Following a successful reboot in 2010 which starred Jackie Chan as the Karate master Mr. Han, comes a new sequel in which both Chan and Macchio feature.
The movie is set for a May release, however plot details remain sketchy, due to worries about clashes with US TV spin-off series Cobra Kai, but it looks as if both the film franchise and TV series will feature in the movie.
Other stars include Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, Ming-Na Wen, Aramis Knight, Wyatt Oleff.
The Disney organisation has an on-going project to turn all their most popular animated movies into live action films - it’s a way to retain copyright. Dreamworks are now jumping on the live-action remake as they turn the hugely successful first How To Train Your Dragon film into a live action fantasy film.
With release pencilled in for June 2025 in time for the summer, the film will star Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Gerard Butler and Nick Frost.
Fans of superhero movies can look forward to the next Superman film, Superman: Legacy with release expected on 11th July.
The plot is an exploration of Clark Kent / Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his adoptive human family in Smallville, Kansas. But I think we can assume he has to fight a baddie somewhere along the line.
Stars include David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Isabela Merced, Edi Gathegi, Nathan Fillion and Nicholas Hoult.
The original animated Bad Guys movie was released in 2022, and this sequel, another planned summer holiday release will see the return of bad boy turned good Mr. Wolf, voiced by Sam Rockwell, along with other members fo the original cast.
No plot details yet, but fans of The Bad Guys can look forward to A Halloween special The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist will be released on Netflix on October 3, 2024.
As the end of 2025 approaches we see another sequel, this time to Disney’s Zootropolis in November. In the film, known as Zootopia in the US, the movie Detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde must go undercover in Marsh Market to crack the case when they find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile.
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan and Fortune Feimster the film will build on the success of the first movie. Meme makers everywhere will undoubtedly be holding their breath for the return of Flash the Sloth.
Fans of musicals will be eagerly anticipating the theatrical release of Wicked: Part One in cinemas December 2024, but they will have to wait until December 2025 to see the conclusion of the film as Wicked: Part Two is scheduled for a Christmas release date next year.
Based on the massively successful musical, telling the back stories of the witches from The Wizard of Oz, stars include Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage.
Now for some of the future movies with less firmly planned release dates at time of writing.
Another projected December release is the fourth Spongebob Squarepants movie. The film follows SpongeBob, as he travels to the depths of the ocean to face off against the ghost of the Flying Dutchman.
All your favourite characters from Bikini Bottom will appear in the movie voiced by their regular actors, with Mark Hamill taking over the role of The Flying Dutchman.
With an unspecified 2025 release date, this is a sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday, which was itself a remake of the 1976 movie starring Barbara Harris and a young Jodie Foster.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return in Freakier Friday as the mother and daughter in this body-swap comedy. Years after they originally got to walk in each other’s shoes (literally), Anna now has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might strike twice.
A summer release is currently being touted for a live action remake of Disney’s popular Lilo & Stitch, a science fiction story of the bond formed between a lonely human girl named Lilo and a dog-like alien that she names Stitch.
The film will star Chris Sanders, Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere and Courtney B. Vance.
Want to know what's on at the cinema right now? Here are the family movies in cinemas in December 2024
September 20th 2024