AnimeZone: family TV movies from 1971 to today, from The Homecoming, Not Quite Human and Brink! to The Cheetah Girls, Princess Protection Program, Anne of Green Gables and a sleigh-full of Christmas movies, and where to watch them

How AnimeZone looks

AnimeZone takes its look from the Polish anime site whose name it shares, a design with the solid, practical feel of a classic community website. The page has a light grey background, and at the top sits a black masthead with the AnimeZone wordmark in white and red beside a small dark red Z logo. On the right, a dark gradient box with a thin grey top line holds the search field and a link to My List, styled after the original site's log-in panel.

Below the masthead runs a black menu bar under a fine white line, with bold white capitals for each section: Home, All films, Kids TV, Christmas, Storybook and My List. Pointing at a link turns its background a deep red. A pale blue notice with a bright blue left border introduces the page.

The content divides into a wide main column and a sidebar. Each panel in the main column has a grey gradient header with an uppercase title and a small slate badge showing how many films the shelf holds. Inside, the films appear as list rows rather than a grid: a small poster with a dark strip showing the rating, a grey label with the title, a short description, a grey label with the year and running time, and a tiny flag marking the English audio. The sidebar panels have darker slate headers and list the shelves with their counts, the newest films with small covers and the help pages. The footer is a simple white band with small centred links.

Finding your way around

The search box in the masthead is the quickest way to any film. Type a few letters of a title or a word, such as Cheetah, Brady, Anne, Zeus or Christmas, and matching films appear as you type. The All films link opens the whole catalogue on one page with the most popular first, and the A to Z list arranges it alphabetically.

The shelves group the films by theme and by decade, and the sidebar shows how many films each shelf holds, which makes it easy to choose between a quick look at the animal stories or a long browse through the Christmas movies. The Newest panel shows the most recent films at a glance.

My List keeps track of the films you want to watch. Press the save button on any film page and the movie is added to My List, which lives in this browser and opens instantly. You can export the list to a small file and import it on another device, so a December film plan made on a laptop is ready on the family television. The guides linked from the footer and the bottom of this page collect the best films for each theme.

The early years: Waltons, Bradys and Disney Sunday nights

The oldest film on AnimeZone is The Homecoming: A Christmas Story from 1971, the television film that introduced the Walton family. Set on Walton's Mountain during the Depression, it follows the eldest son, John-Boy, played by Richard Thomas, as the family waits anxiously for their father to make it home through the snow on Christmas Eve. Its warmth led directly to the long-running series The Waltons. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street followed in 1978, with Big Bird puzzling over how Santa fits down narrow chimneys and Bert and Ernie retelling The Gift of the Magi in their own way.

The early eighties brought the first reunions of television families. The Brady Girls Get Married returned to the Brady household for a double wedding, and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island sent the famous basketball team to the castaways' island. Quarterback Princess starred a young Helen Hunt in the true story of a girl who became her high school's quarterback, and Love Leads the Way: A True Story told how Morris Frank and his dog Buddy introduced guide dogs to America.

Disney's television arm made a string of family films for Sunday night audiences. The Parent Trap II and Parent Trap III brought Hayley Mills back to the twin sisters she had made famous, Student Exchange followed two shy teenagers who pose as foreign exchange students, 14 Going on 30 turned a teenager into a grown man overnight, and Splash, Too returned to the story of a mermaid in New York. The Leftovers gave John Denver a houseful of orphans to protect.

The decade closed with A Very Brady Christmas, gathering the whole Brady family for the holidays, Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, Jean Shepherd's sequel to A Christmas Story about Ralphie's summer vacation, Get Smart, Again!, reuniting Maxwell Smart and Agent 99, and Christmas Comes to Willow Creek, which reunited John Schneider and Tom Wopat of The Dukes of Hazzard on a snowy road trip to Alaska.

The nineties: Hallmark classics and the first Disney Channel originals

The nineties brought two of the finest films in the catalogue. Sarah, Plain and Tall, a Hallmark Hall of Fame production starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken, follows a woman from Maine who answers a widowed Kansas farmer's newspaper advertisement for a wife and slowly wins the hearts of his two children. Its sequel, Skylark, continues the story through a summer of drought. One Christmas, based on a Truman Capote story, gave Katharine Hepburn her final screen role.

The decade also saw the birth of the Disney Channel Original Movie. Brink! followed a team of inline skaters torn between friendship and sponsorship, Can of Worms sent a lonely teenager's message into space with unexpected results, Horse Sense sent a spoiled city boy to work on his cousin's Montana ranch, and Genius followed a thirteen-year-old prodigy trying to live a double life at college and middle school. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen made Billboard Dad and Switching Goals, two films about twins scheming to help their family.

Other nineties favourites include A Horse for Danny, with a young Leelee Sobieski, Rent-a-Kid, with Leslie Nielsen as the owner of an unusual rental business, Day-O, with a young Elijah Wood, On the 2nd Day of Christmas, with Mary Stuart Masterson and Mark Ruffalo, and A Christmas Romance, with Olivia Newton-John.

The 2000s: the golden age of Disney Channel

The 2000s are the second largest decade on AnimeZone, with 80 films, and they include the Disney Channel originals that a whole generation remembers. The Cheetah Girls, starring Raven-Symoné, follows four friends from a Manhattan performing arts school as they form a girl group, and its sequels, The Cheetah Girls 2, set in Barcelona, and The Cheetah Girls: One World, set in India, took the group around the world. Princess Protection Program paired Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez as a royal in hiding and the ordinary teenager who teaches her to fit in.

Sports and adventure were popular too. Motocrossed retells Twelfth Night in the world of motorbike racing, Alley Cats Strike stages a high school bowling rivalry, Miracle in Lane 2 follows Frankie Muniz as a boy in a wheelchair who wins at soapbox derby, Double Teamed! tells the true story of twin sisters who reached professional basketball, and Go Figure puts a young skater on the hockey team to pay for her training. Read It and Weep, Stuck in the Suburbs, Pixel Perfect, Cow Belles and Minutemen round out a remarkable run of Disney Channel favourites.

Beyond Disney, Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh brought Nickelodeon's stepbrothers to a holiday rescue mission, The Even Stevens Movie sent the Stevens family on a disastrous island holiday, Vacation with Derek took Canada's most squabbling step-siblings to a lakeside cottage, and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz cast Ashanti as Dorothy with Kermit as the Scarecrow. Eloise at Christmastime, with Julie Andrews as Nanny, and Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, with a young AnnaSophia Robb, are perfect holiday viewing.

The 2010s: new stars, Walliams and a wave of Christmas movies

The 2010s are the largest decade on AnimeZone, with 147 films. Disney Channel introduced a new generation of stars in Let It Shine, a musical reworking of Cyrano de Bergerac with Tyler James Williams as a shy rapper, Radio Rebel, with Debby Ryan as a shy student who becomes a secret radio star, Frenemies, with Bella Thorne and Zendaya, Girl vs. Monster, with Olivia Holt, and Zapped, in which Zendaya's dancer gains a phone app that controls the boys around her. Cloud 9 put Dove Cameron on a snowboard, and How to Build a Better Boy has two friends design the perfect boyfriend with a government computer.

From Britain came a lively series of BBC films based on David Walliams's books: Mr. Stink, about a girl who befriends a gentle homeless man and his dog, Gangsta Granny, in which a boy discovers his granny's secret plan to steal the Crown Jewels, The Boy in the Dress, about a football-mad boy who loves fashion, Billionaire Boy and The Midnight Gang. Nickelodeon contributed iParty with Victorious, a crossover of two hit shows, and Splitting Adam, in which a boy accidentally clones himself.

The decade also brought the new Anne of Green Gables trilogy, with Ella Ballentine as Anne and Martin Sheen as Matthew, followed by Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars and Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew, and a great many Christmas and romance films, from A Royal Christmas and My Christmas Prince to The Christmas Train, based on a novel by David Baldacci, and Christmas at Graceland, filmed at Elvis Presley's home in Memphis.

2020 to today: live musicals and modern romance

The newest shelf holds 96 films. Live television musicals are among the highlights: The Little Mermaid Live!, with Auliʻi Cravalho as Ariel, The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!, with Ethan Slater, and Annie Live!, with Celina Smith as Annie and Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, bring the excitement of Broadway into the living room.

Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square, with Christine Baranski as a wealthy woman planning to sell off her hometown, is a full musical set on a snowy main street, and The J Team follows JoJo Siwa as a dancer who forms her own team. Snow Day, a musical retelling of a beloved story, and The Slumber Party, about a birthday sleepover that goes hilariously wrong, are recent kids' favourites.

Feel-good romance fills much of the shelf, with films such as For the Love of Chocolate, Love on the Road, A Vineyard Romance, Sweet Carolina, The Princess and the Bodyguard and Field Day, and Christmas films such as A Christmas Miracle for Daisy, Holiday in Santa Fe and Christmas with the Singhs.

Kids TV originals

The kids TV shelf gathers 47 films made for young audiences by Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and the BBC. Many have become part of the childhood memories of the people who watched them on first broadcast, and they hold up beautifully today. The Disney Channel films share a cheerful formula: a young hero with a dream, a loyal best friend, an obstacle that seems impossible and a triumphant finale, often with a song or a big game.

Look for Brink!, Horse Sense, Genius, Motocrossed, Stepsister from Planet Weird, Tru Confessions, with Shia LaBeouf as a boy with a developmental disability and Clara Bryant as his devoted sister, Full-Court Miracle, about a Hanukkah basketball miracle, Hatching Pete, about a shy boy inside a chicken mascot costume, and Den Brother, in which a hockey star must lead a troop of young scouts.

The live-action Ben 10: Race Against Time brought the popular cartoon hero to life, and the BBC's Walliams adaptations add a British flavour of mischief and heart. The Kids TV originals guide picks the highlights.

Christmas movies

Christmas is the biggest shelf on AnimeZone, with 171 films, enough for a different movie every night from Thanksgiving to the New Year. The classics include The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, One Christmas and Christmas Snow, in which Sid Caesar plays a grumpy landlord rescued by the shopkeeper he is trying to evict.

Santa himself appears in Call Me Claus, with Whoopi Goldberg as a television producer who hires a very convincing Santa, Santa's Boots, Defending Santa, in which Kris Kringle stands trial, Santa Switch and Rent-an-Elf. Snowbound small towns are everywhere, from Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa to A Christmas in Tennessee, Christmas in the Smokies and Christmas at Grand Valley.

Dogs and cats join the celebrations in 12 Dog Days Till Christmas, A Puppy for Christmas and Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, with Aubrey Plaza as the voice of the famously unimpressed cat, and music fills A Country Christmas Story and Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love. The Christmas movies guide suggests where to begin.

Feel-good romance

The romance shelf holds 78 gentle love stories, the kind of films that end with a kiss in the snow or a sunset over a vineyard. They follow a reassuring pattern: a busy professional from the big city, a small town with a business in trouble, a kind stranger with a secret talent, and a festival, competition or grand opening that brings everyone together. Most are suitable for the whole family, with romance kept warm and simple.

Royal romances are a favourite, from My Summer Prince and The Princess and the Bodyguard to A Royal Makeover and The PA and the Manhattan Prince. Food and drink bring couples together in A Taste of Romance, For the Love of Chocolate, Cider and Sunsets, Sweet as Pie, As Gouda as It Gets and A Slice of Chicago Romance, while vineyards, cottages and lakes provide the backdrop for A Vineyard Romance, Love Under the Lemon Tree and Lake Effects.

Some romances add a family twist: Three Weeks, Three Kids leaves a free-spirited aunt in charge of her sister's children, The Nanny Express hires a nanny for three mischievous youngsters, and One Summer follows a widowed father and his children to a seaside town. The Feel-good romance guide picks a few favourites.

Storybook classics

The storybook shelf gathers 56 films based on beloved books or rooted in classic television. The literary adaptations include three generations of Anne of Green Gables, from the 2008 Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, which imagines Anne as an adult, to the 2016 trilogy; Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark from Patricia MacLachlan's Newbery Medal-winning book; The Railway Children from 2000, in which Jenny Agutter, the Bobbie of the famous 1970 film, plays the mother; The Secret Garden from 1987; A Wrinkle in Time from Madeleine L'Engle's novel; and The Young Visiters, from the comic novel written by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford in 1890.

The shelf also includes Eloise at Christmastime, from Kay Thompson's picture books about the little girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, Dear Dumb Diary, from Jim Benton's popular book series, and Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story, which tells how a little girl with dimples became the biggest star of the thirties.

Read the Storybook classics guide for a tour, and the Classic TV movies guide for the older films on the shelf.

Sports and dance

Thirty-six films on the sports shelf follow young athletes and performers chasing a dream. Team sports include soccer in Switching Goals, basketball in Double Teamed! and Full-Court Miracle, American football in Quarterback Princess and The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon, with Tony Danza as a rubbish collector who becomes a professional kicker, and bowling in Alley Cats Strike.

Individual sports are just as exciting: figure skating in Go Figure and Ice Girls, inline skating in Brink!, motocross in Motocrossed, snowboarding in Cloud 9, wrestling in Going to the Mat, in which a blind teenager joins his school's wrestling team, and gymnastics in Raising the Bar and Full Out 2: You Got This!. Dance teams star in The J Team, and A Smile as Big as the Moon follows a special education class that wins a place at a space camp.

The Sports and dance guide picks the highlights.

Animal stories and sitcom reunions

The animal shelf is small but much loved, with 17 films. Zeus, the talking German Shepherd of the Bannister family, stars in The Dog Who Saved Halloween, The Dog Who Saved Easter and The Dog Who Saved Summer, and horses gallop through Horse Sense, A Horse for Danny, Ready to Run, in which a young jockey discovers she can understand what horses say, and Rodeo and Juliet. Love Leads the Way: A True Story honours the first guide dog in America. The Animal stories guide has more.

The sitcom reunion shelf brings back television families that viewers welcomed into their homes every week. The Bradys appear in three films, from The Brady Girls Get Married to A Very Brady Christmas and the comic The Brady Bunch in the White House, the Seavers of Growing Pains return in The Growing Pains Movie and Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers, and the Keatons of Family Ties take a trip to London in Family Ties Vacation. The Sitcom reunions guide explains how the reunions fit into each show's story.

Music and musicals

Forty-two films on AnimeZone are built around music, from girl groups and pop stars to choirs, country singers and live Broadway broadcasts. The Cheetah Girls trilogy leads the way, along with Let It Shine, Radio Rebel, Pixel Perfect, in which a teenager creates a holographic lead singer for his friend's band, and Spectacular!, about a high school show choir.

Country music fills A Country Christmas Story, Christmas at Graceland and the two Dolly Parton films, and Rock N' Roll Christmas reunites a mother and daughter duo. A Nutcracker Christmas and Dancing Through the Snow bring ballet to the holidays, and the live musicals offer a front-row seat at Broadway-sized productions. The Music and musicals guide suggests where to start.

TV movies for every age

Most family TV movies were made to be watched by everyone in the house at once, but some suit particular ages better than others. For the youngest viewers, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, The Dog Who Saved Halloween, Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever and Snow Day are bright, funny and full of songs.

Children from about seven to twelve are the natural audience for the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon originals, from Brink! and Horse Sense to Princess Protection Program, Let It Shine and Zapped, and for the BBC's Walliams adaptations. Teenagers often enjoy The Cheetah Girls, Cloud 9, Radio Rebel and the sports films, and the romance and Christmas shelves are popular with older teenagers and grown-ups looking for something cosy.

A few films handle sadder subjects with care, such as the loss of a parent in A Perfect Christmas List and One Summer or the hard times of the Depression in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, and they are best watched together. Every film page lists the genres and running time, and the official services show age ratings and offer kids profiles.

Planning a TV movie night

TV movies are made for nights in, and a little planning turns one into an event. For a Disney Channel nostalgia night, parents can introduce their children to Brink! and Motocrossed, then let the children choose Zapped or Princess Protection Program. For a Cheetah Girls marathon, watch all three films in order and follow the group from New York to Barcelona and India.

In December, start with The Homecoming: A Christmas Story for a classic, add Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh for laughs and Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square for a singalong, and finish with Christmas Eve on Sesame Street for the youngest. For a storybook weekend, pair Sarah, Plain and Tall with Skylark, or follow Anne Shirley through the three films of the 2016 trilogy.

Some families like to vote on the evening's film, make themed snacks, such as hot chocolate for the Christmas movies or popcorn for the sports films, and keep a list of favourites to rewatch every year. Save your choices to My List, export the list to the family television, and settle in.

How Watch now works

AnimeZone is a guide, and every film page has a Watch now button that opens the film on JustWatch for the country you choose. JustWatch is a widely used service that lists where a film can be streamed on subscription, rented, bought or watched free with advertising. The country menu covers fifteen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, and your choice is remembered in this browser.

TV movies move between services often, and many return to the networks that made them every holiday season, so the JustWatch page always shows the latest options. The Disney Channel originals are often gathered on Disney's own streaming service, many Christmas and romance films appear on dedicated family channels and free services with advertising, and the older films are sometimes available to rent or buy.

Every film in the catalogue was made in English, and the official services often add subtitles and dubbed tracks, including the Polish voice-over familiar to many viewers. The Languages and versions guide explains how films that share a title are listed, and Where AnimeZone films stream describes the services behind the button.

The help pages

Fifteen short guides are linked from the sidebar, the footer and the bottom of the home page. How to watch with AnimeZone follows a film from the list rows to its official service, Finding a film gives search tips, and My List explains how to save films and carry the list to another device.

The theme guides open the shelves one by one: Kids TV originals, Christmas movies, Feel-good romance, Storybook classics, Sports and dance, Animal stories, Sitcom reunions, Music and musicals and Classic TV movies, each with a few recommendations and a link to the full shelf.

The practical pages cover Languages and versions, Where AnimeZone films stream and The official AnimeZone site, which describes how the real address looks.

Spotlight on the Disney Channel originals

The Disney Channel Original Movie deserves a closer look, because for many viewers it defined family television. The films were short, usually about ninety minutes, and premiered with great fanfare on Friday nights, often with a new song or dance routine that children would practise in the living room for weeks. They were made for young audiences, and they treated those audiences' worries and dreams seriously: fitting in at a new school, winning a big game, standing up to a bully, being brave enough to sing in public.

Brink! set the tone with its sunny Californian skate culture and a hero who has to choose between a lucrative sponsorship and his loyal friends. Genius explored the loneliness of a gifted child, Tru Confessions dealt warmly with disability, and Full-Court Miracle brought Hanukkah into the story of a struggling basketball team. The Cheetah Girls proved that a TV movie musical could become a phenomenon, with songs that topped the charts and a real touring girl group.

Later films added glossy production and rising stars. Princess Protection Program paired two of the channel's biggest names, Let It Shine mixed hip-hop with a classic French play, Frenemies told three intertwined stories of friendship, and Zapped gave Zendaya a magical phone. Watching the films in order is a fascinating way to see how children's television changed between 1998 and 2023, when The Slumber Party brought the tradition into a new generation.

Spotlight on Anne of Green Gables

Lucy Maud Montgomery's red-haired orphan has been one of the most adapted heroines in literature, and AnimeZone holds four films about her. Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning from 2008 imagines Anne as a grown woman, played by Barbara Hershey, looking back on the childhood before she arrived at Green Gables, while the 2016 film Anne of Green Gables begins a new trilogy with Ella Ballentine as the young Anne and Martin Sheen as the shy, kind Matthew Cuthbert.

The trilogy continues with Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars, in which Anne turns thirteen and faces the complications of growing friendships, and Anne of Green Gables: Fire & Dew, in which she heads to Charlottetown to study for her teaching licence. Filmed in the green fields and red-sand shores of Prince Edward Island and Ontario, the films capture the imagination, temper and warmth that have made Anne beloved around the world. They pair beautifully with the classic book, and many families read a chapter or two before each film.

Christmas movie traditions

The Christmas TV movie has become a tradition of its own, and fans enjoy spotting its familiar ingredients: a heroine from a big city who returns to her snowy hometown, a family business that must be saved before Christmas Eve, a handsome local with a talent for carpentry or baking, a town festival, a mysterious stranger who might just be Santa, and a first kiss as the snow begins to fall.

Some families make a game of it, with a card of these ingredients to tick off as they watch. Others keep a list of favourites to rewatch every year, from the classic warmth of The Homecoming: A Christmas Story to the music of Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square and the gentle comedy of A Very Merry Toy Store. Whatever the tradition, the Christmas shelf is large enough to keep any family supplied with festive films from the first frost to the New Year.

A short history of the family TV movie

The made-for-television movie arrived in the late sixties, when American networks began commissioning feature-length films for their evening schedules. Family stories were a natural fit, and The Homecoming: A Christmas Story showed how a single film could become a beloved series. Through the seventies and eighties, networks made holiday specials, reunions of popular sitcom families and wholesome Sunday night dramas, and Disney produced a steady stream of films for its weekly anthology series.

In the late nineties, the Disney Channel began its run of Disney Channel Original Movies, made specifically for young viewers and premiered on Friday nights. Films such as Brink!, Horse Sense and Genius were soon followed by The Cheetah Girls, Princess Protection Program and dozens more, and the films became a rite of passage for children of the 2000s. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and the BBC added their own originals.

At the same time, the Hallmark Hall of Fame and later the Hallmark Channel turned the family TV movie into a genre of its own, culminating in the remarkable wave of Christmas and romance films that has filled every December since the 2010s. Streaming services and live television musicals have added new chapters, and the catalogue on AnimeZone follows the whole story from 1971 to today.

Networks and storytellers

A handful of names appear again and again on the shelves. The Hallmark Hall of Fame, one of the longest-running anthology series in television history, produced Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark, A Smile as Big as the Moon, Away and Back and One Christmas Eve. Canadian producer Kevin Sullivan, famous for his Anne of Green Gables films, made Looking for Miracles and Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning.

Disney Channel's originals were made by a small group of producers and directors who knew their audience well, and the films share a bright, energetic style. The BBC's adaptations of David Walliams's books, with Walliams himself often appearing in small roles, bring a gentle British humour to the shelf, and Dolly Parton's Christmas films reflect her own childhood in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Many of the romance and Christmas films were made by Canadian production companies and filmed in the towns of British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia, which is why so many of their snowy main streets look so wonderfully alike.

TV movies through the year

The catalogue follows the calendar. Winter is Christmas season, with the biggest shelf on AnimeZone, and the cosy Thanksgiving films An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving and The Thanksgiving House lead into it. Spring brings Easter with The Dog Who Saved Easter and the school sports season with Switching Goals and Double Teamed!.

Summer is the time for Rip Girls, set on a Hawaiian island, The Dog Who Saved Summer, Just for the Summer, Sweet Pecan Summer and Secret Summer, and autumn brings back-to-school stories such as Stuck in the Suburbs and Read It and Weep, along with Halloween fun in The Dog Who Saved Halloween and Girl vs. Monster.

Hidden gems

Beyond the famous titles, the catalogue rewards curious viewers. The Young Visiters is a delightfully odd period comedy with Jim Broadbent and Hugh Laurie, Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss brings back the narrator of A Christmas Story for a summer road trip, and Looking for Miracles is a gentle story of two brothers at summer camp in the Depression. Love Leads the Way: A True Story and Quarterback Princess are inspiring true stories from the eighties.

Mail to the Chief, in which a boy unknowingly advises the President through an online chat, The Poof Point, about a time machine experiment gone wrong, and Day-O, about a lonely girl's imaginary friend, are charming smaller films, and A Smile as Big as the Moon is a moving story of teenagers who prove what they can achieve.

Happy viewing

Family TV movies may be modest in budget, but they are generous in spirit: stories of kindness, courage, friendship and home, made to be watched together on the sofa. AnimeZone gathers 369 of them in one place, with a page for each and a button that leads to the official services, so the next cosy night in is only a few clicks away. Choose a film, gather the family and enjoy the show. Welcome to AnimeZone.

True stories on the small screen

Several films on AnimeZone are based on real people, and they add an extra layer of inspiration to a family evening. Quarterback Princess tells the story of Tami Maida, who played quarterback for her Oregon high school team and was crowned homecoming queen in the same season. Love Leads the Way: A True Story follows Morris Frank, a young blind man who travelled to Switzerland to train with a German Shepherd named Buddy and went on to help found the first guide dog school in America.

Double Teamed! recounts the rise of the twin sisters Heather and Heidi Burge from high school volleyball to professional basketball, Miracle in Lane 2 is based on Justin Yoder, a boy who used a wheelchair and won a soapbox derby championship, and A Smile as Big as the Moon tells how a teacher led his special education students to a space camp. Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story looks at the early life of the most famous child performer of the thirties. These films often end with photographs of the real people involved, a moment that children tend to remember.

Why family TV movies still matter

In an age of enormous streaming catalogues, the humble TV movie has a special charm. Made to fit into an evening schedule, these films are usually short, clear and warm, with stories that the whole family can follow together and enjoy. Their heroes are ordinary people: a shy teenager, a busy mother, a struggling shop owner, a lonely child with a big dream.

They also carry a sense of occasion. Many viewers remember exactly where they were when they first watched a favourite Disney Channel original or a classic Christmas special, and sharing those films with the next generation is a lovely way to pass on a family memory. AnimeZone exists to make that easy, with every film a click away from the official services that carry it.

Spotlight on the Walliams films

David Walliams's children's books have sold in enormous numbers, and the BBC turned several of them into festive television films that are now part of the British Christmas schedule. They share a recognisable flavour: a lonely child, an unexpected friend, a dash of mischief and a heart-warming ending, all told with plenty of jokes for grown-ups as well as children.

Mr. Stink pairs a girl named Chloe with a kindly homeless man and his dog, hiding them in her family's garden shed, while Gangsta Granny reveals that a boy's seemingly dull grandmother has a thrilling secret past. The Boy in the Dress celebrates a football-loving boy who also loves fashion and finds the courage to be himself, Billionaire Boy follows the son of a toilet-roll tycoon who longs for a real friend, and The Midnight Gang takes place in a children's hospital ward where the young patients make each other's dreams come true at night. Walliams himself often appears in small roles, and the casts are filled with familiar British comedy faces.

Spotlight on the reunions

Reunion films were one of television's great pleasures in the eighties and nineties, giving viewers the chance to catch up with families they had watched for years. The Bradys returned more often than most. The Brady Girls Get Married marries off Marcia and Jan in a double wedding, A Very Brady Christmas brings the whole grown-up family home for the holidays, and The Brady Bunch in the White House, with Shelley Long and Gary Cole, playfully imagines Mike Brady as President of the United States.

The Seavers of Growing Pains return in The Growing Pains Movie, gathering in Washington for an anniversary, and in Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers, in which the grown-up children try to stop their parents selling the family home. Family Ties Vacation sends the Keatons to London, and Get Smart, Again! brings back Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 for one more mission. These films are a lovely way for parents and grandparents to share the television of their own youth.

Spotlight on Sarah, Plain and Tall

Patricia MacLachlan's short novel about a mail-order bride on the Kansas prairie won the Newbery Medal, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame turned it into one of the most admired television films ever made. In Sarah, Plain and Tall, Glenn Close plays Sarah Wheaton, a woman from the coast of Maine who answers an advertisement placed by Jacob Witting, a quiet widowed farmer played by Christopher Walken, and his two children, Anna and Caleb. She agrees to stay for a month to see whether they suit one another.

The film is a quiet, beautifully acted story about grief, patience and the slow growth of love, with wide prairie skies and a memorable scene in which Sarah teaches the children to sing a song from the sea she misses. Its sequel, Skylark, follows the family through a summer of drought that tests their new bond and takes them to Sarah's family in Maine. Both films are gentle enough for younger children and rich enough for grown-ups, and they make a perfect pair for a quiet weekend.

Romance on the map

The romance and Christmas films on AnimeZone travel to a surprising range of places. Small-town America dominates, with fictional towns in Vermont, Colorado, Tennessee and the Carolinas, but there are trips abroad too: Paris in Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From Paris with Love, an imaginary European kingdom in A Royal Christmas and A Royal Makeover, a German Christmas market in A Heidelberg Holiday and a New Zealand yarn shop in A Love Yarn. Many films were shot in the picturesque towns of Canada, and spotting the same charming main street in several films is part of the fun for regular viewers.

Questions