By Adrienne Martini

Contributing Writer

One of my fondest childhood memories is watching "The Wizard of Oz" every year with my mom. We’d sit on the couch together, snuggled up under a blanket. I’d hide my face whenever the flying monkeys made an appearance. They _ along with Wonka’s Oompa Loompas _ creep me out even now.

This was before movies on demand. VCRs weren’t even around yet, nor was cable. "The Wizard of Oz" was a rare treat because it would only be on once or twice a year, usually around Christmas or Easter. The holidays themselves are intricately linked with the "Wizard," too, which might help make the memories all that much more dear.

My dad, who isn’t a fan of the "Wizard," and I would go to the theater. To this day, I’m not sure if I love "The Muppet Movie" because it’s a good film or because of the memory of watching it and sharing a bucket of popcorn with my dad.

Despite the changes in technology, movies still play an important part in our lives. One of my 5-year-old’s favorite things to do is head to the theater. It’s even more fun now that she weighs enough to not get folded up in one of the seats. I hope that her memories of watching movies with her parents will be as much of a touchstone as they are for me.

Figuring out what makes for a good "kid" movie is tricky. The age of the kid is a huge factor; what’s good for a preschooler will bore the pants off of a high-schooler and vice versa.

Each kid within any given age range will have completely different interests as well, just like adults do. There might be some commonalities, however.

Jesse Fox Mayshark, a staff editor for the New York Times News Service and author of "Post Pop Cinema: The Search for Meaning in New American Film," is a dad as well as a film lover. His son Zoller, 3, is still a little too young to sit in one place for a full feature, but his movie-going days will be here soon. Fortunately, Mayshark has some ideas at the ready.

"I think every child should have the benefit of `The Wizard of Oz,’ the Disney classics, all of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies (like `Spirited Away’ and `My Neighbor Totoro’), `Babe,’ and a bunch of others," he says. "I love `Time Bandits.’ I think any movie with a kid as the hero is appealing to kids. As Zoller gets older I’m sure I’ll make efforts to expose him to a lot of things _ Humphrey Bogart, the Marx Brothers, the great Westerns.

"Foreign films, too. My parents started taking me to foreign films when I was probably 9 or 10. I think if you grow up reading subtitles it takes away a big stumbling block that a lot of people seem to have, and opens up the whole world of film," Mayshark says.

When your kids are a little bit older, sometimes their definition of a great film doesn’t mesh with your own. Modern technology doesn’t help, either. What was once a yearly treat can now be viewed as many times as a parent’s patience will allow.

For example, my oldest is currently obsessed with a feature-length "My Pretty Pony" DVD that makes my insulin levels rise just by thinking about it. My youngest could spend every waking moment with "Shrek," which is a great movie, mind you, but wears thin on its 900th viewing. Other parents have their own least-favorite movies.

"Ugh, `Pokémon,’" says Jennifer Niesslein, editor of Brain, Child magazine and author of "Practically Perfect in Every Way." "I just spent an evening outside with the mosquitoes because I couldn’t stand to hear the Pokémon trainer voices and the Pokémon themselves repeating their names OVER and OVER."

Repeated viewings of irritating anime aside, Niesslein’s 8½-year-old son, Caleb, is at an age where his tastes are starting to intersect nicely with those of his folks.

"We both really love `A Series of Unfortunate Events’ _ we read the books together _ and `The Princess Bride,’" Niesslein says. "We already skip through the inappropriate parts of `Best in Show’ when he’s around (and he loves what’s left), but I think when he’s old enough, he’ll get a kick out of all the Christopher Guest movies."

Perhaps defining what makes a good movie for kids is less about the movie itself and more about the experience of watching it.

"I hope he has good memories of the classics we do watch, but I don’t know," Niesslein says. "My in-laws were over at our house one October watching the Peanuts’ Halloween special, and the three of us _ my husband, Caleb, and me _ sat there stone-faced while they got the hugest kick out of the special. You just never know what will become a special family tradition and what will be That Horrid Thing My Parents Subjected Me To."

As clichéd as it sounds, it may be more important that the movie be a good one for everyone in the house, if only because it encourages viewing as a family.

"I think it’s kind of funny when adults assume that a �children’s movie’ is actually just for children. The best children’s films are great movies like any other great movie, and get treated as such by people who love great movies. If I never saw `The Wizard of Oz’ again for the rest of my life," Mayshark says, "I’d be very sad."