These Are Our Favorite Movies and Series on Netflix This Year So Far

In DESPICABLE ME 4, Gru must hide his family from a new villain who’s escaped prison, but a young teenage girl living in their new neighborhood blackmails him, which results in exposing Gru’s family and endangering Gru’s infant son. DESPICABLE ME 4 is often hilarious, with a strong moral, pro-family worldview, but much of the humor focuses on the comical slapstick chaos of the minions, so MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.

Adam Sandler’s latest movie on Netflix, LEO, is a clean, clever, utterly wonderful animated musical comedy for all ages that follows a talking lizard named Leo who helps some students and their mean teacher with numerous life lessons. Leo has spent his entire 74 years of life in a glass-encased terrarium at an elementary school fifth-grade classroom alongside his best friend, Squirtle the Turtle, but now wants to see the world.

YES DAY is a funny, enjoyable family comedy streaming on Netflix about parents who say yes to their three children for one whole day. YES DAY has a morally uplifting, redemptive worldview about loving one another, making sacrifices for others and giving to your family.

The first three episodes of Season 3 of HOT WHEELS: LET'S RACE, streaming on Netflix, is an action-packed animated series focusing on the Hot Wheels team as they play fair to beat the antagonist, Cruise, and her dad, Professor Rearview. The show is high quality and artistic, with many details. The show has a biblical/moral worldview, as the Hot Wheels team are hard workers who encourage one another to have good sportsmanship and play fair. However, it does contain light violence, and the antagonists pride themselves on being evil. This show is worthwhile, but discretion is advised for young children.

The first three episodes of GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: Season 11 on Netflix show Gabby and her friends taking care of the cat babies in the dollhouse, celebrating a new tooth one of the babies just got and celebrating Kitty-tine’s Day, which is what Gaby and her stuffed cat toy, Pandy, call Valentine’s Day. The first three episodes of GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: Season 11 are fun, adorable and interactive, and they celebrate friendship, especially the third episode, which at the end also celebrates spending time together, bringing out the best in each other, sharing, playing together, singing together, making crafts together, and, ultimately, love.

Season Three of SONIC PRIME on Netflix follows the fallout between Sonic the hedgehog, who has superpowers, and his seeming friend, Nine, who has stolen the reassembled Paradox Prism, a device that can bend reality, and plans to use it to transform one of five alternate dimensions for himself, but Nine’s actions could destroy the other four dimensions and everyone in them. Designed to be the last season, Season Three of SONIC PRIME finishes strong, with the final season of the best Sonic series of all time, finishes strong but lacks some of the tight storytelling of the first two, with a dominant worldview of biblical morality with a focus on self-sacrifice and friendship. For some rage, cartoon violence and some evolutionary and feminist overtones, Movieguide® advises caution for children.

In CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET on Netflix, Rocky the Rooster and his wife Ginger must save their daughter from becoming a chicken nugget on a farm that’s meant to fool naïve little chickens. CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET is a funny and exciting morality tale, with a strong message that children should obey their parents, but caution is advised for younger children because of some scary cartoon violence.

MINIONS finds three of the little yellow fellows seeking an evil villain to serve after they lose another master. Unlike the DESPICABLE ME movies, MINIONS stays despicable and glorifies crime, villains and violence.

PLANKTON: THE MOVIE, an animated comedy on Netflix, follows Plankton and SpongeBob as they team up to reunite Plankton with his wife Karen so she will stop a destructive tirade as she threatens to destroy the world. PLANKTON: THE MOVIE is very funny and sometimes hilarious, with a terrific heartfelt ending and a strong moral, redemptive worldview extolling friendship, the sanctity of marriage, repentance, forgiveness, and love, but a few rude jokes and some intense cartoon violence warrant caution for younger children.

WOODY WOODPECKER GOES TO CAMP is a family comedy on Netflix where Woody the Woodpecker is banished from his forest home to learn about teamwork and finds a sad sack summer camp, where he makes a mess of things until he finally finds a way to help the clumsy children learn to work together. WOODY WOODPECKER GOES TO CAMP meanders a little bit until Woody and the children learn unique ways to overcome their obstacles, including some lessons about helping one another, sacrifice and sticking together as a family.