Free Family Films Return to the Michigan Theater This Summer

The Michigan Theater’s Family Friendly Series offers free Sunday matinees and cherished classics for a new generation

Kids watch classic Disney movies and superhero shows on phones and iPads every single day; but now imagine that same kid watching that exact same movie, on a screen 100 times as big. That is the difference that Nick Aldernick describes for completely free the Family Friendly Series that the Michigan Theater is launching again this summer.

The nearly century old art house theater is famous for its experimental Ann Arbor Film Festival, indie films, documentaries, and screenings of old classics like To Catch A Thief, or Casablanca. But it’s also a much more memorable movie going experience. After all, how many times have you gone to see a movie to a Cinemark or MJR theater and don’t remember it? That is harder to do in the palace-like splendor of the Michigan, with its grand sweeping staircase and antique chandeliers, the silent movie-era organ that they still hire people to play before movies start, and their old-fashioned popcorn counter.

“It’s always very fun to see kids walk in here because they’re used to going to their usual multiplex, … and I’ll sometimes here ‘does a king live here?’,” Aldernick, the Cinema Program Director for Marquee Arts, told the Sun Times News.

Parents get the chance to introduce their children to family friendly old classics on Sunday afternoons free of charge, for all ages. Parking is free in downtown Ann Arbor on Sundays, making this family friendly way of using up an afternoon in the air conditioning truly free.

This year, all of the movies start at 1:30 p.m.

1. Toy Story – May 25 – The classic movie that launched Pixar as a major force in animated art, and brought computer animation into the mainstream. This May’s showing will be a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of its premiere.
2. Lu Over the Wall – June 15 – This Japanese film is about a mermaid who, according to Crunchy Roll, “comes ashore to join a middle-school rock band and propel them to fame.”
3. The Lego Batman Movie – July 13 – In a world awash in superhero movies, this satirical but loving approach to the dark knight produced one of the most interesting versions of the character, by deconstructing the whole genre and its tropes.
4. Shrek – August 10 – It is hard to believe that this Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz classic will be a quarter of a century old this time next year, but it will be! Kids today might know about it, but it is officially an old classic now! Shrek 5 is set to come out next year as well.
5. Hairspray – September 7 – A musical classic set in 1950s Baltimore, which will turn 18 years old this year.

The series slow down substantially after that. But they will also extend the same free for all deal for the Nightmare Before Christmas, on October 9, and a December 28 showing of the Wizard of Oz.

Kids always have a huge number of things that they can do every summer. But the way Aldernick sells it, taking your kids to the Michigan a few afternoons a summer won’t be just a good way to kill an afternoon or a fun way to expose them to high quality artistic experiences, it is a way to make memories that they will “remember forever.”

And don’t worry if your kids can’t get enough. The Michigan is also bringing back its Studio Ghibli series from June through August. Sometimes compared to Walt Disney, this series mines from 22 feature-length films that bring a lullaby quality to feature-length anime. This series will charge admission.

For more information visit  https://marquee-arts.org/family-friendly/

Photo: Marquee-Arts.Org