The 13 best Easter movies to watch as a family

Gene Kelly was initially set to star alongside Judy Garland in this cheery MGM musical, but broke his ankle just before production started. He managed to coax Fred Astaire out of retirement – his first retirement, anyway – to replace him, marking the only time Astaire and Garland ever shared the screen. It’s an Easter miracle! Well, maybe not for Gene. But it was great for audiences: Seventy-something years later, even the TikTok generation will be charmed by numbers like ‘Steppin’ Out with My Baby’ and ‘A Couple of Swells’.

All right, so this CGI update of Beatrix Potter’s twee classic isn’t exactly Paddington, but it’s still got enough heart to win over purists and the energy to entertain younger audiences. In this version, Pete (voiced by James Corden) and his siblings find themselves in yet another war of wits with the McGregor family – this time around, though, it’s the old man’s nephew, played by Domhnall ‘son of Brendan’ Gleeson.

Beatrix Potter is to Easter what Charles Dickens is to Christmas. In the early 1900s, she created the rascally Peter Rabbit – the closest thing the holiday has to a literary icon, unless you count you-know-who – among other indelible characters. This 2006 biopic, starring Renée Zellweger with her Bridget Jones accent, charts her journey from self-described ‘spinster’ to kids-lit treasure, with cute animations for the wee ones and a romance (with her editor, played by Ewan McGregor) for adults.

Sure, it has nothing to do with rabbits, eggs or Jesus, but it sure has everything to do with candy. Of course, the 1971 original literally looks like it was shot inside an Easter basket, but the prequel has Timothée Chalamet, so good luck winning that argument with the kids.

What holiday is complete without the iconic Peanuts gang? As we usher in spring, Charlie Brown and co are busy preparing for the season and Easter by dying eggs, building bird houses and so on. Not Linus, though—he's convinced the Easter Beagle will take care of everything. 

Unlike Christmas and Thanksgiving, there are few Easter movies framed around crazy family gatherings. In fact, this might be the only one. But it’s a nice little charmer, starring comedian Jo Koy as a struggling actor heading home for the holiday he describes as ‘the Filipino Super Bowl’. The humour gets a bit bawdy, so save it for after the smallest ones slip into their sugar comas.

If Peter Rabbit is a bit too old-school for your kids, introduce them to E.B., a young, fast-talking hare whose rock ’n’ roll dreams run counter to his father’s plans for him: passing down the family business, a candy factory on, ahem, Easter Island. Yes, it’s a Poochiefication of the holiday hare – and worse, he’s got Russell Brand’s voice – but it’s not like he’s some kind of sacred cow… so to speak. And anyway, James Marsden, as his human buddy Fred, mugs enough to keep spirits high.

In the, um, grand tradition of Night of the Lepus and Peter Rottentail, the inaugural feature-length adventure of Aardman Animations’ favourite duo is the rare movie appropriate for both Easter and Halloween. (Word to the wise: those others are not safe for kids.) When cheese-devouring inventor Wallace and his trusty dog Gromit start a pest control business, they get much more than they bargain for when they’re hired to catch a giant rabbit devouring their town’s vegetable crops.

Old-school stop-motion masters Rankin/Bass actually produced three Easter-themed television specials, none of which achieved the evergreen status of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman, but they’re charmingly nostalgic all the same. The best of the bunch is this cheerful fable about a pair of rival rabbits in the land of April Valley competing for the right to be named the next Chief Easter Bunny.

Only the final scene of this classic tearjerker takes place on Easter, but it provides an endnote of bittersweet optimism after a devastating third act, showing how tradition, and life itself, continues in the wake of tragedy. Also, it concludes with a father-to-be in a bunny suit hitching a ride on the back of a motorcycle to chase his pregnant wife to the hospital. What better representation of the holiday is there?

She’s not the Easter Bunny, but Judy Hopps is still a trailblazer for rabbit kind: the first-ever Oryctolagus cuniculus employed by the Zootopia Police Force. When a group of animals go missing, she must team up with a conniving fox to solve the case. Maybe it’s only vaguely holiday-appropriate, but with the sequel coming later in 2025, now’s a good time to bone up.  

Holiday mascots including the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy join forces to go against the evil-spirited boogeyman, who insists on ruining holiday fun for children. 

Perfect for the kiddos and Fido, this cute canine film is a great addition to the Easter canon. When the Bannister family goes on vacation and leaves their pup Zeus behind, he and his puppy pals have a blast at doggy daycare...until three crooks step in and try to ruin everything. It's up to Zeus and his mutt crew to step in.