AnimeVietsub

How AnimeVietsub looks

AnimeVietsub borrows its look from the Vietnamese anime site whose name it carries, a design built on a cool blue-grey background and a bright lime green accent. The header holds the lime and white wordmark, a row of uppercase menu links on slightly darker tiles, and a rounded search field. The link for the page you are on carries a short lime bar along its lower edge, and every link glows lime when you point at it.

The content sits on a deep, nearly black panel. At the top, a row of eight posters shows the most popular films with rounded corners and a small lime ribbon in the corner of each, numbered from one to eight; the first ribbon is red, as on the original site. Below the row, a wide rounded slider presents a few featured films with a backdrop, an uppercase title, a red HD pill, the year, the running time, the rating, a short description and the leading cast, with a lime Watch now button.

The sections that follow each open with a heading in a deep red gradient with rounded corners and white capitals, beside a few rounded tabs for related shelves. The posters sit five across, each with a round red badge in its top corner showing the running time, a small dark pill with the audience rating in yellow, and the title and year beneath. On the right, a Top rated column lists ten favourites with small covers, and below it the shelves appear as rounded buttons. The footer gathers the help links as pill-shaped buttons around the wordmark.

Getting around the catalogue

The search field in the header is the fastest route to any film. Type a few letters of a title, an animal, a place or a character, such as Willy, panda, treasure, Yukon or Kermit, and matching films appear as you type. Partial words work well, so Ninja finds all three of the 3 Ninjas films along with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Archive link opens all 302 films on one page, the most popular first, and the A to Z list arranges them alphabetically, from 3 Ninjas to Zoom. The shelves are the best way to browse by theme or decade; each opens as a poster grid with a short introduction. The ranked row at the top of the home page and the Top rated column are good starting points for a film everyone will enjoy.

My List is your personal watch list. Press the save button on any film page and the film is added to My List, which stays in this browser and opens instantly. The list can be exported to a small file and imported on another device, so an evening planned on a phone is ready on the family television. The guides, linked from the footer and the bottom of this page, gather the best films on each theme with a few words about why they are worth watching.

The fifties: pirates, a boy in India and a day at Coney Island

The catalogue opens in 1950 with Treasure Island, Walt Disney's first film made entirely with live actors. Bobby Driscoll plays Jim Hawkins and Robert Newton gives Long John Silver the rolling, growling pirate voice that every storybook buccaneer has borrowed since. Filmed in England, with real sailing ships and a smoky Admiral Benbow inn, it remains one of the most vivid versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel. The same year brought Kim, MGM's colourful film of Rudyard Kipling's novel, with Dean Stockwell as the quick-witted orphan of the title and Errol Flynn as a horse trader who becomes his friend.

The decade's quieter treasures are equally rewarding. Little Fugitive, made on the streets and beaches of Brooklyn with a handheld camera, follows a seven-year-old who spends a long summer day alone at Coney Island; its fresh, natural style inspired a generation of filmmakers in France and America. The Great Adventure is a Swedish nature film by Arne Sucksdorff about two brothers who secretly raise an otter on their farm, and Escapade in Japan sends an American boy across the Japanese countryside with a new friend after a plane is forced down at sea, with a very young Clint Eastwood in a small role as a pilot.

Space adventure arrived early too, with Manhunt in Space, edited from the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger television series, and the decade closes with Third Man on the Mountain, Disney's mountaineering drama filmed in the shadow of the Matterhorn, in which James MacArthur plays a Swiss dishwasher who dreams of conquering the peak that took his father.

The sixties: treehouses, castaways and a lioness called Elsa

The 1960s gave family adventure some of its most beloved films. Swiss Family Robinson shipwrecks a family on a tropical island, filmed on Tobago, where they build the most famous treehouse in cinema, with a water wheel, a pulley system and a bedroom in the branches, then race ostriches and zebras before facing a pirate attack. Kidnapped sends James MacArthur across the Scottish Highlands with Peter Finch as the dashing Alan Breck, and In Search of the Castaways takes Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier from the Andes to New Zealand to find a missing sea captain.

Jules Verne inspired two more journeys: Five Weeks in a Balloon, an airborne crossing of Africa with Red Buttons and Barbara Eden, and Captain Nemo and the Underwater City, in which the survivors of a shipwreck discover a dazzling city beneath the sea. Disney added Nikki, Wild Dog of the North, Big Red, with Walter Pidgeon and a handsome Irish setter, Escapade in Florence, with Annette Funicello and Tommy Kirk uncovering a ring of art forgers, and Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow, in which Patrick McGoohan plays a country vicar who rides out at night in a scarecrow mask to help his poor parishioners.

The decade's most famous wildlife film is Born Free, the true story of Joy and George Adamson and Elsa, the lioness they raised in Kenya and taught to live wild. Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers play the Adamsons, and John Barry's music won two Academy Awards, including one for the title song. Namu, the Killer Whale told the true story of a marine biologist and an orca, Maya followed two boys and a baby elephant across India, and My Side of the Mountain sent a thirteen-year-old to live alone in the Canadian woods with a peregrine falcon for company. Peter Cushing played the Doctor in two colourful films, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., in which the TARDIS meets its most famous foes.

The seventies: Call of the Wild, Matecumbe and the Muppets

The 1970s shelf mixes rugged outdoor adventures with Disney comedies. The Call of the Wild cast Charlton Heston in Jack London's story of a sled dog in the Yukon gold rush, Living Free continued the story of Elsa and her three mischievous cubs, and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams gave Dan Haggerty a gentle bear named Ben and a home in the mountains. Napoleon and Samantha marked the screen debut of a young Jodie Foster, travelling across the mountains with a friend and an elderly circus lion called Major.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler follows a sister and brother who run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Ingrid Bergman as the mysterious collector. Swallows and Amazons took four children sailing on the lakes of the English Lake District, with Virginia McKenna as their mother, and Tarka the Otter, narrated by Peter Ustinov, followed an otter's life along the rivers of Devon.

Disney contributed The Castaway Cowboy, with James Garner as a Texan washed up in Hawaii, Treasure of Matecumbe, a treasure hunt from Kentucky to the Florida Keys with Peter Ustinov, and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, in which the little Volkswagen races across France and falls for a pretty blue Lancia. The Magic of Lassie let James Stewart sing beside the famous collie, and The Star Wars Holiday Special, a curious television event, sends Chewbacca home to his family on the Wookiee planet for Life Day. The decade closes with The Muppet Movie, in which Kermit the Frog sings Rainbow Connection in his swamp and then sets off for Hollywood, picking up Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the rest of the gang along the way.

The eighties: Popeye, Pee-wee and the Szalinskis

The 1980s shelf is small, with 25 films, but it is packed with personality. Popeye opened the decade with Robin Williams as the spinach-loving sailor and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl, in a whole seaside village called Sweethaven that was built on the coast of Malta and still welcomes visitors today. The Last Flight of Noah's Ark stranded a pilot, a missionary, two stowaways and a planeload of farm animals on a Pacific island, where they turn their aircraft into a boat.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Tim Burton's first feature film, sends Pee-wee Herman across America in search of his stolen bicycle, with a famous visit to the Alamo and a score by Danny Elfman that bounces like a circus band. D.A.R.Y.L. tells of a boy who turns out to be a remarkably human robot, SpaceCamp accidentally launches a group of teenagers into orbit aboard the space shuttle, and Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend discovers a family of brontosaurs living in the African rainforest.

The decade ends with three favourites. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids shrinks four children to the size of ants and sends them on a perilous journey across their own backyard, past a giant bee, a friendly ant and a colossal cookie. The Wizard follows two brothers and a new friend across the American West to a video game championship, and Troop Beverly Hills gives Shelley Long a troop of Wilderness Girls and a camping trip to remember. There are gentler choices too: Bush Christmas with a very young Nicole Kidman in the Australian outback, Frog Dreaming with Henry Thomas, and two Sesame Street journeys, Big Bird in China and Big Bird in Japan.

The nineties: Free Willy and the great family films

The 1990s are one of the biggest decades in the catalogue, with 66 films, and they include many of the films that today's parents grew up with. Free Willy is the best known: a troubled boy named Jesse befriends a killer whale at a run-down theme park and helps him escape to the ocean in one of cinema's most joyful leaps. The orca who played Willy, Keiko, became famous in his own right, and a campaign by viewers eventually returned him to the waters off Iceland. The story continued in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home and Free Willy 3: The Rescue.

The decade loved a good animal story. Fly Away Home follows a girl who raises a flock of orphaned Canada geese and teaches them to migrate by leading them south in an ultralight aircraft, with stunning aerial photography. Andre tells the true story of a seal who became part of a Maine family, Iron Will follows a young man and his sled dogs on a gruelling race across the frozen north, Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog strands a boy and his dog on the British Columbia coast, and The Amazing Panda Adventure takes an American boy into the bamboo forests of China to rescue a cub.

Comedy was everywhere. Honey, I Blew Up the Kid turned the shrinking ray around, sending a giant toddler striding down the Las Vegas Strip, and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves shrank the grown-ups for a change. George of the Jungle gave Brendan Fraser a vine to swing on and a talking ape for a friend, Bean took Rowan Atkinson's famous character to Los Angeles with a priceless painting, Dunston Checks In let an orangutan loose in a grand hotel, and Inspector Gadget turned Matthew Broderick into a walking toolbox.

The decade also brought 3 Ninjas, in which three brothers use the martial arts skills taught by their grandfather to foil a kidnapping, followed by 3 Ninjas Kick Back and 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up; Treasure Island, with Charlton Heston as Long John Silver and a young Christian Bale as Jim; Muppet Treasure Island, with Tim Curry as a magnificently hammy Silver; Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure, in which Patrick Swayze plays Pecos Bill; and Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, with Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky searching a cave for legendary gold.

The 2000s: Spy Kids, Lemony Snicket and life on the road

The 65 films of the 2000s are full of young heroes with gadgets, family road trips and brightly coloured adventures. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over sent Juni Cortez into a virtual reality video game, Agent Cody Banks made Frankie Muniz a teenage agent and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London took him to England, and Catch That Kid gave a young Kristen Stewart a bank vault to climb. Thunderbirds brought the Tracy family's rescue machines to life, Stormbreaker recruited fourteen-year-old Alex Rider for MI6, and Zoom gave Tim Allen a team of children with super powers.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is one of the decade's most beautifully designed films, with Jim Carrey as the scheming actor Count Olaf, three resourceful orphans and a world of gothic houses, leaning lakeside cottages and mechanical inventions. The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl came from the imagination of director Robert Rodriguez's own son, and Speed Racer turned the classic racing cartoon into a candy-coloured spectacle.

Family road trips filled the shelves: Are We There Yet? with Ice Cube driving two mischievous children to Vancouver, RV with Robin Williams and a temperamental motorhome in the Rockies, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 with a holiday contest between two big families, and College Road Trip, in which Martin Lawrence accompanies his daughter on her college tour. Animal lovers have Duma, about a boy who returns an orphaned cheetah to the wild across the South African landscape, Two Brothers, about two tiger cubs separated in the ancient temples of Cambodia, and Hoot, about a group of children protecting a colony of burrowing owls in Florida.

The 2010s: Muppets again, Storm Boy and Swallows and Amazons

The 62 films of the 2010s include a joyful revival and several thoughtful adaptations. The Muppets reunited Kermit, Piggy and the gang to save their old theatre with the help of Jason Segel, Amy Adams and a new Muppet named Walter, and its song Man or Muppet won an Academy Award. The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet followed a ten-year-old genius who rides a freight train from Montana to Washington to collect a scientific prize, and Return to Nim's Island sent Nim back to her island paradise to protect its wildlife.

British family cinema shone. Swallows and Amazons brought Arthur Ransome's sailing children back to the Lake District, Horrid Henry: The Movie turned the mischievous schoolboy of the books into a film star, The Harry Hill Movie sent the comedian on a road trip to Blackpool with his Nan and a hamster, and Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten Romans brought the popular television series to the big screen with an ancient Roman teenager exiled to rainy Britain. Pudsey the Dog: The Movie gave the famous dancing dog his own adventure.

From Australia came Storm Boy, in which Geoffrey Rush remembers his childhood friendship with a pelican named Mr. Percival on a wild southern coastline, and Oddball, the true story of a farmer and his dog who saved a colony of little penguins from foxes. American films included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Pee-wee's Big Holiday and A-X-L, about a boy and a robot dog.

2020 to today: new journeys

The newest shelf holds 37 films and shows family adventure in excellent shape. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway sends Peter to the city, Finding ʻOhana takes two Brooklyn siblings on a treasure hunt through the caves and forests of Oahu, and Blue Miracle follows the boys of a Mexican orphanage into a fishing tournament. The Tiger Rising, from Kate DiCamillo's novel, tells of a boy who finds a caged tiger in the Florida woods, and Ivy + Bean brings two very different best friends together.

Crater takes five friends on a last journey across the Moon before one of them leaves for another world, Spy Kids: Armageddon passes the spy family tradition to a new generation, and Dog Gone follows a father and son searching the Appalachian Trail for their lost dog. My Penguin Friend tells the true story of a Brazilian fisherman and the penguin who returned to visit him every year, and Lost on a Mountain in Maine follows a twelve-year-old who survives nine days alone in the wilderness.

The most recent arrivals include Bookworm, in which a bookish girl and her estranged magician father go camping in the New Zealand wilds, The Mountain, a story of friendship and courage set in New Zealand, Trifole, an Italian tale of a girl, her grandfather and his truffle-hunting dog, Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado, and Propeller One-Way Night Coach, based on John Travolta's own children's book about a boy's first flight across America.

Animal friends

The animal shelf gathers 65 films, and many of them are among the most loved in the catalogue. The ocean has its own stars: Willy the orca, Namu, the Killer Whale, the seal of Andre, the penguins of My Penguin Friend and Oddball, and the pelican of Storm Boy. On land, Born Free, Living Free and Born Free: A New Adventure share their lives with lions, Duma with a cheetah, Two Brothers, The Tiger Rising and The Tiger's Nest with tigers, and The Amazing Panda Adventure and China: The Panda Adventure with giant pandas.

Dogs fill a large corner of their own, from Big Red, Nikki, Wild Dog of the North and the Lassie films to Benji the Hunted, Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog, Dog Gone and Dakota. Birds play leading roles in Fly Away Home, Hoot and The Real Macaw, and there is even a moose in Salt Water Moose, a kangaroo in Joey and Joey and Ella, a circus elephant in Saving Flora and an otter in Tarka the Otter.

These films share a respect for wild creatures and the places they live, and many of them end with an animal returning to freedom. Read the Animal friends guide for a tour, and open the shelf to see every film sorted by popularity.

Treasure and pirates

Few words make a child's eyes light up like treasure, and the treasure shelf holds 46 films full of maps, clues and buried gold. Stevenson's novel leads the way with four versions: Treasure Island from 1950, Treasure Island from 1972 with Orson Welles as Long John Silver, Treasure Island from 1990 and Treasure Island from 1999 with Jack Palance, alongside the riotous Muppet Treasure Island and the three-part Treasure Island Kids: The Battle of Treasure Island series.

Some treasure hunts begin with a family secret. In Treasure of Matecumbe a boy inherits half of a map to buried gold in the Florida Keys, in The Real Macaw an elderly parrot remembers where his old pirate owner hid his fortune, and in The Legend of Tillamook's Gold a lonely girl in an Oregon seaside town follows the trail of a local legend. Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, Lost & Found and Timber the Treasure Dog send children into caves and wild country after lost riches.

Modern treasure hunters travel further. Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado treks through the Amazon, Finding ʻOhana explores the caves of Hawaii, Legends of the Hidden Temple brings the famous children's game show to life in a jungle temple, and The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone travels back in time to a tropical island. For pirates, try Pirate's Code: The Adventures of Mickey Matson, TimeCrafters: The Treasure of Pirate's Cove and Treasure of Pirate's Point. The Treasure and pirates guide picks the highlights.

Spies, ninjas and young heroes

The heroes shelf gathers 35 films in which ordinary children discover extraordinary abilities, secret missions or a hidden talent for martial arts. The Spy Kids films are the most famous: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World and Spy Kids: Armageddon follow the children of secret agents as they save the world with gadgets, teamwork and plenty of humour.

The young agents of Agent Cody Banks and Stormbreaker keep their missions secret from their classmates, Spy School and Spymate put clever children at the centre of a villain's plans, and the heroes of Catch That Kid plan a daring bank vault climb to help a parent. The martial arts films are full of energy: 3 Ninjas and its sequels, Sidekicks, in which a daydreaming boy imagines teaming up with Chuck Norris, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, in which a high school student learns she is the reincarnation of a great warrior, and Double Blast.

Superheroes and cartoon heroes complete the shelf. Inspector Gadget and Inspector Gadget 2 bring the bumbling cyborg detective to life, Thunderbirds launches the Tracy family's rescue craft, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always reunites the original Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze returns to the sewers of New York, and Shredderman Rules, Star Kid and Jett Jackson: The Movie show that heroes can come from the most unexpected classrooms. The Spies, ninjas and heroes guide suggests where to start.

Into the wild

The wilderness shelf holds 55 films about mountains, jungles, islands and the frozen north, and many of them are survival stories in which young people discover reserves of courage they had yet to discover. Swiss Family Robinson and The Sea Gypsies make homes on wild islands, Third Man on the Mountain and Lost on a Mountain in Maine climb toward the summit, and A Cry in the Wild follows a boy who must survive alone in the Canadian forest after a plane crash, with a hatchet his mother gave him as his most precious tool.

The north calls to many heroes. The Call of the Wild and The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon tell Jack London's story of Buck the sled dog, Nikki, Wild Dog of the North follows a wolf dog across the Yukon, Alaska sends two children into the mountains to find their father's downed plane with the help of a polar bear cub, and Iron Will races sled dogs across hundreds of frozen miles. My Side of the Mountain, Alabama Moon and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams celebrate a simple life lived close to nature.

Jungles and rainforests have their own pleasures: George of the Jungle, The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend and The Tiger's Nest, which climbs into the Himalayas toward the famous monastery of Bhutan. The Into the wild guide has a short tour.

Road trips and holidays

The largest shelf on AnimeVietsub, with 82 films, is about getting away. Some journeys happen in the family car: Are We There Yet?, RV, College Road Trip, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul and Getting There turn the open road into a series of comic disasters and happy reunions. Others go further afield. Winning London and When in Rome send twin sisters to Europe, iCarly: iGo to Japan takes the web show to Tokyo, and One Crazy Cruise sets sail with a family who wake up with very little memory of the night before.

Older travel films have a gentle charm. Escapade in Japan, Escapade in Florence and Five Weeks in a Balloon capture the excitement of foreign places for audiences of their time, and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father sends the young Indy across Russia and Greece with his scholarly father. Big Bird in China and Big Bird in Japan show the youngest viewers some of the wonders of Asia, with songs, festivals and new friends.

Some of the best travel films are about the journey as much as the destination. The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet crosses America by freight train, Propeller One-Way Night Coach flies coast to coast in the golden age of air travel, and The Long Way Home follows a widower across the country to find an old sweetheart. The Road trips and holidays guide suggests a route through the shelf.

Science, space and time machines

The science shelf gathers 41 films with inventors, robots, aliens and spacecraft. The Szalinski family leads the way: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves are built around a well-meaning inventor whose machines work a little too well. D.A.R.Y.L., A-X-L, F.R.E.D.I. and Robosapien: Rebooted follow friendships between children and robots, and A.R.C.H.I.E. 2: Mission Impawsible and R.A.D.A.R.: The Adventures of the Bionic Dog give dogs a mechanical makeover.

Space is a favourite destination. SpaceCamp, Space Warriors and Crater head for the stars, the Zenon films, beginning with Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, follow a lively teenager living on a space station in the 2040s, and Aliens Ate My Homework, Aliens Stole My Body and Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out bring visitors from other planets down to Earth. The Doctor travels through time and space in Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. and Doctor Who: The Snowmen.

Time travel and dinosaurs round out the shelf: T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous, Dinosaur Island, The Adventures of Jurassic Pet 2: The Lost Secret and Josh Kirby... Time Warrior: Planet of the Dino-Knights all put young heroes face to face with prehistoric giants. Read the Science and space guide for more.

From the bookshelf

Forty-seven films on AnimeVietsub are adapted from novels and children's books, and many of them are the best way to introduce young readers to a classic. Robert Louis Stevenson is represented by Treasure Island and Kidnapped, Mark Twain by The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and, more loosely, The Quest for Tom Sawyer's Gold, Rudyard Kipling by Kim and Captains Courageous, Jules Verne by In Search of the Castaways and Five Weeks in a Balloon, and Jack London by both versions of The Call of the Wild.

Twentieth-century children's classics include Swallows and Amazons and its 2016 remake, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, My Side of the Mountain, Storm Boy from Colin Thiele's novel, along with Blue Fin, and Tarka the Otter from Henry Williamson's book. More recent authors include Lemony Snicket, Anthony Horowitz with Stormbreaker, Carl Hiaasen with Hoot, Kate DiCamillo with The Tiger Rising and Annie Barrows with Ivy + Bean.

Watching a film and then reading the book, or the other way round, is a wonderful way to spend a holiday. The From the bookshelf guide lists a few favourites.

Family comedies

Some adventures are mostly about laughing, and the comedy shelf gathers 36 of the funniest films in the catalogue. The Muppets have three: The Muppet Movie, The Muppets and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, each full of songs, terrible puns and celebrity guests. Pee-wee Herman appears in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Pee-wee's Big Holiday, and Rowan Atkinson takes Mr. Bean to America in Bean.

Big families and big personalities drive many of the others: Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Snow Day, Big Fat Liar and its sequel Bigger Fatter Liar, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Adventures in Babysitting and FRED: The Movie. Cartoon characters come to life in Popeye, George of the Jungle and George of the Jungle 2, and British comedy is well represented by Horrid Henry: The Movie and The Harry Hill Movie. The Family comedies guide picks a few to begin with.

Choosing for every age

Adventure films range from gentle outings to nail-biting escapes, and a little planning makes for a happier evening. For the youngest members of the family, Big Bird in China, Big Bird in Japan, A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, Ivy + Bean and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway are bright, short and full of laughter. Animal stories such as Andre, Oddball and Joey are also lovely choices for early school years.

From about seven upward, children tend to love the Szalinski films, The Muppet Movie, Swiss Family Robinson, Fly Away Home, Free Willy, the 3 Ninjas films and the Spy Kids series. Older children and teenagers often enjoy Stormbreaker, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Crater, Kidnapped and the survival stories on the wilderness shelf, which are exciting and sometimes moving.

A few films carry moments of real danger or sadness and are best shared with a grown-up close by: Born Free, The Call of the Wild, A Cry in the Wild, Two Brothers, Tarka the Otter and Lost on a Mountain in Maine are all wonderful, and all have scenes that may surprise a very young viewer. Each film page lists the genres and the running time, and the official services show age ratings and offer kids profiles.

Planning an adventure night

A good adventure night can be built around a theme. For a desert island weekend, start with Swiss Family Robinson and follow it with The Last Flight of Noah's Ark or The Sea Gypsies. For a pirate evening, compare Treasure Island with Muppet Treasure Island and talk about which Long John Silver is the more fearsome. For an ocean night, pair Free Willy with Namu, the Killer Whale and My Penguin Friend.

For a frozen north marathon, choose Iron Will, Alaska and Nikki, Wild Dog of the North, with a mug of hot chocolate. For an evening of inventions, line up Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and Inspector Gadget. For a lighter mood, The Muppet Movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Bean are guaranteed to make the whole room laugh.

Older children may enjoy a classics evening with Kidnapped and Third Man on the Mountain, or a modern double bill of Crater and The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, two films about young people setting out on journeys of their own. Save your choices to My List, export the list for the television, and let the adventure begin.

How Watch now works

AnimeVietsub is a guide, and the Watch now button on every film page opens the film on JustWatch for the country you choose. JustWatch is a widely used service that shows where a film can be streamed on subscription, rented, bought or watched free with advertising. The country menu lists fifteen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa, and your choice is remembered in this browser.

Availability changes as films move between services, so the JustWatch page always reflects the current picture. Many classic Disney adventures are gathered on the studio's own streaming service, several recent films were made for the major streaming platforms, and the older wildlife films are often found on free services and in public libraries.

Most films in the catalogue were made in English, and the official services often add subtitles, including Vietnamese, and dubbed versions. The Languages and versions guide explains how the remakes are listed, and Where AnimeVietsub films stream describes the services behind the button.

The help pages

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

The theme guides open the shelves one at a time: Animal friends, Treasure and pirates, Spies, ninjas and heroes, Into the wild, Science and space, Road trips and holidays, From the bookshelf, Family comedies and Classic adventure, each with a handful of recommendations and a link to the full shelf.

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

Real places on screen

One of the great pleasures of live-action adventure is the scenery, and many of these films were made in remarkable places. Swiss Family Robinson was filmed on the Caribbean island of Tobago, where the crew built the treehouse in a giant saman tree. Third Man on the Mountain was shot around Zermatt, beneath the Matterhorn, with real mountaineers doubling for the actors on the steepest climbs. Popeye built the village of Sweethaven on a bay in Malta, and the set has since become a small theme park for visitors.

The wildlife films travelled far. Born Free was made in Kenya with lions who grew close to the cast during filming, Two Brothers was shot among the temples of Cambodia and the forests of Thailand, and Duma crossed the salt pans and grasslands of southern Africa. Fly Away Home filmed its geese flying alongside an ultralight over the farmland and lakes of Ontario, guided by the real-life naturalist whose experiments inspired the story.

Other films capture cities and coastlines. Little Fugitive is a time capsule of Coney Island in the early fifties, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was filmed inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Storm Boy returns to the Coorong, the long lagoon on the coast of South Australia where Colin Thiele set his novel. Swallows and Amazons sails the real lakes of Cumbria, just as Arthur Ransome's characters did. Watching these films is a little like taking a holiday, and many families add a filming location to their own travel plans.

True stories

A surprising number of the adventures in the catalogue are based on real events. Born Free and Living Free come from Joy Adamson's books about Elsa the lioness, Andre from the life of a harbour seal who spent his summers with a family in Rockport, Maine, and Oddball from a Warrnambool farmer whose sheepdogs protected a colony of little penguins on an island off the Victorian coast.

My Penguin Friend tells of the Magellanic penguin who swam back to the fisherman who rescued him year after year, Lost on a Mountain in Maine recreates the nine days that young Donn Fendler spent alone on Mount Katahdin in 1939, and Iron Will was inspired by a famous dogsled race between Winnipeg and Saint Paul in 1917. Fly Away Home draws on the work of Bill Lishman, who taught geese to follow his ultralight aircraft. These films often end with photographs of the real people and animals, a moment that many children remember long after the credits.

Studios and storytellers

Walt Disney Productions made more family adventure films than anyone in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and its live-action films form the backbone of the classic shelf. Director Robert Stevenson made Kidnapped and In Search of the Castaways, Ken Annakin made Swiss Family Robinson and Third Man on the Mountain, and actors such as James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk and Hayley Mills became familiar faces to a generation of young viewers.

Later decades brought new names. Joe Johnston, who began his career designing creatures and spacecraft for Star Wars, directed Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Robert Rodriguez wrote, directed, edited and scored much of the Spy Kids series and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Carroll Ballard, a master of films about children and animals, directed Duma, and Jean-Jacques Annaud spent years preparing Two Brothers with real tigers in Cambodia.

Jim Henson's Muppets appear throughout the catalogue, and Sesame Street's Big Bird travels the world in two specials. In Britain, the Children's Film Foundation and the BBC shaped generations of family viewing, and in Australia, Colin Thiele's novels inspired Blue Fin and two versions of Storm Boy, the second of which is here.

What adventure films teach

Behind the treasure maps and the shrinking rays, family adventure films return again and again to a few lasting values. Courage comes first: Jim Hawkins facing down Long John Silver, the young climber of Third Man on the Mountain stepping onto the rock face, and Amy in Fly Away Home taking to the sky to lead her geese south. Each shows children that bravery often means doing the right thing while feeling afraid.

Responsibility is another. In Born Free, Free Willy, Duma and My Penguin Friend, caring for an animal means letting it go when the time comes, a lesson that touches children and parents alike. Teamwork carries the heroes of Swiss Family Robinson, 3 Ninjas and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids through every danger, and curiosity, the urge to see what lies over the next hill, drives almost every story in the catalogue.

Above all, these films celebrate the world itself: its mountains, oceans, forests and cities, and the creatures who share it with us. Many families find that a good adventure film leads to a walk in the woods, a visit to the library or a trip to the coast the following weekend.

Remakes and series

Several stories appear in more than one version, and AnimeVietsub gives each its own page with the year beside the title. Treasure Island has four, from 1950, 1972, 1990 and 1999, and Swallows and Amazons has two, from 1974 and 2016. The Call of the Wild appears in a 1972 film with Charlton Heston and a 1997 television version with Rutger Hauer.

Many series run across several films. Free Willy has four, the Szalinski family three, the 3 Ninjas three, the Spy Kids series three on this shelf, Agent Cody Banks two, Inspector Gadget two, George of the Jungle two, Pee-wee Herman two and the Zenon films three. The Born Free story continues in Living Free and Born Free: A New Adventure, and the Daleks meet Peter Cushing's Doctor twice.

Adventures through the year

The catalogue has an adventure for every season. Summer is the time for islands and lakes, with Swallows and Amazons, Return to Nim's Island, Finding ʻOhana and The Sea Gypsies. Autumn suits mysteries and treasure hunts, from Treasure Trackers to The Legend of Longwood. Winter belongs to the frozen north, with Iron Will and Alaska, and to festive films such as Bush Christmas, A Very Cool Christmas and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. Spring, with its migrating birds and new lambs, is perfect for Fly Away Home and The Boy Who Talked to Badgers.

Happy travels

Adventure films give families a chance to travel together from the comfort of the sofa: to climb mountains, sail oceans, dig for treasure and make friends with lions, whales and penguins, then talk about it all the next morning. AnimeVietsub gathers 302 of them in one place, with a page for each and a button that leads to the official services, so the next adventure is only a few clicks away. Choose a film, gather the family and enjoy the journey. Welcome to AnimeVietsub.

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