Beloved children's characters spring to life on stage this season. Our top theater picks for the coming months include musicals starring popular little-kid icons such as Curious George, Peppa Pig, Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Runaway Bunny. But there are plenty of cool shows for tweens, too, including an interactive adventure staged throughout Lincoln Center's grounds, a trio of offbeat circus performances and a revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown starring theater pros who are still in middle school.

While there are some big Broadway shows debuting this spring, including a musicalization of Tuck Everlasting and Cirque du Soleil's first-ever Main Stem spectacle Paramour, there's no need to shell out big bucks to give your kids a memorable live entertainment experience in NYC. A dozen of the 14 shows we're highlighting are just $25—or less—per ticket.

If you have a child in your household, chances are Disney's animated romp Zootopia is on your must-see list. What kid can resist a movie about adorable, anthropomorphized animals? The good news for grown-ups is that these creatures, cute and cuddly as they are, are never cloying, and neither is the movie. Zootopia is a fast-paced and funny (or is that furry?) tale of tolerance—a buddy detective story that touches on timely societal issues and champions our ability to evolve and get along, regardless of what kind of mammals we are.

Not that young kids will care about most of that. They'll be too busy laughing at the adventures of Judy Hopps, the cosmopolitan city of Zootopia's first-ever bunny cop (voiced with perpetual optimism by Ginnifer Goodwin). Fate throws her together with Nick Wilde (the wonderful Jason Bateman), a fox con man who helps her crack the case of the missing predators. Although they dislike each other at first, they inevitably bond. These two have much more in common than they initially realize, including fighting against being stereotyped and childhoods scarred by taunting.

Those bullying flashbacks, especially Nick's, are two of the scariest scenes in the film, which is rated PG with good reason. Worried your preschooler might not be up for it? Here's what you need to know before you book tickets (or a babysitter), and whether it's worth splurging on IMAX 3D.

If you're looking to see America's melting pot reputation in action, take a family trip to the Lower East Side. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the neighborhood's tenements housed waves of immigrants from a variety of backgrounds, notably Germans, Italians and Eastern European Jews. Although this Manhattan neighborhood has undergone a major transformation in recent years, with spots for knishes and cannoli being replaced by craft cocktail bars and boutique hotels, there are still remnants of its multicultural history that are great fun to discover with kids. The Tenement Museum and the Museum at Eldridge Street both offer engaging peeks at the area's past, along with frequent family programming. Sara D. Roosevelt Park hosts celebrations for Asian holidays in honor of the nearby Chinatown community. A bit further south, NYC's only Latino theater for young audiences, Teatro SEA, presents shows in English and Spanish, and the neighborhood's restaurants reflect the area's diversity with dim sum houses, delicious delis, pizzerias and the oldest candy store in NYC all vying for your appetite.

Of course there are cool, new kid-friendly attractions, too, including a pair of cat cafés, the New Museum, which offers FREE admission for children under age 19, and an amazing, in-progress underground park. Situated from Houston Street to the East River between the Bowery and Canal Street/East Broadway, the Lower East Side is small enough for families to explore on foot in one day, and boasts lots of places to play, both indoors and out.