Feel free to name a film about children that was a big success from about 1967 till E.T. Anyway E.T. is a good film because it’s beautifully filmed and poetic. It’s a fantasy so ‘ludicrous’ doesn’t apply. You either go with it or you don’t. For what it’s worth I thought A.I. was also a great albeit flawed film.
67 to 82 is 15 years, not twenty.
Mary Poppins falls in your original 20 year window.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Willy Wonka.
Escape to Witch Mountain
These are simply off the top of my head.