Anything and everything on pbs

Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli For Younger Kids:

• My Neighbor Totoro
• Ponyo
• Spirited Away
• The Secret World of Arietty
• Kiki’s Delivery Service
• Pom Poko

For maybe when they’re getting older?

• Howl’s Moving Castle
• The Wind Risees
• Castle In The Sky
• Princess Mononoke
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Some other decent ones for kids of various ages:

Animated/Claymation

Series:

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Alvin & The Chipmunks
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers
• Ducktales
• Gumby
• Inspector Gadget
• Rugrats
• Rescue Rangers
• Scooby Doo
• Yogi Bear

Movies:

• Alice in Wonderland
• All Dogs go to Heaven
• An American Tail
• An American Tail: Fivel Goes West
• The Black Cauldron
• Charlotte’s Web
• FernGully
• James and the Giant Peach
• The Land Before Time
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Peter Pan
• Pinochio
• RobinHood
• The Rescuers
• The Rescuers Down Under
• The Secret of NIMH
• The Sword in the Stone
• Thumbelina
• Wallace and Gromit (All of them are great)

Live Action Series:

• Bill Nye The Science Guy
• Beakmans World

Movies:

• Beetlejuice
• Casper
• Ernest Goes to School (and all the other ones really)
• Honey I Shrunk The Kids
• Hook
• Jumanji
• E.T.
• Edward Scissor Hands
• Flubber
• Ghost Busters
• The Goonies
• Labyrinth (Creepier vibe than I remember)
• The Little Rascals
• Mary Poppins
• Mr. Mom
• Mrs. Doubtfire
• The Never Ending Story
• Operation Dumbo Drop
• Patch Adams
• Sandlot
• Short Circuit
• Space Jam
• Toys
• Tron
• We’re back a dinosaur story
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Animated and Live Action)

Edit: awful formatting… And typos

All the ghibli movies

• The Lion King (original)
• Mulan (original)
• Jurassic Park
• Princess Mononoke
• Castle in the Sky
• Spirited Away
• Forrest Gump
• Aladdin (original)
• Men in Black
• Galaxy Quest
• Home Alone
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The Matrix
• Toy Story
• Top Gun
• The Terminator
• A Charlie Brown Christmas

• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Cowboy Bebop

Everything by Don Bluth. Literally everything his name on is childhood gold. Sometimes a little scary, but in a modern fairy tale sort of way.

An American Tale

All dogs go to Heaven

The Secret of NIMH

The Fox and the Hound

The Land Before Time

His movies never treated children like fools, a sentiment that’s only recently becoming the standard for children’s entertainment and he was doing it in the 80s.

Sesame Street, Muppets, The Electric Company.

Completely dated, but these older shows introduced a white kid in whitesville to a completely different world. Plus fun, educational in a way that kids don’t mind.

Cosmos

Avatar the last Airbender taught me to think when in conflict

The Neverending Story

Surprised PBS shows aren’t mentioned more here, especially not Mr. Rogers Neighborhood being mentioned.

So in no particular order:

• Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood: great show for teaching kids to how to navigate emotions and complex situations like death and discrimination but in ways they can understand

• Sesame Street: similar to Mr. Rogers but more for younger children

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Made science accessible and fun for children. Good way to build a sense of curiosity and desire for experimentation

• Zoom: similar to Bill Nye in that it made me what to try all the activities they shared. Lots of fun games, recipes, brain teasers etc to keep kids busy. The fact that it had an all kid cast made it more accessible as a kid. Highly recommended since it seems less remembered than other PBS shows

Non-Educational:

• The Simpsons: this may be divisive but I grew up when they were super popular and I believe it helped develop my sense of humor. The earlier episodes were also pretty wholesome

• The Avatar (Last Airbender and Korra): well written show that is based on many East Asian cultures and touches on themes of depression, genocide, war, and hope (among many others). One of my favorite shows to this day

Growing up I really loved the animated series Alfred Jonathan Quack or Alfred Kvakk in Norwegian. It’s about a duck, his farther (I think) is a mole and the antagonist is a nazi-styled crow called Dolf. My favourite episode was about this island they visited which turned out to be the shell of this gigantic turtle.

Another favourite was The World of David the Gnome. It’s about a gnome who lives in or under a tree and has all sorts of adventures with animals. The books it’s based on are also great, I still have them.

I don’t know if you can still find these series since they’re pretty old.

Bluey. It’s a really positive modern show , so not really from my childhood but it beats everything else from my childhood.

Bluey and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (of not the remake) for kids shows. Bluey isa. Double hitter as it’s great for kids and adults as well. There’s a few tearjerker episodes in there for adults around life and kids growing up, along with just great ideas on how to parent and play. MMCH is great as it doesn’t subscribe to the overly energetic constant cutting camera angles bullshit that’s super addictive and bad for kids. Shows are calm, involve learning and problem solving, and are very much like ‘okay get up and expend some energy, go play’ at the end. Honorable mention to Tumbleleaf. It’s for kids that are a bit older, is a little more weird, but still fun. Art style is cool on it as well. Best of luck building your library and congrats on being a dad!!

Anything Mr. Bean.

Speedracer (probably at 5+ age)
Magic School Bus (original)
Arthur
Bluey
Bill Nye