I am going to be a father and am making a jellyfin setup for my child. I want to start early to make a good collection of movies and shows. So I am interested in knowing what other people experienced as positive influences in their lives.
Edit: English and Norwegian is fine, but I can always get dubbed versions of other languages. We will be speaking English and Norwegian with our child from birth. But want to introduce our child to many types of cultures, religions etc.
Edit 2: Thanks so much for so many great responses. Some of you must have spent quite some time compiling the list. Truly appreciate that ♥️
Anything and everything on pbs
- 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
Princess Mononoke might be a little dark for an earlier age. There’s some really brutal scenes in it.
Of course that didn’t stop it from being my favorite from age 8 onward, but still.
Yeah there’s literal dismemberment in the early scenes, plus thematically it’s pretty mature too
I’m picturing a toddler seeing a soldier get beheaded by an arrow from horseback, looks over at Dad for emotional support, and Dad looks on with an approving grin, comfortable that he’s made the right choice of early childhood films.
Also, The Matrix/Terminator as a suggestion for a small child is a big lol.
Terminator, the matrix and cowboy beebop are to much as well
Hell yeah yu yu hakusho is so good!!! So much raw emotion with great story telling and cool fights. I know he’s the bad guy but when younger toguro turns down a ticket to heaven so he can suffer in purgatory cuz he thinks he doesn’t deserve it gets me so hard everytime.
Funny that you point out the originals Disney movies, that made me think, did the remakes made any impact on the younger generation or is too soon to know that?
Man, I really hope those were just forgettable for them. The Lion King live action remake is so damn disappointing. All the emotion, all the storytelling, just gone. It’s a very poor imitation of the original.
Remakes can be good. The new Dune movies are worlds better than the 70s movie; that is a movie that needed a proper remake. The new ones actually do the books justice.
Aladdin (original)
The original you say.
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.
It’s mildly flooding in my area right now so I just watched Rock A Doodle the other day, one of my faves as a kid.
Chanticleer! Out of all his movies that was the one I followed the least as a kid. It confused me in a way it never really went away. I came back to it as a kid and I still don’t really get it, but it has such a fairytale feeling to it.
Maybe not everything, there were a few less-than-greats in his catalogue. It’s been a while, but I can’t imagine The Pebble and the Penguin or A Troll in Central Park being particularly good as an adult.
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
Speedracer (probably at 5+ age)
Magic School Bus (original)
Arthur
Bluey
Bill NyeGood picks. Loved a lot of those as a kid.
EDIT: Magic School Bus and Bill Nye also reminded me of some other fun educational shows I loved as a kid: Zoboomafoo and Reading Rainbow. I know Zoboomafoo has a modern equivalent called Wild Kratts that I haven’t watched. Not sure if Reading Rainbow does.
Zaboomafu & Reading Rainbow 100%
Maybe WishBone too?
All the ghibli movies
My all time favourite Miyazaki series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Boy_Conan It impacted me so much Istill think about it 40 years later…
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
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Bill Nye the Science Guy: Made science accessible and fun for children. Good way to build a sense of curiosity and desire for experimentation
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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:
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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
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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
"Zoom zoom zoom! " is still stuck in my head to this day
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Good on you for setting up the Jellyfin early, it’s still on my to-do list
My personal favorite childhood movies/shows that made a real impact:
Fern Gully, the Disney animated originals (not remakes) mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Nightmare Before Christmas, Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Star Trek 4 (the whales one), Toy Story
Star Trek TNG and TOS, the old school B/W Addams Family, OG Looney Tunes, Nature on PBS, Nova on PBS, Mr Rogers, Arthur
Additional stuff I’ll be adding to my own kid’s Jellyfin (when I get to it)
Avatar the Last Airbender, Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, She-Ra:PoP (the Netflix one), Bluey, Storybots, Puffin Rock, Lucas the Spider, Trash Truck, Ms Rachel, Daniel Tiger, Elinor Wonders Why
The Neverending Story
Need to get that early childhood trama on lock with that atrax scene.
I know!! Heartbreaking stuff!!!
Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (the first English cartoon I remember watching), Rolie Polie Olie, Martha Speaks, Franklin, Little Bear, Total Drama Island/Action, and 6Teen taught me English when I came to Canada.
Star Trek got me started on my path to tankiehood and sci-fi writing. Futurama also significantly contributed to the latter.
Pokemon, Wonderpets and Redwall (and many of the cartoons from the learning English category) got me interested in writing animal characters. Zootopia pissed me off so much with its inconsistent world building that it sealed the deal and made me obsessed with perfecting my own fictional animal world.
Family Guy taught me how not to write characters and their interactions.
How It’s Made is just awesome and satisfying, no further comments.
Avatar the last Airbender taught me to think when in conflict
Bluey. It’s a really positive modern show , so not really from my childhood but it beats everything else from my childhood.
Bluey is a fantastic parenting manual. Seriously, it should be required viewing for anyone considering having a kid.
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.
Fraggle Rock as well!
Cosmos
As a relatively new father (my daughter is around 2.5 years old), you have plenty of time. They’ll be a loving little lump for a while.
What she has loved so far:
- Bluey (a beautiful show about parenting in disguise as a kids show)
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood (all episodes available on archive.org, but they have to be reorganized/renamed at least for Kodi tagging)
- The Mhppets Show (and anything else muppets)
- (Modern) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (cg show, and Clubhouse+, the short renewal)
- Dragon Prince
- Sesame Street
- Moana (2 to a lesser extent)
- Finding Nemo/Dory
- Lion King
- Little Mermaid
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks
- Mary Poppins
- Aladin
- Frozen (and all the spinoff stuff)
- Mickey Donald and Goofy: Three Musketeers (this is her current obsession, probably watched it 10 times in the last week)
I’ll come back and edit this with my own shows later.
