My recent vacation gave me a chance to see what my young nieces (2, 5 & 7) are into as far as children’s TV is concerned. Thinking Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel here.
Seems like you can divide these shows into (A) vapid cartoons with nary an iota of genuine warmth or intelligence, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, or (B) live-action sitcom type affairs where the adults are either idiots or absent/in the background, and the kids are all perky and chirpy with perfect hair and complexions and resemble real kids about as much as the animatronic ones at Disney World do. A more cynical man than I might conclude that the sole reason these shows exist is to fill in time between the commercials. Their utter charmlessness is what really befuddles me, BTW.
[It’s quite possible that I missed some better fare on other channels, and freely await the introduction of good kid’s shows into this thread.]
Now, I’ll provide two observations which go hand-in-hand: theatrical kid’s movies generally don’t tend to be this trite (tho some do of course, depending on the target audience). Think Toy Story or WALL-E. Thus children arguably can handle material with more depth and even some tragedy or pathos. And I won’t even mention the innumerable solid-to-stunning examples of children’s literature that are out there.
So are TV producers lazy, conservative, undaring, or simply cowtowing to what their advertisers want? Or is there something else at work?
Most of Miyazaki…though I see you were referencing TV.
My daughter only watches DVD’s, so Miyazaki is a big source for her. She is young and loves Tortoro, Ponyo, and Kiki. Those have a ton of charm. If the kids haven’t seen those, they need to.
She likes Ni Hao Kai Lan, a Nickeloden show, which is far less annoying than Dora and is fun for her. Quite charming. Kai lan has her grandfather as a major adult presence in her life.
Those kids watch different shows than mine: our’s is restricted to NickJr and PBS, (Disney when the babysitter is here.) Still, the only one that was mildly interesting was the one with the talking hands. I kind of liked that one, if only because they managed to make their hands so expressive.
But they’re all pretty vapid anyway, if terrifically obsessively non-violent, and politically correct.
If you have access to Netflix, PowerPuff Girls is worth a look. It’s kind of funny, even for adults. The girls have actual personalities, conflicts with each other, as well as with Monsters and the other girls at school. And MojoJoJo (main villain) is hilarious. My 4 year old is obsessed with the show, although scared to watch certain episodes.
We are deeply in love with Phineas and Ferb around here. My kids are 5, 3, and 18th-month twins (who don’t watch TV yet). Phineas and Ferb is funny, clever, and the music is catchy. We also watch a lot of Bill Nye the Science Guy, even though it’s on the edge of their age range. Oh, and Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood. None of these make me want to stab myself in the eye.
For movies it’s mostly Miyazaki and Pixar. Both good and non-saccharine.
The Backyardigans is the bomb. You will enjoy it more than the kids do. Go buy a DVD at Target and check it out. I recommend the set that has Mission to Mars on it. You’ll be singing the songs in the car and shower for days.
I won’t let my daughter watch Little Einsteins or Neverland Pirates or any of the faux-educational cold-as-brass pieces of crap. Which doesn’t leave much on live TV… and that’s fine.
Sesame Street is still pretty good. Shaun The Sheep and Timmy Time are on Netflix, and are superbly fun. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic doesn’t quite live up to the hype but does have some humor for adults. Phineas and Ferb is great.
Lissla… when did your twins get to be 18 months old!!! Dear god they were just born last week. Maybe you don’t remember how it happened either.
Phineas and Ferb was my first thought too. Also Ni Hao Kai Lan, and old LazyTown re-runs. The last two seasons of SpongeBob have been sinking down the taste level to near early-SouthPark levels, but I haven’t managed to completely de-tox her from it yet.
Sofia the First is pretty good, and Wordgirl. Charlie and Lola is also really good. Celtling has grown out of Maisy the Mouse, which is sad.
At six she also really likes MasterChef and TopChef, so I preview them and then fast-forward as needed.
At our house we watch a lot of Dinosaur Train, Curious George, and SuperWhy. My daughter has also recently developed a love of The Muppet movies but she is young enough that when bad stuff happens (when Miss Piggy gets mugged and when Kermit gets hit by a car in The Muppets Take Manhattan, when Animal gets huge or Doc Hopper tries to fry Kermit’s brain in The Muppet Movie, etc.) she freaks out and makes you fast forward. We don’t have regular TV so we only watch stuff on Netflix and Hulu and what we have on DVD.
Adventure Time, might be too weird/suggestive for some but I’m sure it’d be fine for most kids (guessing the dirtier stuff sails right over most of their heads)
Legend of Korra, might be too violent or intense but it’s rated Y7 and theoretically aimed at children. Dunno what other people’s experiences showing this to the younger crowd would be.
Man, I remember when Toon Disney & ABC Disney’s One Saturday Morning had some awesome programs- Doug was OK, a bit insipid, but Pepper Ann, The Weekenders, Fillmore, Teacher’s Pet, the totally fantastic Recess, and even Teamo Supremo were excellent social satire. Oh yes, and even The Proud Family.
My daughter is only 2 1/2 so I can only speak to toddler-level programming.
In terms of what is currently running, shows that I myself actually enjoying watching are Sid the Science Kid (exactly what it sounds like, a kid learning about basic science, like what makes a shadow, why plants need water to grow, etc) and Dinosaur Train (the best part is the music, Dinosaurs A - Z is one of our favorite songs).
As Sattua mentioned, Sesame Street continues to hold up.
PBS has a new show based on the Peg + Cat book characters (math theme) that I have high hopes for.
Oddly, despite the fact that I, as an adult, usually find Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood rather sickly sweet, it DOES have more depth than I would expect from that kind of show, in the sense of “depth for a two year old.”
For older stuff that we watch on DVD, while it’s an acquired taste, Yo Gabba Gabba has a lot of charm.
The one with the talking hands - are you talking about “Oobi”? I loved that show, and I don’t even have kids. There are at least two episodes featuring feet.
There’s another cartoon that’s reappeared on Disney Jr. called “PB&J Otter”. It’s about three otter siblings named Peanut (boy) and his sisters Butter (who wears a diaper) and Jelly. Their favorite treats are fishsicles and tuna pancakes, and they live on the shore of a lake with their parents and other animal families. It teaches lessons without being preachy, and is fun to watch.
27 year old man who is not afraid to admit he loves Adventure Time, and sees tons of charm and depth in it, as well as bizarre weirdness and silliness.
Just started watching Regular Show and it’s pretty well done although a lot more mindless to me.
I also loved me some Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob back in my college days. Not sure if those are still going strong or not.
