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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.
Avatar the last Airbender taught me to think when in conflict
Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli For Younger Kids:
For maybe when they're getting older?
Some other decent ones for kids of various ages:
Animated/Claymation
Series:
Movies:
Live Action Series:
Movies:
Edit: awful formatting... And typos
Half of the Ghibly movies. The other half i was too old already.
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.
Franklin ( the one about the turtle ). For the most part, I feel like almost all the content is good enough to show a young child considering it's one of those preschool age shows. May look a little old considering it's 90s animation and also doesn't have any traditional box sets ( it seems to be nothing but sets based around themes ), but I'm pretty sure every episode is on a Canadian company's yt channel ( region locked AFAIK, so having a VPN is advised ). Treehouse Direct, IIRC.
Also, for a friendly enough way of teaching religious lessons in a non-preachy way that is actually not eye bleach or racist ( looking at you, FInding Jesus ) or low quality slop maid solely to profit off of religious parents, VeggieTales. There's a reason why it was popular with Christians and non-Christians alike, besides the silly songs.
They can be fun to watch ( not including the 4th VHS episode where 3 characters get thrown into a furnace and magically survive thanks to a "glowing man" ( probably Jesus ) ) and can be good for opening a conversation on things like being nice to others despite differences or being thankful for what you have or a number of other topics they covered from the Bible. Honestly, one of the greatest Christian animated cartoons ever considering how it is probably the only Christian cartoon parents who are and aren't Christian could probably both agree on letting their kids watch.
Cannot speak for modern VeggieTales, though, so take my words with a shaker of salt just in case modern VeggieTales isn't as lesson oriented or anywhere near as good as the originals from the 90s and early 2000s.
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.
Me too!
I have Bluey and The Magic Schoolbus.
Connections by James Burke
The Neverending Story
Need to get that early childhood trama on lock with that atrax scene.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Archiving it, to show my niece.
Hit em with that "My Friend Martin"
I'd like to think Babe taught me a thing or two about kindness and cooperation
Just kidding. Don't show your kid this movie unless it's as a joke when they're older. This might have been a Psyop.
I do actually recommend:
Brave little Toaster and Fivel Goes West. Those seem to stick out as most positive that I remember.
'Member that cartoon where the protagonist used a Nintendo power glove and zapper?
We swear we won't go rooooamin'
Look up the original Tik-Tak from the BRTN. it's non spoken animation with shapes, sounds and music. Great for toddlers. All the music is ingrained in me :D
Other good show from the BRTN was "Er was eens". They are split up in 4 main "seasons: de mens, de aarde, de ruimte and het leven.
History, how earth was formed and evolved, space and human biology.
Dutch and French, I'm not sure if it was ever dubbed English, but my kids watched this on repeat.
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
Flukten fra dyreskogen , loved it as a child, but beware it is emotional carnage - animals dying left and right.
Pingu
La linea
Fantorangen and probably a lot of other nrk stuff
Remove the nightmare episode from pingu until they are older, that one caused some issues π«©
I really like the pokemon show/anime. At least the original seasons (I kinda followed it until the sinnoh region
Other than that:
Ducktales (1987)
Avatar the last Airbender
Nils Holgersson
Weihnachtsmann und Co KG (original title: Le Monde Secret du Père Noël)
These are the shows I keep dearly in my heart
As for movies, I don't really have any recommendation besides "Wall-E" :(
But that's a phenomenal movie!
Most anything NRK makes will be what you want watch. Minibarna mostly at first. All the Fantus stuff is good. Especially "Fantus of maskinene"
Tbh when hen reaches the age where hen will understand the more neuanced elements of a story you will have to fight off Paw Patrol and Spidey and his amazing friends with a stick. Whatever the kids in the kindergarten speaks off. Your old dusty slow shit will not be appreciated until much later.
Edit: Bluey! Bluey is amazing. Well written, funny, reflective and is engaging for both children and adults.
The episode with no dialog when it rains and they make a dam is perhaps the best TV I have seen in years.
I'll not repeat what I've already seen listed, just wanted to add Castle of Cagliostro. Not quite as innocent as Disney's Robin Hood (which is an all time favorite of mine, wearing a shirt right now with Skippy and his wooden sword with the words "DEATH TO TYRANTS"). It's another great rogue with a heart of gold taking down the bad guy story though. I feel like we need stories like these now more than ever.
For a slightly different take, I was mesmerized watching New Yankee Workshop and the old This Old House seasons as a kid and often wonder how much they contributed to practical skills and hobbies I have as an adult.
Cosmos with Carl Sagan
His voice, the vocabulary he used along with the wonder he radiated as he described the amazing things that exist out there. All of it captured my young mind like a fantasy.
I'm getting all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
From a purely positive influence? Anything on PBS (wasn't allowed to have cable growing up)
Bill Nye would be the one non-PBS show I remember having an impact
Modernish stuff? Bluey, Miss Rachel, Pixar especially Wall-E, Brave, Coco, Soul, Encanto, Toy Story, Inside Out (when a little older). I like Coco, but Book of Life is an underrated alternative too.
Patch Adams
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.
Terminator, the matrix and cowboy beebop are to much as well
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.
Yeah there's literal dismemberment in the early scenes, plus thematically it's pretty mature too
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.
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.
Same Robin Hood as in the thumbnail for sure.
Also not yet listed, heavily 80s titles:
The Princess Bride
The Neverending Story
Beetlejuice
Big
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
The Dark Crystal
The Rats of Nimh
The Last Unicorn
An American Tale
Batteries Not Included
Fiddler on the Roof
Ghostbusters
Anything with the Muppets up to Treasure Island.
Back to the Future (2015 no longer the future fantasy it one was)
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
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:
I'll come back and edit this with my own shows later.
Roseanne, the first few seasons showed a poor family which I was at the time.
Has there ever been another live audience sitcom that was as down to earth as Roseanne?
flight of the navigator
rainbow brite and the star stealer
care bears 2
wizard of oz (39)
sword in the stone
mary poppins
bednobs and broomsticks
charlottes web
petes dragon
drop dead fred
mother goose rock n rhyme
any of the bugs bunny/daffy duck movies
the wizard
neverending story
the pagemaster
follow that bird
american tail
all dogs go to heaven
brave little toaster
princess bride
jetsons meet the flintstones
the flintstones (94)
little monsters
mister wizards world
fraggle rock
muppet babies
ok that's enough i got carried away :)
Drop dead Fred! I loved that movie, probably one of my favorites growing up, not sure my parents were fansof that.
The Pagemaster, so underrated. Great story about overcoming fear.
Bluey. Well, not my childhood but my daughter loves it. It's adorable, educational, relatable and super positive. And can hit you right in the feels.
Speedracer (probably at 5+ age)
Magic School Bus (original)
Arthur
Bluey
Bill Nye
Ferngully Emperor's New Groove Finding Nemo
Turning Red is newer but SO good
TV: Blues Clues The Big Comfy Couch Sesame Street