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
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.
I’d like to think Babe taught me a thing or two about kindness and cooperation
🐑🐑🐖🐑 🐕🐓🦆🪿🐄
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
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!
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.
We swear we won’t go rooooamin’
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 seem 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.
Surprised PBS shows aren’t mentioned more here, especially not Mr. Rogers Neighborhood being mentioned.
So in no particular order:
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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
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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
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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.
Patch Adams
From a purely positive influence? Anything on PBS (wasn’t allowed to have cable growing up)
- Sesame Street
- Mr Roger’s
- Any documentary with David Attenborough
- same with Jane Goodall
- Nova
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.
The Iron Giant for sure
Supaman!
You stay… I go.
I may be a grown ass adult, but that scene always gets the waterworks going.
A gun who chooses not to be a gun. As someone who’s still dealing with their history as a soldier in the war on terror, I empathize with him more than I ever could as a child.
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.
