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 (rriginial)
- Men in Black
- Galaxy Quest
- Home Alone
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Matrix
- Toy Story
- Top Gun
- The Terminator
- 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.
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
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.
it gets me so hard everytime.
Phrasing! Hahaha
Lots of episodes can get a little violent but the first episode is golden for teaching perspective and that the “bad guys/good guys” dichotomy isn’t what it seems, and to be kind to everyone, in a way that is a little easier to digest when they’re little.
Aladdin (original)
The original you say.
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.
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?
Full Metal Jacket.
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
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.
I’ll second my hero Mr Rogers.
We should all want to be like him.
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.
Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (the first English cartoon I remember watching), Rollie Pollie Ollie, 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.
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 babiesok 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.
i wanted to play real burglers as a kid :(
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.
Winnie the Pooh! The episode where they fall down the wishing well instilled in me a lifelong fascination with wishing wells.
I also used to watch a lot of the old Thomas the Tank Engine
Zorro (1957 but I was born later 😂) was certainly the most important show I seen in my youth. He made me choose fencing as sport for more than 10 years and he taught me to be honest and Fair when I was younger
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?
grounded for life
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.
Doctor Who was the big one, but I didn’t get into that until I was a bit older
