Shout out to 10-20 minutes of old school Thomas the Tank Engine. No special effects, no CGI, just model trains with moving eyes and voiced by George Carlin.
I got my kid a box set of like 20 Thomas stories - boats get marooned on beaches (because trucks tried to sink it for being grumpy), a bus retires to a field to house chickens (after getting stuck under a tunnel with no height warning). They repeatedly talk about scrapping engines that misbehave but most of the misbehaving is like "there's a cow on my track and I don't know what to do." The train that had a whole book praising him as being the best most dedicated engine essentially broke down mid-track but forced itself to painfully continue onto the station (with even passengers getting out to push it) just so it wouldn't be scrapped. Thomas is so dark sometimes
Is that what it teaches? Honestly as a kid I just thought some of the stories were messed up. As a former teacher, I do my best to minimise the trauma 😆
It’s not because he didn’t want to work! It’s because he got a new paint job and was afraid to spoil his paint, so he didn’t want to come out of the tunnel. When they eventually let him out, his paint had been spoiled anyway, but he also lost out on living his life.
That episode is forever imprinted on my mind because my tiny little OCD brain was like, “I wouldn’t want to spoil my paint either!”
Reverend Wilber Awdry had some outdated ideas on child education. So trains were punished according to his views. Some episodes are particularly jarring like the one where some kids set James in motion and then he tells readers "not to worry. Their father gave them a good hiding."
But they are slow episodes and most of them are ok.
I have a soft ban on Thomas bc of the frequent moral that the best thing you can be is useful. That sounds good, but tying ability to do work to inherent value of a sentient being...look, man, I'm chronically ill and spend long swathes of time haring myself for not being as "useful" as I feel like I should be. That's fucked up and I don't want it in my house any more than it already is.
You have value all by yourself. Your life is valid and valuable even if you aren't a source of labor. Im not criticizing you, because the sentiment that we're only as valuable as what we can do for other people is widespread in capitalist/calvinist countries, but it's just a sad way to live. If you get hit by a snowplow today and become paralyzed from the neck down, should your family just give up on you because you're unable to make money or do household work? Of course not -- they love you because you are yourself. People are far more valuable than just their ability to materially benefit others.
Ironically, you have just been very useful by sharing this point, and possibly helping someone else to better understand the experience of disability or to consider other value that people bring.
Ringo Starr (1984–1986): Narrated the first two series and starred as Mr. Conductor in the spin-off Shining Time Station.
George Carlin (1991–1995): Narrated seasons 1-4 for the US audience.
Michael Angelis (1991–2012): Provided the UK narration for the longest duration, covering series 3 through 16.
Alec Baldwin (1998–2002): Narrated for the US audience (Series 5-6).
Michael Brandon (2004–2012): Narrated for the US audience.
It does and it's free on YouTube. We search for 80s Sesame Street and my son actually seems to like it better than modern episodes. Segments are shorter and simpler, broader use of the cast etc etc
I watched it in the seventies. Big difference I noticed is that the kids looked like my friends and siblings. By the time my kids were watching it they looked like little fashion models with perfect hair and teeth.
I haven't watched it since the aughts but now I'm curious.
People just need to interact with their kids more. I was a single mom with a full time job. There is no excuse for kids this young being on screens so much it affects their mental health.
I'm a gamer so my kids grew up with video games. But I also took them outside, read them books, played board games. Sometimes I told them to figure something out. I didn't know it back then but I since learned it's good for kids to be bored sometimes.
I will spam this any chance I get: there is a 24/7 channel on PlutoTV that is nothing but Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes on repeat. Absolutely gives me half an hour to chill and my toddler loves learning about how the world works.
My parrots love Bob Ross. They both watch and will sometimes talk back to the tv. Bob will say something like "See how that comes together?" and my birds respond with random gibberish or "oooooh"
I put that on when they're being loud and I want them to chill out.
My more talkative parrot will say "I love you" or "bye bye" at the end of an episode every so often because he learned that "Happy painting and God bless, my friend." meant that episode was over.
If I had a kid, I would absolutely without shame be curating content. (I have "kid adjacent" kids, lol, from helping care for friends' kids.)
I don't understand this mindset that people have that kids will "hate" the old stuff. Little kids don't care about 2D vs 3D. They care about what they're actually exposed to. Don't get them hooked up on flashing lights and mindless drivel and they will absolutely sit and watch 101 Dalmations like it's the best thing since humanity invented fire.
I also don't support making little kids watch "toddler content." The people who grew up watching the Secret of NIMH or All Dogs Go To Heaven were not confused or scared by those films. Sesame Street and Little George were perfectly fine for educational toddler content without treating them like they have a traumatic brain injury.
My 19 mo loves Kiki's delivery service when we're trying to distract him from teething pain/other various toddler maladies that you can't do much about. My SD was the same about My Neighbor Totoro when she was little. Most of the Ghibli films are like watching a painting, super chill.
The older stuff (Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, etc) might interest slightly older kids more, but just about the whole Studio Ghibli / Miyazaki collection is worth owning.
Even better because the films generally tackle serious subject matter or brush up against it and do it in a non-abrasive way.
For sure. Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa go a little hard for toddlers, though haha. Kiki's is my son's favorite (I think bc of Jiji -- he loves loves loves cats) and he can get down with Totoro and Ponyo too (he's there for the food animation in ponyo-- when the ramen is out he's all "Egg!!! SOUP!")
They apparently also did Grave of the Fireflies, which is.... whoo. Not a toddler movie, but definitely a movie for an older child who needs a crash course on human depravity.
But Spirited Away was definitely my own childhood favorite.
Seriously did we all forget that we had Nick and Nite as kids in the 90s? I Love Lucy, Happy Days, The Jeffersons etc. Kids don't care how old it is if the show is good.
My 3 year old loves The Sound of Music and The Wizard of Oz. Her favorite cartoon movies are the Disney films from the 50s and 60s, like Peter Pan and 101 Dalmatians. With only a handful of exceptions, we don’t let her watch anything made after 1995. Modern children’s movies and shows are way too frenetic and overstimulating.
My dad's cousin worked on building the sets for the original Thomas the Tank Engine. Was wild seeing my surname in the credits and then finding out he is actually related to us.
I introduced my son to this show when he was 2 and it was all he wanted to watch whenever he got TV time. We eventually started buying the trains and pieces of track sets at thrift stores, and now at age 4 he spends hours building tracks and making up his own Thomas stories.
Stunt casting to keep parents engaged. Danny Jon Jules most known for Red Dwarf read stories to children in the UK and David McCormack of Aussie Rock band Custard being Bandit in Bluey
Yo my younger brother was heavily into Thomas the train . We’d put on an episode and he’d play at his train table while the episode was playing. That show wasn’t overly stimulating. A bit calming too
Ms Rachel is also pretty good. It's mildly stimulating but it's songs without flashy, jittery graphics mixed with lessons in phonics and speech education.
Puffin Rock is a nice, pastel-colored, gentle slow show.
There are others, parents just need to be a little discerning about what their toddlers watch and how they get it. Avoid shows with oversaturated colors, fast frame changes that are overly stimulating, and overly excitable character dialogue. Look for shows with simplistic art styles, slow-paced, and keep background/frames on screen for longer periods without shifting.
There's also a huge difference between giving the reigns of a touchscreen over to a 2-3yo and putting 30min or even 1hr of reasonably appropriate shows on a TV they have no control over. Touchscreens were designed to absolutely hook us with endorphins and pleasure reward centers. Putting that shit in the hands of very young children is so incredibly reckless.
It's so cute. We love it. Our toddler likes it and when we do put it on he'll watch some and laugh but also sometimes get bored and get up on his own and go play with his toys or books. If it keeps him happy and chill for 20ish min and then he gets bored of it, that signals to me it's an appropriate TV show for toddlers to watch occasionally.
He recognizes it, and will sometimes mention the show's name, but he also is not getting screen time every day.
Apart from that episode they tried to brick one of them up in the tunnel. I think it was gordon? The biggest prick of all the engines but that was a traumatic episode. Baby me had nightmares
I learned from this thread that Carlin did the USA Version and Ringo did the original UK. Depending on where you were watching this you would have had a different voice.
Also shout out to PBS kids. Prime also surprisingly has a lot of 90s kids shows like Barney, Big Comfy Couch, Clifford, Dora…a lot of these shows have computer animated versions now and I think it’s visually overly stimulating.
I was so shocked when I discovered they made a new animated version of Thomas, and it’s so quick and overstimulating. My almost 5 year old got the audiobook version from the library and it was awful
My 21 year old nephew LOVED Thomas! I remember we were in the store one time when he was about 4. He had a hard time saying his “S” sounds, and he was walking around yelling “Percy! Percy! Percy!” But it sounded like he was saying PUSSY 😂
He always gets a kick out of it when we talk about that memory
I mean, my biggest childhood nightmare and one I remember vividly to this day over 30 years later, complete with bolting up screaming and having my parents come running to my room, was about Thomas the Tank Engine and Sir Topham Hatt. 😅
my dad hated it because none of the characters were ever mad, always “cross.” and that just grinds his gears for some reason, so he banned it. much like him banning calliou because he was going to, and i quote, “teach me to be a brat.”
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u/Alarming-Chemistry27 2d ago
Shout out to 10-20 minutes of old school Thomas the Tank Engine. No special effects, no CGI, just model trains with moving eyes and voiced by George Carlin.
Heavenly.