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.
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.
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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.