question about children's movies

[ljt2r]

DD#1 is 2.5 yrs old. The only other relevant thing I can think to tell you about her :o is that she is sensitive, cautious and LOVES animals. She is starting to really like songs. Anyway. :rolleyes: :p

So we have wanted to purchase some DVDs for her. She watches Sesame Street every day (5-7 days per week) and otherwise does not watch any TV, so we are going to start letting her watch 30 mins of a movie every night. This is based on how much she enjoyed the xmas specials and how much she enjoys movies at my parents' house (FInding Nemo, Shrek, Monsters, Inc.). Cutting it off after 30 mins is fine--she always responds pretty maturely to that kind of thing (obviously I let the scene play out, I don't cut it off mid dialog or anything). My problem is that I seem to be totally inadequate at guessing what is appropriate for her age. :o Finding Nemo and Monsters, In.c are fine. I did not think she would enjoy Shrek but she does, she LOVES it. The fact that a lot of the jokes went over her head seemed totally irrelevant. On the other hand, I bought Ice Age for her today and it seems to have upset her. She kept asking, in kind of a panicky, upset tone, "What is happening???!?!?!!" We finally turned it off and she watched Horton previews on the laptop with Daddy. She also loves Ratatouille previews. I also purchased [I]A Shark's Tale [I]and Chicken Run today--I am fine with not watching them yet (if they turn out to be bad idea also) since I know eventually they will get used. What movies have your kids enjoyed at this age (if you let your kids watch movies--I know some people are not big on this)? Do you have any recommendations? She LOVED the singing in the Grinch xmas special (the old animated one) so we thought maybe The Lion King but DH was uncertain of whether it would upset her also based on her reaction tonight. I am not really big on the whole Disney princess thing--I am sure she will see them eventually, probably with me, but I would like to be able to talk to her more about them so I am not keen on them yet. I like that she is not obsessed with princesses. :o Any advice?

[funniegrrl]

It's never too early to introduce a child to Looney Tunes. :D As for Pixar, I also like the Toy Stories and Bug's Life. Cars is OK, but not my favorite. If you don't want to do the princess thing, there's still Aladdin.

Other than that, what about old musicals? I was a huge Sound of Music fan as a kid. Also ... Mary Poppins, King and I. There's also Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willy Wonka (the old one, I haven't seen the new). I confess that while I really liked Chitty Chitty, the whole capturing-of-kids thing freaked me a little the first time I saw it ... I was about 5 I think.

[avariell]

bedknobs and broomsticks!!!!!
disney's robinhood is a personal favorite of mine


i am guessing this will be hit n miss with her. have you tried wizard of oz? not the witch parts but just the singing? maybe she could appreciate the flying monkeys at this age? ;) just don't tell her aunt josie is terrified of them :p

i have several kid dvds that you can borrow from me before you buy (might also try the library to figure out what she likes)

[BucknellAlum]

At that age my kids didn;t really follow a movie (other than Lion King, which I can recite word-for-word).

How about the Sesame videos like Best of Elmo? Or we had some concert videos by Raffi that I thought were great. They also enjoyed DragonTales and Kipper, both were pretty gentle and didn't rev them up.

I remember my kids being freaked out by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. . .but if Monsters Inc doesn't bother her, maybe they won't. How about Toy Story?

[Jazzmatazz49]

My three year old granddaughter loves Cars for some reason. She also likes a Baby Einstein song video. I doubt if this is politically correct these days, the dollar DVDs I bought at Walmart of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and other old cartoons crack her up. Kids these days are not used to that kind of comedy!

[LA98]

DS1 is 4 now and still doesn't have a whole lot of interest in the longish movies you've mentioned. I think at your DD's age she's probably more suited to TV-episode-length shows, especially since you mentioned she'll be watching for only 30 minutes, she'll see a complete episode of something. At 2.5 DS *LOVED* Bear in the Big Blue House (animals, fun songs, nothing confusing or upsetting). He still enjoys those episodes now. The Wiggles are also good for the ones who love music. DS would get up and dance and sing all the words to the songs. I would think she'd probably like Dora or Diego too, although may not follow the stories yet. Does your library have children's videos you can browse?

[LaraW]

We didn't really start letting my DD watch TV until she was closer to 3.5 (she is 4 now) but things that she likes are Jay Jay the Jetplane, Maisy, the Wiggles (its pretty much all singing), Bear in the Big Blue House. She also watched the Christmas specials this year, and really liked Charlie Brown.

She is totally into princesses :rolleyes: and I have let her watch Cinderella and just this week we tried Beauty and the Beast. She has also recently liked Charlotte's Web.

We occasionally watch Sesame Street and she was on a Mr. Rogers kick for a while. If you get that in your area maybe tape a few b/c they're nearly impossible to get on DVD. 30 years+ of shows on TV and there are about 6 episodes available on DVD.

One other thing that my DD has liked, and I'm pretty OK with letting her watch, is that there are different DVDs put out by Scholastic which are kind of animated versions of childrens' books. You get 3-4 stories on a disc, and they are pretty much the book illustrations brought to "life" and with a narrator and music. We've enjoyed those, especially when we have gotten ones of books she's familiar with.

DH and I are fairly anti-TV but we also recognize that TV does have its place so we dole it out. She watches 30-45 min maybe about 3-4 days a week.

[tiffanic]

my little one really loved Max and Ruby, even now he will watch it with me. I liked that it is in 15 minute episodes so I could cut it off whenever I needed. It would work well with a young attention span. I found a couple dvds at the library that had six episodes per disc and took those on trips.

[lindrusso]

It's so hard to figure out what will bother a child and what won't. My younger DS who is 10 can take just about anything and is always asking to watch movies that we are not ready to let him watch, but was very distraught when we watched March of the Penguins! The scenes with the suffering baby penguins were just too much for him for some reason. I felt so bad! But he had watched nature shows with death before, so I really didn't think about it. But something about the cute, little, defenseless babies....... :(

I loved the Toy Story movies, but Sid - the demented kid next door - might be a bit much for some kids. My kids didn't have any problem with it, but I sometimes when I watch it, I think they overdid that kid a bit.

Can't think of any movies off the top of my head that haven't already been mentioned.........

[HRJ]

At 2.5, I agree with Lori that it might be best to try episodes of kids' TV shows on DVD, especially if you're limiting to 30 minutes at a time.

Aside from the *huge* variety of Sesame Street DVDs available -- they have one where they do "Peter and the Wolf," which is just excellent -- at that age my DS loved Kipper. I can't say enough about Kipper -- sweet stories, well-drawn, totally tolerable for adults as well as kids.

Dragon Tales and Clifford the Big Red Dog would be good, too -- both of those are a bit "preachy" for my tastes (meaning, they're kinda heavy-handed with the morality lessons, not religious in any way), but DS always liked them.

I know a lot of kids love the Wiggles at that age -- my DS never took to them for some reason, but you might want to give it a try.

Also, the new Curious George series on PBS is excellent, and I believe the first season is out on DVD. The built-in science and math lessons may go over your DD's head, but the stories are sweet and it's very well-done.

And, I can't say enough about the Scholastic Video Series that Lara mentioned -- you can often find them at TJ Maxx or Marshall's. Intriguing, top-quality animation and narration; great stories. Also, after we saw the DVDs, DS would want to read the books, too, so it helped us build our library and encourage reading as well.

I can't remember DS being interested in a full-length movie until he was at least 4 (if I'm remembering correctly). He did like the Toy Story movies a lot, but I do know a lot of kids who were scared by the Sid the Vicious Kid plotline. Cars is cute, but it didn't come along until my DS was a little older.

DS found Chicken Run very scary when he was about 3-ish -- couldn't get through it; it was a very bad choice for us. Also, Aladdin was too scary for him at that age, and, I found a lot of it objectionable from a content standpoint, so that was a movie that got recycled from our house.

One thing about the older, "classic" cartoons -- be aware that some of them contain stuff that was considered quite acceptable/harmless in its day, but, that plays differently in this day and age. This one is truly a personal judgment call, of course, but, it was sort of a rude awakening for me -- I'd forgotten the extent of racial/ethnic stereotyping, in particular, that used to be commonplace. We had this problem with some old Rocky & Bullwinkle episodes we got for DS -- also with the Disney Peter Pan movie that was re-released last year.

Helene

[slknight]

Do you have a Netflix subscription? I've found that to be a great way to get movies and tv shows for DS who is very sensitive to a lot of movies. He couldn't even make it through the first 10 minutes of Peter Pan, for example, and he's 4.5. :o

[ljt2r]

The Netflix subscription is not a bad idea. Starting next Thursday my youngest is doing a lap time (some kind of story hour) at the library so I will check out their collection then as well. Probably bc I prefer owning books, I always forget the library--especially for things like DVDs. :rolleyes: :o

Re: the kids' tv shows... well honestly I just can't stomach most of them and this is for the evenings to watch with her. I would probably do no tv instead of that, although maybe we will try some from the library before I totally nix them. I already do Sesame Street every day--that is enough of that kind of thing for me! ;) I too was surprised that she likes some of these movies--my mom asked one day if she could watch Finding Nemo and I said sure whatever, figuring she wouldn't last, and she watched the whole thing. Same with Shrek.

I know what you mean about the Disney movies and what is acceptable now. I have some issues with their portrayal of women in the fairy tales in particular and while I can't imagine not letting my kids watch them (in the long run), I also cannot imagine doing it now, while it all just soaks into her little brain with no discussion.

[DanaSD]

have you tried your library? Our library has a huge section of kids movies - Disney and everything else. And its all free to check out for a week up to 5 DVDs I think.

My son is 2 and he loves to watch his Signing Times videos and he learns a lot from them. We just got Jungle Book and he loves to march with the elephants but he does get scared during some parts (loud noises). A friend of ours has a son who loves Little Einsteins (TV show) - they do a lot with classical music.

[mrswaz]

I'll echo the Curious George tv series- as well as the recent movie. The movie wasn't too exciting, but it's grown on me, and it's fairly short as far as movies go. DS loves that one and watches it often.

A surprise one for my kids has been the Barbie movies. Once I got over the nauseating fact that thay are Barbie in the first place, I sat down and watched them with my kids and surprisingly approved of them. The scary stuff isn't too scary, and they're actually pretty well done. We have Swan Lake and the 12 Dancing Princesses, and constantly are borrowing the Fairytopia ones from the library. They are shorter too- which is a bonus to me.

[sneezles]

I think the music in some of the movies may signify that something ominous is happening or about to happen. So since she's tuned into music you may have to watch some of them first to know when the dum-de-dum-dum music starts. As for Ice Age there's a lot of yelling going on and that little creature is so hyper he drove me nuts at times!:rolleyes:

I loved watching these when the boys were young Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and Mary Poppins.

[mightyh]

I know you are not as interested in TV shows, but you might try some DVDs (through Netflix or the library) of Blue's Clues. I prefer the original version with Steve, but my kids liked all of them, especially at age 2.5. I did not find it to be a grating kids program where most of the others I did.

[beacooker]

Another tv show you can get on DVD: Peep and the Big Wide World, which plays on Discovery Kids. My 3.5 yo is kind of getting tired of it now, but it has been his favorite show since he was 2. And DH and I really enjoy watching it too - it is hilarious, and doesn't have any of the cloying cuteness of many kids shows. Joan Cusack is the narrator, and the show has kind of a dry sense of humor that the adults can catch, but plenty of humor that my kids enjoyed, too.

[potato_moose]

This doesn't help you much right now, as this movie is still in the theaters, but I recommend Bee Movie. I haven't actually seen it, as my IL's took my 2 1/2 year old to see it. But she spent a week afterward saying "I like the movie!" And a friend of mine also took her 2 year old to see it and he loved it as well. I've heard most adults don't like it, but the kids seem to love it.

[Laurielee]

My grandson who will be 3 next week was in town last week-end, I rented jungle book and he loved it. He really wanted to watch Peter Pan but they were out. Before I made it blockbuster the next day I played Monsters, Inc which is the only dvd I had. like your daughter, he really liked it. I thought he would be scared. but SD says there is a cartoon about a friendly monster on he watches so that helped him.

Laurie

[gertdog]

I'll third (fourth?) the Scholastic series. DS is 2 yrs. 3 mos and he hasn't done any TV watching until recently. He still doesn't watch any programs, but I picked up Goodnight Gorilla and Bear Snores On from the Scholastic series at Marshalls and I love them. He loves them too- loves recognizing familiar characters and stories, and the length is just right- only about 8-10 minutes per story. I let him watch one or two at a time. They are very low-key, beautifully-done, totally age-appropriate reproductions of children's stories. I plan to rent a few more through Netflix, but for the moment DS is enthralled with these.

I also picked up a Sesame Street's greatest hits DVD, which is just a compilation of various well-known songs (C is for Cookie, I Love Trash, Rubber Duckie). There is a sort-of storyline tying them all together, but we mostly just watch a few songs at a time then turn it off. If your DD likes Sesame Street songs, she might enjoy this.

Helene, thanks for the mention of the Curious George series- I have seen a few minutes of it on PBS and was impressed- I'll have to look for the DVD.

[Laurielee]

What and where do you get these scholastic books. GS birthday is next week and I am at a loss as what to get him, he has everything. I want to get him something he can learn from

laurie

[hlao23]

Other than that, what about old musicals?

My sister's 2 boys (4 and 6 years old) LOVE the new movie Hairspray :D I also remember being addicted to Sound of Music as a kid.

[Jezebelly]

When my daughter was 2.5, it was the Teletubbies. I think there's something new now; the Oobies or something like that?

But yes, the library should have a good selection of cute little movies. We used to rent the Beatrix Potter ones.