Netflix Watch Instantly: Small Versions of Adults Edition

Oooh, I like this! I just set the kids up with their own Netflix queue so they can do exactly this on their upstairs TV.

It's mostly Disney stuff on the queue so far for my 8-year-old girl and Pokemon/Avatar for my son (6), but there's some other very fun stuff available. I'm going to try to do a "movie night" from Instant View at least once a week with them.

These are pretty unsurprising recommendations, but some of the stuff that is on Instant View right now is:

Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
Matilda
James & the Giant Peach

The Matilda movie was just OK for me, but if it gets the kids interested in Roald Dahl, it's worth it.

Dying to hear some other recommendations.

Peter Dinklage will be thrilled to see this thread!

Also, A Town Called Panic.

My daughter had the same reaction to Labyrinth. She watched on VHS at an intersession camp and was kind of weirded out by it, but she talked about it incessantly. So that's cool!

My DVD/blu-ray collection is pretty stagnant right now. Seems like I barely have time to keep up with Mad Men and Breaking Bad, so augmenting the already ridiculous collection I amassed before spawning seems like a luxury. But I love, love, love Netflix streaming. And now the kids will be able to get on and adjust their own queues, watch on the laptop, get recommendations, etc. And I can swoop in with a recommendation from time to time as well for "movie night". Looking forward to it! I clearly need to counteract Zach and Cody with some more meaty fare.

How rapid-fire are the subtitles? I was intrigued by the recommendation in the other thread, but my six-year-old is still a little deliberate with his reading.

And speaking of Dinklage, ELF! It's not on instant view, but my kids loved it, and it falls in that rare category of fun to watch for parents too.

My 2 year old loves the 40's Superman cartoons and the Adam West Batman movie. The kid's a superhero nut at 2!

Yes. A million times yes. I daresay, I feel less comfortable with kids getting some of the jokes in the last 3 Shrek films than I do with anything in Town Called Panic.

I'll re-ask the question to you, Justin. How fast-and-furious to the subtitles come at you in Town Called Panic? My oldest can read pretty fast, but my son is still fairly methodical in his reading, and it might piss him off if he can't keep up...which sounds like it would be a damn shame.

My 4 year old loves the Scooby Doo cartoon movies on Watch Instantly. Most are in HD and they run about 60-70 mins a movie. They've released one every year or two since 2000. They're not nearly as classic and great as what we had as kids, but they aren't bad. Lots of celebrity guest voices who do a good job and the stories are cute. I enjoy watching them with him. I'm a little liberal in letting my kid watch TV/cartoons that are a bit over his age group supposedly so he's been watching these for a year or so. I bet both your 3 and 8 year old woud like them, but they may be a bit scary for the 3 year old. To date only the Japanase Samurai one was too scary and dark for my son.

Also, the classic Looney Tunes movies are out there.

Well, there aren't exactly long soliloquies happening in that flick. A lot of the lines are simply 4 or 5 word sentences, and for a lot of it, the inflection is everything (especially for Steven). The film moves along briskly, but I'm pretty sure if they can read, period, they'll be able to keep up.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (I don't think I saw that mentioned on here).

They keep adding Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes to Instant, and I keep loving them for doing so. The big highlight of the most recent additions for me: Santa Claus, the Mexican romp into yuletide insanity and night terrors (those fucking reindeer, my God...).

Edit: crap, didn't realize this was a thread for recommending to kids. That said, I grew up watching MST3k, so this might still be a valid recommendation (despite the fact that some of the jokes might go sailing right over the heads of young'uns).

There's also a significant amount of old Nickelodeon cartoons on Instant (Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, Angry Beaver, etc) that should be good watching for children.

Thanks, Justin. We'll give it a shot sometime.

I'll second the recommendation for Avatar: The Last Airbender as well. My son and I are making it through the first season right now after seeing the slightly less awesome theatrical version.

My kids love Labyrinth, so that's a good one.

I was trying to watch Voltron with my girls last night, but they really didn't seem interested on that first episode (and I was getting bored myself). At least Robotech seems to hold up a lot better over the years.

Knowing what the characters are saying certainly enhances A Town Called Panic, but any kid would enjoy it without context, trust me.

Watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on Instant yesterday, and I actually enjoyed it. My 3 year old daughter and wife liked it as well.

Lowered expectations might have helped, but it made me laugh numerous times and had some fairly inventive stuff going on with it.

Many old classic NickToons are on there...

Rugrats, Real Monsters, and Rocko for instance

And REN & STIMPY! Sure it's demented, but they let us watch it when we were kids and we turned out all right... mostly.

Super Mario Bros. Super Show
Pink Panther Cartoon Anthology
Pink Panther: The Inspector Collection
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Mythbusters Series
Johnny Test
Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy and A&C Meet Frankenstein

My kids watched Anastasia last night and really enjoyed it. Some of the Rasputin stuff was a bit scary for my 5yr old (his body parts keep falling off).

Rasputin's, not my 5yr old's.

Ren & Stimpy was my favorite cartoon as a kid, and I turned out alright. I did a little dance when i saw it was on instant watch.

Did that dance happen to involve you singing the words Happy Happy Joy Joy?

Well, color me dumb. I think my default is now to have lowered expectations for pretty much any non-Pixar or non-Miyazaki. Looking at the reviews, I realize it was well reviewed. My wife just popped it on without warning, so I just made an assumption that it wouldn't be very good, and then was pleasantly surprised.

ren and stimpy's adult party is on there... alot more graphic then the Nick version...

lots of vomit eating

I saw an episode or two of that back when it was on Spike and kind of hated it. What was cool about the original Ren & Stimpy was that it was delightfully weird and twisted to kids and also had these even weirder, more twisted undercurrents that only adults would fully understand, but it was still appropriate for the kids, which made it a bit subversive. Bringing the adult elements to front actually made it feel even more juvenile and stupid. All "DERP DERP GROSS OUT GAGS! GAY JOKES! DURRRRRR." Took away all the charm.

I can vouch for how bad it is.

I give it credit for being the most uncomfortable thing I've ever seen. Some of that stuff, especially the uncensored beach/titty episode (on DVD), was right up there with Robert Crumb as far as fucked up cartoon sex fantasies go.

I think I misspoke (mistyped?), as I DID enjoy it! I saw down with laptop as it started, and quickly discarded the laptop and actually started watching it. I'll likely end up purchasing it for some rewatching on our family movie nights.

I had a friend telling me the other day that he started getting his kids into the shows he liked as a kid like the original Battlestar Galactica on Netflix. I would recommend going through there and seeing if any of the shows you liked when you were their age are on there.

Not sure if you've shown them it yet, but The NeverEnding Story is on Instant watch, as well as the original Karate Kid movies (though I'd stick with the first two).

And if you haven't yet gotten them hooked on B&W films, I'd try to first introduce them to Jimmy Sewart: Harvey and Mr. Smith are both on there.

Other suggestions:

Butch Cassidey & the Sundance Kid (I first saw it when I was about 8 and loved it to death)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Some of the original Trek films would be great around this age (namely II-IV)
Beetlejuice
Grumpy Old Men (as a segue into more Lemmon & Matthau!)
Short Circuit

And, most importantly at this age, the first three or four Pink Panther films are on here. Get them some Sellers!

I loved it. Unfortunately two of my three woke up with nightmares!

There are some great suggestions in here, but I have something different to add. My boys are 8 and 5 and they're really into the science and nature shows that are available. Mythbusters was mentioned earlier, but there are many national geographic docs available. They're short and pretty awesome.

I was watching the one on the Appalachian Trail and they started watching with me. The next day when I woke up they were in their room watching the Yellowstone special.

I've been impressed by the quality of the animation on some of those Scooby Doo cartoons, the last one (from 2010) Abracadabra-Doo Magic looks nice. Loved the opening credits too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMFnn...eature=related