What Your Kids Can Be Watching On Netflix
Want to make sure that your kids aren’t just mindlessly staring at random cartoons or bored of the same old dvd’s (there’s only so many times they can watch Frozen, right!?). Our friends at Netflix have helped us find some of the best kids shows with a quick guide to the top 10 picks (because there’s nothing wrong with a little screen time now and then, especially when they’re watching something good – and especially if they wake up too early at the weekend). With suggestions for all ages, we’ve got those hot summer days covered.
Meet the Beat Bugs: Jay, Kumi, Crick, Buzz and Walter, all with the charm and energy of five knockabout, lovable kids. They are best friends who band together to explore and learn in an overgrown suburban backyard, which to them is their entire universe. Beat Bugs incorporates songs from the Lennon/McCartney ‘Northern Songs’ catalogue sung by some of the most popular musicians from today.
Based on the award-winning educational apps, the StoryBots are curious little creatures who live in the world beneath our screens and go on fun adventures to help answer kids’ questions.
Justin and his best friends Olive and Squidgy set off on fantastical adventures throughout time, told from every corner of the world.
Word Party is a vocabulary building show from The Jim Henson Company that follows four adorable baby animals as they sing, dance and play. The show invites our youngest viewers to help teach the baby animals new words, practice these new words themselves, and celebrate these achievements with a “Word Party!” Word Party is produced using the groundbreaking Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary technology from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop that allows puppeteers to perform digitally animated characters in real time – enabling the animation to be more lifelike and spontaneous.
An animated pre-school series and Netflix original, Puffin Rock is set on a beautiful island off the coast of Ireland. Oona, is a charismatic and plucky young puffling who, along with her ever curious little brother, Baba, explore the diverse array of sea, sky, land and underground creatures introducing a combination of pre-school themes and soft natural history learnings to young viewers. Acclaimed actor, Chris O’Dowd narrates the English language series, with a diverse group of well-known international talent joining across the globe.
Animated action-comedy Skylanders Academy follows the heroic adventures of the Skylanders team, a ragtag group of heroes with unique elemental skills who travel the vast Skylands universe, protecting it from evil-doers. They achieve victory by setting aside their egos, learning to trust one another and fighting as one to maintain harmony and balance in the land. Led by showrunner Eric Rogers (Futurama), the series features the voices of Justin Long (Ask Me Anything) as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical, Phineas and Ferb) as Stealth Elf, Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) as Eruptor and Norm MacDonald (Saturday Night Live) as Glumshanks.
One for all the family – the spinoff series, Fuller House, takes us through the adventures that began in 1987 on Full House, with veterinarian D.J. Tanner-Fuller (Candace Cameron-Bure) recently widowed and living in San Francisco. D.J.’s younger sister / aspiring musician Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) and D.J.’s lifelong best friend/fellow single mother Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), along with Kimmy’s feisty teenage daughter Ramona, all move in to help take care of D.J.’s three boys — the rebellious 12-year-old Jackson, neurotic 7-year-old Max and her newborn baby, Tommy Jr.
The whole family will enjoy following the Nekton family’s underwater adventures and learning about the ocean and deep sea life.
From the limitless imagination of master storyteller Guillermo del Toro comes a tale of two worlds set to collide in the epic saga DreamWorks Trollhunters. When ordinary teenager Jim Lake Jr. stumbles upon a mystical amulet on his way to school one morning, he inadvertently discovers an extraordinary secret civilization of mighty trolls beneath his small town of Arcadia. Strong-willed and seeking adventure but wholly unprepared for the responsibilities thrust upon him, Jim is forced to take on the exalted mantle of Trollhunter, sworn to protect the good trolls from powerful enemies bent on revenge.
In this modern day remake, 16-year-old Tarzan is returned from the African jungle to a London boarding school where he is a “fish-out-of-water” and challenges conformity. As the title suggests, Jane is central to the story, alongside Tarzan, as his ultimate partner in solving environmental injustice, crimes and mysteries.
