Anything and everything on pbs

The Iron Giant for sure

Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli For Younger Kids:

• My Neighbor Totoro
• Ponyo
• Spirited Away
• The Secret World of Arietty
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Pom Poko

For maybe when they're getting older?

• Howl's Moving Castle
• The Wind Risees
• Castle In The Sky
• Princess Mononoke
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Some other decent ones for kids of various ages:

Animated/Claymation

Series:

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Alvin & The Chipmunks
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers
• Ducktales
• Gumby
• Inspector Gadget
• Rugrats
• Rescue Rangers
• Scooby Doo
• Yogi Bear

Movies:

• Alice in Wonderland
• All Dogs go to Heaven
• An American Tail
• An American Tail: Fivel Goes West
• The Black Cauldron
• Charlotte's Web
• FernGully
• James and the Giant Peach
• The Land Before Time
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Peter Pan
• Pinochio
• RobinHood
• The Rescuers
• The Rescuers Down Under
• The Secret of NIMH
• The Sword in the Stone
• Thumbelina
• Wallace and Gromit (All of them are great)

Live Action Series:

• Bill Nye The Science Guy
• Beakmans World

Movies:

• Beetlejuice
• Casper
• Ernest Goes to School (and all the other ones really)
• Honey I Shrunk The Kids
• Hook
• Jumanji
• E.T.
• Edward Scissor Hands
• Flubber
• Ghost Busters
• The Goonies
• Labyrinth (Creepier vibe than I remember)
• The Little Rascals
• Mary Poppins
• Mr. Mom
• Mrs. Doubtfire
• The Never Ending Story
• Operation Dumbo Drop
• Patch Adams
• Sandlot
• Short Circuit
• Space Jam
• Toys
• Tron
• We're back a dinosaur story
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Animated and Live Action)

Edit: awful formatting... And typos

All the ghibli movies

• The Lion King (original)
• Mulan (original)
• Jurassic Park
• Princess Mononoke
• Castle in the Sky
• Spirited Away
• Forrest Gump
• Aladdin (original)
• Men in Black
• Galaxy Quest
• Home Alone
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The Matrix
• Toy Story
• Top Gun
• The Terminator
• A Charlie Brown Christmas

• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Cowboy Bebop

Everything by Don Bluth. Literally everything his name on is childhood gold. Sometimes a little scary, but in a modern fairy tale sort of way.

An American Tale

All dogs go to Heaven

The Secret of NIMH

The Fox and the Hound

The Land Before Time

His movies never treated children like fools, a sentiment that's only recently becoming the standard for children's entertainment and he was doing it in the 80s.

From a purely positive influence? Anything on PBS (wasn't allowed to have cable growing up)

• Sesame Street
• Mr Roger's
• Any documentary with David Attenborough
• same with Jane Goodall
• Nova

Bill Nye would be the one non-PBS show I remember having an impact

Modernish stuff? Bluey, Miss Rachel, Pixar especially Wall-E, Brave, Coco, Soul, Encanto, Toy Story, Inside Out (when a little older). I like Coco, but Book of Life is an underrated alternative too.

Same Robin Hood as in the thumbnail for sure.

Also not yet listed, heavily 80s titles:

The Princess Bride

The Neverending Story

Beetlejuice

Big

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

The Dark Crystal

The Rats of Nimh

The Last Unicorn

An American Tale

Batteries Not Included

Fiddler on the Roof

Ghostbusters

Anything with the Muppets up to Treasure Island.

Back to the Future (2015 no longer the future fantasy it one was)

Cosmos

The Animals of Farthing Wood was a banger show. It's because of that show that I began drawing as a kid. I love how epic it is and how it comments on deeper themes that are still important today. Among other things, it's all about how the animals are forced to immigrate to another park after their forest is turned into a highway for humans. That even after the arrive after a horrible migration, their presence isn't welcome because they disturb the old ways in the new park. How wars break out, friendships and alliances are formed and how everyone has to find a way to coexist and also keep the ever looming presence of humans at bay. It is truly a brilliant show that teaches you so much about life, death, nature and tolerance. And you know, you can also just watch the show as an entertaining epic for kids about animals without looking into all the political stuff, because it never really tries to cram all it's themes down your throat in the annoying way that a lot of media does nowadays.

Maybe hold off on showing the little one this show until they are at least kindergarten age. It's a bit rough sometimes, but it is not damaging.

Also, congratulations on becoming a dad! Glædelig jul ❤️

EDIT: FRIENDS! I LITERALLY JUST FOUND A REMASTERED VERSION OF THE WHOLE SERIES ON YOUTUBE!

GO WATCH IT HERE❤️

Sesame Street, Muppets, The Electric Company.

Completely dated, but these older shows introduced a white kid in whitesville to a completely different world. Plus fun, educational in a way that kids don’t mind.

Avatar the last Airbender taught me to think when in conflict

Surprised PBS shows aren't mentioned more here, especially not Mr. Rogers Neighborhood being mentioned.

So in no particular order:

• Mr. Roger's Neighborhood: great show for teaching kids to how to navigate emotions and complex situations like death and discrimination but in ways they can understand

• Sesame Street: similar to Mr. Rogers but more for younger children

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: Made science accessible and fun for children. Good way to build a sense of curiosity and desire for experimentation

• Zoom: similar to Bill Nye in that it made me what to try all the activities they shared. Lots of fun games, recipes, brain teasers etc to keep kids busy. The fact that it had an all kid cast made it more accessible as a kid. Highly recommended since it seems less remembered than other PBS shows

Non-Educational:

• The Simpsons: this may be divisive but I grew up when they were super popular and I believe it helped develop my sense of humor. The earlier episodes were also pretty wholesome

• The Avatar (Last Airbender and Korra): well written show that is based on many East Asian cultures and touches on themes of depression, genocide, war, and hope (among many others). One of my favorite shows to this day

Bluey. It's a really positive modern show , so not really from my childhood but it beats everything else from my childhood.

Speedracer (probably at 5+ age)
Magic School Bus (original)
Arthur
Bluey
Bill Nye

Growing up I really loved the animated series Alfred Jonathan Quack or Alfred Kvakk in Norwegian. It's about a duck, his farther (I think) is a mole and the antagonist is a nazi-styled crow called Dolf. My favourite episode was about this island they visited which turned out to be the shell of this gigantic turtle.

Another favourite was The World of David the Gnome. It's about a gnome who lives in or under a tree and has all sorts of adventures with animals. The books it's based on are also great, I still have them.

I don't know if you can still find these series since they're pretty old.

Bluey and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (of not the remake) for kids shows. Bluey isa. Double hitter as it's great for kids and adults as well. There's a few tearjerker episodes in there for adults around life and kids growing up, along with just great ideas on how to parent and play. MMCH is great as it doesn't subscribe to the overly energetic constant cutting camera angles bullshit that's super addictive and bad for kids. Shows are calm, involve learning and problem solving, and are very much like 'okay get up and expend some energy, go play' at the end. Honorable mention to Tumbleleaf. It's for kids that are a bit older, is a little more weird, but still fun. Art style is cool on it as well. Best of luck building your library and congrats on being a dad!!

The Neverending Story

Franklin ( the one about the turtle ). For the most part, I feel like almost all the content is good enough to show a young child considering it's one of those preschool age shows. May look a little old considering it's 90s animation and also doesn't have any traditional box sets ( it seems to be nothing but sets based around themes ), but I'm pretty sure every episode is on a Canadian company's yt channel ( region locked AFAIK, so having a VPN is advised ). Treehouse Direct, IIRC.

Also, for a friendly enough way of teaching religious lessons in a non-preachy way that is actually not eye bleach or racist ( looking at you, FInding Jesus ) or low quality slop maid solely to profit off of religious parents, VeggieTales. There's a reason why it was popular with Christians and non-Christians alike, besides the silly songs.

They can be fun to watch ( not including the 4th VHS episode where 3 characters get thrown into a furnace and magically survive thanks to a "glowing man" ( probably Jesus ) ) and can be good for opening a conversation on things like being nice to others despite differences or being thankful for what you have or a number of other topics they covered from the Bible. Honestly, one of the greatest Christian animated cartoons ever considering how it is probably the only Christian cartoon parents who are and aren't Christian could probably both agree on letting their kids watch.

Cannot speak for modern VeggieTales, though, so take my words with a shaker of salt just in case modern VeggieTales isn't as lesson oriented or anywhere near as good as the originals from the 90s and early 2000s.

Do not underestimate silent film! My kiddo loved them as a toddler. Here are some great starters:

• The Cook (Roscoe Arbuckle)
• Sherlock Jr (Buster Keaton)
• Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)
• A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès)

Very engaging with way more visual gags than we usually see nowadays, few title cards, and a chance to talk with your kid about what is happening on screen (Ooh no, Charlie is stuck in the lions cage! How is Buster going to get on that runaway train?)

And eventually when they're a little older, getting your kid to sit down with you to watch Scorsese's Hugo (2011). It is an absolutely magical loveletter to early film, particularly Méliès' A Trip to the Moon.

Anything Mr. Bean.

Cosmos with Carl Sagan

His voice, the vocabulary he used along with the wonder he radiated as he described the amazing things that exist out there. All of it captured my young mind like a fantasy.

I'm getting all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

Just kidding. Don't show your kid this movie unless it's as a joke when they're older. This might have been a Psyop.

I do actually recommend:

Brave little Toaster and Fivel Goes West. Those seem to stick out as most positive that I remember.

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

Angry Beavers

Hey Arnold

Rocko’s Modern Life

Rugrats

Gullah Gullah Island

Legends of the Hidden Temple

Basically mid 90s Nickelodeon defined my childhood, and the media’s only gotten worse from there on out! :p

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version)

Good on you for setting up the Jellyfin early, it's still on my to-do list

My personal favorite childhood movies/shows that made a real impact:

Fern Gully, the Disney animated originals (not remakes) mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Nightmare Before Christmas, Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Star Trek 4 (the whales one), Toy Story

Star Trek TNG and TOS, the old school B/W Addams Family, OG Looney Tunes, Nature on PBS, Nova on PBS, Mr Rogers, Arthur

Additional stuff I'll be adding to my own kid's Jellyfin (when I get to it)

Avatar the Last Airbender, Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, She-Ra:PoP (the Netflix one), Bluey, Storybots, Puffin Rock, Lucas the Spider, Trash Truck, Ms Rachel, Daniel Tiger, Elinor Wonders Why

I am going to be a father and am making a jellyfin setup for my child. I want to start early to make a good collection of movies and shows.

Me too!

I have Bluey and The Magic Schoolbus.

Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (the first English cartoon I remember watching), Rolie Polie Olie, Martha Speaks, Franklin, Little Bear, Total Drama Island/Action, and 6Teen taught me English when I came to Canada.

Star Trek got me started on my path to tankiehood and sci-fi writing. Futurama also significantly contributed to the latter.

Pokemon, Wonderpets and Redwall (and many of the cartoons from the learning English category) got me interested in writing animal characters. Zootopia pissed me off so much with its inconsistent world building that it sealed the deal and made me obsessed with perfecting my own fictional animal world.

Family Guy taught me how not to write characters and their interactions.

How It's Made is just awesome and satisfying, no further comments.

• 3-2-1 Contact
• Cosmos (original)
• The Secret Life of Machines
• Connections with James Burke

flight of the navigator
rainbow brite and the star stealer
care bears 2
wizard of oz (39)
sword in the stone
mary poppins
bednobs and broomsticks
charlottes web
petes dragon
drop dead fred
mother goose rock n rhyme
any of the bugs bunny/daffy duck movies
the wizard
neverending story
the pagemaster
follow that bird
american tail
all dogs go to heaven
brave little toaster
princess bride
jetsons meet the flintstones
the flintstones (94)
little monsters
mister wizards world
fraggle rock
muppet babies

ok that's enough i got carried away :)

Once Upon A Forest (1993) [idmb:tt0107745]

In the wake of an environmental disaster, the children have to work together to solve problems, and save their friend.

Sesame Street is great for exposure to a variety of types of people and some cultures. PBS in general is pretty good for that.

Bluey is fun for parents and kids, though it can give kids some high expectations from their parents.

Numberblocks is a good math concepts/counting show.

Storybots is a good learning about the world kind of show.

Paw Patrol has some life lesson kinds of things, but has more action/adventure stuff.

As a relatively new father (my daughter is around 2.5 years old), you have plenty of time. They'll be a loving little lump for a while.

What she has loved so far:

• Bluey (a beautiful show about parenting in disguise as a kids show)
• Mister Roger's Neighborhood (all episodes available on archive.org, but they have to be reorganized/renamed at least for Kodi tagging)
• The Mhppets Show (and anything else muppets)
• (Modern) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (cg show, and Clubhouse+, the short renewal)
• Dragon Prince
• Sesame Street
• Moana (2 to a lesser extent)
• Finding Nemo/Dory
• Lion King
• Little Mermaid
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Mary Poppins
• Aladin
• Frozen (and all the spinoff stuff)
• Mickey Donald and Goofy: Three Musketeers (this is her current obsession, probably watched it 10 times in the last week)

I'll come back and edit this with my own shows later.