In an effort to prove there's more to their original
program than women's prison and Kevin Spacey speaking directly into the camera
in a light, Southern accent, Netflix recently announced a plan to reboot
'90s-kids-book-series-turned-TV-series Magic School Bus for a
new generation of kiddos. To hold your kids over until the computer animated
show reboot debuts in 2016, Noodle, a company that provides advice on
education decisions, rounded up six
great educational and kid-appropriate TV shows and movies currently available
to stream on Netflix that are quick fixes to any rainy day home with the
kiddos.
1.
The Blue Planet (2001)
A huge, high-quality undertaking from the folks at
BBC, the eight-episode series The Blue Planet is one of those
documentaries worth buying an HDMI cable and hooking a computer up the big
screen for. This exploration of planet earth's vast seas is
plenty educational, tracking the amazing life of everything from coral reefs to
frozen Antarctic life, with an emphasis on the interconnectedness of
everything. The series was notably a precursor to the crazy popular,
Oprah-approved Planet Earth series, making it a great watch
for curious, science-minded kids.
2. Chops (2007)
Chops is
a great watch for kids who love music, and in particular, kids who are already
passionate about an instrument. The inspiring 2007 documentary stresses the payoff of
working towards perfection as it follows a Jacksonville, Florida jazz band
attempting to win top honors at the world class Essentially Ellington Festival
at Lincoln Center. Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz
at Lincoln Center, also makes an appearance.
3. The
Magic School Bus (1994-1997)
The original animated Magic School Bus series
is an easy sell to kids based on premise alone: What if, instead of repeated
field trips to your mediocre local museum and awkward old-timey reenactment
villages, you could go to space, hang out with dinosaurs, and shrink down to
the point where ants were terrifyingly human-sized? Therein lies the appeal of Magic School Bus, which
currently has all four of its educational, space and time traversing original
seasons available on Netflix.
4. Sesame
Street (2006-2011)
The indisputable king of family-friendly educational
entertainment currently has episodes between 2006-2011 available to stream on
Netflix. Your kids can expect songs on the joy of cookies,
culture references way out of their reach; celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris
showing up as someone named the "Shoe Fairy," and a lot more. I mean,
I don't really need to sell the joys of Sesame Street to you,
do I?
5. Turtle:
The Incredible Journey (2011)
Like March of the Penguins, Turtle:
The Incredible Journey is one of those film reminders of how
incredible animals are, how tough they have it, and how us human folk tend to
make things even tougher. This warm water tale chronicles the journey of a
female loggerhead as she battles the odds to survive a trying 25-year trek from
a Florida beach to Africa and back to lay her eggs that only one in ten
thousand turtles survives. It's also available on Hulu.
6. Walking
with Dinosaurs (1999)
This six-part BBC-produced
award-winning documentary is a perfect, kid-friendly and educational way to
quench your kid's insatiable love of all things big, loud, and vaguely
reptilian. While the CGI — top notch when the
series was released in 1999 — might look a little dated now, the series still
gets high marks for its quality and narrative style, which brings the action to
life by following the stories of individual dinosaurs and dinosaur families,
and not treating them as ancient history.
For more Noodlings and education
related advice from Noodle, check out www.noodle.org.
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