This is a note from my husband, who loves film and animation:
This is Alma’s husband Mike, and I wanted to throw my 2 cents in here to an arena I feel comfortable offering my humble yet knowledgeable opinion.
That being children’s entertainment. Even though Alma and I are not yet parents (but will be fairly soon), I have already stockpiled my favorite children’s entertainment. It’s taken me years to build up my collection.
The entertainment I have chosen happens to be the most beloved of my childhood, and my hope is that if I expose my children to it early before they get wind of Spongebob and his Magical square pants or something of the like, then I will have accomplished something great in providing a similar experience to what I had.
I find that the classics still hold up perfectly well for the most part. I speak primarily of Disney Classic Short films, which are available through the Disney Treasures line. The only problem is that some of the releases such as The Complete Goofy (which contains every short animated film they ever made with Goofy as the lead character) are out of print and now cost upwards to $70+.
My goal here is to expose kids to fun wholesome entertainment that has a little class and artistry involved as opposed to Barney and Teletubbies.
So here are my top five recommendations
1. Mickey and the Beanstock. Very entertaining feature-length presentation that also tells the story of Bongo the circus bear and how he falls in love.
2. Seuss Celebration. A collection of Dr. Suess cartoons made for TV in the 60s and 70s. My favorite is the Lorax.
3. Walt Disney Treasures. Rareties ( I could go into why I love each of these cherry-picked selections from the 2 disc set. You can still get this one for $29.99. I still think it’s a steal for what you get.) A few of my favorites:
Ben and Me * Toot, Whistle, Plunk & Boom * Ferdinand the Bull * In the Bag * Chicken Little * The Pelican and the Snipe * Paul Bunyan * Morris, the Midget Moose * Lambert, the Sheepish Lion
4. The Iron Giant. This is the work of the director of the Incredibles before traditional hand-drawn animation was nearly obliterated by the powers that be. It deserves to be considered a modern classic.
5. Everything Jim Henson was responsible for while he was alive.
I hope I have given you some ideas you may not have thought about previously. Please email me if you have any questions.
mikeloveland (at) gmail (dot) com
Another note from Alma: I found out recently that any Disney cartoon comes with a lifetime warranty. So if you have purchased a Disney cartoon that has been damaged, you can send the broken DVD in to Disney and they will send you a replacement, even if the movie is back in the vault.
