Parents, Rejoice! Here Are Netflix's Kid-Friendly August Additions
There's a whole lot of family-friendly goodness hitting Netflix next month.
Instant access makes streaming content for kids a boon to parents, but it comes with some complications. Favorite shows disappear without warning. You can only watch the usual suspects so many times before Caillou haunts your nightmares. Amid the uncertainty, though, a hero emerges: Netflix’s family-friendly August slate, which includes a packed slate of family fare. Yes, it's losing Clifford the Big Red Dog. But it's gaining so much more—just in time for the next heat wave.
- Relations with Russia are ... not great. Let this Russian animated series be the bridge that unites us. *Masha and the Bear* follows the adventures of a precocious young girl and, well, a bear. Simple as that. (Less simple: one of the original Russian episodes has more than 1.5 *billion* YouTube views.) Its humor leans toward slapstick, and the English-language voices don't quite synchronize with the mouths because, again, it's Russian. But the adventures are broken up into seven-minute slices, making it a perfect palate cleanser.
- You know how some kid shows do music surprisingly well (I see you, *Bubble Guppies*) and some are a tortured mess? I don't know much about *Beat Bugs*, but I do know that it doesn't leave the tunes to chance: The episodes are peppered with covers of Beatles songs by contemporary artists. Come for the life lessons, sure, but stay for Eddie Vedder giving "Magical Mystery Tour" his very best warble.
- *The Little Prince* made it to theaters as a (very) limited release, which is a shame, because it has some of the most stunning visuals of any children's film in recent memory. Combined with a stellar voice cast---Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, and Paul Rudd, for starters---it makes for a 108 minutes that is not just watchable, but eminently *re*watchable. There are fewer things more important in a kid's movie.
- True, documentaries aren't typically toddler bait. And yes, admittedly, this was originally released in IMAX 3D, and your Vizio won't be recreating that magic. But! There's something to be said for staring at butterflies for 44 minutes. Or for however long your kids are able to sit.
- For those of you wondering to yourselves, "hey, I wonder what those JibJab guys have been up to since that viral hit from the [2004 election](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Q-sRdV7SY)," the answer is apparently "building a robot-themed edutainment empire." The general theme of the wildly popular *StoryBots* YouTube series seems to be "slightly annoying robots introduce surprisingly good animated music videos about science and such." Now they'll be doing it for 24 or so minutes at a stretch.
- *Puffin Rock* is the greatest Irish import since *Riverdance*. There, I said it. An ethereal score uplifts these vignettes about two young puffin siblings and their animal friends, which include a gassy shrew and fox—who, it's implied, could snap and eat everyone at any moment. Narrated by Chris O'Dowd of *The IT Crowd* and *Bridesmaids*, with each episode broken into mercifully snappy seven-minute chunks, this is the most pleasant animated show on any streaming service. And now there's more of them!
- I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with the books upon which *Bottersnikes and Gumbles* is based. It has two undeniable advantages though. First, it's an Australian series set in the desert and features all manner of dystopian creatures, which in my book makes it preschool *Mad Max*. And second, just say it out loud a few times. Bottersnikes and Gumbles. Bottersnikes and Gumbles. *Bottersnikes and Gumbles*. The name alone makes it worth a shot.
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Brian Barrett is the executive editor of WIRED. Previously he was the editor in chief of the tech and culture site Gizmodo and was a business reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest daily newspaper. ... Read More
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