17 March 2020
The best kids’ shows for a bumper binge-watch session
Here are a few of the Showmax titles that have all earned coveted 100% critics’ ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. Whichever grown-up said “It’s just a kids’ show” clearly hadn’t sat down to watch these classics with their children.
SpongeBob SquarePants
Age: FPB: 7-9 PG | Common Sense Media: 6+
“The most charming toon on television, and one of the weirdest.” – The New York Times
Listing SpongeBob at #22 on their list of the greatest American television series of all time, TV critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz said, “SpongeBob SquarePants is an absurdist masterpiece that Salvador Dalí and Groucho Marx would have watched together in their smoking jackets.”
That may seem like high praise for a kids’ TV show about the misadventures of a talking sea sponge who works at a fast food restaurant and lives in an underwater pineapple, but 20 years into its run, SpongeBob is still the most in-demand kids’ show in the US, according to Parrot Analytics’ June 2019 survey.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus calls it “an irresistible celebration of positivity” while The New York Times says, “It’s the most charming toon on television, and one of the weirdest… It’s also good, clean fun.”
The now-mega-franchise has spawned a comic book series, theme park rides, kiddy meals, two cinematic release movies (with a third on the way next year), and a Broadway stage musical with 12 Tony nominations. A prequel series, Kamp Koral, about a 10-year-old SpongeBob and his friends at summer camp in the kelp forest, is also in production.
Accolades: 100% critics rating and #6 Best Animated Series of All Time on Rotten Tomatoes; winner of five Annie Awards and four Emmys; nominated for a further 16 Emmys and three BAFTAs; has won the Kids’ Choice Award every year but one for the past 17 years.
Star vs The Forces Of Evil
Age: FPB: PG V | Common Sense Media: 7+
Guest stars include Golden Globe winner Michael C Hall.
Whacky, wonderful and absurd, this animated Disney series introduces us to magical princess Star Butterfly, heiress to the royal throne of the Butterfly Kingdom. For her 14th birthday, Star is given the family heirloom: a magical wand… and promptly sets fire to the castle. In a bid to tame her recklessness, her parents send her to Earth as a foreign exchange student.
Here, she teams up with her roommate, Marco Diaz, who teaches her about being human, while she in turn passes on lessons in crazy fun and adventure. Using dimensional scissors that can open portals, Star and Marco travel to exotic dimensions while guarding Star’s wand from half-bird, half-man Mewni monster Ludo.
The show’s cast is led by Critics Choice winner Eden Sher (Sue Heck from The Middle), who voices Star Butterfly, with Emmy nominee Alan Tudyk (Firefly) as villain Ludo. Guest stars have included Golden Globe winner Michael C Hall, Emmy winner Keith David and Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch.
Accolades: Season 1 has a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and is rated 8.1/10 on IMDB. The series won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual in Animation (Michelle Park) and has been nominated for five Annie Awards.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Age: FPB: 7-9 PG | Common Sense Media: 8+
This hyper-intelligent show’s animation style brings anime and shades of Miyazaki to an American cartoon.
In a war-torn world of elemental magic, Aang, a 12-year-old boy with the power to manipulate air, awakens from a hundred-year sleep to undertake a dangerous quest. As the Avatar, Aang’s destiny is to restore peace by ending the Fire Nation’s imperialistic war against the other nations and bring peace to the world.
This hyper-intelligent show’s animation style brings anime and shades of Miyazaki to an American cartoon that IGN described as “one of the greatest animated series of all time.”
The show spawned a comic book series, action figures, trading cards, a best-selling video game franchise, a live-action movie (directed by M. Night Shyamalan), and another animated series – The Legend of Korra – with a new live-action movie slated for 2020.
Before starring in almost every other show on this list (as well as Phineas and Ferb, Steven Universe and Gravity Falls), voice legend Dee Bradley Baker was Appa in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series drew other big names to its voice cast, including Oscar nominee Mako as Uncle, Jason Isaacs as Commander Zhao, and cameos from George Takei, Daniel Dae Kim, Ron Perlman and Serena Williams.
Accolades: 100% critics rating for all three seasons, and #10 Best Animated Series of All Time on Rotten Tomatoes; #13 Top Rated TV Of All Time, IMDB, with a 9.2/10 rating; won an Emmy, six Annie Awards, and a Kids’ Choice Award.
Adventure Time
Age: FPB: 7-9 PG V | Common Sense Media: 10 +
“Adventure Time makes me wish I were a kid again.” – Entertainment Weekly
Off-the-wall cartoon series Adventure Time has an almost cult following among kids, from preteens to teens, as well as adults. The series follows 12-year-old Finn and his adopted brother Jake – a wise dog with the power to change shape and size at will – on their adventures in the surreal, post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, which they share with Princess Bubblegum, the Ice King, Marceline, BMO and the candy people.
The voice cast includes Spongebob himself – Emmy and Annie Award winner Tom Kenny – and top award-winning voice artists John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) and Hynden Walch (who also voices Starfire in Teen Titans Go!).
“Adventure Time makes me wish I were a kid again, just so I could grow up to be as awesome as the kids who are currently watching Adventure Time will be,” says Entertainment Weekly, while The A.V. Club says this is “basically what would happen if you asked a bunch of 12-year-olds to make a cartoon – only it’s the best possible version of that, like if all the 12-year-olds were super geniuses and some of them were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the Marx Brothers.”
Accolades: 100% critics rating and #19 Best Animated Series of All Time on Rotten Tomatoes and a five star rating on Common Sense Media; rated 8.6/10 and #169 Top Rated TV Of All Time, IMDB; winner of eight Emmys, a BAFTA, two Annie Awards and a Teen Choice Award.
