Barney’s coming back, y’all, with Mattel announcing a new, animated update to Barney & Friends, the slightly unnerving 1992–2010 series. It’s a shocking thought, but kids who watched Barney back in the day might reasonably have kids at about the right age to catch the new one. Besides that, Netflix kicked off a reboot of Teletubbies last year, and Disney+ is bringing back the Fox Kids X-Men animated series from the ‘90s later this year. Of course, these are just examples; pretty much anything that was ever even remotely popular is getting a reboot, and kid shows are no exceptions.
Some of these updates, though, are actually pretty good, and sometimes better than their predecessors, if we’re willing to admit it. Generations who grew up on 30-minute toy commercials will be surprised to find that good shows don’t work quite as hard to push merch to kids these days, and standards in animation have (generally) risen. So, if you want to introduce your own kids to the stuff you liked when you were their age, there are actually some pretty good options.
Here, we’re generally avoiding shows that call on previous knowledge—kids should be able to go in relatively fresh. We’re also leaving out anything in the gritty reboot category, and sticking with shows that truly are kid-appropriate.
