Kid Entertainment With Adult Nerd Appeal

Since I mostly focus on the "unsterilized, unsafe" varieties of entertainment, I don't have much to say about stuff for the kiddies. But I noticed, even before having kids of my own, that every once in a glorious blue moon there are movies aimed mostly at kids (or families with children under 12) that also have adult nerd appeal.

The two that come to mind, which I saw and loved loooong before our first child was born, are The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. (Both by the same director, actually!)

I'm curious what entertainment you can think of that is aimed mostly at kids but you've found you would enjoy even if you have no kids around you you're trying to please. Any thoughts?

Phineas and Ferb!

Comedy Genius!

Adventure Time is a great example. On the surface it's all colorful and friendly and there's a candy kingdom and a dumb ol' Ice King.

Underneath that there's actually a really dark history that they go into and some honestly moving backstory with the Ice King and Marceline the Vampire Queen.

Give it a shot if you can, season one's on Netflix and the rest can be found on Amazon Video if you liked it.

Both Megamind and Despicable me are hilarious animated movies that play off of the Superhero/Supervillain scenario and both are great for the whole family. The Iron Giant (as mentioned) is also great! My favorite though (also already mentioned) is The Incredibles!


Tron and Tron: Legacy are both movies that can be enjoyed by (at least almost) the whole family.

Phineas and Ferb - the best animated series on television
for current programming also see:
Tron: Uprising
Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Ultimate Spider-Man
Young Justice
Ben 10: Omniverse

The list gets out of control very quickly if you want to include programming not on the air any more but still readily available. Most of the list above is also on Netflix et al. For recently "off the air" kids shows that adults will enjoy - also available on Netflix etc - I strongly recommend:
*Ben 10
*Ben 10: Alien Force
*Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (this trio of titles by Dwayne MacDuffie at the height of his powers)
Generator Rex
Thundercats (2011 series)
Masters of the Universe (2002 series)
ReBoot
TMNT (2003 series)
The Batman (2004 series)
Batman: Brave and the Bold
and I'm just going to assume you've already got the entire Bruce Timm animated DCU.....

The Batman and Batman: Brave and the Bold are both good in different ways. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is one of my favorite TV shows ever, as is the Spectacular Spider-Man. Saw some of Ultimate Spider-Man and didn't care for it. Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Baman: The Animated Series are all very good.

Won't let my kids watch most of the crap that passes for TV shows anymore!! And personally don't care for the off color humor thrown into a kids movie to appease the adults! But Phineas and Ferb is amazing, even I enjoy watching it with them! Didn't see the recent "Wreck it Ralph" on anyones list. Really loved it and the throwbacks to classics (many I had to explain) were most deff for the older nerds in the crowd!

Loved "Wreck-It Ralph", but I thought we were looking for television programming.... and I completely forgot to mention "Teen Titans"! Great show!
I haven't seen just a whole lot of kids movies that appealed to me recently. Wreck-It Ralph was a notable exception. Bought the soundtrack, too. If you want to go back more than a few years:
Atlantis: the Lost Empire
Meet the Robinsons
Treasure Planet
The Incredibles
Cars 1&2
The Smurfs
Up
Megamind
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Bolt
Just off the top of my head... and far from complete.

I just saw Meet the Robinsons a few weeks ago. It was basically Back to the Future for kids! It got a little too chaotic for me at times, but it is worth a watch if you have young'uns.

I think Pixar does a good job at making kid friendly films that also appeal to adults

I know Phineas and Ferb has been mentioned before but it's one of the best cartoons on TV right now.
It's no longer on but I thought Aaron Stone was an awesome show and wish Disney would bring it back

I watch a lot more movies than TV, so that's really the only thing I can speak to... (Plus the fact I've been spoiled with Japanese art in animation since the eighties, and from what I've seen, the animation quality here in the States still doesn't measure up in my opinion)...

I can't believe no one's mentioned Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon! That was my favorite film in 2010! (Yep, better than Scott Pilgrim and Kick A$$)... The direct to video sequel stuff hasn't been up to snuff, but the original film was excellent and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming full theatrical sequel.

I agree with Dreamworks' Megamind and Pixar's The Incredibles. They're both fantastic. I would pretty much agree with any picks from Pixar, actually... They're all such high quality with great stories, it really just comes down to personal taste. My other favorites from Pixar would have to be Wall-E, Finding Nemo, and the first two Toy Story films. (The third went too dark for me)... I even loved Cars, when I don't really care about cars at all... ;-)

mindspike wrote:I thought we were looking for television programming

I used the word "entertainment", so it was intended to be VERY broad and include video games, table top games, books, comics, whatever.

mindspike wrote:ReBoot

Yeah, Reboot!!! That is an AWEsome show. I actually bought the entire Reboot DVD collection recently, all seasons in one big box, woohoo!


And I'd like to add both War Planets Shadow Raiders and Beast Wars to the list. Same production company as Reboot by the way, on both counts. Got those DVD boxes as well.
(I'm just such a sucker for good animated movies en series)

on a side note does anyone know if the Phineas and Ferb meets the Marvel Super Heroes episode has already aired?
If not does anyone know when it will air?

I recently got into "Avatar: The Last Airbender". It's a surprisingly deep saga.

Yes! I love Avatar. Starts off goofy like you'd expect a Nickelodeon kid's show to go, then jumps up and surprises you with communist authoritarianism, shadow governments, genocide, conflicted motivations, betrayal; all dressed up in fantastic elemental manipulation based on real martial arts and choreographed by an expert martial artist. Makes the aborted atrocity of Shyamalan's live-action nightmare that much worse for those of us who love the source material.

The only caution would be to the more "fundamental" among us regarding the comprehensive eastern philosophical worldview, but boy, is it beautiful... ;-)