8 Best TV-Y Movies to Watch

If there’s one thing that the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime would master, it’s the art of making a swingy, broken card game feel as epic as a pro wrestling main event match. It’s got the iconic mic drop lines as early as episode 1’s entire “Draw your last pathetic card” exchange. The dramatic duels that come down to the wire like Joey Wheeler losing via physical exhaustion. The soundtrack that prepares you for the most epic moments and boss monsters being summoned. To someone who doesn’t get it, no explanation is enough. To someone who does get it, no further explanation required.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids

Actor: Hiroki Takahashi, Kenjiro Tsuda, Ryou Naitou, Shunsuke Kazama, Tetsuya Iwanaga

Rating: TV-Y

For those familiar with the original book series, you’ll already know what kind of show to expect. The Apple+ cartoon is centered on the two titular amphibians going through universal adventures that makes or breaks your day. From finding the willpower to resist eating delicious cookies, to hoping a friend would contact you when you’re lonely, each episode keeps a gentle sort of humor, poking lighthearted fun at the differences between the emotional Toad and more sensible Frog. With each episode’s twenty minute runtime, and two adventures per episode, Frog and Toad is a sweet, nostalgic series that’s easy to breeze through for millennial parents and their kids.

Genre: Animation, Family, Kids

Actor: Kevin Michael Richardson, Nat Faxon

Rating: TV-Y

Bright, chaotic, and surprisingly funny, Wake Up Carlo seems like one of those kid’s shows that could make adults laugh. The show first starts in an idyllic, nature-filled island that feels like a feverish acid trip complete with a talking mountain, but this strange setting gets replaced with rectangular blocky buildings, an influencer-esque dictator, and unethical memory wiping of small joys common people have lost. Through every neon colored frame, Carlo and his friends go through familiar absurdities with the fast paced jibber-jabber, but it still keeps it PG enough that kids could enjoy. While some of the jabs might be too kooky for some viewers, Wake Up Carlo is a reminder for adults to remember childhood’s simplicities, while it pokes fun at the ever complex world we’ve created.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation

Actor: Gustavo Pereira

Rating: TV-Y

From the very opening theme that sounds like a call for the kids to gather ‘round the TV, this series succeeds in being a colorful, attention-grabbing playtime show for preschoolers. The premise itself—of having pets with distinct magical abilities—is a common desire among children and an easy hook to stay tuned in. Each episode is straightforward in laying out how these pet abilities can be both a big help and a big problem, but nothing that kids can’t take care of if they put their heads together. It’s a simple enough children’s show with lessons about family values, and while not groundbreaking in the slightest, is still a decent choice to consider introducing to the little ones.

Genre: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Ayden Elijah, Ben Pronsky, Brent Mukai, Dino Andrade, Jeannie Tirado, Lexie Foley

Rating: TV-Y

For a series designed to keep young children still for 10 to 12-minute chunks, Dew Drop Diaries is refreshingly thoughtful—not to mention better-crafted than other things you could be showing kids of the same age bracket. Despite the relative simplicity of the show's animation (and certain elements that repeat in every episode), this is a dynamically directed series with a solid core group of voice actors who manage to be sweet without becoming irritating or patronizing. To be clear, this isn't an educational show made to lecture young viewers, but a fun, light family fantasy that makes the act of helping with everyday tasks seem like an adventure and an opportunity for creativity. Dew Drop Diaries never tries to force itself to be cool, which is exactly what makes it cool.

Genre: Animation, Kids

Actor: Scarlett Estevez, Spencer Moss, Sydney Mikayla, ViviAnn Yee, Zehra Fazal

Rating: TV-Y

There's an entire category of children's television that essentially functions as little more than white noise that parents can use to distract their kids with—which many Little Baby Bum videos wind up being. This Netflix spin-off, however, has just a little more to it: noticeably improved animation, and creative takes on nursery rhymes and other children's songs. Each episode contains three segments focused on a different sound or song, with one of the five main characters learning a simple lesson by the end. The format isn't particularly exciting and each of these roughly seven-minute long segments already feels stretched somewhat thin, but the show still clearly has more effort poured into it than one might expect.

Genre: Animation, Kids, Music

Actor: Eve Ridley, Hannah Jane Fox, Raj Ghatak, Rishi Kuppa, Siu-see Hung

Rating: TV-Y

There's a strong moral focus to Dee & Friends in Oz that helps keep it from being just a distraction for young children. The series logically continues the theme of outsiders learning to overcome their insecurities and courses this lesson through "Dorothy" herself—with much less peril and wicked witches involved, of course. But the show also finds itself stuck in the ways it expresses itself; the world of Oz here is both colorful and too ordinary, and its storytelling is both sincere and too rigid in its structure. For example, when Dee comes back home to the real world at the end of each episode, it's meant to feel as if she's applying the moral lessons to her daily life, but the connection is just too flimsy and makes these scenes feel more like unrelated epilogues.

Genre: Animation, Kids, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Judah Edwards, Layla Capers, Sevien Desuyo, Sid Kamat

Rating: TV-Y

Children's TV doesn't always require a great story, nor does it need to break free from a repetitive pattern to be good. But there's still a difference between an episodic kids' show that places its focus on learning and good morals first, and one that's blatantly designed to generate interest in purchasing physical toys. It feels like so much of Hot Wheels Let's Race is spent showing off different models of cars, explaining their special abilities, and presenting various tracks on which they can race, that any moral lessons they do shoehorn in barely make a dent in the grand scheme of things. And the show's characters aren't endearing enough or fun enough to make up for it, despite the admittedly kinetic racing scenes.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids

Actor: Amari McCoy, Grey DeLisle, Griffen Campbell, Jakari Fraser, Josh Keaton

Rating: TV-Y