Matchstick

Category: Video

  • Good Eats

    [amazon_link asins=’1584797959′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”] Watching Good Eats was one of my weekly rituals back in the ’90s, back when the Food Network was an emerging force on television. Unlike the standard TV chef format (cook looks across a counter at the viewer while preparing food), Good Eats’ Alton Brown gets into the science […]

  • Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land

    [amazon_link asins=’B00287Z1F2′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b2bea96f-e66e-11e7-bc7b-35986d9cfc05′] This is one of the great Disney shorts from their “classic” period of the 1950s and ’60s. It has Donald going on an adventure, learning about how math is the foundation for music, architecture, nature, and games. It explains the Golden Ratio phi and how simple ratios explain many […]

  • PJ Masks

    [amazon_link asins=’B01N1QUJJ1′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’947427e5-cecc-11e7-9b15-e3ef1020961d’] I didn’t think the world needed yet another cartoon series, but this one is pretty good. It’s based off a series of French books (“Les Pyjamasques”) which gives it a certain je-ne-said-quois that differentiates it from the standard cookie cutter format of most American shows. The idea is of […]

  • Star Trek – The Animated Series

    [amazon_link asins=’B000HEWEJ4′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’3c39339d-b9aa-11e7-98a6-c5b01cd96078′] A lot of cartoons aimed at kids are not very good. They are either insipid, appealing only to toddlers, or have too much adult humor, or are essentially long advertisements. So I sometimes look for older cartoons, hoping that they will transcend, but boy oh boy are they violent. […]

  • Bad Lip Reading Star Wars Songs

    BLR is a YouTube phenomenon. A guy dubs over news clips and videos with silly nonsense and sometimes songs. The songs are very, very good – well-composed, well-performed and sung, and slickly produced. His re-dubs of music videos are better than the originals. Not all of them are particularly kid-friendly, but most are. In 2016, […]

  • KidsTV123

    We try to restrict ‘screen time’ to weekends and when we do let the kids use our phones or the iPad we try to limit video usage to PBS Kids, Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. YouTube is a special case because of the quantity of ads, but also because of the content of the ads, […]

  • Bob the Builder: The Legend of the Golden Hammer

    [amazon_link asins=’B002W87QFK’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’e7512377-a86f-11e7-bb8b-3fe376f227a8′] This movie is from Bob the Builder’s “middle period”, when the animation was done using CGI but meant to look like the original stop-motion style, but before the change to a more human-like look for the characters. This older look is more popular in our family. We seldom watch […]

  • Moana

    I’m normally a pretty cynical person, but I thought Moana was just great. Great story, great music, great everything. (The executive producer was John Lasseter, who produced and/or wrote/driected most of the great Pixar movies before and after the Disney purchase, which may have something to do with the quality) [amazon_link asins=’B01MRNUJUO’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ […]

  • Word Girl

    The name is bland and the artwork is simple, but Word Girl is one of the better kids shows out there now. You can watch it for free on PBS Kids, where you can also play related games. The writing is snappy and funny enough to keep parents engaged. The voice acting is good, and […]

  • Octonauts

    [amazon_link asins=’B00EOS48FC’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’01fed022-4a38-11e7-bbc9-75ea605df60c’] The Octonauts is a video series on Netflix and available on DVD. Some of the stories are also available as books and there are several toys out there of the characters. The look of the show is unique, a cross between kid-friendly 60s-era James Bond, ‘Sealab 2020’, and cutesy […]