Shows and films to soothe the 7 year old soul on Netflix

We’re part of the Streamteam for Netflix and were provided compensation for this post. All thoughts are our own. Everybody, even the adults has the capacity to be entertained by the same things that will earnestly make a 7 year old, laugh, be scared and tense up with fun anticipation. Here are some things that entertain our 7 year old, some of which also do the trick for his 5 year old brother. There are some cool animated shows and two stop animations things to watch that will entertain the very wide ages of 7 and up, plus all of these can be seen on Netflix.

First off let’s start with two of the stop animation offerings on Netflix. Kubo and the Two Strings needs to check their pockets because they were robbed of the Academy Award for Animated Feature Film. Kubo and the Two Strings is poetry in stop motion. It’s about the story of a little boy who lives with his mother. His dad was a legendary samurai and things are about to get wild when he goes on a quest to find three items that will help him harness his powers.

Kubo might be too dark for some 7 year old, but ages 9 and up will be fine with it. It does have some combat elements, a couple ghost scenes and is noisy. As a film it’s a joy to watch, beautifully crafted, great soundtrack and proof that a great animated film can exist outside of what most people expect.

Along the lines of Kubo, but skewing younger and much sillier is Buddy Thunderstruck. Buddy Thunderstruck is from the creators of Care Bears and the same animation studio as Robot Chicken.  It’s also laugh out loud funny, loaded with energy, pop culture jokes from the 70s/80/s (that anyone will get) and deeper visual jokes that some will remember.

For example, there’s a character who only wears a Pain Diamond tour t-shirt that’s shaped like the Def Leopard logo. The sheriff in the show is a stop motion horse doppelganger for Roscoe P. Coltrane from The Dukes of Hazzard, played by James Best. Buddy Thunderstruck does all of this and is great for ages 5 and up. It’s silly; fly by the seat of its pants viewing that is great for the entire family.

In other movie news ages 6 and up will love The BFG. Ignore the people who say it wasn’t any good because it failed to live up to its expectations in the theaters. Our son still talks about the time we saw it in theaters, he’s recommended it to all of our family and for him is the epitome of film perfection. The BFG is rated PG.

Every 7 year old that we meet is knee deep in Pokémon. They’re still learning, but the cards are all the rage and the really cool ones are seeking out Pokémon on television.  “Daddy, did you know that there was a Pokémon television show”, our 7 y ear old rushed home to tell us. He followed that up with a request for the Pokémon company to make a film.

Pokémon: The Series XYX is Ash and his pals in the newest series incarnation. For the Poke-diehard Pokémon: Indigo League from 2000 is also available on Netflix. Actually there are quite a few Pokémon series or movies on, just do a quick search to sooth the 7 year old soul.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show took a while for me to appreciate, but our kids liked it from the get go. This is reality television through the eye of an animated show. The fourth wall is broken, but kids don’t care, they enjoy the goofy antics and you adults will too.

Fangbone was much quicker for us to love. Think of it as a younger skewing Trollhunters. A young barbarian is transported from his mid-evil home where he teams up with a third grader to protect his Earthly elementary school world from evil. Kids will line up to see this one.

The Deep is a very good comic book and a good animated show. Which one came first? Well, if they haven’t seen the comic book then have kids 5 and up watch the show. It’s a family adventure that everyone in it will enjoy. The action is age appropriate, the family is real and just like the one reading this or watching the show.