Movie/tv show (on DVD) recommendations?

[eilonwy]

I'm looking for movies/shows from other countries, or produced in other languages than English to share with my kiddos. Any recommendations? They don't need to be designed for children, per se (though that would be fantastic) but they do need to be "appropriate" for young children. I'm not the most restrictive parent when it comes to what my kiddos watch, but extreme violence/sexuality is right out. Some examples of "questionable" things which my children have been permitted to watch:

The Italian Job
Wayne's World
Dark Angel (TV Series)
Star Wars (all six of the movies)
Lord of the Rings (all three extended versions)
Harry Potter (all five movies thus far)
Ocean's 11
Family Guy
Futurama
Transformers (live-action film from a couple of years ago)

Examples of movies/shows my children have NOT been permitted to watch:

South Park (movie or show)
CSI
Law & Order (any)
TV Funhouse
Nip/Tuck
Snatch
Cold Mountain
The Feast of All Saints
The Boondocks
Lord of War

I can't really think of anything else that I've managed to watch recently (in the past six years) and would not allow the kids to watch with me, but I'm sure there are lots of other things. Hopefully this is enough to give you an idea of where my lines are.

So-- any thoughts?

[MommyJoia]

something like this?
http://www.foreignfilms.com/

[eilonwy]

Yes... except that I don't see how a movie called "Throne of Blood" is likely to be appropriate for little kiddos. Hence the request for specific reommendations. That said, we have watched Spirited Away and several other such films in Japanese-- fantastic, and just perfect. We loved those.

[Tamamama]

I can't say enough good things about the Korean television serial Dae Jang Geum. (available on dvd) I don't understand Korean, but the subtitles were very good. It's a historical drama about a woman's rise to the post of royal physician. There are isolated scenes of mild hand-to-hand combat (no blood, acrobatic with stylized "kung fu" sounds) and some emotional storylines involving beloved characters dying, but the overall message is about being true to yourself, having hope, working hard and not giving in to corruption. And it's very, very pretty.

hth.

[MommyJoia]

Syrian bride is in Arabic. no violence or nudity.

[Ms Apricot]

This may be of limited help to you, but check out titles at Toronto's Sprockets International Film Festival for Children. It is a superb 2 week festival held every spring. Many of the films are shown with subtitles and in the theatre, a live narrator will read out the subtitles for young'uns who can't read yet. There are live action, animated, documentary, short films....the range is astonishing.

Some (many) of the titles may be hard to locate outside of the festival, but at least it's a start.

Good luck with your search.

Here's a link:

http://www.sprockets.ca/previous/default.aspx

I also recommend Miyazaki's anime films (Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service) and a semi-documentary titled The Story of A Weeping Camel. I'll try to think a few others.

[Liquesce]

Kirikou and the Sorceress, Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, Spirited Away, the City of Lost Children (maybe ... I didn't care for it, but I get why others disagree).

Not sure how appropriate those would be to your kids specifically though.

[eilonwy]

We've really enjoyed Miyazaki's films. They're on my list of "movies to buy when i have cash/find them super cheap."

Thanks for the recommendations, and please keep them coming.

[emmasmommy]

My kids really enjoy the Pippi Longstocking movies in Swedish as well as the other Astrid Lindgren stories that have been made to movies (dh is Swedish so they speak/understand Swedish). Their favourite right now is Ronja Rovardotter . There is some nudity, but it is completely non-sexual (one scene where the band of robbers are bathing naked in the snow, and another where the 2 main characters are swimming naked). We bought all of our DVDs in Sweden so they do not have English subtitles, but I imagine you could find them in the US somewhere with English subtitles.

[EVC]

What age are we talking here?

My dd (3 y.o.) loves Ulitsa Sezam (Russian version of Sesame Street). Would something like be "too young" for your dc?

[eilonwy]

The fact that it's in Russian would make it interesting enough even for BeanBean.

My kids are nearly six, four, two, and seven months old (the babies don't watch much TV ).

[EVC]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

The fact that it's in Russian would make it interesting enough even for BeanBean.

My kids are nearly six, four, two, and seven months old (the babies don't watch much TV ).

Yes, I think it would be interesting even for a six year old if he is into languages. There is one episode, for example, that does a Russian version of the alphabet song so he could probably learn the Cyrillic alphabet if he watched it a few times and that might be fun for him, especially as reading in Russian is much more phonetically based than, say, English so if he learned the alphabet he could try to read a bit. I remember being fascinated by Cyrillic when I was young (I think I was about 8 or so when I was first exposed to it)--it was like a secret code to me and I loved trying to "crack" it

[earthgirl]

Originally Posted by Liquesce

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Yes, this one! I LOVE this film.

[Turkish Kate]

My DS watches Tarcin ve Arkadaslari (Cinnamon and Friends) on You Tube in Turkish. It's kind of like a Turkish Sesame Street, produced in Turkiye, so no subtitles, but I've learned new words with it. You can watch the English-translated versions on EbruTV.com.

[eilonwy]

How cool!