Keeping the children busy
A guide to kids’ TV options during the lockdown
When the government closed the schools due to the coronavirus outbreak, I received a text warning me of a dozen symptoms that might suddenly emerge, including nausea, sweating and uncontrollable shaking. At the bottom it said, “These symptoms will hit you when you internalize the fact that your children are now at home indefinitely.”
As parents across the country face long days at home with their children, children’s entertainment that is being offered on many networks and channels may help alleviate some of the symptoms of school-shutdown syndrome.
On YES’s Quarantine Channel, there is a section for family-friendly programming to which they have just added kids’ movies about dogs, including the comedy Hotel for Dogs, a live-action film starring Emma Roberts about two kids who take in strays at an abandoned hotel.
The section also features The Peanuts Movie in which Snoopy plays a prominent part. It’s not bad, but not nearly as charming as the animated television specials that came out decades ago, which you can find clips from on YouTube.
Cellcom TVand Partner TV also have their own quarantine programming, and are offering access to their extensive library of children’s films, many of which are from Pixar and Disney. These include all the Toy Story movies, including Toy Story 4, the most recent in that most beloved Pixar series, which is also available from YES and HOT. The film stars Tom Hanks - who now has the novel coronavirus - as the voice of Woody. While American movie-lovers might not prefer watching a dubbed version, the voice of Woody in the Israeli release is played by Dror Keren, a wonderful actor.
Now that the release of the live-action version of Mulan has been postponed indefinitely, you might want to show kids the original, which has a great score. The truth is that most children will enjoy the classic animated films as much or more than the live-action versions. This is certainly true of the original version of The Jungle Book.
The Lego movies are another recent franchise and they are now available. These films are great for the first five minutes while the Lego universe is cleverly laid out. After that they have tiresome storylines with preachy messages about the need for us to love each other. Your kids will have to be pretty bored to get to the end of one of these films, so if you need to get some work done, these aren’t the best choice.
Netflix features a great deal of anime, including the Castlevania and Fullmetal Alchemist series. Another fun anime option is One-Punch Man, about an unemployed slacker who can knock out the world’s most dangerous creatures and dastardly villains easily, but who would rather be clipping coupons than fighting evil. Aggretsuko is a sweet and witty series you can watch with your tweens, about a young office assistant in Tokyo who deals with her frustrations by singing death-metal karaoke.
These channels offer dozens of Israeli children’s series, as well as programs that teach English. KAN 11, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, is releasing a new series for kids, Cafe Amalia. It features a combination of actors and puppets who are set in and around a neighborhood cafe.
In April, two new Tween series will begin broadcasting. On April 5 on YES VOD and StingTV, the series Palmach, created by NUTZ Productions, will be released. It tells the story of a group of teenagers in Palestine in 1946 who joined the Palmach. The series combines their teen dramas with history and will feature leaders and other real people as characters, including Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Moshe Dayan and Shoshana Damari. It sounds like a painless way to give kids a history lesson, and may well entertain adults as well.
On April 22, viewers can see Spyders on the Teen Nick (Nickelodeon) Channel on HOT, as well as on Nickelodeon around the world. It has a clever premise: Three siblings who are stuck on a dull summer vacation with their parents discover that their folks are actually agents in a secret agency that protects the environment. They also learn that their parents’ mission is in jeopardy and that they must take it over. The show was filmed in Israel and was produced by NUTZ Productions, Ananey Communications and Nickelodeon.
Let’s hope as the Passover vacation ends, so will this lockdown, but even if it doesn’t, at least these entertainment options should help pass the time more enjoyably.