38 new york | december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020
WHEN MY DAUGHTER turned 3, I started Googling “best first movies for kids.”
Surely, someone must’ve already sorted through exactly which of the hundreds of child-
aimed movies were most appropriate for a 3-year-old, I figured. Surely, there were lots
of lists and suggestions. ¶ There were not. My public library was an undifferentiated shelf
of DVDs with Disney logos on the spine. Lists meant for the preschool set seemed to
ignore the major developmental differences between a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. And
none of the recommendations broke down titles with the information I really wanted:
How scary was it? What was it about, mostly? How complicated was the story? Was it
violent? Were there songs? Was it obnoxious in a benign way or obnoxious in a toxic way?
¶ I am a TV critic. I’d spent so long honing my own critical sense of what I thought was
good, what I enjoyed, what good could mean. My 3-year-old’s sense of good was very
different. Of course it was! But knowing that didn’t make it any easier for me to predict
what she was going to like, much less what she’d like that I was also happy to let her watch.TRANSMITTED TRANSMITTED________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EIC2619FEA_KidsTV_lay [Print]_36339551.indd 38 12/17/19 10:19 PM38 newyork| december23,2019–january5, 2020
WHEN MY DAUGHTER turned 3, I started Googling “best first movies for kids.”
Surely, someone must’ve already sorted through exactly which of the hundreds of child-
aimed movies were most appropriate for a 3-year-old, I figured. Surely, there were lots
of lists and suggestions. ¶ There were not. My public library was an undifferentiated shelf
of DVDs with Disney logos on the spine. Lists meant for the preschool set seemed to
ignore the major developmental differences between a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. And
none of the recommendations broke down titles with the information I really wanted:
How scary was it? What was it about, mostly? How complicated was the story? Was it
violent? Were there songs? Was it obnoxious in a benign way or obnoxious in a toxic way?
¶ I am a TV critic. I’d spent so long honing my own critical sense of what I thought was
good, what I enjoyed, what good could mean. My 3-year-old’s sense of good was very
different. Of course it was! But knowing that didn’t make it any easier for me to predict
what she was going to like, much less what she’d like that I was also happy to let her watch.