5 Shows on Disney Plus I'm Excited to Share with my Kids
Saturday morning cartoons were a special time of childhood. They left me with some very fond memories and some very deep nostalgia. When I reflect on the happy and carefree days of being a kid, it’s very hard for my mind not to drift specifically to Saturday mornings. Could there possibly be a more perfectly carefree moment than a kid in pajamas, eating cereal, and watching cartoons at the very beginning of a weekend?
And the fact that it was appointment television was critical for more than one reason. First of all, it made it more special having to wait all day or all week for a favorite show. But it also kind of self-regulated screen time. We had our cartoons on Saturday morning for a certain block of time on the local channels, and then something awful like soap operas came on and we were forced to seek our entertainment elsewhere.
There was a very special time period for these carefree mornings in particular, and it was the 80s and early 90s. Disney truly mastered the formula of high quality children’s cartoons, and you could find them on ABC on Saturday mornings, and later on The Disney Afternoon on The Disney Channel. Of course this was all before Disney inexplicably forgot that they owned the licenses to literally all of the best cartoons ever made and turned The Disney Channel into the 24/7 tween drama network.
As a parent of two young kids it’s been especially hard to witness the demise of The Disney Channel. What with the ridiculous Disney Vault locking up all of the good movies, and the aforementioned awful live action shows of the last decade - it’s been hard not to sit back and bemoan the unnecessary difficulty of sharing some of the best cartoons and movies ever made with our kids.
But all that changed with the release of Disney Plus. The content that made Disney great is finally getting the spotlight again. The Disney Channel can go kick rocks. Disney Plus is the way to share Disney with the family. And I couldn’t have asked for better timing. With a 7-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, our family is well positioned to take full advantage of this. And they’re just about the exact same age their parents were during the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons and the Disney Renaissance in theaters.
And $6.99 a month is absolutely insane value for what you get as far as I’m concerned. I’m legitimately excited to share a ton of movies and TV shows with our kids - from the obvious classics to the forgotten gems. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve already said, “holy smokes - I forgot all about that show!” while flipping through the catalog. I honestly feel like a kid in a candy shop - or, better yet, a kid in his pajamas on Saturday morning.
There are exactly 5 shows on Disney Plus that immediately jumped out at me in a big way. There are certainly other shows I’m excited about sharing with our kids that didn’t make the list - like Goof Troop and Gargoyles - but the 5 shows on this list transcend Saturday morning cartoons and enter into the realm of my psyche. I absolutely adored the shows on this list, and I was ecstatic when I saw that they were streaming on Disney Plus. I had to share them with my kids immediately. And, ultimately, the results of this experiment will determine my success as a dad.
1. TailSpin
We read The Jungle Book with our 7-year-old son recently, and he’s also been playing The Bare Necessities on the piano a lot lately - but he hadn’t seen the movie yet as of last week. And after Disney Plus launched, it was one of the very first things he wanted to watch.
He really loved it a lot, so he was very excited when I told him that the characters from one of my favorite childhood shows -TailSpin - were actually characters from The Jungle Book. TailSpin features favorites like Louie, Shere Khan, and Baloo in some sort of alternate dimension where they are much more humanlike and like planes a lot.
In the show, Baloo is a pilot for hire and has a paternal relationship with a young bear orphan named Kit - kind of similar to his relationship with Mowgli from the movie. Baloo has the same swagger, charm, and freedom-of-spirt that make him endearing in the film - but this time with the bonus of lots of air pirates.
2. Darkwing Duck
Darkwing Duck brings back a lot of great memories. Quite possibly it was my first superhero show full of action and fighting supervillains - just a few years before my obsession with the The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I just knew our son would love the battles he gets into.
Darkwing Duck is a spinoff of DuckTales - another childhood favorite show on this list. It features familiar characters like Launchpad McQuack, but the creator Tad Stones has also pointed out that he thinks it’s an alternate universe story. In this world Darkwing Duck lives in a place very similar to Batman’s Gotham City - and Darkwing is very clearly a good gateway to a love for superheroes and comics for our kids.
Our son loved his introduction to the show, and we had a blast watching it together. And he actually recognized the characters and the name of the show from the gruelingly difficult Darkwing Duck NES game we’ve played together already. In fact, come to think of it, most of these great old Disney shows featured gruelingly difficult but amazing NES games.
3. DuckTales
Speaking of amazing NES games, DuckTales is certainly the cream of that crop. And it was our son’s first introduction to the characters in DuckTales. After that came some of my old DuckTales picture books, and then the amazing DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
And when Disney Plus launched he watched a few episodes of the new DuckTales show - which honestly I’m pretty excited about. But he watched it before I introduced him to the original DuckTales, and now he’s walking around claiming that the new DuckTales is his favorite show in the world, and I don’t even know him anymore.
But I just have the fondest memories of all the characters in this great show. Particularly Gizmoduck. That was a game changer for DuckTales. And I think everyone can agree it features the best theme song ever written. Right?
4. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
I still have the Chip ‘n Dale backpacks and lunch boxes that my brother and I owned - and I’m quite certain we dressed up as Chip and Dale for Halloween one year, although I haven’t the seen the photographic evidence in a while.
Rescue Rangers was a show that meant a lot to me as a kid. Your elementary school lunchbox couldn’t feature just any TV show after all - it had to be a special statement about the inside of your very soul. And my soul very much enjoyed these chipmunk detectives solving crimes.
Rescue Rangers of course followed the Disney formula of having a theme song that people will be able to sing on cue 30 years later. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m happy to be able to sing it with my kids now. Although they tend to really hate it when I sing the songs from shows they like for some reason.
When I saw that Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers was on Disney Plus, my mustache twitched and my eyes glazed over with that hypnotized look that Monterey gets when he smells cheese. And our son loves it so far. Who knows, maybe our kids will be Chip and Dale for Halloween one day too. Or pack their lunch in their old man’s super cool lunchbox.
5. Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears
I still have the Gummi Bears theme song memorized to this day. In fact, my wife put it on a mixed tape for me once when we were younger because she knew I liked it. It still makes me happy to hear. Objectively speaking, I think this was always my very favorite show of the bunch, and the one I still enjoy the most today.
That might be because it has a medieval high fantasy theme to it. There are trolls and wizards and knights magic potions - and that’s all very much up my alley. Surprisingly, it also happens to deviate from the formula of my other old favorite Disney cartoons on this list - because it doesn’t feature established Disney characters like most of them do. Instead, this show is (extremely) loosely based on the gummy bear candy.
In the show, a young boy named Cavin befriends the Gummi Bears, and often teams up with them to thwart the evil plans of Duke Sigmund Igthorn and his trolls. Their secret to their constant success is gummiberry juice, a secret potion that makes Gummi Bears very bouncy and humans super strong. And as a little guy my imagination was lit up by this kid getting his hands on that magic juice.
Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears is the epitome of why I’m excited to share these old shows with my son. Just hearing the song reminds me of my nostalgia for Saturday morning cartoons - and after watching the show again I realize it was a huge stepping stone in my love for fantasy and adventures. And I’m happy to report that my son’s introduction to The Gummi Bears was a smashing success, and I think he’s going to turn out just fine.
Did your family already sign up for Disney Plus? What did you watch first? What show are you most excited about sharing with your kids for the first time? Let us know in the comments!
