If you want to entertain your kids without spending a penny, then this is the resource for you. I list sites and apps that have free movies and television shows for kids.
All of the shows that I list are not necessarily for younger kids.
I’ve included some content for older kids, such as shows rated TV-14.
Some sites have a lot of content for kids, and some have a little.
However, if you search enough you can find some real gems, and likely something that your child is interested in watching!
If you’re looking for something specific, you might try using your browser to search the text of this page.
Keep in mind that this content changes, so the listings of what can be found where is not guaranteed.
Additionally, I know that these lists are not the most interesting to look at.
However, I hope they give you an idea of the number of titles and the types of titles that each platform has, so you can go to that platform to check out the options more fully yourself. Enjoy!
PBS Kids
PBS Kids Video app and pbskids.org has a lot of great education television shows for free. You can stream live PBS Kids shows 24/7 on most devices. Plus, there are a number of companion apps. The PBS Kids Games app has games and activities that help reinforce the education material in the shows.
The fact that PBS Kids is free makes sense when you remember that PBS stands for Public Broadcasting Station. As a public resource it is mainly funded by taxpayers and donations.
I’ve hard a hard time figuring out how many episodes are available of each show. It seems to me that there are a limited number, but a new episode is made available each week. There is a good variety of shows.
Here are some of the shows that PBS Kids had available:
- Daniel Tiger
- Wild Kraft’s
- Pinkalicious and Peterrific
- The Odd Squad
- Molly of Denali
- Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
- Curious George
- Let’s Go Luna!
- Clifford the Big Red Dog
- Nature Cat
- Ready Jet Go
- Arthur
- Dinosaur Train
- Dot’s Spot
- Scribbles and Ink
- Cyberchase
- Sesame Street
- Esme and Roy
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood
- Splash and Bubbles
- Peg + Cat
- The Cat in the Hat
- Wordgirl
- The Ruff Ruffman Show
- Super Why
- Maya and Miguel
- Fizzy’s Lunch Lab
- Caillou
- Sid the Science Kid
- Design Squad
- Plum Landing
- Martha Speaks
- Oh Noah!
- SciGirls
- and WordWorld.
Hoopla
Hoopla is similar to PBS Kids, because it might be available to you due to public funds.
Some libraries make digital content available through Hoopla. In other words, taxpayers and the library budget pay to give you access to some digital content, such as movies and television shows, through the Hoopla platform.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV is an interesting source of free television. Pluto TV has themed channels with content that is being streamed all of the time, labeled Live TV. The setup is similar to a traditional cable channel guide. There are some children’s channels between channel 700 and channel 749. I have seen flipper on a general classic TV channel as well.
Pluto TV has an On Demand section. Their content here seems to largely be movies.
Their movies include:
- Planet 51
- Alpha and Omega
- Alpha and Omega 3
- Wild Thornberrys Movie
- Hey Arnold! The Movie
- All Dogs Go to Heaven
- All Dogs go to Heaven 2
- Rock A Doodle
- The Care Bears Movie
- The Secret of Nimh
- Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness
- The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island
- Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom
- A Turtle’s Tale
- A Turtle’s Tale 2
- Ribbit
- The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky’s the Limit
- Sea Level
- Mouse Hunt
- Snowflake: The White Gorilla
- The Magic of Belle Isle
- A Mouse Tale
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch
- Finding Rin Tin Tin
- The Missing Lynx
- Hatched
- Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- Love, Kennedy
- Where the Red Fern Grows
- Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
- Zapped
- Total Wipeout UK
Pluto’s free shows include Bo on the Go, Flipper, The Little Rascals (sonar), and The Adams Family.
Pluto’s Latino section has some Spanish channels for kids.
IMDB TV
IMDB TV has a number of movies for older and younger kids, including:
- Elmo in Grouchland
- Dolphin Tale
- Shrek: The Final Chapter
- Little Big League
- Muppets in Space
- Hey Arnold! The Movie
- RV
- Max
- Max 2
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- Stuart Little
- Stuart Little 2
- Open Season
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
- and Escape from Planet Earth.
IMDB TV has a limited number of television shows including: Wolverine, X-Men, Iron Man, Ironman, The Adventures of Tintin, and Nancy Drew. The superhero shows are TV-14.
XUMO
Xumo is similar to Pluto TV. Xumo has live channels that you can stream. Xumo has a lot of free television shows for kids. Some appear to be older and some seem to be in more of a YouTube format.
First, here are some of Xumo’s movies for kids:
- Harriet the Spy
- The Rugrats Movie
- Rugrats in Paris
- The Spiderwick Chronicles
- Ernest in the Army
- Slam Dunk Ernest
- My Dad’s a Soccer Mom
- Tad: The Lost Explorer.
Some Shows I saw – On Demand shows under different channels:
- The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That
- Inspector Gadget
- Babar
- Gumby Adventures
- a category called: Lego Shorts
- Batman Unlimited
- Dino Squad
- Pirates – Adventures in Art
- Rufus the Dog
- Messy’s Questions
- Mika’s Diary
- Talking Tom and Friends
- Sooty
- The Stupendous Drew Pendous & His Mighty Pen Ultimate
- Nursery Rhyme Time
- Nikki’s Science and Wiki
- Crafty Carol
- Story Time with Ms. Booksy
- Pac-Man and Ghostly Adventures
- Angry Birds Toons
- Pocoyo
- Bernard
- Badanamu
- Nursery Rhymes
- Gummibar & Friends
- Bluefish 4k Nursery Rhymes
- 3 Rabbits
- Antiks
- Om Nom Stories
- Zoonicorn
- Suckers
- Angelo Rules
- The Tube Family
- Transformers Prime
- Kiwi & Strit
- Dream Defenders
- Future Card Buddyfight Ace
- Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
- Sonic X
- Transformers Animated
- Gisele and the Green Team
- Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab Music
- The Adventures of Annie and Ben,
- Afrina’s Playtime (animals)
- Bananas in Pyjamas
- Gordon the Garden Gnome
- The Adventure of Bottle Top Bill
- The Toothbrush Family
- Classic Tales
- Faireez
- Sea Princesses, AFV (America’s Funniest Home Videos)
Popcornflix
Popcornflix is a platform for free movies and television shows, and it is ad-supported. There are fewer ads than what would be there if you were watching traditional cable.
Here are the movies that I found on Popcornflix:
- Paws to the Rescue
- Antboy
- A Turtle’s Tale
- A Turtle’s Tale 2
- The Mighty Kong
- Sabrina The Teenage Witch
- Ernest’s Greatest Hits Volume 2
- Ernest Rides Again
- Mouse Hunt
- Jungle Shuffle
- Babar and Father Christmas, and more.
Here are the TV Shows that I found on Popcornflix:
- Redwall (G)
- Superman (PG)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (TV-Y7)
- Inspector Gadget (TV-Y7)
- The Adventures of Paddington Bear (TV-Y)
- Animal Tales (G)
- The Fairies (G)
- Popeye (PG)
- Popeye and Son (PG)
- Deltora Quest (TV-Y7)
- Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (PG)
- Defenders of the Earth (PG)
- Little Angels (PG)
- Cool McCool (PG)
- All Star Specials (PG)
- Super Sentai Zyuranger – look like Japanese Power Rangers – (Family/Kids)
- Ruby Gloom (G)
- Sam & Max (G)
- The Adventures of Flash Gordon (PG)
- The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (PG)
- My Pet Monster (G)
- The Legend of Prince Valiant (PG)
- My Dad the Rockstar (G)
- Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (G)
- Birdz (G)
- Bounty Hamster (Family/Kids)
- Blazing Dragons (G)
- The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo (PG)
- Pet Alien (TV-Y7)
- Wheels on the Bus (Family/Musical)
- Tales from the Cryptkeeper (G)
- The Busy World of Richard Scary – in some countries.
Crackle
Crackle is a site with free content that is funded by ads. From my experience, there are only about four ad breaks for every full-length movie. There is a lot of older and less in-demand content for adults and children.
Here is a list of what I found on Crackle:
- All I Want for Christmas
- All Saints (PG)
- Annie
- Baby Geniuses
- Bebe’s Kids (PG)
- Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (PG)
- Bye Bye Birdie (G)
- Country Remedy (PG)
- Explorers (PG)
- Godzilla 2000 (PG)
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Mouse Hunt (PG)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- My Girl (PG)
- My Girl 2 (PG)
- Operation: Neighborhood Watch (Not Rated, Adventure, Family)
- Snow Day (PG)
- The Amazing Wizard of Paws (Not Rated)
- The Next Karate Kid (PG)
- Stuart Little (PG)
- Stuart Little 2 (PG)
- Little Women (PG)
Crackle TV Shows:
- Animal Tales
- Men in Black: The Series (TV-Y7)
- The Spectacular Spider-Man (TV-Y7)
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (TV-PG)
- The Jackie Chan Adventures (TV-Y7)
- Iron Man (TV-14)
- Wolverine (TV-14)
- X-Men (TV-14)
YouTube
YouTube has the self-published clips that everyone is familiar with. However, also, it has a Movies & Shows section. Within that section there is a category of Free with Ads that includes some children’s movies and shows.
Here are the titles that I found:
- Sea Level (PG)
- Arthur’s Missing Pal (PG)
- Beyond Beyond (PG)
- Furry Vengeance (PG)
- Snow Queen (PG)
- The Legend of King Solomon, Khumba (Ages 6+)
- Ribbit (PG)
- All Dogs Go To Heaven
- Dinosaur Island (for ages 9+)
- The Legend of King Fu Rabbit (PG)
- Snowflake the Gorilla (PG)
- The Little Ghost (PG)
- Once I Was a Beehive
- The Legend of Secret Pass
- The Great Bear (PG)
- Wish Upon a Star (PG)
- Inuyasha the Movie 3: Swards of an Honorable Ruler (PG)
- Ernest Goes To School, A Cowgirls Story (PG)
- My Dad’s a Soccer Mom (for 8+)
- Inuyasha The Movie: Affections Touching Across Time (PG)
- Pixies (PG)
- Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (G)
- Inuyasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island (PG)
- Pete’s Christmas (PG)
- Ernest Rides Again
- Ernest in the Army
- Sailor Moon R: The Movie (PG)
- Christmas Story (PG)
- Street Fighter Alpha
- Who Gets the Dog? (PG)
- Freedom Force (PG)
- Inuyasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass (PG)
- Cricket in Times Square (for 4+)
- Journey to the Christmas Star (G)
- Christmas on Salvation Street (PG)
- Birds of Paradise (PG)
- Santa and the Three Bears (G)
- Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (G)
- and Dwegons and Leprechauns (PG)
Vudu
Vudu sells and rents movies, but it has ad-supported free movies and shows, as well.
As you can see below, there are a ton of titles. These were under the Kid’s and Family and Free filters of the Vudu site. It is probably better to go there so you can see the cover photos and rating information of the movies.
Here are some of the free movies for kids that I found on Vudu:
- Norm of the North
- Rock Dog
- Son of the Mask
- The Karate Kid
- Monster Hunt 2
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.
- All Dogs go to Heaven
- Look Who’s Talking
- The Karate Kid II
- Alpha and Omega
- The Next Karate Kid
- Look Who’s Talking Too
- The Little Vampire
- The Karate Kid Part III
- Furry Vengeance
- The Care Bears Movie
- Heidi, Cats Don’t Dance
- The Muppets Take Manhattan
- Look Who’s Talking Now
- All Dogs Go to Heaven
- Agent Fox
- The Giant King
- Rock A Doodle
- Mummy
- I’m a Zombie
- Duma
- And many, many more.
Here are their free titles that are tagged as for Kid’s & Family:
- Merlin
- The Hive
- Sonic X
- Grounded for Life
- Me, Eloise
- Transformers: Animated
- Alf, Dennis the Menace
- Deltora Quest
- Hero 108
- Dive Olly Dive
- Cosmic Quantum Ray
- Toddworld.
CW Seed has some TV-14 rated animated series.
Here is what I found:
- Batman are Mystery of Batwoman
- Freedom Fighters: The Ray.
BYU TV
BYU TV programs and streams are provided by Brigham Young University.
They create original, family-friendly content.
Some is for a Latter Day-Saint audience, but most of their content is geared toward a general audience.
Studio C, a popular YouTube sketch comedy show is one such option.
Story Trek is a show that simply interviews random people around the country to hear their stories.
I’ve really enjoyed Making Good and The Fixers.
Kids mighty enjoy Dwight in Shining Armor, Splatalot, Ice Stars, Xploration DIY Sci, and Gym Stars.
Additionally, they do purchase the rights to, and share non-original content such as Heartland and The Karate Kid.
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