Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images (Edward Wing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive, Michael Ochs Archives, Gary Gershoff), PBS, Everett Collection, Courtesy of retailers, Courtesy of distributors
Mandy Moore’s youngest child is a girl, and for that she’s grateful.
That’s not to say the singer and star of the new movie The Breadwinner isn’t absolutely enamored with her eldest two boys, 5-year-old Gus and 3-year-old Ozzie. Talk to her for just a few minutes and it’s clear that she loves all three children she shares with her husband, Dawes front man Taylor Goldsmith, dearly. But after spending the first few years of motherhood immersed in nothing but Cars movies and Star Wars, she’s looking forward to finding out what kind of TV shows and movies her 18-month-old daughter, Lou, might grow to love.
“I’m excited to see what she might discover that the boys aren’t as interested in,” Moore says. “The Princess Diaries is something that comes top of mind, like, Oh, maybe she’ll actually want to watch this. I mean, it’s Julie Andrews, it’s a princess, and it’s such wish fulfillment.”
By contrast, Moore says, her sons haven’t been as interested in her acting work, eschewing Tangled even after she joked, “But doesn’t Rapunzel sound a little familiar?” They’re more keen on Moore’s music, going so far as to request her 1999 bop “Candy” in the car and before doling out a heartfelt compliment.
“We were listening to ‘Candy’ on the way to school and then ‘Only Hope’ came on from the soundtrack to A Walk to Remember,” Moore says. “Gus had never heard it before and he was like, ‘Mom, is this you? It’s such a beautiful song. I really like your voice.’ And that was like … Oh my gosh, I could swim in those compliments for the rest of my life. Coming from my child, it’s just the greatest thing ever.”
But not every piece of media consumed in Moore’s house is from her own body of work. Here’s what else she listens to, watches, and reads with her tiny trio.
Photo: Disney+/Everett Collection
My kids only really watch TV on the weekends, like either Friday to Saturday or Saturday to Sunday, whatever we decide.
My husband’s a little more strict than I am, because I get a little loosey-goosey when he goes out of town. All bets are off when you’re solo parenting. That’s when it’s like “Okay, I have to put the baby down and that’ll mean leaving the two boys by themselves, so I’ll just put one episode of Bluey on, go put her down real quick, and when that’s done, we’ll read a book and do whatever else.”
I love that all the Bluey episodes are perfect little bite-size morsels; they’re long enough that I know the boys will be sucked in but also not too long so that I’ll be able to come back, turn off the TV, and not feel super guilty.
My favorite episode of Bluey is “Sleepytime,” which I think is everyone’s answer, right? There’s just no more perfect seven minutes of television that’s ever been created.
My husband is on a Harry Potter journey with the boys right now that I’m excluded from, which kind of makes me sad because I thought we were all going to read them together, but that’s their little nighttime ritual right now.
I’m trying to think of what else is popular with them right now, because they have this sort of rotating roster. Elephant & Piggie always come back into fashion, as do Drew Daywalt’s Crayon books.
Oddly, they’re always very into a holiday book, like whether it’s Little Blue Truck Springtime or something Halloween or Christmas. They’ll just get back into reading them in the middle of the year, like, “Oh, okay. I see we’re back on this book about ghosts.”
Photo: Paramount/Everett Collection
It’s funny watching kids cycle through phases. We were in such a deep Star Wars phase with Gus, our 5-year-old, for the last year. He even had a Star Wars–themed birthday, but now that’s all been unceremoniously dumped because my husband showed him Indiana Jones and now that’s what he’s obsessed with instead. He loves LEGOs, too, so he did all the Star Wars LEGO sets and now he’s onto the Indiana Jones LEGOs. It just feels endless.
With Star Wars, we started Gus with the OG movie from 1977, Episode IV, and we just worked our way through in the order that they came out. He really loved them.
I think some of them might have been a little too much for his 3-year-old brother. We even have some friends who have older kids who have said their kids aren’t there yet, but for some reason Gus has been fine with it all.
They’re not completely through the whole series because there are so many movies and offshoots, but I think they got through the original six. That’s something he and my husband shared, really. I’ve seen the first three and loved them, but when they wanted to keep going I was like “This is where I’m going to bow out and let you two continue the tradition.”
Last summer, Gus was all about dinosaurs, and the amount of money we spent on those expensive figurines … I mean, they’re not cheap. When he decided he was over them, I was like, “Oh no, no, no, we’re not giving these away. These are going in a bag in the basement because I know they’re going to come back around again,” and they did! Sure enough, they saw a little bit of that dinosaur documentary Morgan Freeman narrated on Netflix, and that ignited the dinosaur craze again.
They came to me like, “Let’s go to Dinosaur Farm — a toy store in Pasadena — and get more dinosaurs,” and I was like, “No, let’s go shopping in the basement for dinosaurs.” So now that’s our thing. We go down and they pick two at a time and bring them back upstairs to their room. Everything old is new again.
That’s going to be my thing now. I’m not throwing or giving their things away anymore. I’m just going to save them because inevitably they’ll resurface again.
Photo: Associated Film Distribution/Everett Collection
I haven’t really brought my kids any of the live-action stuff that I have loved as a kid just yet, although I will say we did The Muppet Movie, and that was like a big thing in the house for a while. They loved it, so we’d listen to “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and “Rainbow Connection” on repeat in the car.
It never really took off from there, though. I was like, “We could watch A Muppet Family Christmas!,” but they didn’t really care. It might just be more of a nostalgia thing for me.
I’m excited to show them movies when they get older like Cheaper by the Dozen and Uncle Buck and The Princess Bride and all the John Hughes movies. Stuff that I loved as a kid.
Photo: Walt Disney Studios/Everett Collection
They’re not too into Disney stuff at the moment. I even tried to show them Tangled and they weren’t interested, even when I was like, “Doesn’t Rapunzel sound kind of familiar?”
We went through a whole Cars thing though, with Cars and Cars 3. Cars 2 is garbage, though. That’s my hot take. It’s unwatchable. Just skip over it. It’s like Disney realized it was bad, too, because they just made Cars 3, which doesn’t acknowledge anything that happened in Cars 2, so none of it really matters.
Cars and Cars 3 are masterpieces, though. All the Toy Story movies too, and Encanto … Coco … There’s some great stuff there, but the kids just aren’t into it at the moment because they only get so much screen time, so they don’t really go for movies.
Photo: Everett Collection
My kids are in a deep, deep Wild Kratts hole right now. Everything is Wild Kratts. The boys run around the house going, “I’m Chris and you’re Martin,” like they take turns being each one.
I love that you can put Wild Kratts on and know that your kids are gonna walk away with some fun facts about animals. I’m really enthused by that, because if they’re going to watch something, then learning something is the best possible outcome.
Anything PBS Kids is okay in my book. Early days we were into Daniel Tiger, but they’ve graduated now. Wild Kratts is a very sweet show. It doesn’t get a ton of co-viewing from me, but when I do sit down, I find it delightful.
Actually, both of the boys’ first TV moment was Mister Rogers. I’ve tried to introduce Lou to it too, but I think she’s still a little small. That show really holds up, though. It’s so peaceful, and it feels so good and calming. It’s also educational!
It’s what I grew up on, so there’s definitely the nostalgic quotient, but I feel no regrets or remorse when I put that on. Instead, I’m just crossing my fingers hoping that they’ll find it interesting. I think when they were first introduced to it, it was like they had no other point of reference, but now that they know other TV shows and movies, it’s a little harder to get them interested. But I do still love that show, and I love that it’s an option to watch on the PBS Kids app, too.
Photo: Edward Wing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
We do “No kid songs allowed” in the car. They’re in a deep Beatles phase right now, which feels really good. They love nothing more than watching, like, the official live “Hey Jude” video, where they’re on some show and the audience comes around them for the last two minutes and does the “Na-na-nas.”
With that, it feels like “Pat yourself on the back, parents. We did it.” They love David Bowie, too, and Thin Lizzie. “The Boys Are Back in Town” is a big request right now.
Gus likes to call himself “Tom Petty,” too. I feel like I’m in very good hands letting Taylor take the lead in terms of the playlist, because then the kids are only going to listen to good music.
The only podcast that has really taken them by storm is something called Gardenkeeper Gus, which literally only has 12 episodes. It’s a Canadian production, which you can hear in their accents. It was recommended by someone at Ozzie’s school, which is a Waldorf school, so I knew it was going to be something very sweet.
Anyway, the show is literally just about Gus, this 8-year-old kid who sounds like a 6-year-old kid, and he’s doing stuff like picking a pumpkin or making soup, or picking vegetables in the garden to help his mom. There’s always some sort of task that he has to do, or he’s going on a picnic with his friends. All the episodes are very sweet and very calming, and all three of my kids like them. They zone out and they get to use their imaginations.
I don’t understand what happens with these podcasts that don’t get a second season, though. It feels like such a no-brainer and a low lift to do more. They’re just seven or eight minutes. I can think of ten adventures off the top of my head that Gus could go on, and it would all be wish fulfillment for me because all we’ve got now is just those 12 episodes.
I must have heard every episode at least 20 times now, but that means I can use that time to just zone out. It’s when I get my own time to think. There’s something very Mister Rogers about it where it lowers my blood pressure. Even if I’m sitting in ridiculous traffic on the 134 highway, it’s like, Okay, I can get through this because Gardenkeeper Gus is keeping me calm.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The boys were on a big Michael Jackson music video binge for a while, which was a tricky situation. The music’s undeniable, though, so we decided to just focus on that.
Around that time, they also started this big phase, which they’re still in, where they talk about who’s dead and who’s alive. We’ll be listening to the Beatles and Gus will say, “George and John are dead but Paul and Ringo are still alive,” and it’s like, “Is this something that has to be mentioned every time we get in the car and put on a Beatles record?” We get it.
Then Gus’ll always go, like, “John and George were your favorites, Dad, so are you sad that they’re dead?” It’s like, “Guys, stop rubbing it in. Yes, we’re sad that two of the members of the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time are gone.” But we’re just in that phase right now, I guess, where if people are alive or dead is a big factor in everything we’re listening to or watching. They just need to know who’s still with us.
Gus will always talk about how Tom Petty is dead when we’re listening to his music, but he’ll also make my husband smile because when there’s a big guitar solo Gus will be like, “Yeah, Mike Campbell! Listen to Mike Campbell, dad!” Like, he’s 5 years old and he’s cheering on a Mike Campbell guitar solo.
I remember telling Taylor, “You must feel so good about yourself,” and he said, “This is all I ever wanted.”
Sign up for the Vulture Daily
An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice