Topic: Western Animation Discussion (Cartoons)

I mostly just watch anime now, but Gravity Falls, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, Phineas & Ferb, and even My Little Pony are all amazing. The more recent cartoons are mostly trash tho

@Blooper987 Summer Camp Island’s actually really good which is still ongoing but there aren’t the same level of good shows especially on Cartoon Network. I’m sad that We Bare Bears ended but the finale movie was brilliant and dealt with some pretty heavy themes. I go back on Steven Universe, it started off great and then ended up kinda imploding and getting far too complicated and I really wasn’t a fan of the musical elements.

I think my favourites would probably have to be Avatar: The Last Airbender for the story and characters and The Legend of Korra for the animation quality.

I also like quite a few of the DC animations especially Justice League Unlimited.

I swear as a kid if my butt wasn't parked in front of a TV playing games, it was watching cartoons. I've seen plenty of cartoons in my day, mostly around the late 90's-late 2000's, but I've seen plenty of older stuff. I haven't been keeping up that much with cartoons recently. I believe Regular Show was in it's early seasons when I fell off. It's what happens when you lose cable.

Listing all my favorites will probably take a while, but I'll try-

Classic Scooby Doo
Dexter's Laboratory
Ed Edd 'n Eddy
Powerpuff Girls (Original, never saw the reboot)
Samurai Jack
Teen Titans
Courage The Cowardly Dog (How I wasn't scared of this I'll never know)
Kim Possible
Tiny Toon Adventures (Along with many classic Looney Tunes)
Duck Dodgers
The Weekenders
Hey Arnold
TMNT 2002
Recess
My Life As A Teenage Robot
Spectacular Spider-Man
X-Men Evolution
Pre movie Spongebob

There's probably more, that's what I've got off the top of my head.

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Futurama.

Wacky Races re-runs were my morning obsession as a kid. I'd watch an episode over breakfast before getting ready and leaving for school.

Shows like Animals of Farthing Wood, Bucky O'Hare, Captain Planet, M.A.S.K. and Transformers were things I remember being on, probably during my single-digit years. Some I liked directly and others were my brother's jam.

There was also Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, of course.

The Simpsons has become such a ubiquitous monster that I didn't even think of it until reading through other people's replies. It's probably the cartoon I've watched the most, and I have greater tolerance for it than many do (people seem to think Season Eleven was its shark-jumping point, but there are character-based or special themed episodes from beyond then which work). Never cared for Futurama, if I'm honest. A friend showed me a lot of it at university, but... eh. It's fine, I guess.

I came late to Batman: The Animated Series (got the Blu-Ray collection a couple years back and tore through it at incredible speed) and have the equivalent Batman Beyond boxset still in its shrink-wrap. Disney+ will eventually help me catch up with several of Spidey's shows, as well as the X-Men cartoon from the 90s which everybody raves about.

Also, if we're counting CG animation, then how could I forget...

Darkwing Duck was another good one!

Also I used to love the Mask animated series as a kid and I remember it had a crossover with the Ace Ventura animated series which blew my mind!

I remember quite liking the mighty max cartoon as well

@Arugula Did you watch Spiral Zone? Watching that use to give me the creeps.

Off-topic: Don't know if you've played Ghost of Tsushima Legends before but the person who voiced General Iroh also voiced one of the characters in the game.

https://www.gameinformer.com/2020/10/16/ghost-of-tsushimas-mu...

Haven’t seen most of these shows mentioned, but I did watch most of the Phineas and Ferb episodes and they are truly brilliant. The humor and the music are just unbelievably top notch.

Star Wars The Clone Wars is terrific! It gets better and more mature with each season and I honestly think it has some of the best stories told in the Star Wars universe. Ahsoka Tano's character arc was brilliantly done and I'm sure many people changed from really disliking her to loving her.
A must for any Star Wars fan.

@ApostateMage I'm not sure it's been confirmed, but there's a strong rumour going around that George Lucas and Dave Filoni intentionally made Ahsoka bratty, arrogant and unlikeable in the first season, so that her overall arc would resonate more with fans who'd end up growing and maturing with her over the years. I certainly didn't like her to begin with; I didn't hate her either, but if you'd told 2008 me that she'd end up being one of my favourite Star Wars characters, I'd have laughed in disbelief.

Just thinking about this topic made me realize how many bat**** bizarre some of the cartoons of my youth were. Cow & Chicken, I am Weasel, the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and of course Courage the Cowardly Dog. I can't say any of these were ever my favorites, but of course as a kid you spend a lot of time just watching what's on, so I ended up watching these quite often.

I guess it was the influence of Ren & Stimpy on the industry.

@RR529 oh yeah cow and chicken and I am weasel were awesome! Just seeing I R Baboon still makes me laugh to this day

How could I forget about Dexter's Lab too, I still occasionally shout "DeeDeee!!!" in a Dexter voice when I'm trying to make my partner laugh

@RR529 I think Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was the weirdest cartoon from my childhood (or at least, it was in re-runs when I was of school age).

I used to love The Animals of Farthing Wood and would tune in every Friday (or whenever it was on) for my weekly dose of animal slaughter at the hands of man. I think that cartoon (and the book) is the reason I'm such a staunch environmentalist.

Rocko's Modern Life, Aaargh Real Monsters and Doug were popular with me later on. Then I discovered The Simpsons when I was about 12 or so. Series 3-8 are my favourites.

@Gremio108 ah yeah I forgot about argh real monsters, my partner often wears a black and white stripey top and I always call her Oblina when she does! I'm always Krumm for less than favourable reasons 😂

I used to love Doug too. " Doug loves mayonnaise, Patty Mayonnaise!" Is the line I remember most vividly, I think the bully read his diary or something in that episode.

I actually got Rockos Modern Life on dvd a year or so ago, it's bonkers how relevant it is, even now. I'm sure lots of the satire went over my head when I was a child

@ralphdibny, unlike the other shows I mentioned, Dexter's Lab was definitely one of my favorites. My favorite episode is (what I think was) the last one (before the terrible reboot), where they fought that Axe Kaiju & brought in everyone from across the series (the parents were brought in on the lab, you had Monkey & the Super Pals, etc.).

If they tried rebooting it today (not that I'd necessarily want it) I don't think they could essentially get away with making DeeDee the stereotypical "dumb blond" girly girl ditz. They'd probably make her a lot smarter than she lets on, and have her mess with Dexter more deliberately.

My brother still likes to reference the bit where Dexter & DeeDee went to Chinatown, and a salesman tried pushing a "DJ Quack Quack" on them.

@RR529 I feel like I've seen that one possibly, did the monkey have his own show as well? Or am I thinking of something else. I didn't know there was a reboot of Dexter's lab already. I don't recall seeing any different designs for Dexter, maybe I've watched it and just thought it was the same show.

Maybe I'm wrong but I believe DeeDee was good at other (perhaps admittedly stereotypically girly) things, she just wasn't very sciencey and was often a foil for Dexter's schemes. It's not like Dexter himself was someone to aspire to be, they were both divs in different ways. That's what made it so funny I think. It would almost be a shame if a perceived stereotype blocked them from using similar personalities for a reboot but on the other hand, a reboot wouldn't be worth doing if it wasn't different in more than one way. Probably best to just leave this show alone and not make any reboots!

@ralphdibny, yeah, I'm not sure if it counts as a reboot per sé, but after Tartakovsky left it got one or two more seasons with a different art direction & tone (I'm not sure if they aired directly after Tartakovsky's seasons or after taking a year or two off, but anyways they weren't nearly as good). Even this was in the mid 00's though, so it's been quite awhile ago.

@Gremio108
I was into Animals of Farthing Wood for a while. But it was a bit too brutal for me with so many of them dying. Did any of them survive until the end?