Forums / Discussion / General

Okay, i'll try to not make the first post sound awkward…I probably already did it. Whatever.

Since as there are generals for popular shows, (like MLP, Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls…) Why not make a thread about less popular, less discussed or uncommon cartoon shows?-I mean think about, if someone made a thread about a not-so-popular show, that thread would die easily.-

Discuss whatever shows you like. You can also talk about old shows and newer ones that you're excited for. Feel free to talk about animated movies and more "mature" cartoons as well(This includes just about anything on Adult Swim.)

Now lets start a topic,

Personally, I love Spongebob Squarepants. I was raised watching the show and I loved every single minute of each episode.Sadly, for the last 5 years, the humor in show the has started going downhill. Like very downhill. The recent episodes are lil funny but still lack any humor at all. I think at this point the writers and producers have ran out of ideas and there just in it for the money. Wish the show would just die. But sadly Spongebob became Nickelodeons mascot(In away) and seeing it cut off from the network would be rather sad and weird.

I'll just stick with the old episodes. Your thoughts?

When I was a youth I watched all of the things on Cartoon Network. Lots of good shows were going on in the 90's. Today, there is not much on TV worth watching. Cartoons still remain some of the last bastions of goodness on the airwaves, especially considering my hatred for canned laughter. Very few shows with laugh tracks in them retain my attention.

One of my favorite memories as a teenager is from when we were visiting Canada to see our relatives. My sister, brother, aunt, and I were staying in a hotel room together. I woke up at around two AM to see my sister watching the TV. Dexter's Lab was on. I had not seen that show in nearly a decade. We sat up for a few hours and watched several episodes that and then Powerpuff Girls. Kept the volume low to avoid waking others, with our ears glued to the speakers.

Currently the only show that brings me to regularly watch it as new episodes are produced is Gravity Falls, obviously. Phineas and Ferb is also good, and fueled a good portion of my entertainment in my freshman year in college. Spongebob is cool too; I watched an episode with my mother this morning, in fact.

Adventure Time and Regular Show also deserve to be mentioned. Occasionally I search for episodes of Adventure Time online. Although I am not as enthusiastic about Regular Show, if it is on I will not turn off the TV, and that is a good sign.

I haven't watched one of the new Spongebobs all the way through. I'll still watch an old one on very rare occasions, but I can't really sit through the new ones. It just doesn't feel like the show I grew up with.

Obligatory: Toonami is premiering two new shows tonight: Samurai 7 and Eureka 7. And I'm freaking PUMPED. I love how much Jason DeMarco is putting into the block.

Another AS show: The Venture Bros. It's not shown often (I think once on Sundays at 9) but I think it's really funny.

One other show: Courage the Cowardly Dog. Aww yeah.

@Count
Can't say I'm a 90's kid. Mostly because I was too young to even remember most of the stuff I did in the 90's(I'm from the late 90's). I can only remember so few little shows, ed,edd n eddy being one of my favorites, but if you start asking/talking to me about very much older shows(like the first generation transformer) we'll end up having an awkward conversation.

If you can provide a a video/links to these old videos, I could take the time to watch one or two and then we can talk.

@Regular

Ironic that you posted about two new shows on toonami when that goes in the category of anime. Not saying you can't talk about them here but there's already thread about it.

Lol.

Anyways, Courage the Cowardly Dog was my favorite as well. Looking back at the show, all I can say its, uh, interesting…and still rather nice to watch from time to time.

Also, there gonna make a new show about the TMNT on Nickelodeon.

I looked at the (constant pestering) commercials and the show looks promising. Just hope they don't fuck it up. I'll just wait patiently for September and see what happens.

Eh, I know I could be impaled for saying this, but I don't really mind referring to anime as "cartoons." The anime thread seems to be more of an image dump, but I suppose you're right. It would be more appropriate to post in there. My definition of "cartoon" could be technically incorrect for including anime…but it doesn't bother me.

Anyway, back on topic, Courage messed me up, man. It epitomized the fears I had as a kid in retrospect. I was a very scared child, and upon seeing the King Ramses episode, I was scarred for all of adolescence. It's still a pretty unsettling thing to watch. All that being said, I love Courage. A friend of mine got me the DVD as a gift back in July.

Did anyone else watch Doug?

@Regular Mack

Not really, Mack. Anime is drawn and animated so technically it is a cartoon, no matter what type of special name given to it. It's only different because of the overall style about it. So your definition of cartoon is okay and feel free to talk about anime here. Just keep in mind that there there's another thread about that type of genre.

And yeah, Courage emphasized fear a lot. No need for blood or gore like most cliche shows and movies do. Just weird things that left you wondering what was going on. Not saying there were moments the show went creepy(You're not perfect…) but those creepy moments were possibly the most memorable.

Nah, man. Sorry.

Neither of the shows I mentioned are from the early 90's actually. Powerpuff Girls ran until 2005, Dexter's Laboratory from 1999 to 2003. Most of the shows I am talking about from the 90's were actually from the late 90's. Johnny Bravo, Ed Edd and Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog. Cartoon Network's greatest shows were mostly in the late 90's.

There was also Warner Brothers. They produced a lot of great shows that still retain their entertainment value to this day. Loony Tunes being the best of the bunch. Mel Blanc, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and many others that I cannot recall the names of are some of the greatest men in American animation history. Duck Amuck, What's Opera Doc?, and Duck Dodgers are definitely worth mentioning.

I will put the ones I found here for you to watch if you wish:

@Count

Oh no, that's a totally different case. I remember the old Warner Brothers show, just like any kid that had nothing to do the entire day.

Needless to say, Duck Amuck was my favorite episode!

Ah, Warner Bros. cartoons. Those things are great. What's Opera, Doc? might be my favorite, though I also love the one where Yosemite Sam and Bugs were on the train, and Sam thinks he's been shot, and the bridge and everything….yeah, I hope you guys know what I'm talking about, because I can't remember the name of the episode for the life of me.

Edit: Also, Mex, I'm glad you agree; I just know some otakus who wouldn't be too pleased.

The problem you're always going to find when discussing any kind of medium, television included, is that there's no such thing as official genres. There can be widely accepted genres, such as fantasy in books and romantic comedy in movies, but there's never been, nor will there probably ever be, an official list of genres for any medium. Therefore, defining anime as a cartoon is both right and wrong, simply because genre is subjective.

As for cartoons I loved, Batman: The Animated Series, and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited were both huge in my childhood. I loved watching all those superheroes (my favorite was and still is Green Arrow), and I can honestly say it's partly what got me into comics as an academic study. I also loved Courage, as well as the Tom and Jerry reruns they had.

@Mexican Android: I read somewhere that Spongebob's creator was making the more recent episodes purposely bad so they'd cancel it. Guess that's not working out for him.

As for myself, other then the ponies I don't watch many cartoons of this day and age. My stuff was mainly older stuff, to be more specific, The Real Ghostbusters. Now that was awesome, but of course, I might just be bias, heh.

In addition to the Batman series, I also like Superman: The Animated Series. And both of the theme songs were fantastic.

Never really got into it as a kid. No idea why, since it was practically the same; I just liked Batman far more.

"Batman! You wouldn't let me fry, would you?"



"BATMAN!"

I still watch cartoons, both old and new. I don't know why people say Nickelodeon and CN have bad shows. Both of them still show reruns, and some new shows are great (Regular Show is possibly the weirdest cartoon I've watched in a long time).
To this day, I still watch all of Mike Judge's cartoons, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, MGM, stuff on Boomerang…the list goes on and on.

Yeah, I guess you have a point there. Thanks for saying.

@Sketch

Seriously?
Sauce please?That is if you can find it.

I still think that today's cartoons don't live up to the 90's. Bu maybe I just have my nostalgia goggles on.

I found a lot of humor in stuff like Freakazoid better than in stuff like in the modern TV shows.
I'm guessing it's because they could get away with a lot more. Look at this, for example:

Kids could laugh at it because it sounds random. Grown-ups could laugh at it because it has a secret double meaning. Stuff like that.

Cartoons now a days are either for adults or for kids. Sure, MLP tries to do both, but it's still meant for kids in it's subject matter.

I want shows back where you could watch it and not feel guilty about it being for another group.
I guess part of it has to do with social reforms. People think cartoons are for nerds now, unless their Family Guy.

A lot of cartoons don't appeal to me anymore. I tend to look at the past for my cartoon fix, but they're all before I was even born, so even then I can't enjoy them to their full potential. (I don't remember a lot of celebrities from the 90's.) So right now I'm just hoping I could someday fill that void with my own cartoon shows. That'll be the day.

If it's Freakazoid, that's not your nostalgia goggles; all of those Spielburg cartoons had FANTASTIC writing.

It was on a TVTropes article, so I'd take that with a grain of salt. And I can't even find the comment anymore.

I'll keep searching when I'm on my desktop.

@Katarmi: Actually Lauren Faust said she made her version of MLP for everyone, not just kids and honestly, it kinda shows IMO.

As of recently, I've been watching mainly Adventure Time, the Regular Show, and the Amazing World of Gumball. Most other currently produced cartoons are too painfully cliched to stomach. Especially all of the ones on Nick that are based after Dreamworks movies. I also liked Chowder and Flapjack when they were on.
In my younger days, I watched Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, and Fairly Odd Parents. Also the Teen Titans and Spider Man cartoon in reruns.

Land Before Time is best cartoon.
/thread.

Another thing I don't see: Cartoon that take anime as inspiration in the right ways.

I don't like American Anime, it looks weird to me. Personally, I want to see a show that doesn't follow that art and somehow feels like an anime. Maybe it'd take a few art cues, but I don't want to see huge bug-eyed monsters for characters.

I want to see more "crazy" things. Like Katamari Damacy. You could have a completely ridiculous, not grounded to reality plot. You could have supervillains/mythical good guys that are 50 feet tall. Cartoons that disconnect themselves from reality are often not too story based, (Regular Show, Chowder, etc.) so I'd like to see something of a story. Something confusing, but understandable if you think about it long enough, and in a different mindset.

But what anime doesn't have a catchy music track backing it? It'd probably have to be instrumental, unless you get the right voice. (The only reason I like J-pop is because I can't understand it.) Epic ballads mixing all sorts of genres. Classical Piano that turns into heavy metal for villains. In fact, just bring back the classical piano. It's a powerful musical instrument. It can take techno and turn it into an enchanted sort of tune.

I've never been able to sit through a lot of anime. But I'd sit through something like this.

I consider myself as a huge cartoon fan, whether it be anime or good old fashioned American made cartoons. I can't really think of a time when there was a cartoon I didn't really enjoy. In my sophomore year of high school, I couldn't go a single day without making a spongebob reference. Ah man, I just wanna talk about ALL the shows! But there are too many and I would make a post that is waaaay too long. I suppose the show that I think about the most when I think of my love for cartoons is Powerpuff Girls. That show was the shit, and it's one of the first cartoons I remember watching (other than the stuff on Nick Jr. and whatnot) My dad seemed to love it just as much as I did, and we both adored Bubbles :3 I actually still have a Bubbles plushie somewhere that I got for my sixth birthday.

Ive always loved cartoons and there's never really been a time when I stopped watching them. There were always at least a couple cartoons on tv that I would watch and I've always loved the classics. I couldn't really list the cartoons because I don't want to forget one.
Anyways, about cartoons of today and their appeal to adults. Well, if I'm not mistaken, at first cartoons were shown in theaters and were intended to be shown to adults. Then, once tvs became commonplace, you had shows like the flintstones and the jetsons that were written with adults in mind. The problems they dealt with were with their jobs, marriage, kids, stuff that adults could relate to. Still though, they were enjoyable for kids. In my opinion, the difference today is that they have separated the kids animation and adult animation. You have shows like the simpsons, south park, and family guy that are wildly popular with adults, and then kids shows that are wildly popular with kids but never too many adults( no Avatards and bronies, I mean mass appeal). Still , many kids shows today can still appeal very much to you if that's what you like, as is the case with many of us. I can't say though that shows like Adventure time, MLP, Gravity falls, etc. appeal to a massive amount of adults. That's just my opinion.

I've never been an avid cartoon watcher, having grown up without access to a lot of the great cartoons from the nineties and early 2000's. Cartoons never had much of an appeal to me, and these days I don't get around to watching very many – I still haven't seen a good chunk of season 2 of MLP, and though I've been meaning to start on Korra in forever, I haven't found the time.

So growing up I basically lived in the 1960's as far as cartoons go, but the one modern show I remember having is to this day my favorite of all time.

Sheep in the big city? Looks like the animation.

What's Freakazoid ? Never heard of it.

When I was younger I liked Xiaolin showdown, and I remember there wad only one other kid in my class who knee of it and was a fan like myself.

I believe that, yes, as Dac said, this is from Sheep in the Big City. That's General Specific, if I remember correctly. Though I thought he ordinarily wore sunglasses.

It's a cartoon from the 90s created by Spielburg. It's very much worth a watch.

It is Sheep in the Big City, though I don't remember General Specific ever wearing sunglasses. It's a shame they never released it on DVD or for download, and to my knowledge they don't show reruns. It is very strange that it just completely vanished.

Wow I barely even remember that show, and yet it seems so familiar…

Kinda reminds me of Rocko's Modern Life (great show)

When I grew up in the harbors of Baltimore, the only kids channel we got was Kids WB, so my first memories were of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Xioalin Showdown. Later on, classic Nick stuff like SpongeBob, Oddparents and Jimmy Neutron. Superhero shows from early 2000 to say, 2005 were the best. (Teen Titans, Samurai Jack, Justice League, X-Men Evolution, etc.) Know what I miss, though? "Nick's Graveyard", AKA Nickelodeon, where all their cancelled shows go to die. Stuff like Martin Mystery, My Life As A Teenage Robot or even Making Fiends.

All of those superhero shows Free Cake mentioned were frikin awesome, and took up a huge part of my late childhood.
I never watched Martin Mystery more than once, but I used to watch Totally Spies like every day (I believe those two shows were made by the same people)
I really didn't like Making Fiends, the web series was so much better

Do you know what's one modern kids cartoon that positively surprised me? Ben 10!
At first I was…

But then I was…

Why? Because:
1) The characters actually changes his voice as his form. This might sounds obligatory to you but when I was the age this cartoon is supposed to be for there was the habit to let a character hold the same voice even if he had changed completely, even he had switched his body with another char, which is more absurd.
2) The reaction of the protagonist is realistic. At first he is "Cool! I'm a superhero!" but then he learn that great powers lead… You know the lecture, don't you?
3) The protagonist is really Ben. He is not just a clark kent for his super forms, he is actually the true character that wear his alien alter egos like normal people wear their clothes. Infact he changes and dumps them in the course of the series but he's still the protagonist.

I like most shows on Adult Swim. It's above my age demographic, but whatevuh, I do whut I want. I watch children's television shows too, and I do enjoy SpongeBob, although I feel that after the movie premiered it took a turn for the worse. Now, that's not to say I don't still appreciate it and that every now and then there are some great episodes they air, I just feel like the glory days of that show are past.

My favorite show is Robot Chicken. I just love how it's just random bits of comedy in small doses, something I honestly enjoy. I don't know if everyone agrees with me or not, but I like it. I like American Dad over the new episodes of Family Guy as well. Eh, Family Guy just doesn't seem original anymore. Now, the old Family Guy is brilliant, and I watch my DVDs of classic early 2000s Family Guy all the time. The jokes were fresher and it seemed like more effort went into the writing, and the characters were more likable. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not one who's easily offended by television cartoons. But, especially in Seasons 7-8, Peter was turning into a complete monster, and the staff would try to squeeze humor out of Peter killing Quagmire's cat, for example. Now, I wasn't offended by this, but I just didn't find it funny.

American Dad, on the other hand, I really like. I watch it more now than I watch Family Guy, and I think it's sort of like the old Family Guy, but without all the cutaway jokes. I don't mind the cutaways, but Family Guy has gone to the well one too many times with those and rehashed jokes. Just for example:

The Simpsons and Futurama have both always been awesome, and I'm quite happy with the new Futurama episodes airing on Comedy Central. The show really hasn't changed a lot, in spirit and in content. The Simpsons, obviously, is a very different show from what it was in 1989, but I still think it's one of the top shows there is on TV, specifically Fox, actually, compared to the awful shows of Bob's Burgers and The Cleveland Show. (Just my opinion, don't bury me if you like these shows, please.) The 500th episode was a tad disappointing, but tolerable. The future for the show looks anything but clear, which worries me.

Yeah. I hope I haven't missed the point of this thread by mainly talking about adult cartoons. I know it said in the OP's post that it's OK, but I don't know if it was supposed to be the prominent bulk of the post. Oh, well, I'll post it anyway. Tell me what you think, if you feel the same, differently, etc. Oh, and a quick sub-discussion, if the OP wouldn't mind…

Which do you prefer, American Dad or Family Guy? Why?

Well, it was what a lot of my post was talking about, so why not ask your guys' opinions, right?

@Hypercat: I enjoyed Ben 10 for a long time. the original series was excellent, and I enjoyed Alien Force. I thought the first season of Ultimate Alien was OK, but when they started to do nothing but rehash characters and never introduce new ultimates, I got bored. Still haven't watched Omniverse, and I don't really intend to.

@Trollkeeper: I enjoy American Dad more than Family Guy. To me, Family Guy has always been in-jokes and "Let's see how controversial and incredibly random we can get at the same time", and I just don't like that. American Dad, on the other hand, does a good job of making (relatively) realistic plots, while still keeping a light hearted tone. Also, they do the occasional topical episode, and those ones are some of my favorites. (Also good: George Bush's dramatic rescue mission in Stan of Arabia. I laughed so hard.) The characters also seem more real (other than Roger) and haven't devolved into soulless caricatures of their former selves, like the Family Guy characters have.

As for other shows, I enjoy Futurama a lot, and it's probably one of my Top 3 Shows on TV. I like Phineas and Ferb, but I feel like it's lost its charm somewhat the last season or so. I haven't watched much Adventure Time, but what I have seen has been pretty good. I love Young Justice and can't wait for new episodes (not that I'll really be able to watch them, being in college and all).

@TrollKeeper

I prefer American Dad. I used to love Family Guy but show has been going down hill(Like most stuff). Now like the image you showed before, they began rehashing there jokes a lot and it's getting stale. The newer episodes are looking better in animations, so there's no denying that. But with the same repeated jokes, the generic and uninspired episodes, and the now prevalent references about internet memes(which is like cancer to me) the show sucks.(Not like the show already sucked before. Ehehe.)

American Dad is a bit better to swallow down. Not much of a difference but you don't get the constant cut-away scenes about the whatever the hell they did. The episodes are bit funny, in my opinion anyways. Only thing that gets me bothered is the racial episodes they usually make. I REALLY dislike how they portrayed Puerto Rico in a episode ones. I'm not going into details with that unless you ask me about it.

Bottom line: Family Guy sucks and you should just watch American Dad instead.

Edit:

I agree with Twilitlord. He/She pretty much sums it all up.

I REALLY dislike how they portrayed Puerto Rico in a episode ones. I’m not going into details with that unless you ask me about it.

Well, you've piqued my curiosity. I'm asking you about it, mainly because I don't recall seeing that episode.

I haven’t watched much Adventure Time, but what I have seen has been pretty good.

Oh, it's a great show. I forgot to mention it in my original post, and I'm over the half-hour limit for editing. Damn. As a matter of fact, I'll redirect you here.

I love the older Family Guy episodes, and don't like the newer ones so much for obvious reasons. But I for some reason can not like American Dad. I don't know, I sometimes find it funny, but it feels like the same thing almost every frikin episode. As far as adult cartoons go, older Simpsons is the way to go.

Oh good ol' cartoonS…




A few cartoons nowadays are cool like Regular Show, Adventure Time, My LIttle Pony and a few others. But nothing will be like the classics.

An episode called "The Vacation Goo". If you want to read the details about it here's the Link.

But essentially Roger gets thrown out of the cruise, where he tried to make it as a star after getting bounced from a film, after stealing some silverware.

Now, the first thing that bothered me, right off the bat: The guy he meets at first. I know that it sounds a bit nitpicky but the guy looks more Cuban then an actual Puerto Rican. He has the stereotypical fedora hat and cigar, which is rare, since I don't see a lot of people here smoking cigars.

Second: The place they chose. A crappy street with a strip joint. And the place is call "La Senorita". It only shows that they never went here and don't even know that we speak English and Spanish.

Third: Everything else. They portrayed people here like if we are some kind of depraved, homeless pigs and cartels. They even added a mule, which only further shows that they can't even tell if we're Mexicans or Cubans.

You probably think this isn't a big deal and its only for shits and giggles but it gets me angry when you can't even take a second to look at one country and see what makes it different from the others.

Sorry, I'm raging right now. But I hope you understand what i'm talking about. Give me a sec while I try to find a cure for my butthurt.

(Also, excuse me if I wrote anything I didn't check my paragraph. There might be some spelling errors and what not.)

I don't like American Dad too much, and I'll very rarely watch an episode of Family Guy. I just feel like American Dad is too preachy; it really beats you over the head with its bias. I actually prefer Family Guy, but not by too much. All the reasons have been given a thousand times. For disliking Family Guy, anyway.

I used to think Robot Chicken was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, but between Youtube Poops and reading the bowels of the internet I've lost any fresh approach to skit/cutaway humor like that. That's not to say I hate the show, but it's lost its appeal as I've gotten older.

One other thing: I freaking LOVE the Venture Bros. and King of the Hill. It takes some getting used to, but they both basically make me laugh continuously.

My favorite cartoon

My mom never let me watch it as a kid. :(

@Omni
Your mother was so cruel…