American Cartoons: Pre-2000 and Post-2000

[Correction]

Today's world is all about being PC and not pissing off someone.

You missed the best banned cartoon ever. I don't mean this sarcastically, this is a masterwork.

YouTube - Coal black and de sebben dwarfs (updated snow black)

[brisk]

Fucking Rocko's Modern Life topped every other cartoon in the 90s. I miss those days.

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E RECYCLE! C-O-N-S-E-R-V-E CONSERVE! DON'T YOU P-O-L-L-U-T-E POLLUTE THE RIVER SKIES AND SEAS. Or else we're gonna get............WHAT WE DESERVEEEEEEEEE!!

Best number in any show ever.

[Cream Soda]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Max_title.jpg

[Xajii]

I remember a show called Biker Mice From Mars.
And I have to say that's the best idea for a cartoon, ever. It makes absolutely no sense.

[Pikarya]

Oh how I miss thee.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2u8v6ed.jpg

[Wintermute]

For people mentioning Warner Bros. and Bugs Bunny. As funny as they were, when they were made they were not made for children. They were cartoons made for adults as fillers in between movies at the movie theatre. Granted 80s TNT decided to throw them on tv anyways appealing to little kids, and obviously we grew up fine. Point is though, there are few cartoons (if any) that have that kind of violence/inuendos that actually was targeted towards kids.

Not to mention the racism.

[altwight]

List of all the pwn shit

Doug (Nick not 1saturday morning doug)
Angry beavers
Hay Arnold
Clarissa Explains it All
The Secret World of Alex Mack
Are you Afraid of the Dark?
Rocko's Modern Life
DBZ
Reboot
YuYu Hakusho
Ruroni Kenshin
Sailor Moon
Dexter's
Powerpuff Girls
Giligan's Island
Teenage Mutant ninja turtles
Ren and Stimpy
That one temple show
That one competitor game was like gladiators or something
Fairly Odd Parents is good

anyway i can go on forever.

Nowadays kids have to watch shit like Icarly... Zoey101slut, Drake and Josh (newer ones are okay) The cartoon network lineup starting at like 6-9 was soooooooo badass back in the day. Most of the shit on Nickolodean is reality bullshit and not even cartoons. Raging -.-

[Biggz]

Ronin Warriors

[_chuchu]

Pirates of the Dark Water was also awesome.

Oh how I miss thee. rocko.jpg

Pinky. Nuff said.

candlejack.jpg /thr-

hahaha oh g-

[Kaelan?]

Love to see the comparisons between the quality and style of recent Japanese vs American style.

And why are American studios not collaborating with Japanese animation studios and make some interesting Tranformers like shows. Those were voiced and written in American and animated by Toei (who also did those digimon, and Dragonball).

For me (as far as I can remember) it would be:

Captain Tsubasa
Ronin Warriors
Yu Yu Hakusho
Dragon Ball Z
Saint Seiya (god I loved this)
Pokemon
Some shonen where the characters recited these mantras as if they were praying or meditating or something to do their special attacks. Can't remember for my life what it was called.
Speed Racer

vs.

Freakazoid
Animaniacs
Pinky & the Brain
Johnny Bravo
Space Ghost Coast to Coast(was the shit back then)
Wacky Races

I think that's it. I was never into the whole X-Men/Spiderman/etc stuff or Tiny Toons/Bugs Bunny/Tom&Jerry etc when I was a kid. I watched them every now and then when there was nothing else to do, but never really got into them. Dunno why, found them boring I guess. My friends used to like em.

Hard choice tbh. I guess I laughed more with the american ones, but got a lot more into the story of the anime shows.

[Chicomagiko]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Max_title.jpg

JFC, 82 posts in. I was beginning to rage. Also, The BotsMaster, Street Sharks, and this one cartoon where this dude had a red car with wing-gull doors that flew(i think).

EDIT: Quick Bing search has yielded that the red car cartoon i was referring to was called M.A.S.K..

[yayaok]

nothing will ever beat cartoon cartoon's
the most glorious day of a week was friday, when them new shit came out and exploded our brains with its pimpness
and as someone else mentioned, sat. mornings when you flip between kidsWB and fox to catch new pokemon/digimon and all them other shits.... goddamn, kids these days dont know wtf they be missing. i'll admit i even watched jackie chan adventures and card captor sakura on kidsWB, it was the SHIT.

i miss those days. aint nothing like watching sheep in the big city at 10pm sipping coffee with your mom lol

[TacoTaru]

Two Stupid Dogs with the segments of Secret Agent Squirrel in between. Other than that Courage, Rocko and the Angry Beavers are the only thing that come close to cartoons I can truly appreciate from that era. As for modern cartoons, Family Guy was great but only before it got cancelled. Aqua Teen went off the deep end after the movie came out and Tom Goes To the Mayor was probably the best thing to come out of Adult Swim.

[Plow]

and...

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/7489/1244555699398.gif

I was going to argue that no, cartoons really were a lot better back then...


And then I realized I'm like 5 years older than 90% of the people in this thread and think 90% of the shit listed was terrible, and the crap I liked a few years before that was epic.

[Khamsin]

Not to mention the racism.

I've read some theories that Tom and Jerry may have had racist themes, as well, and may have targetted adults once, too.

[izembo]

invader zim! almost forgot that, i had a dancing gir gif as my avatar for awhile

[Vandalhart]

One of the present day shows I always liked was Recess. It's a Disney one, but I always thought it was a show that I'd let my kids watch. I also own the first season of Talespin and Darkwing Duck on DVD. I believe I have the first two seasons of Duck Tales also. Other than that, I have the shows I watch as an Adult (Futurama and Family Guy).

[Ziero]

cartoons have gone to shit... Total Drama Island... it's reality TV but it's a cartoon! caught my brother watching that shit, all into it, slapped him. put on some rocko's modern life for him, problem solved.

Total Drama Island is one of the best damn cartoons on TV today. And you deserve a slap for not realizing that. For all those complaining about people dumbing down cartoons and having things censored, TDI gets away with a lot of adult oriented crap and it's down right violent. Tell me, when's the last time you saw a topless chick in a 90's cartoon?

Teen Titans was awesome, wish they'd make another season. Cartoons these days are utter crap. Batman Beyond I liked. The new batman show that's on cartoon network in the mornings? Absolute shit... ugliest animation i've seen in a long time. I miss Angry beavers

You mean Batman: The Brave and the Bold? You sir also deserve a slap because that is an incredible show. It's the first batman in a long time to actually have fun with the character. It's got this great campy 70s feel to it while still having a modern, clean edge to the story telling and characters.

Show me a modern cartoon that is as good as Gargoyles, Talespin, Ducktales and the light. Good luck.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Star Wars the Clone Wars. Chowder. Venture Bros. Wolverine and the X-Men. Futurama. I could keep going if you wanted.

I downloaded and rewatched the original Transformers show a year ago. I couldn't sit through most of the episodes, they were fucking terrible. Yes I said it, the Transformers tv show is shit.

Beastwars on the other hand....

The original Transformers was absolute trash who's popularity (outside some key episodes) is fueled by near blind nostalgia. And I say that as someone who loves Transformers and their entire 25 year history. It was still better then the japanese junk that came out after (though Armada had some high points) but it's still not that great when compared to many good shows of later years. Transformers: Animated however is one of the greatest re-tellings of the Transformers mythos in ages, an incredible new take on the concept (even if I do despise the art style) with exceptional story telling and character progression. Sadly Cartoon Network is run by dicks and the show was barely able to limp through three seasons.

For people mentioning Warner Bros. and Bugs Bunny. As funny as they were, when they were made they were not made for children. They were cartoons made for adults as fillers in between movies at the movie theatre. Granted 80s TNT decided to throw them on tv anyways appealing to little kids, and obviously we grew up fine. Point is though, there are few cartoons (if any) that have that kind of violence/inuendos that actually was targeted towards kids.

Actually they were made for both adults and children. The simple slapstick humor entertained the kids while the pop culture references and innuendos jokes made their parents laugh. Sadly nowadays we don't get that too often as cartoons specifically and solely target children and parents just sit their kid in front of the TV all day to go smoke crack or bang hookers or something.

There's a few major problems with threads like these, and first and foremost are the rose colored glasses people always wear. A lot of the cartoons listed here are absolute garbage. Add in the fact that people are comparing 20, 30, 60+ years of cartoon history with 9 years of current cartoons and it's no longer a comparison. Anyone can make a list a mile long of things they liked for the past half a century, but when you're dealing with less then a decade it get's a bit rougher.

Another problem is cartoons nowadays have far fewer outlets and much less creative freedom to do what they want to do. Before when every TV station and their sister (literally, each station's sister stations) would scramble for the new next big cartoon to throw into that timeslot right before school or fill up those few twilight hours on saturday mornings. Nowadays, you only have three channels that show cartoons and two that have saturday morning cartoons...and both are run by the same people. A lot of incredible, award winning series were canceled outright by Cartoon Network far before their time, not because they were bad, but because they didn't sell enough toys. And now that they're making a push towards more live action crap (in an attempt to show more for less, regardless of quality) Cartoons are slowly being pushed aside. And it's because of decisions like that, to focus on the merchandise more then the actual show itself, we see fewer and fewer truly innovative series.

It's also much harder now to find cartoons unless you specifically watch a channel made for cartoons. There is no more flipping between 5-6 channels watching your favorite animated stars, there is no more rushing home from school to catch that afternoon block of Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Batman:TaS and Freakazoid. Saturday Morning Cartoons no longer compete with each other because the same group runs the two biggest blocks of cartoons, to the point where you'll see the same show on both networks. And that has made it harder to actually find these few great cartoons that actually exist because Cartoon centric stations fill their days with cheap repeats of mediocre shows to save money. With less places to air their cartoons, fewer premium slots to feature new series and a bigger concern about merchandising profits then actual quality, cartoons nowadays have been getting a raw deal. However there are still some gems out there that blow away anything that came out from the last 70 years.

[Tomk]

Don't forget he 60's and 70's. I was born in the 70's but we got a lot of reruns from the 60's as well.

The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour was the highlight followed by some good and some absolutely horrible cartoons mostly from Hanna Barbera.

Here is a short list:

The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Hour
Scooby Do
Space Ghost
Speed Buggy
Captain Caveman
Hong Kong Phooey
Woody Woodpecker
Yogi Bear
The Jetsons
The Herculoids
The Pink Panther
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Mighty Mouse
Underdog
Grape Ape
The Clue Club

I'd have to say, outside of bugs bunny, that the cartoons of today are much better.

[Alvinho]

Wow, so much good stuff mentioned in this thread already... I'll just add more.

Dungeons & Dragons
The Impossibles
She-Ra
Conan The Adventurer
The Smurfs
The Snorkels
Mumbly

Also, props who those that mentioned:

The Herculoids
He-Man
Wacky Races
Thundercats (Hoooooo!)
Freakazoid
Pinky and The Brain
Animaniacs

A lot of good stuff in this thread, including a lot of cartoons I haven't mentioned.