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Favorite cartoons
Posted: Jan 25, 2008 in TV and Celebrities
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I tend to enjoy comedic cartoons and documentaries more than just about anything on television these days. On top of that, adultswim.com offers quite a few full-length cartoons you can watch for free on their site.
Right now, my top five favorite cartoons are:
The Boondocks: Based on Aaron McGruder's comic strip of the same name. This show is intelligent, thought-provoking, has great animation and there are lots of hilarious guests.
Squidbillies: Anthropomorphic hillbilly squids--The Cuyler family--that live in the north Georgia mountains in poverty.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Anthropomorphic fast food items and their life together in South Jersey. I love the episodes with The Mooninites, Ignignokt and Err.
South Park: So consistent! This show has had me laughing for years. Despite the gross-out humor, it tackles important issues that are often ignored and teaches some great lessons.
The Simpsons: Even though I feel this show has been on a downward slope for awhile, I wouldn't feel right not putting it on my top five.
Other notables: Family Guy, Futurama, Home Movies, King of the Hill
So, what are your favorites?
ZOINKS !!!SCOOBY DOOBY DOO ! =) Sorry, probably not as contemporary an answer as you were looking for Ben, but truthful none the less. Another one a long time ago was the rooster and the chick (Can't remember the name of it)
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law: The height of Adult Swim's non sequitur humor (a la "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "Sealab 2021"). The way it subverts characters from cartoons long past is hysterical. C'mon, Apache Chief suing because he spilled hot coffee on his lap and can no longer "enlarge"? That's gold, Jerry!
Animaniacs: Works on so many levels. Kids can enjoy the classic Warner Bros.-esque action and slapstick, while adults can also pick up on show business, literary and other cultural references (which is also very classic WB-esque).
Batman: The Animated Series: As admirable of a job as Christian Bale did in 'Batman Begins,' Kevin Conroy is still the definitive Bruce Wayne/Batman to me, and Mark Hamill is so good as the Joker that that's the character I first associate with him, and not Luke Skywalker. It's also helped by the wonderful art deco style of the buildings.
South Park: Sometimes it's brilliant satire. Other times it's just extremely funny. Often, it's both. It's what the Firesign Theatre would've done had they been born 25 years later. And I challenge anyone to keep a straight face while Mr. Garrison discusses sexual positions with his kindergarten students during Sex Ed.
Here goes:
Muppet Babies: For my money, the single best cartoon you can show a child. It's innocent, but it's exciting, and teaches imagination, teamwork, and instills a sense of adventure. The CGI "The Backyardigans" that my son Riley loves so much is the contemporary "Muppet Babies," but Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo and the gang are more memorable characters. And it ran seemingly forever.
The Tick: Probably the most underrated animated series of all time, about a big dumb blue super hero (Tick) and his sidekick Arthur, the human moth/accountant. Great, great, incredible villains (Thrakkorzog, El Seed, Chairface Chippendale, etc). Just wonderfully silly. The episode "The Tick vs. The Tick," where the hero finds a rival hero who also wants to be The Tick (he meets him in a super hero nightclub, no less) is 22 minutes of heaven. Was also made into a live-action series that would have been dynamite if given the chance to establish itself.
Justice League Unlimited: Great celebrity voices, and carries over Kevin Conroy over from Batman: TAS (as well as Hamill's Joker and others), and carries continuity from both the Batman and Superman series.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: I just started watching this again (with Riley!), and I was surprised at how strong it was. Of course, Timm and Dini (who went on to do Batman, Superman and Justice League) worked on He-Man, and the show does a great job of juggling story and lesson, and for a show starring a dude with a sword and a bunch of bad guys who want to kill him it's surprisingly not violent (He-Man usually dispatches them by either deflecting their magic back at them or throwing them into water or something relatively non-violent).
I'll go with the 90s "X-Men" for my 5th because it was more or less faithful to the comics and is one of the first cartoons I remember taking a serious tone and trying to be a dramatic series.
The Mtv Spiderman series from a few years back rocked the hizzouse. The series featured state-of-the-art computer animation, a kick-ass electronica soundtrack, and ... wait for it ... Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of Spidey.
I was disappointed when they were unable to reach an agreement on a second season.
The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon.com for 15 bucks. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Animated-Special-Edward-Asner/dp/B0000VCZLG
The Mtv Spiderman series from a few years back rocked the hizzouse. The series featured ...
Thanks John. I never had the pleasure of seeing this series, but I do remember the fantastic Maxx cartoon series on MTV. It stayed true to Sam Keith's comic book of the same name which was one of my favorites. There are plenty of other cartoons that others mentioned that I loved as well. Perhaps I should have mentioned that my list was for cartoons that are still being made. But feel free to mention all-time-faves as well.
No Family Guy love?!
No Family Guy love?!
I probably would have put Family Guy in my top 5 a year ago, but lately I've been watching Adult Swim more for my cartoon fix.
One pretty underrated cartoon is Pinky and the Brain. I haven't watched it in a while, but when I did, I noted that the odd couple thing works particularly well. Brain is a lot like Stewie used to be on Family Guy - totally evil. But where Stewie sort of gave up on his plans for world domination and Lois-destruction, The Brain retains his distaste for Pinky, and will not cease on his quest to rule the globe. Definitely worth a one-episode look.
Bots Master. It's an obscure 90's cartoon.
It involved good and evil robots under the control of people that seemed too "dim" to know how to operate a toaster. Plus it had the requisite well endowed woman and bald guy as villians. The twist was during the fab fight scenes, you needed special 3-D glasses to get inside the action. This resulted in many weeks of bugging my mom to find these glasses before finally taking to Saran-Wrap, blue/red markers and some cardboard to make the shades myself.
Yes it was awesomely-bad but I loved it.
What...no love for Beavis & Butthead?
One pretty underrated cartoon is Pinky and the Brain. I haven't watched it in a ...
"What do you want to do tonight, Brain?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky -- try to take over the world."
One pretty underrated cartoon is Pinky and the Brain. I haven't watched it in a ...
Yeah, I loved watching Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs after a long day in middle school. Here's a great Pinky and the Brain YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li5nMsXg1Lk
Brainstem! Brainstem!
And if you watched Animaniacs you're sure to remember Nations of the World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDtdQ8bTvRc
South Park is really the only cartoon I take seriously these days.