Cartoons: Help Me Build the Ultimate Collection

[twiztor | 850]

ok, i finally pulled the trigger and bought an external hard drive specifically to house all of my cartoons, so that i can watch any of them on demand on my TV. 

So. I'm looking for suggestions for great but underrated cartoon series. My personal primary years of interest are mid 80s-mid 90s, but i want to have everything that's great. I started with all the classic 80s stuff (G.I. Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, He-Man, etc.) and then focused on the 90s superhero stuff (Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, Tick) so that's my background. But i'm extremely interested in anything you liked as a kid / still like / guilty pleasures / enjoy watching with your kid(s) / and anything else you think is worth watching. Any one-offs / made-for-tv specials / straight to vhs or dvd releases are more than welcome as well, because that's probably my biggest blind spot. 

Some examples of lesser-known cartoons that i have but want to experience:

Dino-Riders (1988)

Captain N: the Game Master (1989)

Toxic Crusaders (1991)

[a3quit4s | 4,097]

All the Nick toons (Rugrats, Doug, Ren and Stimpy, Hey Arnold, Rockos Modern Life), Clarissa explains it all, Are you Afraid of the dark, Boy meets world, salute your shorts, hey dude, all that, Double dare, 

Not all cartoons but great shows off the top of my head from when I was a kid 

[Brickman | 3,983]

I’ve actually started doing the same thing because I have started to discover that some of these cartoons are getting lost to time, are being edited or not getting full DVD/blu ray releases. So if Netflix etc. stop showing them it will be harder to find these cartoons.

You probably have some of these but just in case here is just a small list for you.

Ducktales  (original & modern)

Tailspin

Rescue Rangers 

Darkwing Duck

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
Captain Planet

Tintin

Inspector Gadget 

Original Scooby Doo

 

Anime:

Mazinger Z

Great Mazinger

Captain Tsubasa

Getter Robo

Godmars

Voltron (old and new)

Teenager/adult:

Gravity falls

star vs the forces of evil

Sealab 2021

Harvey Birdman

Invader Zim

Bojack Horseman

Avatar

The Legend of Korra

 

[Tulpa | 3,492]

Dungeons and Dragons (all episodes online AFAIK)

Spiral Zone (ditto)

Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (known as The Engulfed Worlds in the original French and available on non-subtitled DVD, probably hard to find all the English versions intact nowadays)

Mysterious Cities of Gold (haven't checked availability; edit, Amazon has every episode for purchase, so likely the entire thing is floating around out there)

Macross, Southern Cross, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (came to the US as Robotech, although in Japan they were different series)

Space Battleship Yamato

Johnny Quest (the original 60s version was the best, IMO)

 

Also, one thing to note if you saw an 80s cartoon as a kid and you rewatch it decades later as an adult, the pace is blisteringly faster than you remember.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Tulpa

[Aguy | 772]

Early Adult Swim stuff like...

Home Movies (my favorite)

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

The Brak Show

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law

Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Not my favorite but people love it)

Mission Hill

The Oblongs

   Also...

Greg the Bunny

Dr. Katz

 

[Hammerfestus | 3,837]

 

 

 

[twiztor | 850]

7 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Dungeons and Dragons (all episodes online AFAIK)

Spiral Zone (ditto)

Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (known as The Engulfed Worlds in the original French and available on non-subtitled DVD, probably hard to find all the English versions intact nowadays)

Mysterious Cities of Gold (haven't checked availability; edit, Amazon has every episode for purchase, so likely the entire thing is floating around out there)

Macross, Southern Cross, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (came to the US as Robotech, although in Japan they were different series)

Space Battleship Yamato

Johnny Quest (the original 60s version was the best, IMO)

 

Also, one thing to note if you saw an 80s cartoon as a kid and you rewatch it decades as an adult, the pace is blisteringly faster than you remember.

holy shit, i haven't heard of most of these so i clearly have some viewing time in front of me. mucho gracias!

also shout out to @Shmup and @Aguy. Early Adult Swim is awesome.  Sealab 2021 (next year BTW) is easily in my top 3 cartoons of all time. 

[Tulpa | 3,492]

6 minutes ago, twiztor said:

holy shit, i haven't heard of most of these so i clearly have some viewing time in front of me. mucho gracias!

 

Yeah, these are ones I fondly remember from the early to mid 80s.

One thing about Spartakus/Engulfed Worlds, if you can even find all the episodes (and if you do, let me know), it's got a very weird, obtuse narrative, even compared to some anime. That's kind of common with French animated productions of the 70s/80s that I've noticed.

Mysterious Cities of Gold is a joint French-Japanese production, and the story is a lot more conventional I think because of the anime influence (though it's still a little out there.)

I can think of some animated movies that are also worth seeing, like Fantastic Planet, the Triplets of Belleville (both French films, so same caveats) and Watership Down.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Tulpa

[Aguy | 772]

Couple more...

The Critic

Daria

Wallace and Gromit

Creature Comforts

Pound Puppies

The Wuzzles

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Aguy

[Californication | 1,477]

The Pirates of Dark Water

Aeon Flux

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Super Jail

The PJ's

Dead Man in Wonderland

Thundercats (2011)

Requiem from the Darkness

(Second the Oblongs and Home Movies)

Ronin Warriors and Duck Man are a little obscure, but probably don't hold up.

King Arthur and Knights of Justice - obscure; otherwise funny in a bad way.

For kids - Magic School Bus, Bobby's World

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Californication

[Tulpa | 3,492]

1 minute ago, Californication said:

Aeon Flux

 

That's a good one. Heck, anything you can find from Liquid Television.

 

Also, the two MTV Oddities shows, The Head and The Maxx. The Maxx was based on the Wildstorm imprint comic.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

Batman The animated series 

The Tick

Futurama 

Ren and Stimpy

Samurai Jack

Hey Arnold 

The first 3 seasons of spongebob hold up really well 

Courage the cowardly dog

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

I know you said '80s-'90s but you've gotta include some of the real classics like Looney Tunes, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, Flintstones, Jetsons, Pink Panther, Tom & Jerry.

Here's the best stuff from the era that I can remember.

• A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
• Aaah Real Monsters
• Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Angry Beavers
• Animaniacs
• Arthur
• Batman
• Beetlejuice
• Bobby's World
• Captain N
• Captain Planet
• Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers
• Darkwing Duck
• Dennis the Menace
• Dexters Laboratory
• Doug
• Duck Tales
• Flintstones Kids
• Freakazoid
• G.I. Joe
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
• Hey Arnold
• Insepctor Gadget
• Invader Zim
• Johnny Bravo
• KaBlam
• Magic Schoolbus
• Masters of the Universe
• Megas XLR
• Mucha Lucha
• Muppet Babies
• New Adventures of Jonny Quest
• Pinky and the Brain
• Pokemon
• Powerpuff Girls
• Recess
• Rockos Modern Life
• Rugrats
• Silverhawks
• Simpsons
• Smurfs
• Super Mario Super Show
• Swat Kats
• Talespin
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Real Ghostbusters
• The Super Friends
• Thundercats
• Tiny Toons Adventures
• Transformers
• Wild Thornberries

Some late '90s probably thrown in there too, like Invader Zim.

Also, you'd be doing a disservice not to include anime.

• Akira
• Big O
• Cowboy Bebop
• Cyborg 009
• Dragon Ball
• Evangelion
• Fist of the North Star
• Ghost in the Shell
• Gundam Wing
• Inuyasha
• Lupin III
• Macross
• Outlaw Star
• Princess Mononoke
• Rurouni Kenshin
• Sailor Moon
• Saint Seiya
• Speed Racer
• Tenchi Muyo
• Trigun
• Voltron
• Yu Yu Hakusho

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

32 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

 

37 minutes ago, Californication said:

Aeon Flux

That's a good one. Heck, anything you can find from Liquid Television.

 

Also, the two MTV Oddities shows, The Head and The Maxx. The Maxx was based on the Wildstorm imprint comic.

 

I used to have a Liquid TV dvd too but I sold it.  I watched the Head and Maxx within the last few months.  I'm due for some Aeon Flux. 

[Tulpa | 3,492]

I really like Aeon Flux, but I preferred the shorts where the characters didn't talk as opposed to the later series.

[Jfreakofkorn | 282]

How about ; M.A.S.K. , galaxy highschool , danger mouse , visionaries , the adventures of the galaxy rangers , starcom , cadillics and dinosaurs,  bonic 6 , gobots , dinosaucers , the adventures of the gummi bears , space ghost , joyce and the wheeled warriors , animaniacs , are just some i can think of . . . . 

[Californication | 1,477]

100% forgot about The Head, I'm gonna watch that.

[PII | 1,885]

Someone already mentioned Cowboy bebop, so I'll just buttress it w/the specifics: 26 episodes + Mish-Mash Blues (which was only in Japanese the last time I checked) + The Movie.

I've always liked the pilot episode for "Hound Town."  The show was never picked up, which was a real shame.  It was recently posted on youtube...

All the old Warner Bros. Cartoons, Bugs Bunny Road Runner Etc.  If it were me I'd be sure to have all the Roadrunners as well as all the sheep herders with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog ("Mornin' Ralph   /   Mornin' Sam.")

Also, I rewatched some old Vhs episodes of Garfield And Friends recently - still had me laughing.

Back in the day when Saturday Morning was the shit, I used to watch "Terrible Thunder Lizards", which alternated on the Eek the cat show.  Basic Idea was 3 dinosaurs trying to eradicate humanity that consisted of a couple of 'odd couple' cave men.  One of them was always inventing stuff, like the wheel and the other one would declare it the height of stupidity. lol.  Would be interesting to see that one again.  Don't know if there's a dvd or something out there or not.

Last but not least: Watership Down (Movie, that is overall quite faithful to the book) Great hand-drawn animation and an even greater way to traumatize young children... or so I've heard.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

A lot of good stuff already mentioned.

I've built up a fairly substantial collection of Scooby Doo since my kids are into it.  The classic series is fun to revisit.

I've also recently added Jonny Quest.

Legend of Zelda is corny-fun.

And one of these days I'll find a decent copy of Mysterious Cities of Gold.

 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

This goes back aways - Rocky and Bullwinkle was a fantastic cartoon show that ran from 1959-1964.  It appealed to both adults and children since the humor ranged from fairly simple to fairly sophisticated.  It was organized into segments - the main storylines (which were continuing) featured Rocky and Bullwinkle while the supplementary segments were Dudley DoRight, Mr.Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tales and Aesops Fables (maybe some others but it has been a long time).

 

[fox | 1,667]

I'm going to go with stuff I liked back in the day, that still would hold up well today.  Some is more well known so lesser.  I did lean more towards the action stuff, usually the ones that were darker or had better storytelling.
 

Spoiler

 

Sonic SatAM - Sonic goes epic sci fi.  Robotnik isn't a goofy villain trying take over the world, no he already has taken over the planet before the show even begins and is presented a terrifying dictator who wants to turn everything a robotic dystopia.  It is up to Sonic and his band of terrorists freedom fighters, to blow up Robotniks factories and liberate the enslaved robotized citizens.  Sonic has one liners and funny forest friends, so still a kids show, but it makes a good contrast.  There are wins and loses in the war, even winning a battle doesn't mean that the planet is saved, and characters are unable to save loved ones.  In particular Sonic's uncle who is turned into a robot who works as mole inside the slave mines, but eventually loses his humanity to the brainwashing.  Seeing Sonic lose a parent figure like that, talk about a gut punch.
 

Spoiler

 

Reboot - First fully CG tv series that takes place inside a computer.  Guardian Bob helps the citizens fight against internal threats like computer viruses and are changed into NPCs to fight external threats in the form of games inputted by the User.  Lots of funny uses of computer jargon and parodies of popular games and movies at the time.  Later seasons told more of an ongoing story as Bob is written out of the show and kid sidekcick Enzo fails to replace his hero Bob and defend the system, goes into exile, and comes back as an anti-hero renegade.
 

Spoiler

 

Freakazoid! - Kind of a super hero parody show but not really as the humor is a lot more meta and off-kilter.  If you liked Tiny Toons or Animaniacs and wanted something weirder.
 

Spoiler

 

Mighty Max - Yeah I know the boy's Polly Pocket about a cool kid with a magic baseball hat, but every episode was like a different monster movie: vampires, werewolves, aliens.  In particular the Magnificent Seven take off, where they recruit various warriors of myth from all over the world to travel into hell Skull Mtn and fight Satan Skullmaster,  and it doesn't end well.  They got away with a lot more stuff compared to other toons of the era.
 

Spoiler

 

Gargoyles - Disney's answer to Batman and X-men, really makes a strong case for itself.  Well just let Goliath explain it in the intro.  Just such good voice work from an amazing voice cast that really play up kind of the operatic nature of it all.  And such good villains too as you get both Xantos as their Lex Luthor and Demona as their Magneto along with run ins with Shakespearian villains MacBeth and Puck.
 

Spoiler

 

Silver Surfer - There was a string of superhero shows in the 90s and this one that came at the tail end of that gets overlooked.  A pacifist monk makes a deal with the devil to save his world, only to break that deal at a huge cost: being branded a pariah and being exiled.  So there is this great biblical tragic backstory which sets up him surfing on his surf board around the cosmos unable to find his way home.  It is a bit more Star Trek in that despite having the Power Cosmic, fighting is usually the last resort, as he deals with more philosophical and social issues on the worlds he discovers.  You also see Thanos, Drax, Beta Ray Bill, Adam Warlock and other cosmic Marvel characters as guest stars.
 

Spoiler

 

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited - If you enjoyed Batman and Superman in the 90s, this is the sequel series adding in Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter in great two part adventures.  Later the series expands the team adding dozens of other heroes in a half hour format but adds an overarching season long story in the Cadmus arc, having the League take on the Government.  It really feels like the definitive version of these characters, they are still classic heroes but get placed in more dynamic situations and stories.
 

Spoiler

 

Spectacular Spiderman - There is a lot of love for other versions of Spiderman but I think this one really nails the high school drama and superhero action, and shows that balance between them that is key for the character.  Peter can't seem to catch a break, as he breaks promises to his friends and loved ones in order to do superhero stuff, only for them to become aliened and turn into super villains and create more problems for Spiderman.  Meeting a lot of his rogue's gallery before they suit up, really gives you a deeper understanding of them.  Of course once all the villains are in play they team up Sinister Six style to take down Spiderman.  Then later on, there are enough villains in play to have bad guys vs bad guys gang warfare with Spiderman stuck in the middle.  Also helps that Spiderman's wisecracks are actually really funny and well done here, acting as his actual superpower, to annoy and put villains into tilt with a pointed insult.

 

Spoiler

 

Ducktales 2017 - The new series pays homage to both the original comics and the 80s animated series really fleshing out the characters giving them their own personalities.  There are also lots of references and cross overs with other Disney Afternoon shows (Gummi Bears, Rescue Rangers, Tailspin, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop) and a bigger presence of Donald Duck which make this very enjoyable.
 

Spoiler

 

Scooby Doo Mystery Inc - There have been a lot of versions of Scooby Doo, but I think this one is the best.  They still are the classic characters but placed in a modern setting.  They work as supernatural mythbusters who live in a town that is a tourist trap claiming to be the most haunted town in the world, so nobody likes them.  Their parents, classmates, and members of the town all think they are weird troublemakers.  They actually show what would happen to the gang breaking and entering all those haunted places, they get taken to jail!  The monster designs are actually scary and there a lot of great shout outs to the various other Scooby shows over the years.  It is still vary much a monster of the week format, but there is a greater over arching story about what happened to the original Mystery Inc team which leads to a lot of twists and turns over the series.

Spoiler

 

Ok this became kind of became a blog, but hope this helped you @twiztor.  Let me know if you have seen any of these or end up checking some out.

Edited August 1, 2020 by fox

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

9 hours ago, Aguy said:

Early Adult Swim stuff like...

Home Movies (my favorite)

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

 

 

home movies. bro

9 hours ago, Hammerfestus said:

 

 

 

david and the gnomes bro

9 hours ago, Californication said:

 

Super Jail

For kids - Bobbys world

 

super jail bro

@fox reboot bro

 

TWO STUPID DOGS

ED EDD EDDY

how about this one hammer...

GRIMMS FAIRY TALE CLASSICS!! from nick jr bitch!

[twiztor | 850]

7 hours ago, PII said:

Someone already mentioned Cowboy bebop, so I'll just buttress it w/the specifics: 26 episodes + Mish-Mash Blues (which was only in Japanese the last time I checked) + The Movie.

wow, i'm not huge into anime but i absolutely adore Cowboy Bebop. I've never heard of the Mish-Mash Blues episode so i will be checking that out ASAP.

thanks everybody for the suggestions so far, i've read so many shows that i forgot existed or never heard of. I've got lots of new things to check out!

@fox, you've got killer taste. i love almost all of those shows (the animation on ReBoot is just too much bad CGI for me). Justice League/JLU ranks among my favorite animated series.

[Hammerfestus | 3,837]

19 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

how about this one hammer...

GRIMMS FAIRY TALE CLASSICS!! from nick jr bitch!

I totally forgot that that was a thing.  Jacob Grimm is a big hero of mine.  Dude was a beast.

„Das hat dir der Teufel gesagt, das hat dir der Teufel gesagt," schrie das Männlein und stieß mit dem rechten Fuß vor Zorn so tief in die Erde, daß es bis an den Leib hineinfuhr, dann packte es in seiner Wut den linken Fuß mit beiden Händen und riß sich selbst mitten entzwei.

[Kid Dracula | 126]

Lots of excellent suggestions! For the Canadians that grew up in the 80's/90's remember The Raccoons? Very underrated cartoon!