Best non-anime cartoon

[Armand]

I say regular show and adventure time hold the title now, Spongebob still has it's moments, don't judge me lol.

[Arohk]

It's weird, but I was actually contemplating this the other night!

Here's a list in no particular order;

Spongebob Squarepants
Animaniacs
Rugrats
Daria
Futurama
Batman: The Animated Series
Ah! Real Monsters
Tiny Toon Adventures
Sonic the Hedgehog
Dexter's Laboratory

Of course there are more, but I'll have to blab about those later. If anyone is wondering about my choices, just poke me and I can definitely explain them. XD But I am sure most can agree.

I love cartoons that do not treat children like idiots. There are scarcely anything that fit the category these days. There is hardly even a 'Saturday Morning' any more. Challenging kids with content shouldn't be frowned upon.

[Oneiros]

I always loved Freakazoid. It's hilariously dated now. Lately I love Futurama.

[Arohk]

Freakazoid was awesome! I almost put it on that list, but as you just said- it didn't age well. Although I am sure most of us can laugh at the jokes because we remember it so well. But newcomers wouldn't find it as funny, haha.

Futurama is my all-time favorite adult-orientated animated show. It has a ton of heart to it, especially in recent seasons and I absolutely adore it. I think that is what sets it apart from all the rest. It's funny, but it always makes me 'awww' in the end!

[Silverfyre]

Gargoyles, hands down.

[Shjade]

Batman: The Animated Series

[rick957]

Alright, what the hell, let's talk some toons.  :)  I can't resist.

First off, let's just put everything out there, right up front, okay?  I'm at least 275,460 years older than anybody who's posted here yet.  I ain't lyin', I ain't foolin', I ain't hiding it.  Cartoons meant something totally different to me than they meant to people ten years younger than me, or ten years older than me, although, in all honesty, it's much easier for me to go backwards rather than forwards in terms of finding other generation's stuff that I can enjoy too.  Mainly.

I say regular show and adventure time hold the title now, Spongebob still has it's moments, don't judge me lol.

Not that I'm saying you necessarily need to take any trouble to clarify, but I just want to say that I didn't understand your meaning here in terms of grammar.  Did you maybe leave a word out or something?  Maybe I'm just being dense.

Spongebob Squarepants
Animaniacs
Rugrats
Daria
Futurama
Batman: The Animated Series
Ah! Real Monsters
Tiny Toon Adventures
Sonic the Hedgehog
Dexter's Laboratory

First I want to say, one of my best friends swears by many of these shows, so I wouldn't dare decry your taste.  However, I have tried to watch several of these shows and felt underwhelmed.  Not that I tried more than once, mind you.  I'm sure that if I saw the better or best of each of these shows, I would become an instant convert.  But from what I flipped past once with the remote, I never saw a reason to flip back to that channel.  Probably me being even more dense.  ;)

My buddy that I mentioned would kick my ass if he heard me say one critical word about any of those shows.  He knows his toons, too, I gotta say.

Alright, two final points. 

One.  Futurama.  My buddy loves it.  I love Groening; genius.  If anyone can explain to me why this show doesn't thrill me, while the Simpsons thrilled me for at least 15 or 20 straight seasons, you would be doing me a big favor.  :)

Two.  I don't keep up, alright?  Also, I'm an old fuck.  I wouldn't have the time or motivation to watch more than one or two shows, no matter how good they were, cuz I'm just old like that.  But, all that said, look, the last toon that blew my fucking mind and made me laugh until my sides ached, not just once, but time and again and again? 

Ren and Stimpy. 

I'm just saying.  I know it sounds old and dumb.  But really?  Nothin' has mattered to me since.  Not even the last season or two of that show, after Kricfalusi left.  You just can't touch it.  (Then again, prior to that show, if you want great fuckin' toons, not counting movies, you gotta go jump all the way to the sixties or before ... Bullwinkle; Warner Brothers.  On the other hand, once you get to the fifties, going backwards, you have an embarrassment of riches:  Disney, Warners, Fleischer, not in that order.  .........)

EDIT, long after the fact.  Didn't mean to put down anybody for being older or younger or anything like that -- that was just me being silly!  Thanks.

[Arohk]

It's all good. I can't blame anyone for their own tastes. I'm not a Ren and Stimpy person myself. It has always just been too weird for me.

I would gladly talk Futurama all night and day long, though! I could probably explain it, given the time. XD

[Silverfyre]

Powdered Toast Man is still my favorite super hero.

[Saerrael]

Alright, what the hell, let's talk some toons.  :)  I can't resist.

First off, let's just put everything out there, right up front, okay?  I'm at least 275,460 years older than anybody who's posted here yet.  I ain't lyin', I ain't foolin', I ain't hiding it.  Cartoons meant something totally different to me than they meant to people ten years younger than me, or ten years older than me, although, in all honesty, it's much easier for me to go backwards rather than forwards in terms of finding other generation's stuff that I can enjoy too.  Mainly.

Bit hard to tell with no age mentioned in your profile. You also, to me, came across as quite negative towards others in this thread.

On topic: Tom and Jerry, for me. Dexter's laboratory had something, too.

[Silverfyre]

On topic: Tom and Jerry, for me. Dexter's laboratory had something, too.

Omelet du fromage?

[Saerrael]

Omelet du fromage?

I knew I loved you for a reason ♥

'That's all you can saahaay! That's all you can saahaay!'

[Silverfyre]

Heh, likewise!

Dexter remains one of my favorite cartoon characters, if not for the accent alone.  I remember the line up of Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and the Powderpuff Girls back on the glory days of Cartoon Network.  Good times.

[Saerrael]

Hmmm, I did enjoy Cartoon Network quite a bit. It was new and refreshing back then. Though my heart does still lie in the 80s and older cartoons. Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner were just.. beyond epic.

[Starlequin]

PowerPuff Girls
Megas XR
Courage the Cowardly Dog
MLP:FiM
Phineas and Ferb
Justice League & Unlimited
Invader Zim

Pure. Animated. Win.

[Silverfyre]

Hmmm, I did enjoy Cartoon Network quite a bit. It was new and refreshing back then. Though my heart does still lie in the 80s and older cartoons. Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner were just.. beyond epic.

Nowadays, it just isn't the same.  Adult Swim has some funny stuff but most of it is just... random and really messed up.  Not in a good way either. 

[Arohk]

I definitely agree with the new MLP cartoon. I had been so skeptical at first because of the previous incarnations... And by no means did I jump on the bandwagon. But I legitimately think that it deserves a spot. It has good elements of storytelling that a lot of children shows these days lack completely.

[Saerrael]

Nowadays, it just isn't the same.  Adult Swim has some funny stuff but most of it is just... random and really messed up.  Not in a good way either. 

I wouldn't know, to be honest. I lack any interest in TV and my cartoons did come from that source. This household has been TV free since it was set up. We're more gamers, really.

[Mr Self Destruct]

I like the lists I've seen, but I didn't see the mention of Samurai Jack.  Loved that show.

[rick957]

Bit hard to tell with no age mentioned in your profile. You also, to me, came across as quite negative towards others in this thread.

Hi Saerra, I've seen a few of your posts in other threads and enjoyed reading them very very much.  I'm 37 (recent birthday), but I chose not to announce that fact in my profile for personal reasons, which I could gladly explain, but I don't want to do that here because I assume nobody reading this thread wants that info. 

Did I really come across as negative towards others in this thread?  If so, I apologize.  Frankly, I made a deliberate effort not to come across that way, because I knew that my views were not likely to be in line with the majority here.  Nonetheless I may have failed in my effort, and if so, I am sorry.  Also I am glad that you brought this fact to my attention, Saerra; it will make me give the whole matter some serious thought.  It's very important to me to express myself clearly and not give others impressions that I did not mean to give; and yet, I often do just that.  I endeavor to learn from such mistakes so that I won't repeat them.

Most of you like cartoons that I don't like, and most of the cartoons I like haven't been mentioned here yet.  I don't view that as a serious problem -- not by a very long stretch.  In fact, I'm glad that cartoons are so fun and so trivial that we don't need to necessarily love or hate the same ones.  Hell, it's fine with me if you hate all cartoons, for some reason; or, conversely, if you love them all, for whatever reason.

Being slightly older than the average Elliquian, I expect that my tastes in most pop culture stuff will differ from the tastes of the majority of Elliquians, and that's okay with me.  To each his own; it takes all kinds; etc. etc. etc. 

Each and every one of you who are younger than me will have the pleasure of feeling alienated and abandoned by mainstream pop culture as soon as you reach your thirties, either early or mid or late.  Pop culture is a giant juggernaut that fills the mental space of all people under a certain age, until they get too old, and then they have to adjust to being outside of that mental space, but that's okay too.  All IMO.  Sorry for anybody bothered by my opinions.

[ofDelusions]

Moomins. Dunno how popular this is with foreigners, but I doupt there is a single person in Finland who saw this as a kid and didn't love it. Also, the groke is still creepy as hell.

Wakfu. If you can ignore the filler, this is the best fantasy cartoon ever. It just is. Nox is also the best villain in all of media I have seen.

[Jag]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. *nods* Not just the old series either. The 2002 series was very good. The old one was fun and silly, while the 2002 series was more serious and dark (more like the comics)....but the Fast Forward series sucked horribly, as did Back to the Sewers.

[Chris Brady]

I'm looking at this list of everything you guys are loving and I despair.  This is the best we have to show for ourselves?

The equivalent to politically correct fart jokes and potty humour?  Is that all that's left?

I apologize, but I am really disappointed that Spongebob is considered 'good'.  This is a kids show about underachieving morons, it treats it audience as such, never tackling any topics deeper than that.  Ren and Stimpy same deal, but at least it tried to parody itself.

The 80s were definitely not some 'Golden Age' with it's overly moralized and forced ideals, but there seemed to have been a slightly higher standard then.

The 90's were much better you had shows like pre-Nelvana Gargoyles, the various Justice X DC cartoons, the Batman series.  All shows that didn't talk down to its audience.  Mainframe Entertainment which defined the computer animated medium, especially after they split with Disney after Season 2 of ReBoot.

Even the first seven or so seasons of the Simpsons, where the characters 'learned' something about themselves and came together as the slightly dysfunctional family they was better than the idiotic fallback to the standard cartoon sitcom episodic formula after Groenig left.

(The sitcom formula sort of works like this:  each episode is it's own self-contained universe, which nothing from a previous episode or season is ever referred to, allowing for any number of contrived incidents to occur for humour value, despite any contradictions to previous material.  This also allows a secondary benefit of not allowing any characters to grow or evolve, because learning from the mistakes is not funny.  Full Stop.)

The only modern cartoon left that doesn't treat you all as preadolescent idiots that I can think of is the new My Little Pony show, of which I was able to stand half the first season off.  And maybe the new Tron: Uprising cartoon, it seems pretty mature so far, but I've only been able to catch the first 5 episodes of it, it could go downhill from there, quite easily.

I am 38 years and I still watch cartoons.

[Jag]

I think there have been several shows listed that don't resort to potty humor to amuse it's audience. And just because one person considers Spongebob good doesn't mean we all do. I think it's a terrible show and I don't let my daughter watch it.

Samurai Jack didn't talk down to it's audience. TMNT (the original series), while very silly, did have long running storylines within the short ones. Phineas and Ferb is fantastic. X-Men Evolution was a wonderful series and I wish it hadn't been cancelled. Batman Beyond is another that was cancelled long before it should have been. While Codename Kids Next Door did have some potty humor and the like, it was a creative show. I also enjoyed Ben 10.

While most of the shows I listed are not showing new episodes, Phineas and Ferb still is and it doesn't treat kids like morons. Dragons: Riders of Berk shows promise. I also thought that Generator Rex was decent (though it appears to be on hiatus).

So no, I don't think the only modern show that doesn't treat it's audience like idiots is My Little Pony.

*shrugs* Then again, everyone likes different things out of their cartoons.

[Silverfyre]

I am perplexed why it is a bad thing I like cartoons that are comedic in nature, even if they are just glorified fart jokes. Some of them were incredibly well done and rather hilarious. Not everything has to be some serious, meaningful thing; sometimes, it's nice just to laugh.

So yeah, to each their own I suppose.