• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Are there any good cartoon series?

I think my current favorite would have to be Codename: Kids Next Door, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned it yet. It's sort of like the Spycraft version of Harry Potter, kids team up to Fight the Power of Evil Adults. And there's no way they'd sell out! :p

Otherwise, I'd agree with the people who liked Jackie Chan, I was really surprised how good it was when I started watching it. On the surface, it has "Hollywood ripoff" written all over it, but apparently Chan has a lot to do with the direction the show takes, even if he doesn't do any voice work himself. Besides, it's got Julian Sands and Clancey Brown doing voices, what more could you want?

I was also a big fan of Time Squad, back when it was getting new episodes and wasn't on at 4 am in the morning. It had a real, old-style Rocky & Bullwinkle sort of feel to it. I can only assume it was cancelled because it might've actually had educational value....
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I can't believe no one so far has mentioned Conan: The Adventurer. I seriously loved that cartoon (I can still sing the opening theme)!

Long ago, the evil god Set had been sealed in the Abyss. His servitor race, the serpentmen, still remained, and high priest Rathamon led them. When some stars (meteorites) fell from the sky, Set gave instructions to gather them and use his power to corrupt them to make a gate to the Abyss to let him return.

However, Conan's father, a blacksmith, makes weapons of the star-metal. Rathamon comes to get it, and turns Conan's family to stone with a spell. Conan attacks with a star-metal sword, and it obliterates the spell that makes the serpent-men look human, and then sends them to the Abyss. The rest of the show is Conan trying to foil Rathamon's schemes and return his family to flesh again. It was some seriously excellent material.
 


I never saw Conan the Adventurer. I always thought TV makers out there didn't think Conan was for Kids. Well, anyway, tehy probably didn't in the early 80s

I miss Johhny Quest.
 


Yeah gotta agree Jackie Chan adventures is cool - but then its Jackie Chan how could it not be? (I'm a Chan fan:))

I'd say X-Men evolution is weaker than the older XMen series - oh and I don't personally consider Justice League to be a new cartoon:)

I've seen Kim Possible (its okay but nowhere near as good as the Smurfs for instance)

oh and BG thanks for the beverage :)
 

No one has mentioned the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon.

As for old cartoons, here are some of my favorites.

Jonny Quest (both old and new but I prefer the old)
Thundar the Barbarian
Flash Gordon
The Herculoids
Space Ghost
Speed Racer
Star Blazers
 

There are plenty of good cartoons on, but the nature of the beast has changed. Back when Saturday Morning was the King of Cartoons, and weekday fare was more often than not just recycled stuff from Saturday Mornings past, you got what you got. It's much harder to compete, when you've got base cable, videos and DVDs to contend with. My kids can watch Spongebob whenever they want. If I missed an episode of Mighy Orbots when I was a kid...I missed it FOREVER.

A lot of the feelings for those old cartoons comes from nostalgia, as many of them really aren't that good, when you get down to it. I mean, there were plenty of really bad shows, back in the day. You can tell some of our relative ages by what shows we value: when I hear someone refer to the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a really good show, I cringe. I mean hey, He's no Ultraman. :) I half expect someone to pop up and defend shows like The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty.

Mighty Orbots is an interesting case, in that it caused a huge uproar at the time, with declarations of unfair comptetion, and accusations that it was destroying the American animation industry. Ultimately, I think it failed mostly due to financial reasons. It was an expensive show, relatively speaking, and it didn't garner ratings that were so far beyond some of the far less expensive material to justify it.

Modern shows that are quite good: the current incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles makes up for the previous version's attrocity; Jackie Chan Adventures is truly one of the best shows on television, let alone cartoons; Kim Possible is reasonable light fare; Most of Nickelodeon's stable of cartoons are pretty good, My Life as a Teenage Robot and Spongebob being good examples, and Shaolin Showdown is good silly fun, too. I consider Justice League to be more of a show for older audiences, as I can't let my kids watch it (if you want more detail on that, do a search on previous threads, where we discussed it ad nauseum). And that's not counting imported shows like Shaman King, which my kids love.

And what, no love for Thundarr the Barbarian? I mean, c'mon. (and while were at it, the original Johnny Quest kicked ass then, and it kicks it now...too bad they had to keep remaking it.) :)
 
Last edited:

Jackie Chan Adventures is awesome. My wife and I watch it with our daughters nearly every Saturday. We also watch Xiolin Showdown. It took a couple of episodes for it to grow on me, but now I like it almost as much as Jackie Chan.

I've seen a couple of episodes of Kim Possible and it looks consumible.

Unfortunately, Saturday mornings are filled with the drek that is Pokemon, Yugeo (sp, whatever), and Teen Titans. The latter looks like there might be an interesting story to it, but the art and animation style are so horrible, I can't stand to sit through it.
 

Currently, I watch:

Kim Possible
Codename: Kids Next Door (probably one of my favorite shows)
Dave The Barbarian
Ultimate Muscle
Teen Titans (it's grown on me)
Mucha Lucha (the Flea rules!)
Yu-Yu Hakusho (hopefully they'll start airing some new episodes)
Inuyasha (new episodes starting soon)
Home Movies (sadly cancelled :( )
Dual (a funny, relatively short anime series that ran on Tech TV)

Occasionally, I watch:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Sealab 2021
Proud Family

Gave up on:

Dragonball GT (God, this sucks!)
Simpsons (why couldn't this have been cancelled instead of Futurama?)
Justice League (I gave up on the writing a while ago)
 
Last edited:

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top