You know what I love? Cartoons. Cartoons of all kinds. Shorts, miniseries, and horrible abominations that refuse to die. (coughsimpsonscoughcoughspongebob)
I think we’re in something of a cartoon renaissance here in the west, where the east has been pumping out classic cartoons constantly since forever, the west was kind of struggling in the early oughts.
Let’s not limit ourselves to just network shows as well, as I know there are plenty of talented cartoonist posting their stuff to youtube and other such sites.
First Post Reserved for Thread Recommendation List!
I’ll start it off, if you want to see something on the list, write up a little paragraph about it and I’ll stick it here.
Star vs. The Forces of Evil
An absolutely standout show on Disney XD, it follows Star Butterfly, a princess from a semi-medieval alternate reality called “Muni.” After she inherits the family magic wand and makes a mess of the kingdom, she is sent to train on Earth, where she befriends the awkward but kind-hearted Marco Diaz. It manages to be extremely funny and fantastical, but keeps the characters believable and has some genuinely touching moments. It also has a rouges gallery of some of the best villeins I’ve seen in a show since… well…
Adventure Time
No list of modern cartoons would be complete without this gem. It’s Harry Potter-esque escalation of stakes as we watch a young character grow into adulthood has been hugely influential, as well as it’s loose but clearly defined style and powerhouse cast. It’s certainly stumbled with a few of it’s subplots, but I think it’s stayed really strong even today. Plus, their seven-part miniseries have both been absolutely top notch, both in terms of inventive future/fantasy settings and intense character study.
Steven Universe
Okay, yeah, this is what the thread title was referring to. Brainchild of former Adventure Time storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar, few shows have had a cast with such a diverse range of race, body type, and orientation(?). Following in the aforementioned show’s footsteps, not only do we watch the titular Steven grow as the seasons go on, but we also slowly learn about the world he lives in, and the people (and aliens) that inhabit it. If it wasn’t for Star, I’d say that this was the high water mark for modern children’s cartoons.
Rick and Morty
And for something completely different, here we have probably the high water mark for adult modern animated programming. A joint venture between incredible (and highly offensive) improv comedian Justin Roiland and mad genius show-runner Dan Harmon, this again, a hilarious show that still manages to treat it’s characters like actual human beings (noticing a trend in my tastes here?) I shouldn’t even have to be recommending this to you, holy shit go watch it there’s only two seasons!.
Milo Murphy’s Law
Another standout show from Disney XD, this is a much more traditional, gag-of-the-week style cartoon. Starring Weird Al in a refreshingly not-emphasized way, this show follows the life of tweenager Milo Murphy. Being descendant from Edward A. Murphy Jr. means that, of course, horrible accidents follow him around wherever he goes. As it is done by the same creative team behind Phineas and Ferb, expect there to be a pretty unnecessary song in every episode, but as they’re usually sung by Weird Al I think that detail is a little more excusable.
Gravity Falls
This two-season series is over now, but it is absolutely worth checking out. It combines a Lost-style mystery (that is completely solved! Satisfying payoff!) with hilarious, layered gags and an earnest exploration of the relationships between the characters.
The Amazing World of Gumball
An absolutely amazing gag/slapstick show that combines 2D and 3D animation to great effect. It uses every tool in an animator’s toolkit with a heavy dose of self-awareness to produce some of the best visual comedy of all time. It also features several nods to video game and internet culture in a way that doesn’t feel hamfisted.
God I never get over how fucking excellent Steven Universe is. The way the show expertly blends action and story as a means to in-depthly explore every possible type of relationship, from close, healthy ones, to abusive ones, to honest-to-god courtly love is just… ‘kisses fingers’.
Also it’s not on anymore because it already had its series fanale but if you ever get a chance to watch Gravity Falls; do so. It’s good.
I thought there was a huge dip in quality between season 1 and 2 of Gravity falls, so I heald off on watching that for a while, but yeah it’s still super good all the way through. I think it was mostly because I really disliked the big bad character they introduced for it. It was similar with Paradot in SU for me, though I’ve been keeping up with that one. The last couple of episodes were incredible.
The last Western cartoons I was really big on were Archer and Regular Show. Archer is pretty much the maximum amount of ironic cynicism I can handle (I bounced off Bojack Horseman BADLY). I also liked Gumball, but haven’t watched it too much.
Before that I was really into MegasXLR and Samurai Jack “back in the day”.
First off, I want to say that I am a huge, huge fan of Steven Universe. Of all the things I had in my mind for my avatar on the forum, at least a third of them are SU related. That aside, it really is a great show, and has some of the best character writing I’ve seen in a long time.
Since most of the current cartoons I enjoy have already been mentioned, I’d like to bring up Hey Arnold, one of the OG slice-of-life shows and one of the best cartoons ever to come out of Nickelodeon’s stable. And remember, the Jungle Movie is coming out this year!
A couple of my friends introduced me to Rick and Morty over Christmas and I binged it last week and damn do I love that show. Even just listening to the two main characters talk is usually enough to make me laugh–the way Justin Roiland voices them is hilarious. Everyone else talks like a normal sitcom character and then those two just stammer and trail off and ramble and it’s great. I’ve already watched “Total Rickall” like five times and the montage of Rick’s nonsensical catchphrases still makes me crack up.
And you can tell Dan Harmon is involved because every now and again the show grows a heart and has emotions. “Rixty Minutes” and “The Wedding Squanchers,” especially, made me feel warm and sad things while watching an offensive and anarchic cartoon and that was surprising.
Okay, there are, I think, two large omissions from this list:
Gravity Falls: This two-season series is over now, but it is absolutely worth checking out. It combines a Lost-style mystery (that is completely solved! Satisfying payoff!) with hilarious, layered gags and an earnest exploration of the relationships between the characters.
The Amazing World of Gumball: An absolutely amazing gag/slapstick show that combines 2D and 3D animation to great effect. It uses every tool in an animator’s toolkit with a heavy dose of self-awareness to produce some of the best visual comedy of all time. It also features several nods to video game and internet culture in a way that doesn’t feel hamfisted.
Unpopular opinion time! I tried watching Steven Universe, but stopped after mere minutes because I couldn’t stand Steven’s voice. And given he’s the title character, I figured that was a deal breaker.
Rick and Morty, Gravity Falls and Archer are all totally my bag, baby.
That’s a sentiment I’ve seen from a bunch of people, honestly. His voice does get deeper over time, and I really do think it’s worth powering through, but you do you.
I always liked Phineas and Ferb, I thought the songs were great. Plus it broke the Disney curse. I’m enjoying Milo Murphy’s Law as well.
The one I can’t get into is Adventure Time. The pilot never grabbed me properly, but even continuing to watch the first two seasons it just wasn’t there for me, and it feels like every time I bring this up I’m told that it gets good later and later into the series.
I really like the world and mystery plot of Gravity Falls, though I found it hard to go back to after it was pointed out to me how many of Mabel plots in episodes focus on her having a crush on a boy and that being the source of problems that she’s admonished for, and how many Dipper plots involve him obsessing over Wendy in a way that’s largely framed as fine, aside from the episode where he gets yelled at for trying to break her up with Robbie and be the rebound guy.
But anyway, let’s get into the OP the show everybody cares about that’s finally coming back: Samurai Jack. With over a decade of increased skill and experience and animation techinques/technology I super can’t wait to see what Genndy does for this final season. He’s already mentioned that the addition of blood won’t just be superfluous, so he likely hasn’t lost any of the care he had for the series back in the day.
And while we’re talking about Genndy Tartakovsky: Sym-Bionic Titan is the best show that nobody watched.
Gravity Falls is probably my second favorite western cartoon. It is just a fantastic story and I absolutely love that it is self contained. That is one of the reason Avatar: The Last Airbender is my favorite western cartoon of all time. Rick and Morty is probably number three and I am sick of waiting for the next season.
Steven Universe…I don’t know, I watched two dozen or so episodes and I just can’t get into it. It always felt like the show was focusing on the wrong person the whole time, with everything actually interesting happening off screen. I get it is supposed to be more of a character piece about Steven growing up and he seems like a decent character, but man I just don’t care.
Also, are there any Netflix cartoons that don’t suck? Some are kind of passable, but are just aimed at too young of a demographic for me to get into.
Voltron ain’t bad. Done by most of the Avatar crew.
Does a real good job having a balanced amount of action scenes between using Voltron, the individual mechs and on foot stuff. Like the team knows when they need to switch out of Voltron mode and stuff.
Sym-Bionic Titan was my shit and I miss it every damn day.
One of my go-tos that honestly also makes me miserable (starting with the somewhat infamous finale/Christmas episode of the first season) is Moral Orel. It’s rough in the first season, has a laundry list of trigger warnings, and often is 2edgy4u, but if you can get past that, it tells some really compelling stories and if you like your cartoons to relate to you by bringing your bad feelings to the surface and maybe even make you cry, then this is the stop motion animated cartoon for you.
