Best/Worst Cartoons?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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(There may have been a previous topic on this subject that I have not seen. If there are, forgive me…)

For those of us that still watch cartoons (which includes me, of course. I am 14.)…you know that there are loads and loads of crappy cartoons out there. And scattered throughout those are a few good cartoons. What would you guys vote for for the best and worst cartoons you’ve seen?

Here’s what I think:

Best cartoon: Samurai Pizza Cats

Yes, just by the name, you’d think it’s the worst cartoon in existance. But don’t judge a book by it’s cover - it is a wonderful cartoon. It was a rewrite (not translation - the scripts were all new) to the anime Kyattou Ninden Teyandee. It was well-written and well-drawn. It is funny for kids and adults. Rarely is there a cartoon that I can enjoy as much as Pizza Cats. Sadly, it is not on the air anymore, but you can get RealVideo episodes on the internet on sites such as here and here. Not a lot of people have heard of this cartoon, but IMO, it is the best. Few flaws.

Other very noteable good cartoons: The Simpsons, Daria, King of the Hill, Futurama, South Park, Dr. Katz.

Worst Cartoon: Bruno the Kid

There were LOTS and LOTS of cartoons which I could’ve picked for this, but this one probably takes the cake. Bruno the Kid is about some kid (who is voiced by an adult - forgot who, but he was some celebrity I think) who is like a James-Bond character. Or course, it’s one of those cartoons where the same thing happens in every episode. This cartoon looks like all the episodes were written in an hour, and took 2 hours to animate. That’s how bad it is. If you’ve seen this cartoon, you know that I’m talking about. I am ashamed to say, I used to kind of like this show when I was younger. Ick.

Other cartoons worth mentioning (which I’ll probably be yelled at for putting here): Pokémon, Ed Edd & Eddie, pretty much anything on Nickelodeon, Captain Planet, Scooby Doo (I’m sorry. The cartoon is not that bad, but not worth putting on Cartoon Network 12 hours a day.)

So, what’s your vote?

2

i already miss the “big guy and rusty, the boy robot,” (btw, rusty looks a lot like astroboy, but perhaps this is in homage)& i love the groening toons, wild thornberries, aagh! real monsters, the tick, katz/squiggle/sci. ct., powerpuff girls; long ago, when i was small, i loved speed buggy (maybe ‘cuz my dad was a weekend grease monkey), hair bear bunch, and reruns of underdog, dudley do-right,and bullwinkle and rocky… also, i think that the greatest old-style animation wb toons have a lot in common with ren&stimpy: pathos, humor, and beautiful visuals.
i miss pizza cats too, but not enough to wait for a 2-hr plus download.
as for the worst, some of my faves from the seventies weren’t that great, but nostalgia is a powerful narcotic. and in a way, crappy animation has its place, like in the instance of space ghost/cartoon planet: whoever thought of resurrecting a mediocre-bad cartoon from the sixties as a talk show is a genius! and speaking of mediocre toons of the sixties, thank god i’m not quite old enough to remember speed racer-- when i finally did see it, i couldn’t believe what a big nuthin’ it was (just the same, i did kinda geek out on starblazers when i was twelve)

3

Best cartoons:
Currently: Dexter’s Laboratory - always funny
The Batman/Superman Adventures - superheroes done right
Gone but not forgotton: Sam and Max - ran on Fox two years ago. If you see the comic book, get it!
Hall of Fame: B&W Popeye cartoons, Heckle and Jeckle, anything directed by Tex Avery, the original Johnny Quest, Scooby Doo!

Worst cartoons:
Currently: CatDog - kind of creepy
Hall of Shame: Jabberjaw (an underwater Scooby Doo, featuring a shark that talked like Curly from the 3 Stooges).

4

Best - The Simpsons will always be #1 for me, followed by Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Super Friends, the new Batman and Superman, and any variation of Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies/etc.

Worst - Eeek the Cat, Smurfs, The Critic, Speed Buggy.

Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.

5

BTW, Bruno the Kid was voiced by Bruce “Bruno” Willis.

Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush

6

Arguable Worst (or at least the one I don’t like the most): Sailor Moon.

Frankly, I think it’s a wank cartoon for dirty old men who lust for little girls in miniskirts.

Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush

7

It takes a bit to get me to sit down and watch a cartoon these days but Daria does it for me every time. Love it.
Other greats Dr Katz, Kimba the White Lion, ASTROBOY - last two haven’t seen in about 10 years, but miss them

I can’t stand Pokemon, and a child could not watch the transformers, but find it more interesting looking back.

8

I love Futurama(is it cancelled?)
worst:popeye

9

Well the ones I like now a days are:

Cow and Chicken (it’s just utterly goofy and silly, I like that). Power Puff Girls (sometimes I wonder if it’s really made for kids. Check out Miss Sara Bellum :)). I still like the Simpsons, and Futurama if I can ever catch an episode. Also, i’ve found “Reboot” enjoyable.

Ones I cant stand are:

Rug rats, The Gary Coleman Show. Hmm that’s about It.

It’s worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance…

10

mullinator hates eek the cat, but likes superfriends & tiny toons/animaniacs – hmmm.
a lot of faves mentioned here are ones i appreciate too, but how can anyone not appreciate eek the cat’s parody of valley of the dolls?

11

Depends on whether you’re talking about cartoons as art or cartoons as story. I for one happen to think the Simpsons and Rocky & Bullwinkle are the two greatest cartoons of all time.

My 17 year old daughter, who’s a budding artist, never misses an animated film, whether it’s from Disney, Don Bluth, or a Japanese anime. While she likes the Simpson’s as a good comedy (with a lot of inside jokes for artists), she’s more in touch with the visual aspect, and isn’t bothered by, say, the inconsistencies between Disney’s “Hunchback” and Victor Hugo’s.

12

Are we talking single cartoons or a cartoon series?

There’s a book out listing the 50 best single cartoons. Not surprisingly, “What’s Opera, Doc?” was number one (and Chuck Jones directed four of the top five and had far more in the top 50 than anyone else). I’d give “Duck Amuck” a slight edge.

For TV cartoon series, THE SIMPSONS is way ahead (even of my second choice, Rocky and Bullwinkle).

Worst single cartoon? Well, there were one or two Roadrunner cartoons that Chuck Jones didn’t direct. They were pretty bad.

Worst series? How about Fish Police?

“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx

Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman

13

The best is, hands down, Speed Racer.

The worst is, may my son forgive me, Pokemon.

14

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Those bad Roadrunner cartoons were made in the early '60s after WB closed up their animation studio and contracted out to a company set up by former WB director Friz Freling (and someone else; Ibling? Isling?). This same company made Pink Panther cartoons for United Artists.

Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.

15

Best:
Classic Warner Bros. cartoons (wickedly funny)
Classic Disney Cartoons (a little too cutesy to be funny sometimes, but amazingly well drawn)
Simpsons
Futurama
King of the Hill
The Critic
Dr. Katz
Bob and Margaret (See a pattern? On Sunday nights I watch the Fox animation block, then switch over to Comedy Central’s animation block, with maybe a hop over to Cartoon Network to watch “Late Night Black and White” or “O, Canada” if everything else is reruns that I don’t want to watch for the 27th time :))
Powerpuff Girls
Dexter’s Laboratory
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Daria
Animaniacs
The New Batman
3x3 Eyes (My favorite anime)

Worst:
Any cartoon where they update classic characters for the '90’s (or whatever decade) and/or regress the characters to childhood and/or add a “cute” new sidekick
Rugrats
Ren & Stimpy
Just about anything Hannah-Barbara produced in the '60’s, '70’s, and '80’s that is rerun ad nauseum on Cartoon Network
Cow and Chicken, 2 Stupid Dogs, and all the other Ren & Stimpy wanna-be rip-offs
Ren & Stimpy
Hell, anything on Nickelodeon or Fox Kids
South Park
X-Men (The animation is cheap and stiff, and the stories veer so wildly from the original comic books that I just wanna puke)
Life with Louie
Ren & Stimpy
Tiny Toons (Yeah, I liked it at first, but now it’s just annoying)

Guilty Pleasures (Cartoons I enjoyed as a kid that I now realize are impossibly cheesy, or cartoons I enjoy now though I’m fully aware they’re impossibly cheesy–or that my husband makes me feel guilty for watching, the big meany :frowning: ;)):
Sailor Moon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers (Does anyone else hate “Transformers Generation 2” where they just edited and repackaged the original episodes to make them appeal to kids with even shorter attention spans?)
Johnny Bravo
Beavis & Butthead
Aeon Flux

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
Join the FSH Webring

16

There are too many cartoons I like to list all of them, but I will list what I consider are the worst:
-Wait Til Your Father Gets Home
-Jem
-The Chan Clan

(I’d also list “The Gary Coleman Show” but I can never make it past the opening credits without changing the channel.)

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I found that Toon Heads on Cartoon Network (Fridays after Space Ghost: Coast to Coast - check your local listings) is an invaluable source of golden age cartoon history and trivia. Every week, questions that have haunted me since I was a child (like why was there a fat Elmer and a not so fat Elmer?) are answered. Marvelous!

(Granted, I could probably find this information on the web, but of course part of the point of Toon Heads is that they actually show the cartoons they’re discussing.)

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
Join the FSH Webring

18

more ‘best of the worst’ nostalgia: penelope pitstop
charlie chan and the chan clan (heartbroken as a kid when my mom tossed my cc&thecc coloring book-- and that thing was thick)

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A “cartoon” that was a pain to watch: Clutch Cargo

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Daria may be funny. Sort of. In a painful way. And King of the Hill may be funny. Ish. Kind of. But both of them, in terms of animation, are pointless! I mean, make it a live sitcom, why don’t ya? Why bother going to the effort of drawing anything if every image is static but for a blinking eye or a juddering mouth?

The Simpsons and South Park, despite being similarly simplistic, at least use the medium that they are in by including wacky weird crap, or celebrity guests (real or otherwise) that can only be done with animation. And I love it!

I really don’t like Anime. Pokemon is one of the worst examples, but I go all the way up to amazing spectacular stuff like Akira etc. All of it is just weird for me, and I don’t like it.

I really do like things like Gummi Bears and even The Smurfs had some nice stuff. And Batman Animated has some gems. And Tiny Toons and Animaniacs when drawn by the US Warner company was brilliant (any farmed out animation is shocking).

So I’m an animation fan, usually over and above the content, though good content can sometimes shine through.

-PIGEONMAN-
Hero For A New Millennium!

The Legend Of PigeonMan - Back in the new year! Honest. I promise. No, really.