# Tell me about some kids cartoons an adult would love. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377 "2012-07-25T20:51:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/41 "2012-07-26T17:50:58Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > There are goofy episodes throughout most of the run of the show, but overall it gets deeper, more serious, and generally better right through to the end. (Though early episodes like “Nevermore” lay the groundwork for much darker episodes later on.) It’s hard to mark a point at which it “gets better” because the tone of the series is generally cyclic; it alternates between serious and silly episodes fairly regularly through a season, then finishes with a serious finale. Even perennial comic relief Beast Boy gets serious episodes occasionally–and those are among my favorites. > > That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the silly episodes; many of them are quite entertaining. I particularly like the Mad Mod episodes. Thanks for the answer. Just checking a list of episodes reveals that what I saw first was “Homecoming” from the start of season 5. The characters seemed more mature and interesting to me and the plot was pretty good. I guess I just found it painful to go back and watch plots like “Starfire quits the team because everybody likes her sister better”. Maybe I’ll give it another shot at some point. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/42 "2012-07-26T19:03:24Z")
I’m enjoying watching [ReBoot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmfKRCqyyjo) on Youtube. (The link goes to the first episode.) The first season and most of the second are pretty light, with too many _deus ex_ endings, but then it gets quite a bit darker. I like the general design and the then-current outside references, and the range of characters. "I come from the Net… My format: Guardian, to mend and defend…) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/43 "2012-07-26T19:15:02Z")
> [@Trion](#): > > Thanks for the answer. Just checking a list of episodes reveals that what I saw first was “Homecoming” from the start of season 5. The characters seemed more mature and interesting to me and the plot was pretty good. I guess I just found it painful to go back and watch plots like “Starfire quits the team because everybody likes her sister better”. Maybe I’ll give it another shot at some point. Yep, “Homecoming” is one of the serious Beast Boy ones. If you want to see a little of the more serious side in Season 1, skip ahead to episodes 5 (“The Sum of his Parts”), 6 (“Nevermore”), 9 (“Masks”), and 12-13 (“The Apprentice”). ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/44 "2012-07-26T19:21:52Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Yep, “Homecoming” is one of the serious Beast Boy ones. > > If you want to see a little of the more serious side in Season 1, skip ahead to episodes 5 (“The Sum of his Parts”), 6 (“Nevermore”), 9 (“Masks”), and 12-13 (“The Apprentice”). Skip ahead?? I’m an Obsessive Completist. We do not “skip ahead”. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/45 "2012-07-26T19:29:07Z")
Seconded on **Reboot**. Very well done series. I’m also fond of **Freakazoid**. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/46 "2012-07-27T09:13:18Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > :dubious: Bebop’s a kid’s show in your opinion? > > Anything by Butch Hartman, Craig McCracken, or Lauren Faust (who happens to be McCracken’s wife, and has worked on several of his series) is good. > > Specific examples: > > Fairly Odd Parents > TUFF Puppy > Powerpuff Girls > Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends > My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic > Super BFF (Part of the DC Nations shorts on Cartoon Network.) > > (All but the two in the middle are still running, I believe - FOP may have ended its first run, and I’ve only been catching old episodes for all I know, but it ran a long time.) > > Interestingly, Tara Strong had/has roles in all of those except TUFF Puppy (Timmy Turner, Bubbles, Terrence, Twilight Sparkle, and Batgirl). Bebop is indeed for grown ups, but the essence of the question was : _what kind of cartoons would adults like?_ Bebop suits nicely. So would _Space Battleship Yamato_, a.k.a. _Star Blazers_. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/47 "2012-07-27T09:51:01Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Of course, you can’t go wrong with Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Freakazoid, or most of the mid-90’s cartoons of that sort. Rocko’s Modern life is bizarre but also good. Who can forget Ren And Stimpy? Were these cartoons REALLY for kids? They were indeed for kids, but not _solely_ for kids, which meant real kids found them funnier than the crap made from the 1960s to the 1980s that _was_ just for kids. Anyone who thinks kids can’t get anything out of stuff they don’t quite get is wrong; if that were the case, kids wouldn’t get much of anything out of life, as they don’t have the experience to get most references being made around them. Heck, classic Looney Tunes cartoons are still loved, and they’re salted through with references to 1940s pop culture most adults would be hard-pressed to get at this point. So. I suppose my point is, look at the original cartoons Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were showing starting in the very late 1980s. That’s when American animation came out of a decades-long stupor and started to get good again. There’s good stuff and bad, but the average takes a massive shift in the right direction. The reason it got good was that animators were again able to make the weird and disgusting jokes that also appeal to adults, making their work better approximate the kinds of comedy kids actually enjoy (depending on age group, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/48 "2012-07-27T10:09:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > but the essence of the question was : _what kind of cartoons would adults like?_ No, the essence of the question was ‘what cartoons do adults like despite their being aimed at children?’ Thus the specifically asking for kids cartoons, and not naming anything aimed at adults in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/49 "2012-07-27T13:31:34Z")
What about samurai pizza cats? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/50 "2012-08-03T12:14:20Z")
Just found this thread. Definitely want to add my vote for **Rocky & Bullwinkle**. You can find it on videos or DVD’s or whatever, and whole season at a time, now. ETA: Early 1960’s or so, there was a really off-the-wall oddball cartoon show called Calvin and the Colonel. You can find a few episodes on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/51 "2012-08-03T12:49:45Z")
I just wanted to update I checked out Samurai Jack and Generator Rex. Rex is ok, certainly more morally complex than usual fare but the question becomes why a total monster like White Knight would tolerate constant insubordination from Rex and Agent 6. I like that it apparently has three seasons and an actual end, I might come back to it. Samurai Jack wow, this is a work of art, there is barely any plot to speak of but it is riveting and amazing. Entire episodes can almost pass in silence, but the art is so beautiful you don’t notice. It is in a word beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/52 "2012-08-03T18:13:44Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Wait, really? Holy hell how did we get that far without Batman:TAS? I think I didn’t mention it because I thought it already had been! Gargoyles was good, I never got into it, but objectively it’s good. > > Also, I’ve officially fallen in love with the modern _Batman: The Brave and the Bold_ solely because of this scene: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFP0IoMfsA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFP0IoMfsA) > > ETA: Hey, is that Tara Strong as The Huntress? I think it is! “Plastic Man can expand, become putty in your hand”? Holy Double Entendre, Batman! ---
**Author:** ![TimToyGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@TimToyGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimToyGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/53 "2012-08-03T20:52:06Z")
Interesting that the OP stated he liked Sym-Bionic Titan and nobody has yet mentioned what was probably my favorite entry in the giant-robot cartoon pantheon: Megas XLR It wasn’t around for long, but man, it was so fun. Basically a loud, uncouth but mechanically gifted gearhead teenager finds an intergalactic fighting robot, then customizes it and tops it off with his car as its head. Many insane robot-battling adventures follow. In the same robot genre, I wanted to mention some of the Transformers animation - some of it is pretty enjoyable and adult-themed, particularly the mid 90’s CGI Beast Wars series, and the early 00’s Transformers Animated. The current series, Transformers Prime, is running on the Hub network, it’s pretty fun as well. Not purely animated, but it does have an animated component, is another series running on the Hub, the Aquabats! Super Show. It’s a fun, giddy homage to 80’s rubber monster shows with music and comedy. And, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Exo-Squad yet have they? It’s a piloted-mech action-adventure series, I think it was done in Canada. Very grown-up depictions of racism, war and loss against a backdrop of many robot-on-robot action sequences. Worth checking out if you like that sort of thing. Tim ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/54 "2013-06-29T07:13:44Z")
I’ll bring back my own zombie for some updates 🙂 Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century- A competent transplant of classic Holmes stories into the 22nd century. If you can buy the initial premise it is a lot of fun(in the show’s universe Holmes and his adventures were real, and he is revived in the 22nd century). Phantom 2040- Wow! An earlier work from the creator of Aeon Flux, this is one of the best animated adventure shows I’ve ever seen. Probably only Batman can top it, hell ignoring the superhero premise it is often a good sci fi show. Apparently some fans of the Phantom character did not like this futuristic take, but I was new to the whole thing. The limited villain roster does get old(how many times can Graft fail to kill the Phantom?) and the later parts of the show seem to suffer from lack of time or money(great voice actor replaced, animation rushed and plot badly written). But for the most part these 33 episodes are amazing if you like 90s action cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/55 "2013-06-29T07:41:59Z")
The people who make _Adventure Time_ have started a new online cartoon _Bravest Warriors_. You can watch [episodes](http://www.youtube.com/user/CartoonHangover) on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/56 "2013-06-29T10:00:20Z")
I enjoy watching Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends and Batman Brave and the Bold with my kids. Good quality stuff, way better than the crap I used to watch in the 70’s when people used to just slap cartoons together. Sorry old people, but some new things are better than things from our youth. ---
**Author:** ![Levolor\_the\_Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@Levolor\_the\_Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Levolor_the_Blind)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/57 "2013-06-29T14:07:54Z")
I’ll throw in the two seasons of **Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated**. Lots of good voice talent (Patrick Warburton, Udo Kier, Lewis Black), a story arc that really kicks off in the second season, Nazi robots, Harlen Ellison poking fun at himself, the Velma-Shaggy-Scooby triangle, Hot Dog Water, Fred’s three parents, Daphne’s mentally-unbalanced mother, etc. My son and I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/58 "2013-06-29T15:10:28Z")
Keeping it strictly in the realm of _ **kid’s** _ cartoons (which things like The Simpsons, Aeon Flux, Venture Bros are NOT) I’d include older (90’s) stuff like: [ul] [li]Animaniacs[/li][li]Pinky & The Brain[/li][li]The Tick (animated, not the live-action sitcom)[/li][li]Mr. Bumpy[/li][li]Eek the Cat![/li][li]Freakazoid[/li][li]Seasons 2 & 3 of Rugrats[/li][li]Dexter’s Lab (minus the last two seasons)[/li][li]Powerpuff Girls[/li][li]Courage the Cowardly Dog[/li][li]Samurai Jack (absolutely!)[/li][li]Cow & Chicken / I Am Weasel[/li][/ul] Today’s stuff I’d include: [ul] [li]The Amazing World of Gumball[/li][li]Chowder[/li][li]The Mighty B![/li][li]Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends[/li][li]Regular Show[/li][li]The Looney Tunes Show (the most recent one)[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/59 "2013-06-29T15:35:00Z")
Regular Show on Cartoon Network is one of my favorite shows. ---
**Author:** ![Jumpbass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jumpbass/32/147_2.png) [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377/60 "2013-06-29T22:40:30Z")
Sheep In The Big City was pretty cool. It has a ham sandwich as a recurring character and every episode ends with a ranting swede. What’s not to love? I have three VHS tapes I recorded from it’s run. There’s episodes on YouTube. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-some-kids-cartoons-an-adult-would-love/629377.md?page=4)