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.
I’m enjoying watching ReBoot 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…)
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”.
Seconded on Reboot. Very well done series.
I’m also fond of Freakazoid.
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.
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).
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.
What about samurai pizza cats?
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.
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.
“Plastic Man can expand, become putty in your hand”? Holy Double Entendre, Batman!
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
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.
The people who make Adventure Time have started a new online cartoon Bravest Warriors. You can watch episodes on YouTube.
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.
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.
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]
Regular Show on Cartoon Network is one of my favorite shows.
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.