I’d second Gravity Falls, for current shows.
Are Legend of Korra and Batman the Animated series aimed at children?
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is actually more popular with adults then children.
Wallace and Gromit
Maybe slightly older children (“tweenagers”), but I would say yes to both.
The same with Invader Zim, even though there are only 27 episodes (plus a handful that are audio only). (The version I head was, after the first season of 20, Nickelodeon ordered a second season of 20 - then, after noticing that, among other things, people get killed on the show, one day a producer told the animators, “Er, Nickelodeon cut the order from 20 to 6 (later adding the Christmas episode) - if you’re not working on the first six episodes, you have three days to clear your desks.”)
Ren and Stimpy is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. I don’t know if I’d show it to a 6 year old, but 8-12 is pretty good depending on how easily grossed out they get. There’s also a good amount of borderline disturbing imagery (anytime Ren freaks out).
Batman is rated PG, Korra Y7.
I don’t know if I’d show Batman to an 8 year old. Depends on the kid I guess. They imply more than they show a lot of the time, but there’s still a lot of violence, guns, knives, guys getting the crap beat out of them, face melting, fan service with female characters (the censors must’ve been asleep at the wheel for the Harley Quinn pie scene), and from what I remember a decent amount of smoking and drinking, though maybe I’m conflating that with the DC movies that really were aimed at the older crowd.
Korra is safer, but it’s pretty violent. They sorta disguise it most of the time. People get hit with boulders and fireballs instead of fists. Is that supposed to be better?
I’m a little surprised The Last Airbender/Korra does so well straddling that weird Venn Diagram of younger and older. I’d think the kids would be turned off by the romance, the serial nature where you have to remember everything, or some of the political and philosophy stuff. Guess kids always love crazy adventure stories in a colorful world with over the top fighting, and there’s a decent amount of physical comedy to smooth everything out.
No way. The adult fanbase is pretty huge, but the show is fueled by little girls vacuuming up the toys like drug fiends looking for the next hit. Though it would be fun to know how much cash Hasbro makes off each demo.
N-thing Phineas and Ferb. OP, have you tried it yet?
Adding The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It’s an American/French anime (in English) from the eighties and most of it is available online somewhere (legally, last time I looked). It has a very long story arc with separate stories for each episode, like later live-action dramas for adults often did/do. My favourite TV show as a kid, I rewatched it when my daughter was old enough to watch it with me and it more than stood the test of time.
Agreed. It’s like Buffy in cartoon form with different characters, which is a little recursive since in Buffy she and her friends were occasionally called the Scooby gang.
The Mysterious Cities of Gold is an awesome 1980’s alternative history/lost civilization cartoon.
At one point we learn that human civilization already almost destroyed itself once, hundreds or thousands of years ago, using
“Weapons of the Sun”
If a weapon is “of the Sun”, then that implies that it uses technology based on the Sun. What might this mean?
((ref My Little Pony))
I don’t think Hasbro makes an awful lot off the bronies, to be honest, as they don’t market anything to them. The fandom creates an awful lot of its own toys, plushies and statues for sale within itself, but Hasbro sees none of that money.
They have been remarkably tolerant of the whole thing though.
Oh, and a show I genuinely enjoy watching with my children is “Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom.”. It’s made by the same people as Peppa Pig, but there’s a lot more jokes for the adults in Ben and Holly.