Animation thread omnibus.

Inspired by this entry in TVtropes.

I love a lot of Western Animation. Especially nearly universal stuff like Bugs Bunny and Pixar. I don't like Anime but I never dismiss it as kids stuff, I just don't like it myself.

I am not too proud to admit I have an oversize Scooby Doo coffee mug that is my favorite coffee mug. I loved watching the Animaniacs as a 25ish old person and discussing it with my other "juvenile-like" friends and my Niece and Nephew. I think it was absolutely brilliant and the only thing that comes close to classic Loony Tunes. So clearly I don't think animation is only for kids.

I think Pixar has made some of the best films in the last 15 years or so. I enjoy and look forward to them at this point. Up!, Incredibles and Wall-E were great movies I rated as 10. Up! was probably the best picture last year but like others I think suffered from the Animation Age Ghetto problem.

I know we have several lovers of Anime on the board too.

For Western Shorts I think Bugs Bunny is by far the best.
The rest of the Loony Tunes would take second.
Animaniacs
Cecil and Beanie were very funny but now forgotten. Terrible animation though.
Rocky and Bullwinkle were excellent but being forgotten.
Tom and Jerry were pretty good.
Droopy was funny.

Popeye was not. Hanna-Barbara shorts were not but the Flintstones were pretty well done and I have a soft-spot for Scooby Doo of course.

Simpsons, Futurama & South Park are my favorite 30 minute animated shows.

So what are yours?

Well, I went through an anime phase in my teens and early 20's, though I've lost interest in recent years. I was really into Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 (and pretty much anything Rumiko Takahashi pre-Inuyasha). I also enjoyed Fushigi Yuugi and Utena. As a little kid I loved Voltron.

For western animation I've had nearly a life-long affair with The Simpsons, and I really love Futurama and Tom Goes to the Mayor. I'm not too crazy about Seth McFarlane's various shows, but I have enjoyed an episode or two of American Dad. Dexter's Lab is pretty good too.

Ren & Stimpy, the original run, is still a classic.

I went through a period ('03-'05) where I watched every stupid thing on adult swim.

ETA: I don't know if anyone else will remember this, because people usually don't, but in '93-'94 MTV had a half hour show called "MTV Oddities" where they played two cartoons. One was called "The Head" and it was about this dude that had a giant head with an alien living inside it, and the other was a cartoon adaptation of the comic book The Maxx. Loved that show, especially the Maxx episodes.

I like most of what you posted.

I love Watership Down,
When The Wind Blows - heartbreaking British nuclear war animation
South Park - It is amazing how fresh this has stayed, it hit its stride after a number of years and still regularly produces good and ubertopical episodes.
Wallace and Gromit (at least the early ones),
most of the Studio Ghibli anime stuff, although I think the later more lauded ones are weaker than earlier efforts.
Akira, Project AKO,
Chobits,
Maharomatic

The Fleischman Superman cartoons, the '90s X-Men cartoons, the early Transformers cartoons,

Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Family Guy

There's so many

Classic British animations from Cosgrove Hall: Dangermouse and Count Duckula. Transformers and their crappy rip-off, Gobots.

From Marvel you had Spiderman, Spiderwoman, Spiderman and his amazing friends, the updated series of Spiderman, oh and X-Men.

More obscure things like Samurai Pizza Cats, Gargoyles (can we say Xanatos Gambit), Mysterious Cities of Gold. Of course, if you remember Jamie and the Magic Torch, you weren't really there.

Looking back at He-Man and She-Ra is a whole level of horror of everything I missed as a kid and does anyone remember King Arthur and the Knights of Justice?

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

More obscure things like Samurai Pizza Cats, Gargoyles (can we say Xanatos Gambit), Mysterious Cities of Gold.

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Gargoyles was definitely not obscure in the USA. It was a really great show, and one that I can still stand to watch as an adult. I remember the other two there, also. (Mysterious Cities of Gold was on Nickalodean and usually played right before Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, which I loved)

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does anyone remember King Arthur and the Knights of Justice?

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Yes!

I loved King Arthur and the Knights of Justice! My favorite was the guy with the Ram shield.

But my especial favorite as a child was the Hanna Barbera cartoons, most especially Pirates of Dark Water. I was sad when I found out years later that the series had literally never been finished. No scripts, no comics, no nothing. Just unfinished. How aggravating! But there was also the hanna barbera cartoon blocks with things like the Herculoids, Wonder Twins, and Shazam!

But western animation has been very infuential, I think. It's distinctly childlike and had a softer edge than most eastern animation that came over to the states.

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Originally posted by Panther Squad

But my especial favorite as a child was the Hanna Barbera cartoons, most especially Pirates of Dark Water. I was sad when I found out years later that the series had literally never been finished. No scripts, no comics, no nothing.

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Pirates of Dark Water, now that was fun, if not a little preachy. Eco good, Oil Dark Water bad.

I wish they had finished Dungeons & Dragons as well. They have the final script, but they never got to make it.

Did they ever finish making Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors?

Cat - wow, that was a blast from the past. I used to have such a crush on Jayce when I was younger.

According to Wiki, a script was made to finally finish the series via an animated movie if the toy relaunch was successful. While the script was written, the launch was not successful and therefore was never put to celluloid.

Ergh. double post.

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

Mysterious Cities of Gold.

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I loved that show so, so much. I can still sing the theme song.

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Originally posted by CatInASuit

...does anyone remember King Arthur and the Knights of Justice?

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I do. I also remember Conan the Adventurer and James Bond, Junior.

I was a real cartoon-aholic as a kid, and it spread to anime in college. I was always a big Tiny Toon/Animaniacs fan, and I also loved Batman, the Animated Series.

For anime I'm a big Miyazaki fan, and I loved Cowboy Bebop and Escaflowne. Utena was delightfully bizarre.

And now I'm Netflixing Avatar: the Last Airbender, because I don't want to be an adult, dangit.

Ok, I remember Visionaries "Knights of the Magical Light", but what is the following 80's cartoon because I can't remember the name.

It had a team of three guys with special suits that could attach technologically advanced vehicle parts to them. One guy in the air, one on the ground, on in the sea, all fighting the baddie of the week. Had some neat changing effect when they tutrned into their vehicles.

Cat - you're speaking of the centurions. Me and my brother ahd the action figures!

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Originally posted by Panther Squad

Cat - you're speaking of the centurions. Me and my brother ahd the action figures!

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Thank you - that has been bugging me for ages.

Another discussion point. A lot of the cartoons here might be classified as Western, but in reality that has come to mean American.

What would you classify European cartoons as? They always seemed a lot more storylike and episodic in nature, instead of the series based nature of most American cartoons. At least as far as the imported cartoons went.