Cartoons have come a long way since I was a little kid eating cereal in front of the TV on Saturday mornings. I look at the cartoons my little girl watches now, and I wonder what happened. Then I remember that other than Rocky & Bullwinkle and Looney Tunes, I didn't really enjoy that Saturday morning stuff at all.
The Smurfs? Even I knew they were lame.
Anyway, I realized the other day that I don't watch much TV any more, and what I do watch is predominantly animated. I decided to make this list to let you know what I like, and then hopefully some of you out there can add some shows I may have missed, and thereby I can discover something new and entertaining.
You may notice some major shows won't be listed here, like Family Guy for example. It doesn't mean I don't like the show, it just means that I happen to like another show by the same creator more.
I also didn't bother linking and youtube videos here, but if you want to track some down and add them feel free. Just a personal preference is all, no real reason.
Well anyway, on to the list, but a couple of disclaimers. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I am well aware of other excellent programs, like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, or Robot Chicken, I just don't think they are as good as the ones I have listed here.
Quite simply, these are shows that if I happen to see they are on, I will watch them and enjoy them. If I happen to have some time to kill, I will pop in a DVD and watch an old episode for an hour or so. And of course, these are merely my opinions, no more, no less.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
The Simpsons
I am old enough to remember seeing the shorts of this show on the Tracy Ullman show. I also remember seeing one of the shorts before a movie, though I cannot remember the movie to save my life, I remember laughing my butt off at the Simpson family visiting a therapist and Bart eating all of the mints on the desk.
Then I heard that there was going to be a Simpson’s Christmas Special, and my high school girl friend and I watched it in the basement of her house and laughed until we cried. We had had the presence of mind to record the show, and we watched the tape of it into the ground.
Shortly after that, the actual Simpsons show started airing, and I watched it every single night it was on. I tired to tape every single show that I could, and then I would dub out the commercials. One of my friends, a super fan name Brian, would buy 8 hour long video tapes, edit out all the commercials and the opening credits (except for the blackboard gag and the couch gag) and then put together huge compilations.
I fully agree with the sentiment that the best years were right around the third year through the sixth, and I don’t make it a huge point to watch the show every Sunday anymore, but it is still a good show, and it is a rare night of gaming that someone doesn’t make a Simpson reference at one point or another.
If I had to pick a single favorite episode, it would have to be the one where Bart becomes a daredevil and we get to see Homer fall into the Springfield Gorge. Classic.
"Mr.Burns: Quick Smithers. Bring the mind eraser device! Smithers: You mean the revolver, sir? Mr.Burns: Precisely."
It amazes me that new episodes of this great show are still funny and clever after all these seasons. Homer is one of my favourite cartoon characters ever.
Complaining that the series peaked around season five is overrated. I often wonder if you could run the seasons in a random order if everyone would just pick "their" seasons 3 through 8. I think it's part of that "oh, that was so five years ago" meme.
A B- episode of the Simpsons is still three standard deviations better than most of the dreck on tv. Or something like that.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Futurama
Hands down one of the best shows on TV ever. Due to the sporadic schedule that Fox gave it, I would miss countless episodes of this one. Thankfully, I was able to pick up all of the DVD’s for cheap one afternoon when someone had a sale, and after I got them, I watched the entire series from start to finish over the course of a weekend.
Quite simply, for me at least, it was like they took all the crazy spontaneity that the Simpsons had in the beginning, added a ton of geek humor, rolled it all up into a giant space burrito and put it on TV. For every Simpsons reference made by my friends, at least four or five Futurama jokes are made every time we get together.
Also worth noting, there are two episodes of Futurama that choke me up every single time I watch them. One is the episode where Fry goes in search of his five leaf clover and the end of the episode it is revealed that his nephew was named after him. The second episode is one where I turn it off before the last couple of minutes – and that is the episode about Fry’s dog. If you know what I am talking about then you probably feel the same way.
All hail the awesome decision of Comedy Central to buy more episodes of Futurama. If Fox can give Seth McFarland the ok to make The Cleveland Show, how could they have possible gotten rid of this?
Couldn't agree with you more about this one. Futurama is probably the best show ever done on American TV.
I choke up at both of those episodes too. I also like the Devil's Hands one where Fry learns to play the holophone, and the space honey episode where Lela dreams that Fry is alive after she sees him die. Those both get to me.
The movies they have done are also very awesome. The Beast With a Million Backs, and Bender's Game in particular.
I think they've made 3 movies after the series was cancelled. The movies suck balls though, not recommending them to anyone, not even to die hard fans
G-B-C-h wrote:
The show itself is GREAT, but the movies are disappointing.
Well, I was disappointed by the last three movies, though they all had their moments, but I thought the first one was amazingly well done (with the exception of two moments: the intro scene that was kind of dumb and overdone, and the scene where Hermes is flying the ship near the end with the music). A cool, mostly coherent time travel plot, plenty of humor and a ridiculous conclusion.
That said, I DON'T think that it stands up to the movie format very well. It was best in the half-hour episodes which... may be coming back? I thought I heard that, I dunno.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
American Dad
I don’t even know why I enjoy this one so much. On the surface, it is a very blatant rip off of Family Guy. Talking fish instead of a dog, wise ass Alien instead of a baby, etc – but after I watched it a few times, I found myself enjoying this one a heck of a lot more than Family Guy. Maybe it was the fact that they didn’t have a cutaway joke every 2 minutes, or the fact that the Dad wasn’t a complete moron, I honestly don’t know, but I find myself laughing at this show all the time.
There are flaws of course. Roger the alien is either ridiculously funny or very annoying. The fish character is a complete throwaway and I don’t really even see why he is included. However, I really enjoy the fact that they could have made Stan just a blatant “dumb Republican” stereotype and go for the cheap laughs, but instead they actually manage to poke fun at both sides of the political spectrum equally, and actually offer a more moderate approach.
For me, the best character on the show is easily Steve, the son. Even when the focus of the show has nothing to do with him, they manage to write him a hilarious part, such as the time where he was trying to practice to be a background singer, or when he attempted to get revenge on Hailey by training a swarm of bees. A recent standout episode focusing on him was about Steve taking part in a “Vietnam War Re-enactment”. Good stuff.
1. Where Stan's boss (played by Patrick Stewart) came in the kitchen in the morning after sleeping with his daughter and says "May I have some Gatorade? I'm afraid I left all my electrolytes with your daughter."
...but I'm told all the jokes are just cheap pop culture references! :head explodes:
Simpsons, you had me. Futurama, you had me. American Dad, you lost me.
But I don't like Family Guy all that much either. Brian is funny. Maybe I'd like this show better if I tried a few more episodes, but I don't have that much spare time for shows that my wife would hate and I'd have to pre-watch before watching with my sons.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
South Park
While I don’t make it a point to watch this every single time it is on, I have to say that this show constantly reminds me why it is awesome – nothing is sacred to Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
I remember when someone first showed me the rough “Spirit of Christmas” short that they put together for a friend and I found myself watching it over and over again. When the show started up, they managed to go into it saying to hell with it, we don’t care who we offend.
You can watch the episodes online now, which is nice, and I have managed to catch up on them as I have fallen woefully behind. More people should do this – people are going to steal your episodes anyway, you might as well come off as the good guys by offering them up yourself first.
Lots of favorite episodes with this one, but the one ripping on Family Guy was pretty awesome.
South Park almost always has a moral lesson that is conveyed like a frying pan in the face.
Bugs Bunny is like a frying pan in the face. South Park is like a turd sandwich, mashed in the face. (Again, IMHO.)
A turd does'nt leave bruising and bleeding like a pan will. Also, sometimes folks just need dookie mashed in their faces. I happen to love South Park, but if getting "a #2 combo" to the face is what hones their taste in humor and makes them appreciate other stuff that much better, then I'll have the pupu platter.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Cowboy Bebop
I am not a huge anime junky, but I know what I like, and I like this a lot. I first got turned onto this through Adult Swim on cartoon network, and I was incredibly intrigued by the concept. Jazz music and space bounty hunters? Sign me up!
To truly appreciate the Bebop however, you really need to get your hands on the complete series and just sit down and watch the whole thing. If I had a single complaint about the show, it is that my favorite character, Jet, just gets lost in the shuffle towards the end, and the focus of the show steers completely away from him and onto Spike. Not that Spike isn’t interesting, I just didn’t really like the whole quasi love interest thing he had going with Faye.
Oh – and it made me sad when Ein left the show with Ed. I loved that dog.
If I had to pick a favorite episode, it would be the one where Jet goes back to his home on Ganymede and runs into his old girlfriend (or was it his wife?) that left him when he was a cop. The final shot of him throwing the broken watch into the river and leaving her behind forever is very poignant for me.
You really can't go wrong. They are both shows to watch when it is quiet, and the room is dark. Kino's Journey is only 13 episodes, Mushi-shi is 26. Both can be had in reasonably priced box sets. Mushi-Shi makes my top 5 favorite pieces of entertainment of all time, be it movies, tv shows, anything. Don't expect one big epic plot. Each episode stands on its on and tells its own story. And if you happen to enjoy nature, especially forests and mountains, Mushi-Shi will absolutely floor you with it's beauty.
I ALWAYS recommend Trigun to anyone who says they love Cowboy Bebop. Its a must-watch, even if you're not very into anime.
Oh please! Trigun sucks.
I very much disagree! It's not all that similar to Cowboy Bebop, and a lot more comedy focused at times, but it's incredibly fun with an endearing (and kind of split personailty) lead character. It's even touching occasionally, before it goes back into its cool modern western action mode. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys lead character centered action shows...or if you're like me and seem to like something from every genre.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Venture Brothers
The pilot for this with Brock killing the crocodile with his bare hands before going into the UN building set the tone for me. Adult Swim would show it every once in awhile and I always hoped they would make it into a series. When they did, I was in geek heaven.
The best thing about this show, is that they could have made it a blatant Johnny Quest rip off for the whole series, but they moved away from that direction and made it its own thing all by itself. The minds behind this show are clever, intuitive, and most of all, know how to write a nice long story that will keep you interested with each and every episode.
The most recent season has been excellent. I am especially enjoying the re-invention of 21’s role, making him into his own person, but keeping him firmly mired into his henchman status. Sergeant Hatred has been kind of annoying for me however. You can only make so many pedophile jokes before they get very, very, stale.
Best episode of this ever was the first ghost pirate one. I am glad they brought the sea captain back and gave him a job with Jonas
This show is Pure Genius, and probably the only one that comes close to competing with Futurama. Completely smart, and hilarious. The humor in this one can be so subtle that you miss it the first time you watch the episode. This is what Family Guy wishes it could do with it's pop culture references.
Favorite Episode: The Doctor is Sin from Season 3.
The Venture Brothers is outstanding. I'm old enough to have watched Johnny Quest religiously, so this show is right in my wheelhouse. The animation, the writing, everything is top notch.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Home Movies
Squiggle Vision aside (thank god they went to Flash animation after the first season) this is one of the most brilliantly written shows of all time. While it only lasted four seasons, oh what an amazing four seasons they were.
What drew me to this one was the fact that the vast majority of the jokes are dialogue driven, with very few site gags. You also get the impression that the actors are improvising most of their lines, giving it an off the cuff feel.
The highlight of the show, is of course, Coach McGirk. H. Jon Benjamin’s deadpan style worked amazingly for this character, and any episode that included him dealing with the kids, such as the Acting Camp, or Brendan’s attempt at directing a musical were pure gold. His entrance to the spaghetti feed with his backpack full of swords was also a great moment.
Brendan Small went on to make Metalocalypse, which is a show I enjoy as well, but I didn’t include it here since I like Home Movies so much more.
This show does not get enough love in my opinion. Brendan in many ways reminds me a lot of Calvin, he's focused entirely on his on world, he's self centered but in that forgivable, childlike way, and when needed he has the ability to express himself as an adult while still acting like a child. That's about as far as I can take the comparison, since Calvin only really has a tiger as a confidant while Brendan interacts with several other people on a regular basis and on purpose, but this show is great at capturing a sort of childlike look at adult life.
I love almost any episode with Shannon. His first episode where he beats up Jason and ends up making Brendan the villain of the situation was pure genius as he is the kind of guy who knows exactly how to exploit the flaws of others and then make you feel bad about it. He's the worst villain of all: a smart bully.
Then there are those growing-pains type episodes, like some of the ones with his father, or the final episode, that does such a great job of getting emotion out of you with real-life situations. He's growing up, and it's not easy, but the transition often feels more like a teenager into an adult and it often (for me anyway) seemed to hit home. I miss this show.
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Invader Zim
This one went totally underneath my radar until my tattoo artist of all people turned me onto it. I found a couple of episodes online and got hooked almost immediately. My girlfriend Becca bought me the complete series for Christmas a couple of years back, and I have since watched the entire set multiple times.
It isn’t something you can watch straight through however. I don’t know what it is about the show, but it is just unsettling – on multiple levels. Maybe it is the fact that the whole “Invader Zim” universe is just so damn odd my brain can’t fully wrap itself around it for more than an hour at a time. Plus, it is the little side jokes that I find the most funny – like the signs in Zim’s lawn saying “I LOVE EARTH!” and the giant monkey painting on his wall in the living room.
Gir is of course quite funny, but I wish they had tried harder to make him more understandable. Sometimes his statements are just unintelligble, but maybe that was the point. If I had to pick a favorite episode it would be the one where Zim is sent back to FoodCourtia to serve out his banishment, escaping only by allowing himself to be eaten by one of the customers of the restaurant he works at.
A great show, but I can’t believe this one was ever meant for children.
What I loved most about this show is that, being done by Jhonen Vasquez, previously of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fame, how he was able to work in the restrictions of the Nickelodeon universe. On Adult Swim he might have been tempted to make it violent, gruesome and vulgar, and in some ways I think that would have made it much worse. The lack of these things REALLY shows off his creative genius. Also it brought back one of the guys from Kids in the Hall, which I hadn't watched forever.
Absolutely agree. This show is gut-bustingly hilarious. It is also so odd that you can only watch a couple episodes at a time. I don't think kids ever "got" this show, but at 25 I adore it.
Except that you've left off the cartoon character that made all the others possible: Bugs Bunny. Looney Tunes, and in particular Bugs, made "adult" cartoons mainstream.
And they're still funny today, even moreso as an adult who can get the innuendo and pop culture references.
Another one, that I can never remember the name of, involved Elmer hunting, and Bugs and Daffy holding up different hunting season signs based on what they called each other and themselves...
I can't think of one I didn't like. Actually, these bring back fond memories for me. While growing up we lived in a two flat. My grandparents lived on the first floor and we lived on the second. Every Saturday morning, I would wake up and go downstairs in my PJs and watch Bugs and the gang with Grandpa. Even though we saw most of them several times, we still laughed.
I can't believe no one has mentioned THUNDERCATS before!?
This is probably one of the best animated series of the 80s, I just love it! As with many others, this also spawned a toy series, with nice figures and playsets, which are quite cool!
The story of the Thundercats, fleeing from their doomed planet Thundera to Third Earth, battling and encountering many villains and foes (Mumm-Ra, anyone?) and also meeting new friends as well, is exciting, and the episodes are fun to watch!
I sincerely hope you are kidding. There was little to distinguish Thundercats from a bunch of other crap from the mid-80s Hanna Barbera 8-year-old boy fantasy factory other than perhaps the oddly interesting incidental chamber music.
On the other hand, it probably gave birth to a generation of furries, so even if it was a combination of Mamet, Shakespeare, and Tarrantino it will always have a special place in hell.
however, a few years back I went to a baseball game at AT&T park in San Francisco to watch a Giants game. At the park they will let you pay money to put up personal message on the marque blow the be screen... People will put up things like Betty (or insert name here) will you marry me? Or come to joes pizza... etc
quite huge letters really.
Someone did one of the most classic and epic things I have ever seen in my life. Up on the electronic marque the put the message, HAPPY 5000th Birthday Mumm-Ra!
I could not believe my eyes.. laughed so damn hard. Whoever did that, you are a genious.
This show is absolutely begging for the Venture Brothers treatment. I know it's been done to Sealab, but this would be great. They've probably satirized it in some other Cartoon Network shows I don't watch, or maybe in Venture Brothers itself (I've probably only seen a quarter of them) but this show would be great for a redo like that.
Only three seasons long but one of the most amazing stories I have ever seen. The action is intense, the comedy is hilarious, the drama touching. I was sad to see this one go but I knew that in order for the story to have as great an arc as it did it had to have a real beginning, middle and end. My favorite episode is when the stop the giant mechanical drill tank from breaching the walls of the Earth Kingdom's capital. I couldn't recommend this more.
Wonderful series with lovable characters and compelling story lines. My entire family was hooked on this show. Second only two the DCU series of shows below (though probably better than any individual DCU series other than Batman).
I've heard great things about this show, yet i always assumed it was childish. Then I saw it has an astonishing 9.3/10 rating with over 10,000 ratings on imdb.com. So apparently someone thinks it's amazingly good.
I don't really like ATHF but I admit the character mix works. I keep wondering why Fry hangs out with these two losers who keep getting him into trouble. Shake is just a bad guy to be around, but Meatwad gets sympathy. For whatever reason, Fry is loyal to Meatwad, and that keeps him with Meatwad, and for better or worse (and there's no better) Shake.
In other words, you prefer the comic book to the cartoon. That's cool, but the terms "anime" and "manga" have always irked me, Another nation of origin, or different ethnicity of the characters, does not make a unique medium.
Are you old enough to remember when we called it "japan-imation"?
In other words, you prefer the comic book to the cartoon. That's cool, but the terms "anime" and "manga" have always irked me, Another nation of origin, or different ethnicity of the characters, does not make a unique medium.
Are you old enough to remember when we called it "japan-imation"?
*shiver* I still cringe at the term "japan-imation".
re: anime/manga vs cartoon/comic book. I would agree that they aren't different mediums, but the terms are still useful due to differing connotations. Say 'cartoon' in the states and people assume 'safe for 8 year olds' or in other words 'no such things as a pg-13 cartoon'. Japan doesn't have that stigma so it helps to have a differing term to highlight the need to look at the rating. Of course, people who know nothing about anime don't realize/understand that and wind up letting their pre-teen kids watch ninja scroll or perfect blue.
A really top-notch story about a group of gargoyles who, cursed to remain in stone forever, are freed from the spell by a billionaire industrialite in mid-nineties New York City. This was a few years before the monkier "animéesque" would be applied to a certain style of animation (the style of animation that shows the animators paid attention in anatomy class).
Plus the storyline was great, especially at the finale' how it all tied up. I liked the Macbeth/Midsummer Night's Dream connections too. It worked so well.
I'm sort of cheating with this entry - this is for a related series of shows that have spanned ten years, at least four television networks, and several movies.
It all started with Batman, The Animated Series. It combined sylish animation (done in a oppressive art deco style), quality voice work (Mark Hammil will forever for me be the Joker), excellent writing, a musical score that was alternately inspiring and haunting, and an overall attention to detail and continuity.
Canon immigrants from BTAS include the sweet, innocent, lovable sociopath Harley Quinn, and the show's re-imagining of classic Batman enemies like Mr. Freeze from goons with guns to detailed and often tragic characters. There would be two theatrical movies - Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero.
The BTAS team went on to do Superman: The Animiated Series. It kept much of the Art Deco feel, but lost the dark color schemes - this series was not about obsession, but doing good for its own sake. The two shows would often be shown back to back as "The Batman/Superman Adventures," and they would occasionally cross over; my favorite crossover was where Superman had to step into Batman's shoes, using his talents as a journalist to step into the role of the World's Greatest Detective. Over ten years later, it's still on the air in syndication.
The next show they worked on was Batman Beyond. Originally created to sell toys, the DCAU team were given a fairly free hand to tell the story. In this, a future Batman is too old to fight crime with his old effectiveness and has been ousted out of his former position of power through corporate maneuvers; a new Batman, Terry McGuiness, is "hired" to take his place. Although the overarching theme was hope, there was thick strain of conspiracy and corporacracy throughout. There was a spinoff show, The Zeta Project, that I never got to see.
Batman Beyond also got a movie, which was prevented from a theatrical release at the last minute. If you can find a copy, you owe it to yourself to watch Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Unfortunately, this movie about the nature of murder and sanity was released right after the Columbine shootings, and some key scenes were quickly re-drawn. You want to see the uncensored version, if you can - let's just say that it turns from a well-made movie to a well-made and disturbing movie. It's too good to spoil.
The next series was an animated version of a formerly-obscure Malibu comic, Static Shock. It was the first DCAU universe show which was centered on a child, who (along with several others) gained their powers through an industrial accident. The themes was child-oriented, based on what a kid can do in a world run by adults, but hit several deeper themes - including what is probably the first (and last) time I have seen a title character pray, in children's animation or in superhero shows in general. Also, this show had an easier time getting cameos than any others
Unfortunately, it was also the first show in which the executives thought they could make a better show, and their heavy hand is felt (especially in later episodes) making the series more "wholesome" and "exciting" by adding new heroes, making consequences more palatable to the soccer-mom crowd, and changing Static's powers from a fairly restricted, defined set to a Magneto-style omnipower. Then again, maybe a little meddling wasn't so bad; considering that the show was child-oriented, many of the crimes' victims would be children, and combined with the DCAU's love of humanizing its villains, the series in general had just begun to take a turn towards DCAU: Special Victims Unit.
The show's theme undersells it; if you can put up with Lil' Romeo's rapping for 30 seconds, you'll find a well-done show behind it.
And finally, the culmination of their work, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. This is where the DCAU firmly set itself as DC Comics' response to Ultimate Marvel, with DCAU versions of several characters. Plot threads from all the previous works were tied in to the ongoing story, and the conflicting themes from the previous works (hope, altruism, obsession) actually form a major part of the story, ultimately asking: is just being good enough? The resulting story is an epic that deserves to stand with the best works DC have ever done, like Kingdom Come and Red Son.
(I would have also included my favorite scene from the entire DCAU - the moment the fradulent superhero Booster Gold finally decides to man up and live up to the charade he's been leading... but, alas, I had no luck finding it. Let's just say my next DC Universe character was very strongly influenced by Booster Gold after that episode.)
The coolest best thing I have ever done in my life is being a father
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Crap. I totally forgot to add BTAS. Awesome cartoon if only for the reason that they turned Mr. Freeze into an actual person, and not just some loony with a ray gun.
There are so many great scenes from JLU. The Booster Gold episode was awesome - funny, dramatic, with a cool climax. How often do you really get decent drama in American childrens' cartoons, at least on television? (Of course, from what Bruce Timm has said, they were really writing the show for adults, and they just figured kids would watch it anyway. They had to tone things down a lot, but it's surprising how much they got away with.)
One of my favorite scenes was the one where Flash stands alone against the Luthor/Brainiac hybrid:
The animation for these was outstanding. The writing was pretty ambitious for an American kid's cartoon as well. The series in Justice League Unlimited where the government and Lex Luthor were working against the Justice League was really quite good. It kind of set the stage for Marvel's Civil War and some of the modern stuff in DC's universe. Quite respectable.
That said, the Static Shock series was pretty mediocre compared to BTAS and the Justice League Stuff.
Heck, the guys behind all these DC series are still at it. Only now they're currently making various DC animated movies on DVD, from Batman: Gotham Knight to Green Lantern: First Flight to Batman Superman: Public Enemies - all great stuff, although I still really miss Justice League Unlimited being on tv.
Frisky Dingo - Killface's troubles begin when his plan to destroy the earth with the Annihilatrix is thwarted by the lack of a proper marketing strategy.
Two seasons only, but its claim to the pantheon is based on the strength of the first season.
Jay Ward's first animated series. Crusader Rabbit and his larger, but dimmer companion Raglin T. Tiger, serialized story, bad puns, narrator, primitive animation, sounds like a formula... a great formula..
Finally this IS a true list of the greatest cartoons with my addition: MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD
Quote:
The Mysterious Cities of Gold (太陽の子エステバン, Taiyō no Ko Esuteban, also called Esteban, a Boy from the Sun), abbreviated MCoG, is an anime series co-produced by DiC Entertainment and Studio Pierrot. The series premiered in Japan on NHK on May 1, 1982 and ran for 39 episodes until its conclusion on September 5, 1983. Set in 1532, the series follows the adventures of a young Spanish boy named Esteban who joins a voyage to the New World in search of the lost Cities of Gold and his father.
It was licensed for release in France by AK Video, which aired the series under the title Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or in 1983. The French version, edited to have different characterization and music, was subsequently redubbed and distributed to many different countries throughout the world. In the United States, it aired under its English title of The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It is licensed for English language home video release in the United Kingdom, Australia, and North America by Fabulous Films.
I don't know if it were integral part of the cartoon, but the french version was always followed by a 2 min documentary showing the real places shown. (Nazca and the like)
I was soo disappointed when I grew up and discovered that solar powered gold falcon didn't exist
Yeah the UK series was also followed by the little documentaries. The first one is kinda shocking really - it talks about human sacrifice and recreates it with a very scantily clad lady about to be killed.
My favorite cartoon as a child. The exhibit in Portugal happened in the early 80's, when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I really, really loved this show and, most of all, it introduced me Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.
THe series with some of the best spinoff merchandising to milk as much money as possible out of kids and parents. M.A.S.K were my favourite toys too and the cartoon was great. Changing vehicles, super-powered helmets, explosions, intruige...And then everyone stands around and laughs at the end of an episode.
No love for oldies here? I absolutely loved the old Road Runner cartoons when I was a little boy (say, 4 to 8 years).
I don't know what it was about it, but I could watch an episode over and over again, and still get good laughs. I even watched an old episode recently (a year or two ago), and still laughed!
For me, comedy is a lot like playing near a ravine. There's a line and you want to get really close without going over. There's only so far you can take a joke, you see, without losing the subtlety and wit. The Simpsons reliably gets close. Futurama plays right near the edge. Family Guy crosses the line repeatedly but sustains only minor bruises. South Park and American Dad can kind of see the line in their rear view as they careen over the edge...
Invader Zim, and Samurai Jack I would argue, are without a doubt original, unique, and amazing.
I don't think it deserves a place on the list, but I want to mention another show that had a positive effect on me: Mission Hill. I watched this mainly during my living at college times, and while the character really had very little in common with me, he had a very... true to life feel, and I could appreciate the world he lived in. Like it should have been a sitcom, but making it a cartoon allowed them to explore some avenues they wouldn't have otherwise (like making Brian Posehn a short thin guy), but they still kept the sitcom feel. It played on real life without being unrealistically idealized or dumbed down.
A favorite episode of mine is the one where the Andy is made assistant manager by his sleazy Mattress-store overlord and suddenly gets consumed by the greed of this easy-money life. Erm, of a mattress-store manager. OK. But the effect his transition has on his friends and his brother were particularly well done, and his ultimate redemption of creativity over money felt good.
Unfortunately, it was not always that greatly written, and episodes ranged in quality, so I don't think it belongs on the list, but I think it is worth mentioning.
Looking for a playtester/editor/translator for your cool new game? Contact us, we're free (but we ask to be mentioned in the acknowledgements, and a copy of the game would be a nice gesture, but not necessary).
Looking for a playtester/editor/translator for your cool new game? Contact us, we're free (but we ask to be mentioned in the acknowledgements, and a copy of the game would be a nice gesture, but not necessary).
is there any way to sort these entries by alphabet?
I loved a lot of these growing up but the saturday morning cartoons don't appeal to the adult in me. I love watching short clips and remembering how much I loved them, but past that, I wouldn't sit down and watch a whole episode, let alone the entire series. I like very story heavy shows, which is why shows geared towards adults, like anime, King of the Hill, Family Guy, etc, are what I watch now.
Caleb, the best 6 month old little brother ever
Exactly!
