Today's Cartoons

[Legato]

Total Drama Island has a lot of really sharp humor though, Ill forgive bad art if the humor and writing are decent

Also been hearing some good things about Adventure Time, the humor isn't insulting and the story's pretty good. Also from the clips I've seen it's pretty imaginative

[Legato]

With a few exceptions here and there (such as Adventure Time, Spectacular Spidey, & Avengers: EMH) I tend to think the 90's era cartoons were better.

Batman: TAS speaks for itself.
Superman: TAS was pretty great as well.
Freakazoid honestly was kind of ahead of its time I thought.
Pinky & The Brain, Ren & Stimpy, Johnny Bravo, and Rocko's Modern Life all had levels of humor that worked for multiple audiences.
The Tick was simply fantastic.

There's definitely stuff from the 90's that feels super dated now (looking at you, X-Men), but the stuff from then felt a bit less mindless than a lot of the stuff I see today.

I do give 90's X-Men this though, it does make you feel that you're watching a fully animated X-Men comic

[RoyalTailor]

Thankfully, unlike the Michael Bay films, they don't get center focus and their annoyances aren't cranked up to eleven.

Ditto! I think that Transformers Prime is actually more entertaining than Bay's movies. I just hope that Bay doesn't get his hands on Sony's in development hell Voltron movie and I also think that Nickelodeon's rebooted Voltron cartoon isn't any good.

[Flyattractor]

Ditto! I think that Transformers Prime is actually more entertaining than Bay's movies. I just hope that Bay doesn't get his hands on Sony's in development hell Voltron movie and I also think that Nickelodeon's rebooted Voltron cartoon isn't any good.

A piece of toast left out on the counter overnite is more fun to watch then Bay's Transformers movies.


And Nick's best toon of all time and way ahead of its time is INVADER ZIM!!

[Tristan_MC]

I've been looking for a thread like this. I'm a huge fan of cartoons. Yes, it's true, many hold up cartoons from their generation as the best. Technology improves with each generation, so critiquing the animation itself is kind of unfair. I can easily critique the 80s Thundercats' animation as opposed to the 2011 version. But I honestly prefer the 80s version.

Looney Tunes is a cartoon made before my era but is shown till this day. It's a great cartoon with great characters. Even some of the young ones in this generation love watching this show. I've seen it myself, which shocked me.

Batman TAS - one of the best characters during my era. The stories were well crafted, it didn't rely on violence, pointless twists, innuendos, or curse words. It was classy storytelling. (Beast Wars is another favorite, but I don't want to ramble on!)

Young Justice - the story is amazing with its mystery angle and choices having consequences. It's one of the best cartoons of this day. (Last Airbender is another favorite)

With that said, each era has terrible cartoons with no redemption value. Some eras might have more than others. I'm not sure this generation is given a fair chance to shine. I had Disney Afternoons, Fox Kids, Toonami, etc.. This generation isn't given enough cartoons, in my opinion.

[Vibranium]

This generation isn't given enough cartoons, in my opinion.

that's because the choices for entertainment are a lot more varied today then they were 15-20 years ago

[shades of eternity]

yeah

A lot of the people that would become animators for cartoons become animators in video games instead.

[Vibranium]

also a lot of cartoon production is handled by many fewer companies, you really don't have syndicated cartoons anymore...its all handled by the company that owns the channel be it Disney, Nick, etc

[SephirothDZX]

I do give 90's X-Men this though, it does make you feel that you're watching a fully animated X-Men comic

Pretty much (outside of a few minor things like Wolverine never using his claws on other people)

[shades of eternity]

and it was the last time we saw both Rogue and Storm as they should be.

she's a redneck asskicker with a touch of doom.

she's an african drama queen with a sarcastic tongue

they fight crime and go shopping afterwards. :D

[Legato]

Pretty much (outside of a few minor things like Wolverine never using his claws on other people)

With it being a kids show I just let that minor bit slide. A shame I never got a 90's Avengers show. The closest I had was when they crossed over with Hulk and Fantastic Four. BTW saw the animated Hulk TV Show. Definitely did not age well

[Vibranium]

With it being a kids show I just let that minor bit slide. A shame I never got a 90's Avengers show. The closest I had was when they crossed over with Hulk and Fantastic Four. BTW saw the animated Hulk TV Show. Definitely did not age well

No it did not

also came across the short lived Karate Kid cartoon....

[Michael P]

There was a '90s Avengers show. It was terrible.

[RoyalTailor]

I've been looking for a thread like this. I'm a huge fan of cartoons. Yes, it's true, many hold up cartoons from their generation as the best. Technology improves with each generation, so critiquing the animation itself is kind of unfair. I can easily critique the 80s Thundercats' animation as opposed to the 2011 version. But I honestly prefer the 80s version.

Looney Tunes is a cartoon made before my era but is shown till this day. It's a great cartoon with great characters. Even some of the young ones in this generation love watching this show. I've seen it myself, which shocked me.

Batman TAS - one of the best characters during my era. The stories were well crafted, it didn't rely on violence, pointless twists, innuendos, or curse words. It was classy storytelling. (Beast Wars is another favorite, but I don't want to ramble on!)

Young Justice - the story is amazing with its mystery angle and choices having consequences. It's one of the best cartoons of this day. (Last Airbender is another favorite)

With that said, each era has terrible cartoons with no redemption value. Some eras might have more than others. I'm not sure this generation is given a fair chance to shine. I had Disney Afternoons, Fox Kids, Toonami, etc.. This generation isn't given enough cartoons, in my opinion.

I definitely agree with you on most of your points. I think that Young Justice is perhaps the best animated TV series on Cartoon Network since Justice League Unlimited and Samurai Jack began airing. Samurai Jack is one of the greatest animated programs that I ever saw and I look forward to Genndy Tartakosky breathing new life into it. I also miss X-Men Evolution and Wolverine And The X-Men.

I wish that they'd reboot The Jetsons and The Flintstones. However, I don't understand how you'd like the original ThunderCats over the new reboot because the reboot was far more mature in that it examined serious issues and themes and it felt more like Lord of the Rings in tonality compared to the campy original which was a good cartoon in it's own right but just isn't as serious as it could have been. Another good cartoon from the old days is "Pirates of Dark Water" and I'd love to see it rebooted.

I think that in today's society animation hasn't really weakened but it's more diverse. It's not that our generation isn't given enough cartoons because in actuality animation is everywhere. We've got video games, anime (Bleach, Naruto), animated dramas, animated movies and of course comics. Animation dominates the movie house now with Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks Animation and FOX's Blue Sky (Ice Age) making big hits. We just had Wreck It Ralph and Rise of the Guardians both of which were really awesome. So we can't say that this generation is given less animation than previous generations.

[Tristan_MC]

I definitely agree with you on most of your points. I think that Young Justice is perhaps the best animated TV series on Cartoon Network since Justice League Unlimited and Samurai Jack began airing. Samurai Jack is one of the greatest animated programs that I ever saw and I look forward to Genndy Tartakosky breathing new life into it. I also miss X-Men Evolution and Wolverine And The X-Men.

I wish that they'd reboot The Jetsons and The Flintstones. However, I don't understand how you'd like the original ThunderCats over the new reboot because the reboot was far more mature in that it examined serious issues and themes and it felt more like Lord of the Rings in tonality compared to the campy original which was a good cartoon in it's own right but just isn't as serious as it could have been. Another good cartoon from the old days is "Pirates of Dark Water" and I'd love to see it rebooted.

I think that in today's society animation hasn't really weakened but it's more diverse. It's not that our generation isn't given enough cartoons because in actuality animation is everywhere. We've got video games, anime (Bleach, Naruto), animated dramas, animated movies and of course comics. Animation dominates the movie house now with Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks Animation and FOX's Blue Sky (Ice Age) making big hits. We just had Wreck It Ralph and Rise of the Guardians both of which were really awesome. So we can't say that this generation is given less animation than previous generations.

The 2011 ThunderCats definitely was more mature, but I felt it wasn't properly executed. I got bored. Don't get me wrong, there were some good episodes, like the flower people with the shortened life episode. When the show first premiered, I saw great potential and was genuinely excited for the rest of the season.

I remember Pirates of Dark Water! LOL!

So I retract my previous statement. Animation indeed is everywhere. I must exclude video games from your list if we're talking about cartoons, though.

However, I'm curious about debating the quality of said cartoons. Also, when we say Today's cartoons, what is considered 'today?' Your two examples, Bleach and Naruto, both aired/was made before 2005. Just because they're showing now I can't really consider it "today's cartoons" the same way I can't consider an episode of Saved By the Bell in syndication an example of "Today's Live Action Teen Show." For me, I consider today's cartoons created in a particular decade.