Good animated TV

Trying to inspire Andy with some good recommendations for great animated TV, which I get to see a lot of these days as my kid is nuts for He Man and Star Wars Rebels,


But this year I've watched and enjoyed


Archer
Tron Uprising
Monkey Dust


Monkey Dust was not new to me but I think Andy would love it as would you all, its a dark satirical UK comedy series that didnt last long but featured a lot of repeating character sketches, including the Paedofinder General, and Lying Clive who would come home late to his wife every episode and recount a long and elaborate story of where hed been only for his wife to say no Clive, thats the plot of the hit movie .... X, what have you really beendoing. "I've been in a hotel room getting fisted by a group of german businessmen".


Archer is just brilliant, there was the slightly less funny Vice season but they got it back this time around and I'm really looking forward to Season 7. I fucking love that show!

And Tron Uprising was fantastic, such a shame it didnt continue, I mean I have a soft spot for Tron Legacy and the great buddhist/philosophical undertones (love the bit where Flynn reaches down and touches his hands to the ground), but Tron Uprising was 20 odd episodes, and really great. I enjoyed it much more than Death Note which was the anime series I got through this year (oh, and the one on Netflix with those weird big aliens and ace pilots on that floating colony ship). It annoys me that I had to download Tron Uprising, I would have loved to buy an official Blu Ray but they didnt seem to even made one.

At the recommendation of a friend last year, I got into Bojack Horseman. The first four or five episodes have some pretty standard "grown-up cartoon" stuff, with some off-putting characters. But once I got into it I burned through it really quickly. It has the potential to seem like insider baseball, as it's loaded with jokes about Hollywood. But the characters really pull it through. It also has this streak of aggressive absurdity, since it's populated with anthropomorphic animals who live alongside humans. The funny thing is that they still act like animals, like bird people who fly to work holding briefcases and wearing suits, and Mr. Peanutbutter, the dog-man who has the short attention span you'd expect, and a big mistrust of the mailman. Really great show.

I also have watched as much Steven Universe as Hulu Plus will let me, which isn't nearly enough. It's probably one of the warmest, most accepting cartoons ever made. Not to be missed.

I did enjoy Bojack Horseman and Archer. I enjoy a lot of modern cartoons but in all honesty my favorite cartoon stuff is all from the Golden Age. Anything the Fleischer's did is good for me, especially the early Popeye's as well as a couple of the features. But Superman and Betty Boop both have great moments too.

Looney Tunes with Bob Clampet in charge is my favorite of all, but all of the Termite Terrace work is stellar.

Outside of Golden Age stuff I really like what John K did with Ren and Stimpy (including his under appreciated comeback DVD of half hour shows - Naked Beach Frenzy and Stimpy's Pregnant are about as good as it gets) and his earlier work with The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse (Ralph Bakshi was involved too) which is unfortunately under recognized.

Also in the 70's the NFB of Canada did some amazing work - the Log Drivers Waltz, Cat Came Back and many others. Leonard Maltin put out a good best of DVD from them that sold pretty well.

Then there is Rocketship cartoons by Marv Newland (only really famous for his early student work Bambi Meets Godzilla) and they did some incredible stuff. Anijam is usually the first thing people see but most of their cartoons are mind blowing.



I liked Triplets of Bellville and the other one that group did. There's a few other things out there too. Someone here will probably pick a bunch of Anime which isn't my bag but I can recognize as quality when forced to see it.

Most of these newer shows aren't really cartoons to me. I mean, they are technically cartoons but in many cases they don't take advantage of the medium. They just tell stories that could have been told live action and don't do things specific to cartoons. In Popeye when a tea kettle boils it doesn't just whistle, a small part of it turns into lips and whistles like a human would. I tend to prefer cartoons that could only be cartoons. When a story doesn't take advantage of it's chosen medium I can still dig it, but it won't reach the same heights for me as one that does.

I found Rick and Morty to be pretty great. However it seems to be one of those shows that you either think is great or can't stand it.

Here's a Simpsons opening with Rick and Morty. All of the other clips I looked at weren't as funny out of context, so this is a contained clip:



If Rick's burping irritates you (I find it amusing), they pull back on it significantly after the first episode.

I really enjoy Regular Show and Teen Titans Go.

I've been watching some of that Thunderbirds reboot with the kids. Yes it's CGI, but it's well-done and it LOOKS like toys and puppets, the bulldozer seems to be a little toy pushing some dirt in the sandbox, the ships' movement makes it look like they're dangling from strings, etc.

That french dub is awful though, Sunderbirds, Ze Houde, bah!

Nah, not getting it I'm afraid. Kid's stuff usually badly done.

Tried Bojack Horseman, not funny at all.

Watching Clone Wars, can't understand WTF is going on because I haven't watched any prequels. I thought seperatists were good guys? WTF is a padawan? Hence, kinda boring and childish.

Tried Archer, almost made me smile, twice. Not worth the effort to delve any deeper after Season 1 and part of Season 2.

Hated Simpsons. Tried watching some anime something about Sidonia, utter garbage. Tried some more (under pressure) something about Alchemists, also rubbish. I'm thinking I really don't like anime, looks like cartoons for immature teens and paedos.

Tried Batman on Amazon Prime, boring stories, kids stuff.

I'm thinking cartoons (no, I'm not giving it gravitas by saying 'animated shows') are not for me.

It's hard to take you seriously dude. "Kids stuff", "Childish', "immature teens' coming form a guy who has a hulk action figure between two boobs as his avatar. Maybe you should watch Fritz the Cat?

Not that I take any of those as insults mind you. I completely embrace it.

None of them were meant as insults. Just not for me.

Never heard of Fritz the Cat, so if that is meant to upset me in some way, it's way over my head.

The Hulk avatar is a tribute to Lee who was apparently told to remove it from this site. I'm waiting for someone to tell me the same.

I honestly think that the cartoons I've listed all fall in the category of childish, kids stuff, immature teens and especially paedos (for the horrendous anime),

Not meant to upset you, Fritz the Cat was the first X-Rated cartoon and is kind of famous for that, but it's also pretty well animated and has a cool aesthetic. It was supposed to be a joke because if you like boobs... well...

and I am pretty childish. So I like boobs too, or as I like to call them; "milkies".

Wait, which Batman are you watching? If it is the 90's Batman:The Animated Series then you are watching probably the best cartoon series EVER, definitely not "childish".

Try Symbiotic Titan if you can find it anywhere. Geddy's best IMHO.

All I know is its got fucked up opening credits which mixes up a superman series with this one. Amazon comments are all about this.

Last episode I watched, before I gave up, was one about a scientist who invents some gene chemical to turn himself into a bat, hence Manbat. Very tedious, took me several tries to get through it and it's only 20 minutes. Maybe that would help to isolate the season.

ThirstyMan wrote: All I know is its got fucked up opening credits which mixes up a superman series with this one. Amazon comments are all about this.

Last episode I watched, before I gave up, was one about a scientist who invents some gene chemical to turn himself into a bat, hence Manbat. Very tedious, took me several tries to get through it and it's only 20 minutes. Maybe that would help to isolate the season.

That's the first fucking episode.

*slow clap*

Look, I love that series, but there are some real stinkers throughout it, unfortunately some of the right out of the gate. Looking up a "best of" list is the way to go on it.

The Venture Bros

I don't know man, I own Batman the Animated series, love it and think Thirsty shouldn't even bother. It's a great show but it is childish, it is for kids. That first episode is pretty good, I adore man-bat (mostly because of Neal Adams I guess) but you kind of have to embrace the silliness to get it IMO. You have to deal with Bruce Wayne dressing up as Batman every chance he gets, sipping tea in his costume, using a computer that is made up of unlabeled giant white buttons, super villains that are vaguely ridiculous. Then wrap your brain around the fact that no attempt to make this realistic is ever made at all. This isn't Christopher Nolan's Batman (thank the lord) this is silly stuff and I love it.

But I see no point in trying to convince Thirsty of it's quality because a part of what he is saying is right and unless he wants to look at it through his immature eyes, through some kind of embracing of his more childish nature.. it will never work and that's totally fine.