Each week I create a 2-2.5 hour block of programming for the family to watch together over a nice breakfast. We call it Sunday Brunch Cartoons, and we’re nearly two years into it without missing a day. I’m releasing a full list of our watch queue, with the hopes that you can think of something really good (or memorably bad) that we should include.
No 70s Hanna-Barbera.
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Plaintext: Title Batman: Caped Crusader Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years Cybersix Gargoyles Infinity Train Mythbusters Hey Arnold! Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amphibia Animaniacs Scooby Doo; Mystery Inc. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends Gumby Gurren Lagann Mighty Max (Remastered) My Adventures With Superman Sailor Moon Original ReBoot Recess Crash Course Video Games She-Ra Space Patrol Luluco The Owl House Tron: Uprising Star vs the Forces of Evil Rocky & Bullwinkle Sym-Bionic Titan Freakazoid! Teen Titans Bump In The night Looney Tunes Golden Collection Nate Is Late / Oskar et Malika The Big O Unicorn Warriors Eternal Mega Man Megas XLR Motorcity Fraggle Rock Men in Black: The Animated Series Histeria! The Tick Swat Kats Adventure Time: Fiona & Cake Kim Possible Dexter’s Laboratory Star Trek Mobile Fighter G Gundam The Adventures of Salmon Max Captain N: The Game Master Darkwing Duck Danny Phantom Wakfu Kirby: Right Back At Ya Regular Show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Inspector Gadget The Legend of Zelda Underdog (1964) Kid Cosmic Looney Tunes Cartoons Samurai Jack Adventure Time The Loud House King Arthur and the Knights of Justice The California Raisin Show Visionaries Knights of the Magical Lights He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Transformers: Prime Yuu Yuu Hakusho Invader Zim Ducktales Avatar: The Legend of Korra Codename: Kids Next Door Pingu Bill Nye TSG Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Reading Rainbow Wishbone Red Wall Ramen Akaneko Space Ghost Powerpuff Girls Transformers War For Cybertron Dungeons and Dragons Ren & Stimpy Rugrats Super Mario World Fairly OddParents Hilda Moomin Batman: The Animated Series Earthworm Jim Amazing World of Gumball Beakman’s World Rocko’s Modern Life The Real Ghostbusters The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Bravest Warriors Beetlejuice Ruri Rocks Transformers: Beast Wars Courage the Cowardly Dog Rentaghost The Busy World of Richard Scarry Over the Garden Wall Button Moon Cow & Chicken Bocchi the Rock Adventure Time: Distant Lands The Angry Beavers The Trap Door Pinky and The Brain Clone Wars (2003) Avatar: The Last Airbender Gravity Falls A Series of Unfortunate Events Steven Universe Trigun Batman Beyond Bluey Ed, Edd, & Eddy
EDIT: Thanks, Lemmy!!! You’ve all delivered so many really exciting suggestions. There’s enough on my ‘shopping list’ now to keep us going, well, basically forever - but what’s another 10Tb of cartoons among friends?
Here’s the full list of suggestions I’ve collected. In alphabetic order, this time. Thanks again!
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Hey, not an old cartoon but I think Amphibia worth watching. It’s a Disney channel cartooon… I’ve watched recently with my kid.
Edit: never mind. Just found it on the list.
Amphibia is really high on my list of faves, it’s got a lot of creativity and heart. We’re probably going to finish it soon, We’ve been nibbling at it for a little over a year, making it last!
Eek! The Cat.
Don’t remember much about the episodes but I did used to watch it “religiously” as a kid.
Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers Duck Tales
And since it seems like you’re not shying away from shows with some fucked up things kids probably shouldn’t have watched but are kinda formative anyways
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
Thanks! The newer DuckTales is in this list, we finished that earlier this year. The older stuff I haven’t gotten to yet. I definitely need to get Chip & Dale, haven’t seen that stuff in centuries, feels like.
We’re fairly permissive with scary/intense stuff, our true north isn’t PEGI or ESRB so much as Don Bluth’s admonition that kids can handle anything, as long as there’s a happy ending. He found Robot Dreams (2023) way more traumatic than Ghostbusters (1984), and that’s just a story about growing apart and making new friends. He’s very self aware, and will tell us when something’s too much to handle.
I should get Macross, yeah. I never saw that one actually. Thanks!
I don’t think of ren and stimpy or space ghost as happy ending shows.
You’ve got me there. I rarely use either, for that reason. R&S is actually out of rotation because the wife doesn’t approve, just yet. Fair is fair, our kid is weird enough as it is.
I’m not really sure about space ghost. The zapping of Zorak that happens pretty frequently is your typical cartoon violence comparable to what goes on in bugs bunny. I’d just want to give it a review before putting it in front of kids.
Ren and stumpy on the other hand can be kind of dark and brutal, especially the later episodes. I’d have similar (or stronger) reservations about aqua teen hunger force, or venture brothers.
ATHF and Venture Bros are out of the question until he’s at least 15. Even then a lot of the humour won’t click until later. Like, there’s an actual pedophile in VB. Give me a little credit.
The action in Space Ghost is mild for his tastes. Wacky violence doesn’t faze him, what really gets to him is bittersweet endings where there’s a happy ending, but not quite the one he expected.
Then you have to skip that one Futurama episode with the dog.
The Critic Galaxy Rangers The adventures of teddy ruxpin Defenders of the earth Centurions Jem Robotech The Mysterious cities of gold
Excited to be getting so many that I haven’t seen yet either, thank you!
Apple and Onion
It’s hilarious for adults and kids.
Oh shiiiiii Ayoade in a kids cartoon?! I’m so there.
The Misadventures of Flapjack. I’d say it has the spirit of Ren and Stimpy.
I think the following would make great additions
Talespin
Garfield and Friends(seem to remember watching this one religiously as a kid, but more so for the “and friends” part. )
COPS was a weird one
Gotta have the Thundercats!
M.A.S.K
Gotta have X-Men just for the theme song at least lol
I’m def adding Thundercats, Talespin, and X-Men, but COPS is a hard no lmao. I didn’t even know that existed though, that’s hilarious. Is M.A.S.K. good or hilariously bad?
I was gonna mention M.A.S.K. There was also a straight to video series for Ring Raiders. Both of them were really to sell toys, but so was Transformers and G.I. Joe (I think the toys came first in all these cases). Full caveat, I haven’t watched any of these since the 80s, but I do still have a MASK toy my son is now playing with.
Mobile Police Patlabor is similar to Gundam and maybe not a kids cartoon, but does feature in a KMFDM video from the late 90s for Juke Joint Jezebel.
I agree with you on COPS was just one of the cartoons in my brain as I was thinking of things I watched a bit of as a kid.
Mask was like a mix of GI Joe and Transformers I think, transforming vehicles but with a focus on the driver as well. I haven’t watched it in ages, I’ll have to see if I can source it.
Gobots could be an interesting one, knockoff transformers but only had like a season, I recall liking the villainous motorcycle as a kid.
Another one I’m going to have to look up is centurions, I enjoyed them when I was 4, but they as a show didn’t last long and I have almost forgotten everything about it.
I’ll look into Gobots and Centurions! I should find some Medabots too, while I’m at it.
Man I used to love those Centurions toys. Such a great concept to have modular pieces on the figures
Yep was pretty neat, like a cross between GI Joe and Lego. Lots of fun
You’ve got a lot of good recommendations already. But it seems like you enjoy some weird stuff so I’ll recommend Family Dog, and Pirates of Dark Water. Two Stupid Dogs, and Cow n Chicken might work for you too.
I found Freakazoid to be hilarious when I was in my teens, even though a lot of the jokes felt like they were written for my parents. It’s a fairly short series too, at least compared to a lot of the other kids shows.
I think The Tick was similar, if I recall correctly. I still loved it as a kid.
It wasn’t a commercial success because all the adverts were targeted at too young an audience. It should have been presented for what it is, which is goofy and random enough for kids and genuinely twisted enough for grownups.
Freakazoid and The Tick have always been two of my favorite classics
I was worried they wouldn’t stand up, but if anything they’re even better now that I’m old enough to really delight in how strange it is.
Some that come to mind that I don’t see on your list:
- The Cramp Twins
- The Raccoons
- Watch My Chops!
- The Critic
- Sharky & George
- Biker Mice from Mars
- Insektors
- The Wild Thornberries
- Jackie Chan Adventures
Also, out of interest, why no 70s Hanna-Barbera?
That’s a stunning list, thank you!
My own personal prejudice I guess, I feel like the laziness of the animation and writing of that era set back the whole medium, made it “just trash for kids” in a lot of people’s minds.
I’d argue that the early seasons of Scooby Doo, before they started adding celebrities and making the ghosts real, are the best part of 70s Hannah Barbera. The overall lesson of supernatural stuff not being real is a good thing to teach kids.
That’s true, though I feel like Mystery Inc. covers that ground with stronger animation fundamentals. I’ll still throw some original SD S01 at him someday, it’s earned that much.
Ozzy & Drix. Although I must admit the last time I watched that was when it was airing on Cartoon Network. But I remembered loving it as a kid.
Oh shit! I guess that means I’ll have to show him Osmosis Jones too. Haha, I wonder if it holds up.
These are all 90s cartoons, so if you can find them:
- Batman: The Animated Series (the one with Mark Hamill as the Joker)
- Animaniacs
- Tiny Toon Adventures
- Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers
Pinky and the BrainSaw you have that one already
I should get original Animaniacs, the new stuff is alright but I have no excuse not to have the classics. We have Batman TAS, but I’d totally overlooked the others. Thanks!!
If you’re okay with subtitles (As I don’t think it has a dub.), Ranking of Kings is fantastic, recent, and more or less age appropriate. Ling Cage and Hero Inside also fall into that realm (Hero Inside has a dub though.) The original Dragonball (Which is about Goku as a kid doing adventure stuff. Dragonball Z is where he grew up and screamed a lot with gold hair.) and Ultimate Muscle both have english dubs that are solid and definitely were bona fide Saturday morning cartoons. G.I. Joe, Pirates of Dark Water, Street Sharks, and Double Dragon can also fill out a list on the more classic side.
One thing I’m super proud of is his ability to handle subbed content. We saw a three-hour stage performance of Spirited Away in Japanese, and he read through the whole thing no problem. I’ll definitely look into these, and I do think he’s about ready for original Dragonball!
If you want to be a smidge pretentious, before Dragonball you can find a Journey to the West cartoon (I don’t know any offhand but zero doubt they exist, its one of the most popular east asian stories of all time.) and watch that, as Goku was modeled after Sun Wukong from those stories.
Of course there is one, from 1999 apparently! I’ll get it for sure.
We took him to see a kids stage play of Journey to the West at the Fringe, how’s that for pretentious? Haha
Total Drama Island and/or The Ridonculous Race (same universe). They’re camp (hehe) but pretty good overall
Holy smokes. I missed the boat on TDI’s original run, thanks for the suggestions!
Aah! Really Monsters!
Angry Beavers
Rocko’s Modern Life
We’ve got Rocko and Beavers in the mix, but not A!RM. That’s going on the list!
Ah, I must have missed those. Yeah, Real Monsters was a fun one. I really liked that one as a kid. Tried to revisit recently with my kid, and it didn’t hit the same. Then again, neither does Rocko or Ren and Stimpy. Guess I have to chalk it up to getting old or maturing or something. I still classify them as “good” shows, rating them through the lens of youth. Still live Rugrats. My wife and I watched the whole series together before we even had a kid.
I actually like Rocko more than I did as a kid, but the trouble is that my kid doesn’t really care for it. A lot of the jokes are slyly adult. Rugrats is a classic though!
This clip lives rent free in my head.
So does Mr. Bighead’s song about hating recycling.
You can’t fight city hall. You can’t fight corporate America.
They always big and you are small, you can’t fight city hall!
