Were the 90's the best decade for cartoons ever?

*CyberCubed* · 06-02-2013, 08:41 PM

I was just thinking about how some of the best cartoons of all time aired during the 90's:

- Original TMNT cartoon (hey it still had 7 more seasons from 1990-1996)

- Batman: TAS

- Superman: TAS

- Batman Beyond

- Spiderman: TAS

- X-men: TAS

- The Simpsons

- Gargoyles

- Animaniacs

- Tiny Toon Adventures

- Disney Animated Movies were at their peak

I could go on and on, I love how most of my childhood was actually spent watching QUALITY animation. The 90's were an incredible decade for animation.

*snake* · 06-02-2013, 08:43 PM

I need to watch : Batman : TAS and Spiderman ( TAS). I'll check those out, it'll keep me over until Turtles comes back.

*Cure* · 06-02-2013, 08:44 PM

No. Every era has their peaks and valleys.

*CyberCubed* · 06-02-2013, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cure

No. Every era has their peaks and valleys.

The 2000's had a number of great shows as well, but that's when the anime craze happened and we got cheap anime dubs on TV instead of more quality American animation.

Still the 2000's gave us Justice League, Teen Titans, TMNT 2k3, Futurama, X-men Evolution, Young Justice, Spectacular Spiderman, Avatar, etc.

*NinjaPug* · 06-02-2013, 08:49 PM

The 90s had some great cartoons. I'd add the original Disney Afternoon Block (DuckTales, Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck) to your list.

Also a big fan of Doug and Ren & Stimpy on Nick.

*Cure* · 06-02-2013, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The 2000's had a number of great shows as well, but that's when the anime craze happened and we got cheap anime dubs on TV instead of more quality American animation.

Like I said, peaks and valleys. Think there aren't any sh*tty 90's cartoons?

*CyberCubed* · 06-02-2013, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cure

Like I said, peaks and valleys. Think there aren't any sh*tty 90's cartoons?

Of course there were, its just that there were so many stand out cartoons that it didn't matter. The 90's is where animation could actually be taken as a serious medium for the first time, outside the classic WB Bugs Bunny/Tom and Jerry/Popeye shorts and Flintstones/Jetsons, etc.

It opened peoples eyes that cartoons could be enjoyed by adults and not just kids.

*MsMarvelDuckie* · 06-02-2013, 09:04 PM

Can't think of any off-hand. Maybe Bevis and Butthead (hate me if you will, but I can't STAND them!) or Ren and Stimpy IMO. For more great cartoons though, the 90's also had Reboot, Transformers Beast Wars, Pinky and the Brain, and Aeon Flux(on MTV back in the day), and still had classics like Bugs Bunny & co, and reruns of some of the better 80's toons.

Peanut · 06-02-2013, 09:46 PM

The 90's Marvel stuff is f*cking atrocious. Doesn't hold up well at all to someone without the blinders on. Don't use those as a basis for anything.

I'd personally go with the 00's for the Adult Swim line-up alone, but there's so much more that I love from that era. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, Samurai Jack, Digimon Tamers, PRIME SpongeBob, AVATAR, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Genndy Clone Wars, Samurai Champloo, Brave and the Bold, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Spectacular Spider-Man, and X-Men Evolution off the top of my head.

The best part about the majority of the 00's stuff? It holds up! There's so much 80's/90's sh*t that I absolutely love and have a soft spot for that are straight up unwatchable trash.

And if anything, the new decade has begun with some straight club bangers with sh*t like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Legend of Korra, The Looney Tunes show and the new TMNT that'll give the 90's a run, even if I think they've already lost to the new millennium.

*BabyTurtles* · 06-02-2013, 11:04 PM

90's had some good cartoons

but it only got better from there XD

I love recent cartoons just as much as I loved the 90's cartoons (maybe even more)

STORMSHADOW__210 · 06-02-2013, 11:12 PM

I love the 90s but i think the 80s OWNED the 90s..thunder cats,heman,real ghostbusters,ducktales,smurfs,gi joe,g1 tfs,tmnt,...i could do this all day.

LeoNerdo · 06-02-2013, 11:23 PM

I know that I'm biased because I was a 90s kid who watched everything that was on, whereas I don't watch a lot of TV let alone current cartoons these days. There were a ton of great shows I love from the time being produced by WB, Disney, Nick, CN, etc. At the same time I can go back and watch some of the shows now as an adult that I liked, acknowledge that it's pretty crappy, and still enjoy it.

*Powder* · 06-02-2013, 11:39 PM

Best is pretty subjective, but I'd say it's no doubt my favorite. There are goodies across many decades, though. The old school Cartoon Network & Nick toons are my preferred series' but there's been some equally good stuff since.

*Wildcat* · 06-02-2013, 11:53 PM

I think everyone thinks that their era of TV/Movies was the best.

I was born in '84. Only cartoons I remember watching were TMNT, Real Ghostbusters and Woody Woodpecker. Obviously the 90s was the dominant era of my childhood.

I do think cartoons were better but sometimes I think its just because Ive already seen all the same concepts and ideas.

However alot of stuff seems really cliche and is just played up because kids will think its "cool". When really its as typical and predictable as ever....*cough-Transformers Prime-cough*. Some are just stupid for the sake of cheap laughs.

Then there are cartoons that actually make extra effort to be more creative like NickTMNT, MLP, Gravity Falls. Phineas and Ferb too but that became painfully cliche. Its like they ran out of material.

One thing I always remember when comparing...how many current cartoons are based on pre-existing franchises as opposed to original material?...there's your answer.

*ZariusTwo* · 06-03-2013, 04:24 AM

Each decade somewhat does things better than the previous one. Despite the commercalist nature of the shows, stuff from the 80s were better than output from the 70s, 90s were leuges better than the 80s, and 00s, as Peanut says, eclispes the 90s in terms of quality output, and now in our current decade we're getting stuff that is even better than that.

Of course, as with the 80s, the 90s are now coming under a period of reevaluation, and we're starting to notice all the terrible things about that decade from fashion to music to cartoon quality. For example, a lot of early season one/two Simpsons is attrotious to rewatch and feels more out of touch than the current crop of episodes, and Batman:TAS, as good as it is, does have some stinkers in it, mostly from the last season when they watered it down slightly. Superman:TAS is great, but does have a load of bad eggs in it as well, of course, the DCAU is "untouchable" on the internet and blasting it is like kneeing Abe Linchon in the balls

Of course shows from the 00s are going to hold up better than others...right now. It's not even been two decades for any of them so we'll see just how far they "age". I think a lot of shows from the 80s and 90s stand up because I view them as products of their time and in that context, they are fine. People rebel against things they cherish because of our predictable levels of pessimisum.

**Jester** · 06-03-2013, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cure

No. Every era has their peaks and valleys.

This. For ever great show of an era, there are dozens that time forgot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The 2000's had a number of great shows as well, but that's when the anime craze happened and we got cheap anime dubs on TV instead of more quality American animation.

You do realize that "quality American animation" hasn't happened in America in decades?

*Guitar_Raph* · 06-03-2013, 04:47 AM

My favorites in the 90's; Captain Planet, NKOTB, Doug, Yo Yogi, Reboot, Schookems & Meat Funny Cartoon Show.

It was ashamed that in 1992, NBC threw in the towel & had Saturday Today (they had plans to start that in 1982, but the Smurfs threw a monkey wrench in their proposal) plus TNBC.

1993 had the Power Ranger boom, that live action shows cropped up.

*Plasticplayhouse* · 06-03-2013, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peanut

The 90's Marvel stuff is f*cking atrocious. Doesn't hold up well at all to someone without the blinders on. Don't use those as a basis for anything.

I'd personally go with the 00's for the Adult Swim line-up alone, but there's so much more that I love from that era. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, Samurai Jack, Digimon Tamers, PRIME SpongeBob, AVATAR, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Genndy Clone Wars, Samurai Champloo, Brave and the Bold, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Spectacular Spider-Man, and X-Men Evolution off the top of my head.

The best part about the majority of the 00's stuff? It holds up! There's so much 80's/90's sh*t that I absolutely love and have a soft spot for that are straight up unwatchable trash.

And if anything, the new decade has begun with some straight club bangers with sh*t like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Legend of Korra, The Looney Tunes show and the new TMNT that'll give the 90's a run, even if I think they've already lost to the new millennium.

dude, Adventure Time and the Regular Show are already earning major points for this era. i love those shows! TMNT is very good too. I also LOVE Legend of Korra and the Last Airbender. Hell, I'd rank those two shows alone as two of the best all time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cure

No. Every era has their peaks and valleys.

90's was good, but my personal favorite was the 80's:
Transformers
GI Joe
Smurfs
He-Man
ThunderCats
M.A.S.K.
Spiderman and his amazing friends
Fraggle Rock
the Real Ghost Busters
the Simpsons
Heathcliff
Garfield and Friends
Dennis the Menace
Dungeons and Dragons
Fat Albert
Star Blazers
Disney's Adventures of the Gummybears
Voltron
Snorks
the Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
BraveStarr
Inspector Gadget
Duck Tales
Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers
Pac Man
Super Mario Bros. show
Legend of Zelda
Shirt Tales
Wuzzles
Getalong Gang
TMNT i believe came out in 87 or 88, so even though its primarily a 90's show, i'll include it

and some others that i loved to watch "in the closet"

Jem
Rainbow Bright
Care Bares
Beverly Hills Teens

*pannoni1* · 06-03-2013, 05:56 AM

The '90s was probably the most diversified decade for animation. The Warner Bros. Silver Age took place and arguably having the best product from that studio since the '50s. To me what sets the '90s apart more than any other decades is that it began the trend of CGI animation, with Toy Story of course ensuring that it was here to day. The term "cartoon" seems to be used less however when regarding 3D animation, and tends to identify with being hand-drawn. That's another reason why the '90s should be enjoyed since it was the last time that cel painting was popular. In between, you also had the Disney movies mix cel painting with some CG effects.

Finally, programming in the '90s was the best. You had still had the syndicated morning shows like you did in the '80s, afternoon syndicated blocks (in the early part of the '90s this is how I watched TMNT's reruns of the first three seasons and part of S4), The Disney Afternoon, and the rise of cable animation (Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, Disney) that continues to this day. Saturday Morning cartoons, especially early on still had some relevance. PBS had some E/I friendly shows before it became mainstream.

Now for those saying that the 00's hold up is because its a recent decade in which technology, slang, and plot trends would still make it relevant. I didn't watch much cartoons in the 00's since I viewed them as for kids as I went through high school, college, and my early years at work. Its something I'll have to look back (besides 4kids TMNT) to see which shows are the best. But I felt that the writing in the '90s was better, which was the transition from episodic cartoons to more story-based series.

Ironically NBC does air a short Saturday morning block geared towards preschoolers, and Saturday Today has shrunk in many areas from two hours back to one hour.

*CyberCubed* · 06-03-2013, 01:57 PM

What good 2000 shows were there if you exclude anime? I remember the 2000's being considered the "recession" after the 90's renassaince.

We got some gems like Justice League, Teen Titans, TMNT 2k3, Futurama, Avengers, Spectacular Spiderman, etc. What else?

I remember KidsWB going to hell around this time and the 4kids block was filled with anime hack dubs.

06-02-2013, 08:41 PM	#1
CyberCubed Overlord Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 43,701	Were the 90's the best decade for cartoons ever? I was just thinking about how some of the best cartoons of all time aired during the 90's: - Original TMNT cartoon (hey it still had 7 more seasons from 1990-1996) - Batman: TAS - Superman: TAS - Batman Beyond - Spiderman: TAS - X-men: TAS - The Simpsons - Gargoyles - Animaniacs - Tiny Toon Adventures - Disney Animated Movies were at their peak I could go on and on, I love how most of my childhood was actually spent watching QUALITY animation. The 90's were an incredible decade for animation.

06-02-2013, 08:44 PM	#3
Cure Y'all need Jesus Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: New Jersey Posts: 8,938	No. Every era has their peaks and valleys. __________________

06-02-2013, 09:04 PM	#8
MsMarvelDuckie I Married a Duck! Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: The bowels of Hell, Texas(otherwise known as Decatur) Posts: 8,773	Can't think of any off-hand. Maybe Bevis and Butthead (hate me if you will, but I can't STAND them!) or Ren and Stimpy IMO. For more great cartoons though, the 90's also had Reboot, Transformers Beast Wars, Pinky and the Brain, and Aeon Flux(on MTV back in the day), and still had classics like Bugs Bunny & co, and reruns of some of the better 80's toons. __________________ "You IDIOTS! You've captured their STUNT doubles!" -from "Spaceballs" "Where Science ends, magic begins." -Spiral, Uncanny X-Men #491 My various stories and fan-fics are now here- https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4770494/#end

06-02-2013, 11:04 PM	#10
BabyTurtles Foot Elite Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 4,177	90's had some good cartoons but it only got better from there XD I love recent cartoons just as much as I loved the 90's cartoons (maybe even more) __________________

06-02-2013, 11:12 PM	#11
STORMSHADOW__210 Hench Mutant Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 351	I love the 90s but i think the 80s OWNED the 90s..thunder cats,heman,real ghostbusters,ducktales,smurfs,gi joe,g1 tfs,tmnt,...i could do this all day. Last edited by STORMSHADOW__210; 06-02-2013 at 11:53 PM.

06-02-2013, 08:43 PM	#2
snake Disgusting Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Outer Heaven Posts: 12,231	I need to watch : Batman : TAS and Spiderman ( TAS). I'll check those out, it'll keep me over until Turtles comes back.

06-02-2013, 08:49 PM	#5
NinjaPug Foot Elite Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 4,390	The 90s had some great cartoons. I'd add the original Disney Afternoon Block (DuckTales, Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck) to your list. Also a big fan of Doug and Ren & Stimpy on Nick.

06-02-2013, 09:46 PM	#9
Peanut Second Gear Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: The New World Posts: 15,422	The 90's Marvel stuff is fcking atrocious. Doesn't hold up well at all to someone without the blinders on. Don't use those as a basis for anything. I'd personally go with the 00's for the Adult Swim line-up alone, but there's so much more that I love from that era. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, Samurai Jack, Digimon Tamers, PRIME* SpongeBob, AVATAR, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Genndy Clone Wars, Samurai Champloo, Brave and the Bold, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Spectacular Spider-Man, and X-Men Evolution off the top of my head. The best part about the majority of the 00's stuff? It holds up! There's so much 80's/90's sht that I absolutely love and have a soft spot for that are straight up unwatchable trash. And if anything, the new decade has begun with some straight club bangers with sht like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Legend of Korra, The Looney Tunes show and the new TMNT that'll give the 90's a run, even if I think they've already lost to the new millennium.

06-02-2013, 11:23 PM	#12
LeoNerdo Stone Warrior Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 872	I know that I'm biased because I was a 90s kid who watched everything that was on, whereas I don't watch a lot of TV let alone current cartoons these days. There were a ton of great shows I love from the time being produced by WB, Disney, Nick, CN, etc. At the same time I can go back and watch some of the shows now as an adult that I liked, acknowledge that it's pretty crappy, and still enjoy it.

06-02-2013, 11:39 PM	#13
Powder 40 Years of TMNT Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Shell-Ri-La Posts: 26,945	Best is pretty subjective, but I'd say it's no doubt my favorite. There are goodies across many decades, though. The old school Cartoon Network & Nick toons are my preferred series' but there's been some equally good stuff since.

06-02-2013, 11:53 PM	#14
Wildcat Foot Elite Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: AZ Posts: 3,502	I think everyone thinks that their era of TV/Movies was the best. I was born in '84. Only cartoons I remember watching were TMNT, Real Ghostbusters and Woody Woodpecker. Obviously the 90s was the dominant era of my childhood. I do think cartoons were better but sometimes I think its just because Ive already seen all the same concepts and ideas. However alot of stuff seems really cliche and is just played up because kids will think its "cool". When really its as typical and predictable as ever....cough-Transformers Prime-cough. Some are just stupid for the sake of cheap laughs. Then there are cartoons that actually make extra effort to be more creative like NickTMNT, MLP, Gravity Falls. Phineas and Ferb too but that became painfully cliche. Its like they ran out of material. One thing I always remember when comparing...how many current cartoons are based on pre-existing franchises as opposed to original material?...there's your answer. __________________ Nothing can survive the will to stay alive, cause if you try, you can do anything. Last edited by Wildcat; 06-03-2013 at 01:26 AM.

06-03-2013, 04:24 AM	#15
ZariusTwo Overlord Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Britain, DINO THUNDER...POWER UP! Posts: 22,301	Each decade somewhat does things better than the previous one. Despite the commercalist nature of the shows, stuff from the 80s were better than output from the 70s, 90s were leuges better than the 80s, and 00s, as Peanut says, eclispes the 90s in terms of quality output, and now in our current decade we're getting stuff that is even better than that. Of course, as with the 80s, the 90s are now coming under a period of reevaluation, and we're starting to notice all the terrible things about that decade from fashion to music to cartoon quality. For example, a lot of early season one/two Simpsons is attrotious to rewatch and feels more out of touch than the current crop of episodes, and Batman:TAS, as good as it is, does have some stinkers in it, mostly from the last season when they watered it down slightly. Superman:TAS is great, but does have a load of bad eggs in it as well, of course, the DCAU is "untouchable" on the internet and blasting it is like kneeing Abe Linchon in the balls Of course shows from the 00s are going to hold up better than others...right now. It's not even been two decades for any of them so we'll see just how far they "age". I think a lot of shows from the 80s and 90s stand up because I view them as products of their time and in that context, they are fine. People rebel against things they cherish because of our predictable levels of pessimisum. __________________ Spider-Man: The Rescue Spider-Man: The Galloping Cat Spider-Man: Scarlet Mirror Doctor Who: Child of the Daleks

06-03-2013, 04:47 AM	#17
Guitar_Raph Superhero musician Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 2,191	My favorites in the 90's; Captain Planet, NKOTB, Doug, Yo Yogi, Reboot, Schookems & Meat Funny Cartoon Show. It was ashamed that in 1992, NBC threw in the towel & had Saturday Today (they had plans to start that in 1982, but the Smurfs threw a monkey wrench in their proposal) plus TNBC. 1993 had the Power Ranger boom, that live action shows cropped up. __________________ Mikey drums with nunchucks!

06-03-2013, 05:56 AM	#19
pannoni1 Foot Elite Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: USA Posts: 3,447	The '90s was probably the most diversified decade for animation. The Warner Bros. Silver Age took place and arguably having the best product from that studio since the '50s. To me what sets the '90s apart more than any other decades is that it began the trend of CGI animation, with Toy Story of course ensuring that it was here to day. The term "cartoon" seems to be used less however when regarding 3D animation, and tends to identify with being hand-drawn. That's another reason why the '90s should be enjoyed since it was the last time that cel painting was popular. In between, you also had the Disney movies mix cel painting with some CG effects. Finally, programming in the '90s was the best. You had still had the syndicated morning shows like you did in the '80s, afternoon syndicated blocks (in the early part of the '90s this is how I watched TMNT's reruns of the first three seasons and part of S4), The Disney Afternoon, and the rise of cable animation (Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, Disney) that continues to this day. Saturday Morning cartoons, especially early on still had some relevance. PBS had some E/I friendly shows before it became mainstream. Now for those saying that the 00's hold up is because its a recent decade in which technology, slang, and plot trends would still make it relevant. I didn't watch much cartoons in the 00's since I viewed them as for kids as I went through high school, college, and my early years at work. Its something I'll have to look back (besides 4kids TMNT) to see which shows are the best. But I felt that the writing in the '90s was better, which was the transition from episodic cartoons to more story-based series. Ironically NBC does air a short Saturday morning block geared towards preschoolers, and Saturday Today has shrunk in many areas from two hours back to one hour. __________________ http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sho...d.php?t=37065- MY WANT LIST TMNT FAN CLUB LINK: http://sot.ag/gCjK/ 30 years of Turtle Power!

06-03-2013, 01:57 PM	#20
CyberCubed Overlord Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 43,701	What good 2000 shows were there if you exclude anime? I remember the 2000's being considered the "recession" after the 90's renassaince. We got some gems like Justice League, Teen Titans, TMNT 2k3, Futurama, Avengers, Spectacular Spiderman, etc. What else? I remember KidsWB going to hell around this time and the 4kids block was filled with anime hack dubs.