40s/50s. No more black and white bopping characters, before the cheaper limited animations of the 60s. Bugs bunny and Tom and Jerry would stretch, transform and push what the medium could do with huge expressiveness and inventiveness.
Wabbit season
Duck season
Ooh, I was thinking of some more modern stuff, but that’s a really good call-out. You can still see a lot of influences from that era today, not to mention that they’re still enjoyed today.
The newer Mickey Mouse series felt like a modernized take on that era. If you haven’t watched it I would give it a shot. The country-based episodes are all really well done and show how little dialouge is needed to tell interesting and compelling stories.
I’d be interested in seeing similar modern takes on that era, but not Disney and certainly not Mickey.
I was personally surprised myself, as generally Looney Tunes is considered superior to mickey mouse (in regards to older animation). However the country focused ones are worth giving a shot (especially Tokyo, Paris, and the Indian one [can’t remember which city]). If you like those, then you might like the rest.
I grew up on Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, Voltron, He-Man, Duck Tales, Inspector Gadget, The Smurfs, Dungeons & Dragons, and dozens more. They don’t all hold up the same 40 years later, but this was basically the last generation of free, over-the-air Saturday morning cartoons.
Late 90’s-early 00’s. Still had all the old classics, but got Simpsons, South Park, KotH, and Futurama. TV was the only option and so network programming was generally better.
Before my time, it was only Saturday mornings for cartoons.
We still got Lunny toons, Flintstones, and Jetsons regularly back then.
We still got Lunny toons
Now I wanna see some bootleg version of Looney Tunes.
Lenny Toons ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)
Not to be confused with Lenny Tunes ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪
It was also the period of time where Cartoon Network started making new TV shows instead of just airing Hannah Barbera reruns. This led to what was essentially a third golden age for children’s cartoons, and subsequently spawned Adult Swim and Toonami.
We haven’t had anything like that since and due to the downfall of network TV likely never will again.
not one decade, but cross decade.
85-95. that 10 year span included so many memorable shows it’s hard to list them all without missing one.
- Gummi bears
- Dragonball
- Denver the last dinosaur
- street sharks
- gumby adventures
- ronin warriors
- biker mice from mars
- tmnt
- Bernstain bears
- bravestarr
- sonic the hedgehog
- care bears
- garbage pail kids
- smb super show
- back to the future
- bill and teds excellent adventures
- legend of zelda
- tom and jerry kids
- bucky o’hare
- capt N
- tailspin
- beetlejuice
- pirates of dark water
- CBS storybreak
- Garfield and friends
- tiny toon adventures
- bobby’s world
- darkwing duck
- Strawberry shortcake
- my little pony
- chip’n’dale rescue rangers
- thundercats
- captain planet
- jem
- MASK
- ghostbusters
- the Simpsons
- the adventures of SMB 3
- attack of the killer tomatoes
so many more that I just can’t remember or have the time to write down.
My childhood right here
Right now, because we also have all the cartoons from the past to watch.
Terrytoons in the 40’s and Warner Brothers in the 50’s.
The 1920s—see The Adventures of Prince Achmed from 100 years ago.
2010-2020. My kid’s generation. I go back to watch my old cartoons every once in a while and they are … not good (even the animation sucked). The cartoons my kid grew up with were super good, even when watching as an adult. An extra shout out to the new My Little Pony and Phineas and Ferb – my kid loved them and i didnt hate watching them.
Right now.
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake.
New Avatar: Last Airbender animated series in the works.
Knights of Guinevere, a show by Owl House showrunner Dana Terrace and crew, looks like it’s going to be fantastic.
Lower Decks is some of the best Star Trek out there.
We’re getting a Steven Universe spin-off based on Lars in his Space Pirate Captain Harlock era.
And this isn’t even touching on all the great stuff in other markets.
The second-best decade for cartoons was the one right before this one, and the third-best is the one before that, because they’re all building off of each other.I don’t think there’s a whole lot going on right now and I don’t think we’ll have another great decade of cartoons unfortunately.
Adventures Time and the new Avatar show are just continuations of shows spawned in the 2000’s. I can almost guarantee that the new Avatar show will not be good. Steven Universe another existing IP. Lowe Decks is great but has been cancelled.
Even if you counted all of these cartoons as new, fresh, and greats, they pale in comparison to that 98-2010 run with literally dozens of new and iconic shows. Kinda seems like the era of cartoons is coming to a close. With these last vestiges just milking what nostalgia there is left.
You know how I know you’ve never watched Fionna and Cake?
Idk but I feel like anime really peaked between the late 80s and late 00s, both stylistically and content-wise. Even the wackier concepts were done well/with love, but it’s been at least a couple of decades that it all feels undercooked and shows that get massive praise today would’ve been at most Claymore-tier had they come out a couple of decades ago. AOT, an undercooked Code Geass, is a good example of this, IMO.
