TV What Are Your Top 5 Favorite Cartoons of All Time?

[MiamiHeat305]

Mine are:
1.) The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
2 ) The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
3 ) Steven Universe
4.) Star Wars Clone Wars (2003 microseries)
5.) Codename: Kids Next Door

I'm a Cartoon Network guy. I like Nickelodeon too but to me golden age CN is so much better. It was really hard to omit Chowder from my top 5 as I've been watching that on Hulu the last couple days and that show was pure genius. I still haven't got around to watching a single episode of Craig of the Creek which I foresee usurping KND in my top 5, as sad as that is to say as KND was my favorite cartoon growing up. What is your guys top 5?

 

[Sydian]

in no particular order:

- hey arnold (okay well this is actually my #1 pick lol)
- avatar: the last airbender
- rugrats
- blue's clues (idk if that counts? lol)
- spongebob (but only like the first 3 seasons)
- invader zim (shhh i'm sneaking in a 6th)

can you tell how old i am by this list lmao and that i was obviously a nickelodeon kid. my partner and i were talking about this recently, but like for some reason, despite also watching cartoon network a lot as a kid and being able to recall loving certain shows, they just? didn't retain with me the way other shows did. like i can quote cartoons off nick that aren't even in my list, but i literally could not tell you the plot of an episode of johnny bravo, dexter's lab, cow & chicken, etc. and it's wild bc i watched them a LOT and recall them being my favorite cartoons at certain points in my life. so why tf don't i remember much lol oh well ig.

 

[MiamiHeat305]

in no particular order:

- hey arnold (okay well this is actually my #1 pick lol)
- avatar: the last airbender
- rugrats
- blue's clues (idk if that counts? lol)
- spongebob (but only like the first 3 seasons)
- invader zim (shhh i'm sneaking in a 6th)

can you tell how old i am by this list lmao and that i was obviously a nickelodeon kid. my partner and i were talking about this recently, but like for some reason, despite also watching cartoon network a lot as a kid and being able to recall loving certain shows, they just? didn't retain with me the way other shows did. like i can quote cartoons off nick that aren't even in my list, but i literally could not tell you the plot of an episode of johnny bravo, dexter's lab, cow & chicken, etc. and it's wild bc i watched them a LOT and recall them being my favorite cartoons at certain points in my life. so why tf don't i remember much lol oh well ig.

Hey Arnold is timeless. I actually learned more from that show as an adult than I did as a little kid

 

[Sydian]

Hey Arnold is timeless. I actually learned more from that show as an adult than I did as a little kid

same though like i liked it as a kid but i really came to appreciate it more rewatching as an adult. it was always a fave, but it's my favorite cartoon. like it aged so well and it just hits different notes as an adult. love when shows can still hold up like that.

 

[Aslan]

I haven't finished new cartoons as an adult so these are all childhood favourites, but in no particular order:
- Teen Titans
- Spongebob Squarepants
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
- Danny Phantom

I would love to watch more cartoons. I've heard Steven Universe and Gravity Falls are great. I loved Gravity Falls from the few episodes I watched but never got around to finishing it for some reason. I also really liked the few episodes I've seen of Bojack Horseman. They're definitely top 5 cartoons but I would need to see more of each first before putting them on a list. :P

 

[Devalue]

1. Teen Titans (the original). Bounced between serious and silly. Shined during the Terra arc.
2. Rugrats. Enjoyed it as a child. Remained interesting as an adult, albeit in a different light.
3. Hey Arnold. Wrote very human characters. Pulled off moral dilemmas quite well without feeling too preachy (sometimes).
4. Powerpuff Girls. Produced some very good episodes. Remembers Bubbles being hardcore, Bubbles as Mojo Jojo, and a rainy day being very good.
5. Recess. Created an interesting world. Gave all the characters a little time in the limelight. Expanded them beyond their nicknames.

Liked Looney Tunes and Dexter's Laboratory as a child too. Never caught all of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Seemed very good. Hesitates to rank it without seeing the majority of episodes, however.

 

[moon]

Hmmm. Yea I have to put my favs in no particular order also.

- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
- Steven Universe (2013)
- Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts (2020)
- Avatar the last Airbender (2005)
- Ducktales (2017)


It's a little hard to not put Legend of Korra in here, but in general The Last Airbender was just a more coherent story and more lovable and cuter, while Korra was also absolutely awesome but definitely had a different tone. TLA trumps it a little bit and so does the other shows here :3

Kipo is just awesome. It took me a little while to get used to its humor and general semi-cringe tone, but the plot and characters are just utterly awesome. If you like cartoons and haven't watched Kipo yet, oh my god do it. It's just. Yea it's so great. The first season is a bit "gathering the crew and setting up the locations" like many shows first seasons can be, while the later seasons take on the heavy plot. I cried a smol bit. Also she's pink, pink is cool.

Ducktales, I liked somewhat better than Gravity Falls. I know people have been swooning over GF a lot but when I finally gave it a chance it... just wasn't at all as cool as I had expected? I think it became overhyped so I expected more. It is fun and its characters are mostly lovable, but it just didn't have as good plot or as epic a finale as I had been told. I suppose watching GF after She-Ra or SU just made Disney's silly style less attractive d: Ducktales, however! It's just amazing, wow. I didn't expect much at all from this, so perhaps a reason for me loving it to bits now is that I was so happily surprised. The new Ducktales has ACTUAL PLOT and goes to great length to make their characters very human (lol) with very distinguished traits and flaws and backstories. I loved basically everything about this show, all seasons. We even got a sweet Darkwing Duck twist like omg.

Steven Universe will maybe always be a classic favorite for me. While the first season is very silly, both in animation style and in loose plot, it's really there to set things up and let Steven discover his powers and identity. The whole show is ofc a coming-of-age story about him, but also with lots of mystery and wholesome character relationships. This is #1 on my list of things to show kids of my own some day when they're old enough to understand the meanings in it. It's just near-perfection.

And where SU was near-perfection, She-Ra is perfect. It has everything. Comedy, romance, plot, gritty character arcs with betrayal and redemption, family drama, magic, cute kitties, magical girls, more magic, gay dads, a freakin' enby... The ending had my happy-cry rivers. Watch it :)