General Cartoon Thread

[mcpiranhas]

It seems like there should be a thread like this around here. On the old board, it seemed like the Might B thread was slowly turning into one anyway. I've only caught two and a half episodes of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, but I think it's the best kidtoon I've seen since Spongebob. It's really bizarre, dark, and funny, and it doesn't use the standard Powerpuff Girls/Dexter's Lab style animation that's been the standard for all new CN and Nick shows for the past forever.

I was also wondering if anyone's managed to catch an episode of WordGirl, or even heard of it. I stumbled across some info on it today and was surprised to see that it features the voices of Chris Parnell, Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt, Jon Benjamin, and Jeffrey Tambor, with Dannah Feinglass (Feinglass-Phirman?) as the titular hero. I believe it's another Science Court type educational show for PBS, but with all those names, it's got to be pretty dadgum funny, right?

[tockxie]

I know the Mighty B is an Amy Poehler joint and all, but unfortunately it kind of sucks. It might be something as simple as the lack of background music, but whatever the show's doing right now just isn't working for me. It feels like a lot of dead air.

I'm starting to miss the mid 90s Cartoon Network shows, like Johnny Bravo and 2 Stupid Dogs. Those were awesome.

Also, there was this:

[youtube]6mhbxlz_wrI[/youtube]

[Jenny]

I dunno: I like Mighty B's the finger vs. Fingre, the french cousin episode. And recently, I've been watching old Dexter's Lab cartoons on our On demand thing. Damn, that was a good show. But two of my all time favorites are Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Sadly, rocko's not on dvd yet,but I saw there's some episodes avaliable on the Information tunes.

[KevinLee]

Ren and Stimpy.

iNTRO
[youtube]oH1BpY3efmQ[/youtube]
LOG
[youtube]dPHtKarae2Q[/youtube]
rEN AT HIS BEST
[youtube]LHbCBxhAHMc[/youtube]

Ren and Stimpy was always too gross and violent to be on Nickelodeon.

[darrylduffy]

[YOUTUBE]x6HwSq3sp8o[/YOUTUBE]

[Satchmo Mask]

Admittedly, I've only seen a few episodes of Mighty B! but I really liked it.

The animation, the disregard for premise (I mean, compared to "My Gym Partner's A Monkey" where every episode feels the same) and the absurd, John K-like neglect of model-sheets in favor of more interesting character interaction.

Also, Bill Wray does the backgrounds (or did) and although that's a generally overlooked cartoon element, his art is fantastic.

Most of all, I think it's nice to see something not quickly slapped together in Flash, like a lot of recent Cartoon Network projects.

I think I only saw two episodes though. So.

Flapjack is marvelous. The dreary, Victorian atmosphere lends itself to awesomeness. And it's always good to see Brian-Doyle Murray get more airtime.

[erechoveraker]

Wordgirl is pretty great and all the comedian voices is just a plus (and a nice segue into Fetch w/ Ruff Ruffman, which is way more fun than it should be!).

Also, anytime I see Jacob Two-two on the weekends, I can't flip away. It's bizarre and lovely all at the same time. I'm probably alone on that one though.

[PinkieOfDoom]

I'm so glad Flapjack came up. I fucking love that show. It's so adorable, but still dark. And Brian Doyle Murray is really great (I think he also plays the flying Dutchmen on Spongebob). And Flapjack is just a cute little character.

I'm one of those people who long for the days of the 1990s cartoons that they used to show. I remember when the Rugrats was an awesome show and then when it went into 2000, it just got horrible because they stopped putting in obscure or adult jokes and got, as I put it a couple of years ago, "really, really gay". Some thing is happening to Spongebob: Spongebob got caught watching porn once (although it is a sequence that happens for maybe 5 seconds) and Squidward references George Carlin's Seven Words, but now, it is once again getting "pretty gay". This also happened to the Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory.

That's why I love NickToons TV. I watch it with my dad a lot. Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, I used to love Invader Zim (it was one of those shows where if you liked it, it basically told you which path you headed towards in your life: normal, or one of those weird kids), there are whole lists dedicated to bringing the 1990s cartoons back.

* Two things:
1. I'm using "gay" with both its colloquial and actual definition.
2. Don't let anyone say, "Well, it's made for little kids so stop criticizing it." Because only Japan seems to understand the concept that cartoons, even for kids, has to be done well. That's why voice actors are just as popular as idols in Japan.

[punkdc]

I was a huge Nick fan but they seemed to have really dropped the ball. Cartoon network though has some AMAZING programs: Chowder and Flapjack are the best things I've recently seen. The Mighty B is also a very good cartoon.

[Berliner]

That Mighty Bee is terrible. The episode I saw did have Matt Besser doing his bong boy voice as a hippy though.

[MongarEric]

Do any cartoons these days have mini cartoons in them? I remember shows like Eek the Cat would have the short cartoon the Terrible Thunder Lizards and Two Stupid Dogs had Super Secret Secret Squirrel. I actually liked the Terrible Thunder Lizards better than Eek the Cat and would be slightly disappointed if they didn't have a TTL short on that Saturday's episode. Those dinosaurs would shoot beehive grenades at those dumb cavemen, but somehow they would always hit a palm tree and get flung right back at them but the dinosaurs couldn't run because they would be in quicksand!!! I'm pretty sure that was the premise of every episode but I still loved it when I was 9 years old.

[mcpiranhas]

Eek! is high on the list of shows with obscenely tardy DVDs. Once Caroline in the City and Dave's World are available, it just starts to piss you off. I think Eek! would hold up pretty well. Rocko is missing too... I bought the whole set off of classicnick.com and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. It's incredibly depressing and weary for a Nicktoon, though not as gross and surreal as Ren and Stimpy.

Did anyone ever catch Hey Monie? It was a BET cartoon from a couple years back that I liked a lot but it got sort of buried, maybe because it looks like a cheap "urban sitcom" at first glance, but from the little bit I saw, it was really funny and smart. Brendon Small popped up occasionally as a white DJ.

[J.B.]

I've spoken up for Hey Monie here in the past. I enjoyed how conversational and casually paced this show was - like the relationship bits of Dr. Katz (with less big laughs, unfortunatly). I liked it.

[PinkieOfDoom]

I don't know what your opinions are of this show, but Freakazoid came out on DVD. I used to love that show.

[punkdc]

I don't know what your opinions are of this show, but Freakazoid came out on DVD. I used to love that show.

I remember watching that every summer in elementary school because it was on right as school was getting out and by the time I got home it was just ending. Thank you Netflix!!

[pollymaepry]

Freakazoid annoyed and bored me as a kid. I'll try it again, but my taste was A #1 back then. Nice theme song, though!
The problem with Mighty B (it has mostly great qualities) is that none of the characters are as likeable or interesting or funny as Bessie. In fact they all are boring or suck.
Wordgirl can be good and the SHEER VOLUME of amazing comedians doing voices is the best.
On Flapjack: Brian Doyle Murray (my favorite Murray) is totally bein typecast as a sea farer!

I saw an episode of Arthur this season that had kids write and send in stories they used when all the gang were trying to make a cartoon and they used a different show's style of animation for each one. South Park, Dexter's Lab, Beavis and Butthead, effin Dr. Katz. That was a little awesome.

Also: Science Court

[billynord]

[mcpiranhas]

Freakazoid was amazing... when Ed Asner was on. The rest of the time, I could take it or leave it.

I bought the first Animaniacs DVD and so far it's been a great example of something not living up to your memories. Maybe the good's yet to come.

[PinkieOfDoom]

Actually, I also loved Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. Along with Freakazoid, they were all produced by Steven Spielberg and those shows happened to be some of my favorite childhood shows.

[tockxie]

Freakazoid holds up really well, Animaniacs not so much. Warner Bros. had a really long stretch of good cartoons in the 90s, at first it looked like Histeria was the cartoon to nosedive it into the ground, but since 2001 WB has just been aggressively pursuing new lows. Baby Looney Toons (not to be confused with Tiny Toons) and Loonatics Unleashed alone represent an unprecedented new low.

I loved Batman Beyond. Who else loved Batman Beyond?

Let's just head off this thread's inevitable turn towards anime right now: Everybody everywhere likes Cowboy Bebop, and nobody cares who else does.