underrated cartoons and televison shows

[ChrisIII]

Still enjoy this show. Wish they would release a remastered version of this and Mighty Orbots.

Kind of an attempt to do Thundercats & Silverhawks but under the sea.


The Street Fighter animation is often used for internet memes I think along with the Mega Man series from the same era. Think they both played on the USA Network a lot.

[CliffHanger2]

Kind of an attempt to do Thundercats & Silverhawks but under the sea.


The Street Fighter animation is often used for internet memes I think along with the Mega Man series from the same era. Think they both played on the USA Network a lot.

Def an amalgamation of TC and SH. Rankin and Bass was going for the trifecta with those series-Land, Air ,Sea. The good ole days.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of interesting with Rankin Bass is that they were one of the most outsourced studios too, so their stuff is all kind of semi-Anime.

Their Christmas specials are an American television holiday tradition but animated almost entirely in Japan.

It's kind of fascinating how anime influenced American animation and pop culture in some ways that might not have been obvious at the time. INSPECTOR GADGET, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, THE GOONIES, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE for example all are connections to Lupin III (Mostly Castle of Cagliostro though).

The cartoon GALAXY HIGH was also an attempt at a reverse Uresei Yatsura/Lum.

[CliffHanger2]

Kind of interesting with Rankin Bass is that they were one of the most outsourced studios too, so their stuff is all kind of semi-Anime.

Their Christmas specials are an American television holiday tradition but animated almost entirely in Japan.

It's kind of fascinating how anime influenced American animation and pop culture in some ways that might not have been obvious at the time. INSPECTOR GADGET, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, THE GOONIES, THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE for example all are connections to Lupin III (Mostly Castle of Cagliostro though).

The cartoon GALAXY HIGH was also an attempt at a reverse Uresei Yatsura/Lum.

I think some of the best animation came out of those American/Japanese collabos. I think bionic six and Sherlock Holmes were a few others.

[williamtheday]

Ah, Galaxy High...maybe the little fly student just had to rest in the infirmary for a while?

[Celgress]

Of all the TMNT "clones" I enjoyed as a kid Street Sharks most. Dr. Paradigm/Piranoid was a genuinely sinister sociopathic supervillain. The goal of most supervillains is to conquer the world but for Paradigm this was simply a side-effect of his true goal of mass unregulated scientific experimentation for the sake of experimentation. He was the Dr. Mengele of Saturday Morning cartoons -

[Celgress]

Another of my favorites that is criminally underrated was Reboot. This series for a "kids' show" dealt with some heavy themes and became very dark during its latter half. A rare cartoon with a serious tone in which the characters and setting change drastically from season to season -

[Zero Hunter]

Just one season, but it was a very fun little show.

[ChrisIII]

[QUOTE=Celgress;6443733]Of all the TMNT "clones" I enjoyed as a kid Street Sharks most. Dr. Paradigm/Piranoid was a genuinely sinister sociopathic supervillain. The goal of most supervillains is to conquer the world but for Paradigm this was simply a side-effect of his true goal of mass unregulated scientific experimentation for the sake of experimentation. He was the Dr. Mengele of Saturday Morning cartoons -

/QUOTE]

Think it's partly remembered well these days for this video of a young Vin Diesel promoting the toys:

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my next choice would be...

The Jackie Chan Adventures

[shades of eternity]

the big six for me are as follows (in no order)
Batman: the animated series
Disney's Gargoyles
Reboot
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Tron: uprising
Gravity Falls

I can easily triple this but I think these are so significant that they had an effect on things, one way or another and brought something either first, culturally significant or both.

[Zero Hunter]

the big six for me are as follows (in no order)
Batman: the animated series
Disney's Gargoyles
Reboot
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Tron: uprising
Gravity Falls

I can easily triple this but I think these are so significant that they had an effect on things, one way or another and brought something either first, culturally significant or both.

None of those are Underrated except maybe the Tron one. The others get praised constantly

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my next choice would be...

Ōban Star-Racers

[Ikari]

Hmmm...two cartoons which really made me think "This is really much better than it has right to be" were Alfred J. Kwak:
Alfredjodocuskwak_logo.jpg

I didn't really watch through all of it when it came out, because it was just too depressing at some point. It was fun, but complicated and shockingly mature at places. I mean you had all typical cartoon adventures featuring a duck, but also Fascism, racism, deaths, politics...I'm sure 90% of it went over the heads of the children, or traumatized them for life. It's one of those things where you don't understand to whom it was made. But in the end, DOLF IS RIGHTEOUS!

...and Tangled: the Series (Or Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, whatever it was called).
MV5BYTMwMzU0ZGEtZjlmYi00NzZmLTkyZWMtZTdlMDQ1OGE5NGQ1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTM3MDMyMDQ@._V1_.jpg
This was another of those shows which seemed to struggle to define itself, to whom it was made? Half of the episodes were very plot-intensive and had complex psychological underthemes, other half were just silly childish cartoon romps. But at its best, it was magical. Rather than concentrating on the romance between Rapunzel and Eugene, it explored the mythology behind Rapunzel's powers, and complicated relationship she had with her friend and handmaiden, Cassandra. I loved the animation style, and great expressive character moments this series is full of. There are also some songs, although not that many. But most of those are just as good as in any Disney feature film.

Unfortunately in 3rd season the series lost its way somewhat, as if the writing team had began to argue between themselves how the series should wrap up, and it was not as well received. But still, first 2 seasons are mostly really good stuff.

[Cyberstrike]

Exo Squad was a damn good cartoon show that feels like the forerunner to reboot of Battlestar Galactica. I would love to see a revival or modern reboot of this criminally under-rated animated sci-fi series.