1. Dexter’s Laboratory
In 1996, Dexter (pronounced by Christine Cavanaugh’s ‘Rugrats’ alumni), a kid genius with a huge secret lab under his home, was unveiled to Cartoon Network viewers. Every episode would see Dexter planning a wonderful experiment, only to see it overturned by his annoying sister Dee Dee (spoken by Allison Moore and Kat Cressida). The series became one of the Cartoon Network’s top-rated series, winning the 1996 Primetime Emmy Award. The series would make Tartakovsky one of the first animated voices, and he would end up leaving in 1999 to start work on his next film, “Samurai Jack.” By the end of 2003, “Dexter’s Laboratory” would see a return in 2001. Even if it’s been out of the air for over 15 years, the enigmatic cartoon style even quantifiable main character is always drawn to audiences.
2. TaleSpin
There’s no way we can conceal it, we enjoyed the Disney Afternoon line-up here at IGN, and TaleSpin was one of our favourites. On the surface, the series seemed like a simple attempt to cash in on an older Disney movie property (The Jungle Book), but after seeing the TV movie — which later became the first four episodes—”Plunder and Lightning, “we realized that Disney had discovered anything unique. We were hooked from the imaginative plotlines to the infinitely catchy theme tune. After the lovely Baloo and the rest of the Higher for Hire team of Rebecca and Molly Cunningham, Wildcat, and Kit Cloudkicker, TaleSpin had a cast of characters who all played their part in making this one of the most imaginative and enjoyable cartoons in Disney’s arsenal.
3. Darkwing Duck
The Superhero Craze of the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the cult, hit Darkwing Duck, has not eluded Disney, either in movies (with its criminally underrated The Rocketeer) or on TV. The episode was a play on Batman, in which an erratic tyrant fought crime at night, because of a well-placed cowl and mask. Darkwing Duck wasn’t exactly grown-it ‘s from Disney, of course-but the animation and plot skewed a little more towards the darker feel of the modernized Batman series, despite being more of a family duck than the hero Drake Mallard. In the 1990s, Darkwing Duck had just three seasons, but for many, it remained a well-earned nostalgia touchstone.
4. The Boondocks
The Boondocks takes a sharp satirical look at American society based on the comic strip of the same name by African American cartoonist Aaron McGruder, with a focus on black music and race relations, from hip-hop and film to celebrities like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. Controversial from the beginning, for its use of the N-word and for its representation of historical figures such as King, The Boondocks has drawn criticism. The show tracks the Freeman family — the 10-year-old Huey, his eight-year-old brother, Riley, and their grandfather, Robert — and their adventures after the boys moved from Chicago’s South Side to the suburbs with Grandad. Uncensored and complete with two previously unaired episodes from season two, which were strongly critical of BETT, the two seasons produced so far were released on DVD.
5. Rocko’s Modern Life
It’s probably not unreasonable to suggest you’re not getting SpongeBob SquarePants without Rocko’s Modern Life (a show that’s not on this list, but hey, it’s popular). Since Nickelodeon canceled Rocko after four seasons in the mid-1990s, the artistic team behind the former program only produced the latter. While it was not nearly as scandalous as Ren and Stimpy (more of which later), in his tale of anthropomorphized animals in the fictitious O-Town, Rocko had its fair share of adult comparisons. Rocko also established the correct mix between enticing children who were either aged out of grade school or in middle school and appealing to their older siblings or guardians. While it lasted just four seasons, the surreal charm of the show persisted.
6. Bob’s Burgers
In the UK, it hasn’t really had much chance-there is no PAL DVD release, and it doesn’t get prime-time slots on TV-but Bob’s Burgers is a delightful animated comedy that over its nine seasons has formed a following. The show follows Bob and Linda Belcher’s family life as they struggle to navigate a constantly failing burger restaurant and their three children’s well-being: awkward teenager Tina, eccentric middle child Gene, and confusion agent Louise, rabbit ear-wearing agent. Look out for Kevin Kline, too, lending his voice to Mr. Fischoeder, the beautifully quirky landlord.
7. Archer
This isn’t a promise, so if you want to make sure your animated show begins on the right foot, cast H. Jon Benjamin as the character in the title. (This law will come into effect later on the list.) The rich, raspy voice of Benjamin suits exceptionally well as he voices Sterling Archer, the secret agent who over time has gone to seed. Though Archer cuts a dashing figure, he’s much like his fellow agents and co-workers at a secret agency: promoting his vices to drastic degrees. Archer features a strong ensemble cast from producer Adam Reed, including Jessica Walter as Archer’s mom (in a role equivalent to her work on Arrested Development), and a happy ability to swap positions, styles, and more. It is one of TV’s most daring plays.
8. Rugrats
Rugrats may have had a kind of hideous animation style that made horrific monstrosities into a bunch of toddlers, but it was definitely successful. Of course, there were adults present to let us know just what was going on, but the theme of the show was “how kids look at things.” How in ordinary activities they could see goblins and magic clearly because they really don’t comprehend the universe. With all the children learning to interact easily with each other by baby talk, Rugrats took his cues from recent programs such as Muppet Babies and made the children use their imaginations to create stories for themselves. The misadventures of Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil, and even Angelica, the devilish cousin of Tommy, have been going on for thirteen years! And not just that, there’s a new show for the characters called All Grown Up, where you can meet them … all grown up and in middle school.
9. South Park
It’s safe to assume, like another exhibition that we’ll get to eventually, that South Park’s best days are behind it. (Some might also argue that the highest point of the show was not even on TV, but South Park: Larger, Longer and Uncut in the 1999 feature film South Park.) But it’s still almost hard to ignore the huge effect this intentionally inexpensive lo-fi raunchfest on Comedy Central has had, both on that network and on animation in general. Before South Park, there were adult animation series, but the strange mix of cardboard-cut youth, graphic violence and words, and X-rated versions of popular characters and incidents, even though it’s too long now, has made for a genuinely distinctive, outrageous, offbeat show.
10. Futurama
The popularity of The Simpsons was a promise that there will be more cartoon series with vivid colors, big-eyed characters, lots of adult jokes, pop-culture references, and more. But it took almost a decade for Matt Groening himself to produce a new program, one which had some raw parallels to The Simpsons, but only on the surface. A show has never been quite as successful as Futurama, but its science-fiction concept, in which a man from the year 2000 is accidentally cryogenically frozen for a thousand years and has to deal with what it’s like in 3000, made for a distinctive, unexpectedly dramatic, and snappy show. Futurama was stealthily quite brilliant, a display that lived on both Fox and Comedy Central.
11. Spiderman TAS
In the hearts of those who grow up watching it in the ’90s, this show has a rather fond position, but some might lament about it is very low on this chart. Sorry boys, we all have a soft spot for it, but when you look at The Spectacular Spider-Man, it’s obvious that this show was a stepping stone in the way, though important to Spider-Man, as well as making a genuinely great character-based show. Still, as it comes to adaptation, the Spider-Man series of the 1990s deserved a lot of praise for being the first Spidey show to actually use the comics for inspiration, when many popular storylines were given a twist here, like the Venom saga and even the unusual time spent with six weapons by Spider-Man. Many guest stars from the Marvel Universe were also allowed to use the series, allowing Spider-Man to link up with characters such as Iron Man, Sword, Punisher, Captain America, and Doctor Strange. Long-term plot plots were used, unlike some of the prior Spider-Man series, and some plots were presented with interesting stories.
12. Batman Tas
We’re in a brief fallow time in American cinema where no single actor plays Batman (although with the new movie by Matt Reeves, it will hopefully change soon). And that’s all well and well, but there wasn’t one of the very best Batmen on the big screen. In the remarkably stunning Batman: The Animated Series, which started airing in the mid-1990s, he was played by Kevin Conroy, piggybacking off the popularity of Tim Burton’s films. But the film, more than a decade before Christopher Nolan appeared, leaned into the gloom of Gotham City. Even, like Harley Quinn’s first adaptation, and Mark Hamill’s chilling version of the Joker, Batman: The Animated Series has matured quite well, unlike so many animated superhero programs.
13. Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls is a mystery-comedy series that follows the story of two 12-year-old twins named Dipper Pines and Mabel, who have gone to a fictitious town of gravity to spend their summer vacation with their great uncle Stan, who runs the Mystery Shack. They unravel great mysteries across the city with the help of their peers. There are 40 episodes of Gravity Drop in total. It is a highly acclaimed program that was scrapped after a limited period of time, and fans are looking for further requests for the revival of the show following its cancellations.
14. BoJack Horseman
What can be said about this show os fewer, this is some of the finest stuff that Netflix has to deliver in all genres across the web. The series is produced by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and features a stellar voice cast by Will Arnett, who sang BoJack, Aaron Paul, Alison Brie, among many others. The series is made up of various genres, such as black comedy, Surreal comedy, a sad comedy that can be watched in any mood. The series tells the story of BoJack, an anthropomorphic horse who was a promising start in the 1990s, and now his career has taken a break. Now he’s planning to make a comeback with his autobiography written by a ghostwriter. It deals with different issues of daily life and disasters such as anxiety, grief, etc.
15. Castlevania
Castlevania set the bar high for a content-driven video game, this original Netflix is driven on a classic video game of the same name. The series is produced by Adi Shankar and follows Trevor Belmont, who battles against the powers of Dracula, with the help of the sorcerer Sypha Belnades and Dracula’s dhampir son Alucard. Looking at the first shot of the series, you’ll discover that it’s brilliantly animated. Typically, it’s known to be an anime by fans of its games, but it’s an American series. The best part of this is that it only has 4 to 6 episodes a season and it’s easy to binge the program, and if you haven’t watched it, then what are you waiting for?
