Best animated programs/movies

[Mozgus]

I am such a huge cartoon fan. I pretty much avoid all modern daytime cartoons, but I still love the vast majority of the 90's cartoons, and nearly all the non-anime on adult swim. I cant say that I dislike anything you guys have listed so far, and I'm familiar with all of it.

But I'm ganna throw out Rocko's Modern Life since it hasnt been mentioned. It was pure gold. I still die laughing at that show. I love the episode with the weird sexual fetishes of the FatHeads. So fucked up.

Also I recently got back into Gargoyles. Those first 5 episodes were the finest thing to come out of Disney, ever. The first season overall was fantastic. So far, the second season is wearing a little thin, 30 eps in. I'm starting to just skip around.

[Gamerforlife]

That there aren't more Japanese anime stuff in here. I guess it wasn't as hot in U.S. when you were younger? I'll be calling out some less obvious choices for you guys, as well (some are worth checking out even now that you're old).

Saint Seiya is really good (also known as Knight of the Zodiac), and Dragonball Z as well.
There was a time when there were a bunch of classic tales (Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer etc) in sort of old anime style (without much violence, of course ) - these are good quality as well.

I think there were some spanish ones that crossed over that were also quite decent - the one with the "Muskerhounds" (I don't know the name in english, it is the 3 Musketeers with dogs instead of people), Around the world in 80 days (also with anthropomorphic animals), and David the Gnome and "sequel" The World of the Gnomes These are mostly for kids though.

But I agree that nearly all the Disney stuff used to be good (Duck Tales, Gummy Bears, etc. - Gargoyles as well, for a relatively recent example).

Ivo.

I had expressed a slight annoyance when I created the topic that japanese anime is all some people can mention when discussing good animation, so that's probably why there aren't more anime mentions in this topic, but seeing as how we've mentioned a ton of non-anime stuff we can certainly start mentioning anime shows now I suppose. That doesn't mean this topic is going to be anime only now though. I'm not much into anime now and days, but I did go through an anime phase once. I have seen and enjoyed the following:

Rurouni Kenshin-everything up to the end of the awesome Kyoto arc, including the brilliant prequel OAV. I stopped caring when the show moved away from the manga story

Record of Lodoss-the original OAV-Epic D&Dish storyline, very cool. Is it wrong that my fave characters were villains? Ashram and Pirotess

Gunsmith Cats-Hot babes+guns=awesome show

Ah!My Goddess series and movie-Both of these are kind of like the equivalent of anime chick flicks, but I enjoyed them for some reason

Blue Gender-Very violent action show with a love story that doesn't make you puke

Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try and a few of the movies with Naga(who is awesome)-These shows were cheesy but fun. I liked Gourry and Sylphiel, loveable morons. More powerful than they realized with Gourry's ability to absorb magic that he never uses and Sylphiel's ability to cast a certain someone's signature spell

Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust-I just dig anything with vamps and this was a visual feast of a movie

Tenchi Muyo-the original unfinished OAV was the best incarnation of the show. Not the english dubbed cartoon network airings though, since they censored what was originally quite a racy anime

Love Hina-Another fun Harem show. Gotta love seeing a guy run for his life from a crazy Samurai chick who he lives with. LOL

Vision of Escaflowne-Fun epic fantasy show, though the plot did confuse me a bit. Nice Yoko Kanno score

Grave of the Fireflies-Great movie that you can only watch once. It's too sad, and too real

Blood:The Last Vampire-See comments on Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust

BubbleGum Crisis(the remake)-Don't remember much about the show, but I remember it was good. Got the box set lying around somewhere

Trigun-Funny show, a guy who gets chased by insurance agents because he causes too much damage everywhere he goes. LOL. Vash is a lot like Kenshin, and Nicholas D Wolfwood is a wickedly cool character, though I can see how some might be offended by a character who is a travelling priest and also a skilled gunman. He's got a great character design

Ninja Scroll-classic

Dragonball Z-Who HASN'T seen this show. Wish Funimation hadn't changed the show so much though. Vegeta rules

Ranma and Inuyasha-I like Rumiko's stuff but she can never actually finish a story before it gets stale and boring it seems. Ranma was fun, a friend nicknamed me P-chan for my lack of a sense of direction. I thought Kikio from Inuyasha was a fascinating character. Also liked Sango and Miroku. Hate Sesshomaru, he seems to have the same fanboys who think Sephiroth is the coolest video game character ever

Miyazaki has some great stuff too

I've also seen Serial Experiments Lain and Neon Genesis Evangelion, both a bit too cerebral for my tastes.

And of course, my all time favorite anime I've mentioned, which is Cowboy Bebop. It mixed everything I love into one show. Martial arts(with Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do references), high-flying airial dogfights,gunfights to make John Woo proud,comedy,drama,hot babes,Sci Fi,explosions,a hip jazzy soundtrack,film noir,classic music references and some messed up villains. The show was just plain cool in every sense of the word and the movie was awesome

That's all the anime I can think of off the top of my head, though I know I've seen some other stuff too. Never realized just how much anime I've actually watched until I typed this up.

Oh, and stick with Gargoyles Mozgus. The second season gets really good. Season 3 is crap though, new writers, and they tried to turn it into a more typical Disney show

[Mozgus]

yatta yatta

Dear god, man. I'm not much of an anime fan, and even I've heard of every last one of those shows you listed. Like to stick to the mainstream, do we?

[lordofduct]

That there aren't more Japanese anime stuff in here. I guess it wasn't as hot in U.S. when you were younger? I'll be calling out some less obvious choices for you guys, as well (some are worth checking out even now that you're old).

Saint Seiya is really good (also known as Knight of the Zodiac), and Dragonball Z as well.
There was a time when there were a bunch of classic tales (Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer etc) in sort of old anime style (without much violence, of course ) - these are good quality as well.

I think there were some spanish ones that crossed over that were also quite decent - the one with the "Muskerhounds" (I don't know the name in english, it is the 3 Musketeers with dogs instead of people), Around the world in 80 days (also with anthropomorphic animals), and David the Gnome and "sequel" The World of the Gnomes These are mostly for kids though.

But I agree that nearly all the Disney stuff used to be good (Duck Tales, Gummy Bears, etc. - Gargoyles as well, for a relatively recent example).

Ivo.

well I think people were avoiding huge anime lists because the topic starter said this in his first post:

I'm hoping this doesn't just turn into a name your favorite anime topic. We know animation is big in Japan, but there ARE good shows/movies that aren't from the Land of the Rising Sun. So here's a few of my faves:

I kinda agreed with him as well... seeing as lists of fav anime has been done here if not everywhere to death already.

[pocket]

South Park is the only thing on t.v. I will watch.

[Gamerforlife]

yatta yatta

Dear god, man. I'm not much of an anime fan, and even I've heard of every last one of those shows you listed. Like to stick to the mainstream, do we?

Well I never said I was an otaku who has seen and heard of everything. Plus mainstream does not equal bad. A lot of those are considered among the best anime shows around.

Sorry if the list is too long, I can keep my posts short is that's preferrable. As lordofduct said, I was originally against long lists of anime like in my last post. I actually reiterrated that in said post, but I figured at this point we had enough non-anime mentions that it was alright. We can stick to the original gameplan though. Whatever works

[durkada]

Well, I was with you until the Ren and Stimpy stuff. For some reason that one just rubbed me the wrong way. That and South Park are on my avoid list. Yes, they are funny from time to time, but just like Seinfeld, it's just not worth it.

Have you ever seen Spumko's other stuff. My God, I remember as a kid I loved Ren and Stimpy. And when I heard Nickelodean had this tight leash on the creators to filter out bad humour I was so annoyed. I thought they were sooooo funny.

Then I saw there other stuff... oh my dear God. Those people need to be on Lithium or something when making TV shows... twisted stuff, makes me ill to watch.

and I like fucked up shit.

Yeah, I knew of alot of John K's stuff other than Ren & Stimpy. There's the whole cat getting a blow job from a baby sketch... But, even so, John K. only seems to excel when he has some sort of limitation. Without the limitation, his humor tends to go over the top -- so tasteless that it fails to shock or be humorous. Working within a controlled medium, against censors and corporate marketing, he was able to sneak in a great deal of the genuinely strange and subtle. More to point, John K's humor is only subversively effective when it has something to subvert. Thus, as frustrating as it must have been, I think Nickelodeon was good for him. He had an envelope he could stretch. Every time the shackles are off, his creativity has free reign, and it falls flat -- such as the new Ren & Stimpy. I think his best thing since R&S has got to be Boo Boo Runs Wild. Even then, he had strict limitations on the content he was allowed to show.

[durkada]

Well, I was with you until the Ren and Stimpy stuff. For some reason that one just rubbed me the wrong way. That and South Park are on my avoid list. Yes, they are funny from time to time, but just like Seinfeld, it's just not worth it.

Bah. Again, you have to take Ren & Stimpy into context. Until Ren & Stimpy, cartoons were a vapid wasteland -- written by and for the marketing of toys. Cartoons were poorly animated and, very simply, were not funny. Ren & Stimpy (and here, again, the first two seasons) was a revelation. Its hard to think of any cartoons -- American -- which had been funny between the pinnacle of the Looney Toons, and the broadcast of Ren & Stimpy.

Take Sven Hoek, for example. Frankly, I find that episode exhaustingly hilarious -- but even if you ignore the comedy, you really have to appreciate how beautifully conceived it is. The characters are incredibly vibrant and expressive -- you could forsake most of the dialog in that cartoon,and get what the characters were conveying simply by the expressions that would come over their faces. And then you had all the classic film tricks being used, such as changing the entire background into an expressionist series of colors when you were to really feel the overwhelming intensity of a characters emotion (or dementia). All of this while being drawn in a way that was funny -- looking at them, it was natural to laugh. The same could not be said about any other show at the time.

I think Ren & Stimpy opened the floodgates for the genuinely good cartoons we have today -- the ones that are funny. Adult Swim, whatever... Without Ren & Stimpy, who knows if there would be an Adult Swim. According to Laszlo, at least, its unlikely.

Two more I'll throw out there:

The Real Ghostbusters. Not to be confused by "The Ghostbusters" -- which was a resurrected series that held rights to the name from long ago. The Real Ghostbusters had relatively intelligent plots, often witty dialog, attempted to scare the beejeezus out of kids and did so without pandering. Well, it did so until Slimer became a key character. J. Michael Stacinsky (sp?) produced the series. They had an episode with Cthulhu in it, with Clark Ashton as an evil warlock, and Robert E Howard as a gnomish book lover. How awesome is that?

Invader Zim. Holy shit. Where did this incredibly subversive and stylish show come from? Nickelodeon? Of course -- so you had to enjoy it while you could. You knew, at some point, they would realize its a great show but completely unsuitable for LCD mass consumption. Two seasons, I think, was as far as that one went. Utterly twisted: "But, Invader's blood marches through my veins like Giant Radioactive Rubber Pants! The pants command me. Do not ignore my veins!!"

[Gamerforlife]

Yeah, I knew of alot of John K's stuff other than Ren & Stimpy. There's the whole cat getting a blow job from a baby sketch... But, even so, John K. only seems to excel when he has some sort of limitation. Without the limitation, his humor tends to go over the top -- so tasteless that it fails to shock or be humorous. Working within a controlled medium, against censors and corporate marketing, he was able to sneak in a great deal of the genuinely strange and subtle. More to point, John K's humor is only subversively effective when it has something to subvert. Thus, as frustrating as it must have been, I think Nickelodeon was good for him. He had an envelope he could stretch. Every time the shackles are off, his creativity has free reign, and it falls flat -- such as the new Ren & Stimpy. I think his best thing since R&S has got to be Boo Boo Runs Wild. Even then, he had strict limitations on the content he was allowed to show.

I saw one of the new episodes on Spike, I really didn't find it appealling at all, so I guess maybe your comments are true. I enjoyed a lot of his early Ren and Stimpy episodes. It's ironic that he supposedly bashes other animated shows that have actually proven to be more clever than his own work. South Park does the shock value thing, but they've gotten good over the years at given it a purprose within the context of the episode. Plus, they don't focus exclusively on shocks and toilet humor. That stuff is just there to appeal to a certain segment of its audience. The shows have actually come up with a lot of interesting social commentary, though I don't always agree with it.

And since we've mentioned anime, South Park had a pretty hilarious episode where the characters were all given anime make-overs. They even came up with a very funny J-Pop song. Here's a clip:

[marurun]

Bah. Again, you have to take Ren & Stimpy into context. Until Ren & Stimpy, cartoons were a vapid wasteland -- written by and for the marketing of toys. Cartoons were poorly animated and, very simply, were not funny. Ren & Stimpy (and here, again, the first two seasons) was a revelation. Its hard to think of any cartoons -- American -- which had been funny between the pinnacle of the Looney Toons, and the broadcast of Ren & Stimpy.

I don't HAVE to do anything. But let's say I do take it in context, hypothetically. I still don't enjoy it. The importance of something has nothing to do with its entertainment value. I thought Tiny Toons was pretty funny and it predated Ren and Stimpy by a year, and 1993's Animaniacs was also great fun. Pinky and the Brain get my vote long before R & S ever will.