Each week I create a 2-2.5 hour block of programming for the family to watch together over a nice breakfast. We call it Sunday Brunch Cartoons, and we’re nearly two years into it without missing a day. I’m releasing a full list of our watch queue, with the hopes that you can think of something really good (or memorably bad) that we should include.
No 70s Hanna-Barbera.
https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/a12bea0c-89fb-4c86-a610-f231583719ad.webp
Plaintext: Title Batman: Caped Crusader Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years Cybersix Gargoyles Infinity Train Mythbusters Hey Arnold! Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amphibia Animaniacs Scooby Doo; Mystery Inc. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends Gumby Gurren Lagann Mighty Max (Remastered) My Adventures With Superman Sailor Moon Original ReBoot Recess Crash Course Video Games She-Ra Space Patrol Luluco The Owl House Tron: Uprising Star vs the Forces of Evil Rocky & Bullwinkle Sym-Bionic Titan Freakazoid! Teen Titans Bump In The night Looney Tunes Golden Collection Nate Is Late / Oskar et Malika The Big O Unicorn Warriors Eternal Mega Man Megas XLR Motorcity Fraggle Rock Men in Black: The Animated Series Histeria! The Tick Swat Kats Adventure Time: Fiona & Cake Kim Possible Dexter’s Laboratory Star Trek Mobile Fighter G Gundam The Adventures of Salmon Max Captain N: The Game Master Darkwing Duck Danny Phantom Wakfu Kirby: Right Back At Ya Regular Show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Inspector Gadget The Legend of Zelda Underdog (1964) Kid Cosmic Looney Tunes Cartoons Samurai Jack Adventure Time The Loud House King Arthur and the Knights of Justice The California Raisin Show Visionaries Knights of the Magical Lights He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Transformers: Prime Yuu Yuu Hakusho Invader Zim Ducktales Avatar: The Legend of Korra Codename: Kids Next Door Pingu Bill Nye TSG Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Reading Rainbow Wishbone Red Wall Ramen Akaneko Space Ghost Powerpuff Girls Transformers War For Cybertron Dungeons and Dragons Ren & Stimpy Rugrats Super Mario World Fairly OddParents Hilda Moomin Batman: The Animated Series Earthworm Jim Amazing World of Gumball Beakman’s World Rocko’s Modern Life The Real Ghostbusters The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Bravest Warriors Beetlejuice Ruri Rocks Transformers: Beast Wars Courage the Cowardly Dog Rentaghost The Busy World of Richard Scarry Over the Garden Wall Button Moon Cow & Chicken Bocchi the Rock Adventure Time: Distant Lands The Angry Beavers The Trap Door Pinky and The Brain Clone Wars (2003) Avatar: The Last Airbender Gravity Falls A Series of Unfortunate Events Steven Universe Trigun Batman Beyond Bluey Ed, Edd, & Eddy
EDIT: Thanks, Lemmy!!! You’ve all delivered so many really exciting suggestions. There’s enough on my ‘shopping list’ now to keep us going, well, basically forever - but what’s another 10Tb of cartoons among friends?
Here’s the full list of suggestions I’ve collected. In alphabetic order, this time. Thanks again!
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No Hanna Barbera? You should throw a few in to mix it up. Like a Snagglepuss, one Huckleberry hound, and one Yogi Bear. The first season of Scooby Doo is iconic. Josie and the Pussy Cats was good. 60’s Hanna would include the excellent Johnny Quest. I’d also throw in a singular Space Ghost and Herculoids to break things up.
You make some solid points, if I’m willing to tolerate the California Raisins he should at least see some of these. We’ll do a retro theme one day and hit all of these, likely.
What was the reason for skipping Hanna Barbera (and '70s in particular) to begin with? The limited animation?
Unvarnished snobbery, but yes. The animation.
Ozzy & Drix. Although I must admit the last time I watched that was when it was airing on Cartoon Network. But I remembered loving it as a kid.
- Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers
- Duck Tales
And since it seems like you’re not shying away from shows with some fucked up things kids probably shouldn’t have watched but are kinda formative anyways
- Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
Thanks! The newer DuckTales is in this list, we finished that earlier this year. The older stuff I haven’t gotten to yet. I definitely need to get Chip & Dale, haven’t seen that stuff in centuries, feels like.
We’re fairly permissive with scary/intense stuff, our true north isn’t PEGI or ESRB so much as Don Bluth’s admonition that kids can handle anything, as long as there’s a happy ending. He found Robot Dreams (2023) way more traumatic than Ghostbusters (1984), and that’s just a story about growing apart and making new friends. He’s very self aware, and will tell us when something’s too much to handle.
I should get Macross, yeah. I never saw that one actually. Thanks!
I don’t think of ren and stimpy or space ghost as happy ending shows.
You’ve got me there. I rarely use either, for that reason. R&S is actually out of rotation because the wife doesn’t approve, just yet. Fair is fair, our kid is weird enough as it is.
I’m not really sure about space ghost. The zapping of Zorak that happens pretty frequently is your typical cartoon violence comparable to what goes on in bugs bunny. I’d just want to give it a review before putting it in front of kids.
Ren and stumpy on the other hand can be kind of dark and brutal, especially the later episodes. I’d have similar (or stronger) reservations about aqua teen hunger force, or venture brothers.
ATHF and Venture Bros are out of the question until he’s at least 15. Even then a lot of the humour won’t click until later. Like, there’s an actual pedophile in VB. Give me a little credit.
The action in Space Ghost is mild for his tastes. Wacky violence doesn’t faze him, what really gets to him is bittersweet endings where there’s a happy ending, but not quite the one he expected.
Then you have to skip that one Futurama episode with the dog.
God no. Futurama is one of those ones where I’m just gonna make him wait until he’s ready
It seems like you have a massive list already. So here’s a few more!
A few ones I enjoyed (mostly as a kid) which aren’t listed or mentioned:
Conan the Barbarian the Animated Series - very 90’s. I used to record it on VHS
Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light. - Commissioned to help sell a toy line with holograms (all the rage in the 80s) Cartoon was pretty good quality for the time.
Pole Position- Ulysses 31 (currently seeding btw)- Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors - which are all French Japanese Cartoons scored by Shuky Levy who really encapsulates the sound of an 80’s after school cartoon for me. Even if the plot is a bit meh at times the intro music is absolutely cracking.
Around the World with Willy Fogg - Dogtanian and Three Muskahounds - Spanish Japanese production. Also great theme tunes!
ReBoot - (Ian Gibson who worked on 2000AD developed this. The CG might have aged a bit though! Kids cartoon but had some quite adult reference at the time)
Camp Lazlo - by creator of Rocko’s Modern Life
Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? - Short lived Cartoon Network offereing circa 2002.
No 70s Hanna Barbera? Short formats but I enjoyed Roger Ramjet, Batfink (both not Hanna Barbera) and Topcat (which is but was made in the 60’s.)
Mine I think, is younger than yours but absolutely adores Hey Duggee and Squirrel Club and they are very good with great music. Check out the Space or Music Video episodes in particular.
I’ll throw in Topcat, that was good. I was mostly just being cheeky about that. Great list here, some I do already have. He thinks KOTML sucks, but he likes ReBoot pretty well. Once he got used to the fairly tired aesthetic. I think maybe he’s seen enough Minecraft youtuber crap that he doesn’t really mind basic visuals.
Awesome. Pretty cool he likes ReBoot. Sounds like such a fun breakfast morning. I’ve been trying to do something similar but they’re like little media limpets at toddler age; sticking to one thing and one thing only and of course atm it’s become Mr Tumble (an irritating clown whose schtick is that they dress up and do makaton). So while the weather has been nice I’ve been shucking mine off the rock, so to speak and getting them in the garden. Hope you have fun. :)
Toddlers are a lot harder, quite a bigger bridge to gap between us and where they’re at. You might have better luck with things like Lucas the Spider or Ms. Rachel until they’re old enough for, I dunno, Bluey. From there maybe Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street?
Add just a little bit of 60s and 70s Hannah Barbara (Johnny quest, Scooby-Doo, old superhero shows) so that when they are older, you can show them Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law and GOATed of all time animated series The Venture Bros
Venture Bros might be the only reason I’d need to sit through a season of Johnny Quest. This is an extremely solid argument, I think you’ve changed my mind completely!
I forgot to add the caveat when they get older for venture bros. But it’ll just make them appreciate it more when they do see it
Of course, it’s a great series but it’ll be all the better if I don’t have to explain the jokes to his therapist in fifteen years lol
Hey I think you’ve got enough recs already, just wanted to say I’m really enjoying reading your replies. You seem like a good person, and I used to go by Wakko in my youth so you’re obviously cool. That’s all!
That’s super sweet of you, cheers. 😘
The Moomin are there. No need to add anything else.
It’s good stuff, we’re due for another showing soon.
I highly recommend reading up on what Tove Jansson got up to during her life. Shes my favorite woman of all time.
She lived on a rock in the middle of the sea with her ladyfriend. Built a sauna under her cabin because the government didn’t give her a permission to build one, so had to do it in secret. She also published cartoons that mocked hitler in the 1930s and 1940s.
Hey, not an old cartoon but I think Amphibia worth watching. It’s a Disney channel cartooon… I’ve watched recently with my kid.
Edit: never mind. Just found it on the list.
Amphibia is really high on my list of faves, it’s got a lot of creativity and heart. We’re probably going to finish it soon, We’ve been nibbling at it for a little over a year, making it last!
You have a bit of anime on there but I feel like pokemon and Dragonball z are missing. Simpsons could be added too.
Someone else recommended original Dragonball, and I’m taking that onboard. DBZ is great, but I think for the sake of time I’ll look for that edit I heard of that keeps it all concise and action-packed. As you can see we have a lot of stuff in rotation!
Just a heads up that original run Dragonball contains a bit of nudity (Goku is often naked and they don’t hide it). It’s fairly innocuous but I know not something every parent wants their kids to see.
Good note. His mom has always been pretty casual about nudity, so we don’t really fuss about ((non-sexual)) nudity in media. Bodies are just normal to him, I’m kinda jealous tbh.
I tried watching it with my kids. I phased it out because of Master Roshi. He normalizes some pretty gross behavior and not in a cautionary comeuppance kind of way.
“Okay kids, so the joke is that he’s an unrepentant asshole who enjoys constantly violating other people’s privacy in a sexual way, and they thought that it was funny for women to have to perpetually deflect unwanted advances while also being both sexy and demure at all times, also marital rape laws in Japan were only amended to cover all cases of non-consent instead of just violent ones in 2023. We’ll talk more about that last one when you’re older, the point is that you shouldn’t emulate his behaviour – you know what, let’s just watch anything else”.
“Over the Garden Wall” is missing from your image list.
