CARTOON FAVS

boy howdy i was into this show back in high school. great formula of Goofy Fun Little Fantasy Adventures with tons of Goofy Little Weirdo Characters that was always a treat to sit down and enjoy. there's a great balance between lots of stupid adventures and some genuinely touching character development (Marceline and Ice King still make me sad). it's also really fun to see the writers/storyboarders come up with this random fantasy world and slowly flesh it out (make it up) as they go along, like they were perpetually stumbling into fascinating world building

this show also appeals to me bc as it went on, the seasons got progressively more surreal and that's the kind of stuff i eat up

what can i even say about Avatar that hasn't already been said a hundred times???

excellent show, great characters, nuanced and intriguing world, cool magic system, It's Got It All!!
the first season does start off a bit Goofy Kids' Show which, fair, it is in fact a kids' show, but as the story goes on it develops into such a compassionate and nuanced exploration of the horrors of war, with a large focus on how common people suffer under it

idk if you haven't watched it at this point you should like, fix that

i like, vaguely kept up with this show when it was first releasing on Youtube, but i only watched a few episodes and promptly forgot about it. then the Netflix release jumped me out of nowhere and i was like OKAY OKAY OKAY i should probably actually sit down and watch this thing

and i really liked it! being a like, pretty chill slice of life magical girl thing, it was the perfect show for when i wanted to sit back and relax. all the characters are charming and the dialogue has a casual vibe to it that made it feel like (relatively) normal people conversing in a kinda not normal world

Worthikids is such a huge inspiration for me bc like, this guy is out here making whatever silly little animations tickle his fancy and he OWNS at it. he can go out there and make a little series about employees of a clown-themed food truck and their food-themed adventures and im sitting there watching it like dang..... if he can follow his passion So Can I.......

watch it here!

Regular Show for 30-something millennial parents

straight up, watching this show teleported me back to high school watching Regular Show, except now im an adult. the hijinks are slightly more grounded than Regular Show?? but it's the same flavor of humor, now with a cast of struggling millennials

also appreciate that the main married couple feels like a couple who are two adults who actually genuinely like each other and are comfortable being goofy together and with their kid

i'll admit, i avoided checking out this show for a while bc it seemed very Children's Show™, which like, it for sure is, but im very pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoy it as an adult viewer!

all the characters are goofy children in a way that's endearing instead of annoying, and it's very fun to witness all their silly antics in their Children Creek Society that they've built. like the creek looks so cool and fun?? they got their own Candy Trading Economy, they got Horse Girl Meadows and Ninja Kids Waterfall and all these other territories that all the different friend groups hang out in. somehow manages to make growing up in the suburbs look fun

it was hard thinking of shows to add to this list bc like, a lot of cartoons i've watched were back when i was a kid and bro I Don't Remember Nothin About Nothin. like did any of those age well? would i still enjoy them as an adult? who knows!!

but Dexter's Lab was a show that popped in my mind where i was like "yeah, y'know what, i remember that one being good! i think i'd still like it!" and i rewatched a little bit of it and like, yeah, it's still pretty good comedy! every once in a while it'll show its age, but overall i love watching this bully-able nerd child bicker with his ballerina jock sister. also COMPLETELY forgot that The Justice Friends were a part of this show and not like, their own completely separate thing lmao

ENA captures the exact feeling of having a weird surreal dream based off of a video game where every single location and interaction is off-puttingly wonky.
i love the vibes! and Ena has a really cool design can we give it up for her

watch it here!

now here's a show that's held up preddy well. it's like!! still a super hilarious show!! the characters got that lovable charm that makes all their wacky antics incredibly fun to witness, with Mabel and Dipper being especially endearing siblings. altho Dipper i need you to stop being a cringefail boy child smh 😔
the overall plot is Intriguing, building up an enticing mystery over the course of the show

idk what else to say bc at this point i feel like i'll just be repeating myself, show's fun and the writing's good! i love the characters!!

you know this show is powerful if it birthed such a baffling Tumblr Sexymen

GOD i love this animated music video so much, it caters to MY aesthetic sensibilities 😩
an absolutely powerful collaboration between Toby Fox and Itoki Hana on music, and Bani-chan on Literally Every Single Aspect Of The Animation. it took her two years to animate all this!!

a hauntingly beautiful experience with a delicious dash of body horror

watch it here!

i diagnose you with Watch Infinity Train

i really! really! like this show!! it's basically an anthology series where each season is its own self-contained story that takes place upon the titular Train That Is Infinite. Book 1 has a good mystery, Book 2 has MT, Book 3 has some real stinky characters (compliment), and Book 4 exists. the writing isn't flawless, but it's tight and compelling with nuanced characters, and there were some scenes where i was like "holy moly they allowed this in a kids' show???"

Personal Opinion Corner: i didn't enjoy Book 4 😔
i could see what they were trying to do with the story but i ultimately found the execution boring. sowwy to any Book 4 Enjoyers!!

Pipi is simply Just A Little Guy but oh so valiantly embarks on a quest to save a princess!!

very silly short film that parodies the whole Your Princess Is In Another Castle trope to like, a really goofy extent

watch it here!

there is no crueler injustice in the world than Motorcity being cancelled after its first season 😔

this show RIPS!!! if you want some extremely stylish car driving action, this show's got you covered.
it takes places in a future Detroit where a rich people metropolis is built on top of old Detroit. citizens are banned from owning automobiles, but that's not gonna stop The Burners from hopping into their sick whips and fighting for everyone's freedom!! the show's got such a good style, i love to look at it with my eyes. really wish we could've seen what they had planned for the rest of the story :'^)

to the surprise of literally no one who knows me, The Duke is my favorite character

im so glad that it's a yearly tradition for lots of people to sit down comfy cozy when the autumn colors return to us and rewatch this show

just... what a wonderfully atmospheric story.
two brothers, lost in the woods of a distinctly rustic americana Unknown, search for a way home, stumbling upon chilling, unsettling, and goofy encounters. the gorgeous soundtrack evokes a nostalgia for an era long before i was born. and the background art?? good god is it gorgeous, i want that amount of artistic power someday

i really love this show!! everyone should watch it!!!

SHAKES EVERYONE BY THEIR SHOULDERS why does nobody listen to me!! watch this show!!!
if you like stylish brutal action then this is the perfect show for you!

intoxicating primal violence sprinkled with moments of touching tenderness and sorrow...
sharing compassion within the brutality of a vicious world....
Good Freaken Action Babey!!!

the last episode of season 2 is a classic Genndy Fumble but overall the show's great

another cartoon i loved back in high school!!

this is perhaps the ultimate Dudes Being Bros show. where else can you behold a couple of slacker dudes accidentally setting off a domino effect that explodes into the most bonkers Situations ever concocted every single day of their lives

Mordecai needs to be bullied even more tho bc the people aren't lying, he's one of the biggest simps ever invented (perhaps the only cartoon simp that surpasses his down bad energies is Boss from Hamtaro). thankfully that doesn't stop this show from being a (mostly) goofy little respite to sit back and relax to after a long day

this one actually Isn't a nostalgia pick! i watched this show for the first time as an adult!

im pleasantly surprised that the show was allowed to exist in its form—it's a kids' show with both lots of fun action and a lot of slow, silent scenes. the art direction is great, i kept staring at the (im guessing gouache??) background art like "wow look at those pretty shapes"

unfortunately the final season kinda sucks, the first half is fine but the second half was a painful slog 😔 biggest fumble i've seen in a while, Genndy shoulda just left the show alone

the crew of interstellar cargo ship Demeter 227
ends up stranded across an alien planet and must fight for survival as their small, separated groups figure out how to escape and go back home

i love that we're dunked straight into the weird flora and fauna of this hostile planet, discovering fascinating and terrifying wildlife alongside the characters. and survival isn't based on subjucating these lifeforms—these lost humans find the most (sometimes questionable) success when they insert themselves into the flow of nature

average humans contrast a stunning ecosystem

the Scooby-Doo cartoon where they actually made the show Scooby-Doo interesting. and im ALLOWED to say that bc i grew up watching the crusty OG Scooby-Doo. this show is actually funny!! and it has an actual story!! they made Freddie into maybe the funniest character in any show ever, the poor guy just really loves building traps :(

i will say, i did try rewatching this show at one point and i forgot how like literally every single non-white character is a racial stereotype. like every single one. it's so bad that this show even forces that energy onto a white man as a gag

purely a nostalgia pick here babey!!

Totally Spies is chemically engineered for Girl Children™ bc as a kid i wanted to be these cool spy girls so bad. they had such cool gadgets!! i remember pretending that my everyday objects were bona fide secret spy tools and feeling soooo cool

unfortunately nowadays the first thing that pops into my head when i think of Totally Spies is,,,,, that list of the fifty billion fetishes that were stuffed into the show,,,,,, (altho it is funny that like, half of that list is just The Girls In Different Outfits)

this movie came out on my birthday so it might've been fate

CONFESSION: im not into Spiderman at all. idk jack about his lore beyond the obvious cultural osmosis knowledge (and whatever fragments of knowledge i've retained from watching the Tobey Maguire movies as a kid). im here purely for the aesthetics!!!

this movie looks SO good, the mix of 2D and 3D animation is super stylish!! gun to my head i couldn't recount what most of the plot was but leave me alone this thing's eye candy

you probably haven't heard of it, but there's this little indie darling called Spongebob Squarepants??

look, i legitimately have no clue what the spongeboy is up to these days, but the first three seasons of this show are still some solid goofy comedy. every once in a while i'll boot up my DVD of season 3 and it'll blow my socks off how consistently charming and funny each episode is. and the cartooning is so expressive, they love to go ham with the facial expressions! plus all the characters got such exploitable dynamics, like they put any two characters together in a room and they're immediately mining comedy gold. this show got big for a reason!!

i really like Steven Universe!! the show's obviously not perfect, but i really appreciate how the creators strived to craft the kind of show that they wished they had as kids. it's a heartfelt, empathetic, optimistic story with characters who reflect the identities and experiences of the people putting it all together

there's a lot of compelling characters and worldbuilding! it takes the story a hot second to find its footing, but once it gets going, each new bit of info about gem society is enthralling and gets your brain revving up like "Wait I Need To Tell Someone My Theories"

it's a good mix of Haha Goofy Kid Show with the occasional Wait Isn't That Kinda Messed Up