What should we watch after Gargoyles?

October 16, 2007 5:25 AM

On a whim my girlfriend started us watching the 90's cartoon series Gargoyles together. For some bizarre reason this has turned into a fun little bonding ritual. Unfortunately we've almost reached the end of Season Two: Volume One, which is all that has been released on DVD (When's the rest coming out?). What should we watch next? She had the idea to watch the old X-Men cartoon series. What other retro shows have a little bit of that little kid fun, and a little bit of all-ages appeal?
posted by shanevsevil to media & arts (49 comments total)

In a meta-way, Harvey Birdman is hard to beat, especially (now) for the Stephen Colbert part.
posted by rokusan at 5:31 AM on October 16, 2007

Mummies Alive!
posted by letahl at 5:31 AM on October 16, 2007

If you get the disney toon channel (no idea what the proper name is) you might pick it up M-F at 3:30am and M-S at 4:30am. The show is a disney one so they probably have the rest of season two.
posted by jwells at 5:39 AM on October 16, 2007

My best friend and I usually watch at least two episodes of Pete and Pete a weekend. It's possibly the best thing ever.
posted by banannafish at 5:41 AM on October 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

How about Doctor Who? Not a cartoon, but definitely has childlike whimsy, at least in the most recent incarnations.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:43 AM on October 16, 2007

Animaniacs
The Tick
X-Men
Justice League
Ren & Stimpy (the earlier seasons are MUCH better)
And for the fun/weird/retro, you just can't beat Aeon Flux
posted by tigerjade at 5:43 AM on October 16, 2007

BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES!

i think the animators/creators may have been the same...at any rate i remember it being out on tv roughly the same time gargoyles was.
posted by tastycracker at 5:50 AM on October 16, 2007

nthing x-men, which is amazing. the spiderman cartoons from the same era are also pretty great. or at least they seemed great when i was seven years old.

man, you could go for early, early power rangers too, if you felt like hating yourself in the morning.
posted by dismas at 5:51 AM on October 16, 2007

Have you seen Samurai Jack? It's all kinds of awesome.
posted by JaredSeth at 5:52 AM on October 16, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Seconding Batman: The Animated Series and Samurai Jack.

Also, Justice League Unlimited.
posted by junkbox at 6:00 AM on October 16, 2007

Thirding Batman: The Animated Series. Incredible show!
posted by trokair at 6:04 AM on October 16, 2007

Digimon!
posted by you're a kitty! at 6:09 AM on October 16, 2007

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a truly first-rate show that my six-year-old and I enjoy together.
posted by briank at 6:13 AM on October 16, 2007

Pirates of Dark Water, which, at 29 I'm going back to watch and its still mostly awesome. They never finished the show, so be warned.
posted by khaibit at 6:17 AM on October 16, 2007

Exo-Squad was pretty cool, but might be hard to find on DVD. And I'll Nth Batman.
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:17 AM on October 16, 2007

Oh shit yeah Pirates of Dark Water!
posted by cowbellemoo at 6:22 AM on October 16, 2007

My former roommate was a huge Transformers fan. We downloaded and watched all of the original series and the movie.

Whatever you do, do NOT watch the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. It is not as good as you remember.
posted by Diskeater at 6:30 AM on October 16, 2007

I'm a big fan of Star Blazers. It's older than Gargoyles, but it's really brilliant and has a huge story arch. It's dramatic and cool and sad and action packed. And, yes, sort of campy because of when it was made.

I bought the VHS set some years ago and we watched an episode every night before bed. It was great!

Quest for Iscandar is the first story, and by far the better. Highly recommended.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:32 AM on October 16, 2007

You can't go wrong with anything that Bruce Timm has made his mark on. This means, pretty much anything in the DCAU (DC Animated Universe) which includes, Batman, Superman, Batman/Superman, Justice League, Teen Titans, and so on.

A bit of the courtship between me and my wife involved some cuddling beneath a blanket to the dulcet tones of Spongebob Squarepants.

Voltron has not aged well.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:40 AM on October 16, 2007

Yes. Batman the Animated Series.
Dexter's Laboratory
Animaniacs
The Tick
Seasons 3-9 of the Simpsons
posted by zackola at 6:42 AM on October 16, 2007

How bout the Venture Brothers? You get the same cheesy cartoon goodness, but with layers of snark and meta on top of it.
posted by cosmicbandito at 6:44 AM on October 16, 2007

The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Truly awesome. And I second the last 3 series of Doctor Who - not a cartoon, but still fun.
posted by afx237vi at 7:13 AM on October 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I second Pirates of Darkwater.

And I will also nominate Mighty Max! The villain was voiced by Tim Curry.
posted by ian1977 at 7:34 AM on October 16, 2007

The Muppet Show
posted by amtho at 7:40 AM on October 16, 2007

I'm going to repeat others, but I don't care. The first two you should start with are Batman: The Animated Series and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 7:43 AM on October 16, 2007

I agree with those who assert that It's Time For Aaaanimaaaaniacs.

Also, yes, the Muppet Show. We got those for my dad last Xmas and all ended up watching them in hysterics for most of the day.
posted by crinklebat at 8:00 AM on October 16, 2007

I'd give Dragonball Z a try, if you like it there are enough episodes to keep you entertained for years (literally!).
posted by waxboy at 8:02 AM on October 16, 2007

The Adventures of Pete & Pete
old Ren & Stimpy
The Tick
Animaniacs
The Muppet Show
posted by Melinika at 8:20 AM on October 16, 2007

Robotech is an odd mash up from several Japanese animated series which was deconstructed, remixed, and released here in the states during the 80s.

Despite its mongrel pedigree, it in many ways exemplifies the serialized Space Opera genre.

Anyway, there are about a million episodes to dig through as well some awesome derivative movies and series.

If you're at all interested in giant robots, love triangles, and badly dubbed anime, then you may want to check it out... or you could go drink from the alter of Gundam.... bleh...
posted by wfrgms at 8:41 AM on October 16, 2007

batman beyond
teen titans
posted by phil at 9:28 AM on October 16, 2007

to address your question about when the rest of the series will be out on dvd the answer is most likely never.

googiling for: gargoyles complete torrent

has some interesting results though
posted by phil at 9:30 AM on October 16, 2007

Many excellent suggestions here, to which I must add two more recent cartoons that my toon loving boy and I have bonded to in the past: Futurama (if you haven't seen it) and Invader Zim (about 20% of our in jokes come from this delightfully twisted series.
posted by mostlymartha at 9:51 AM on October 16, 2007

You might like Home Movies.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:09 AM on October 16, 2007

Definitely Batman the Animated Series for the more "serious" animation. The Tick and Dexter's Laboratory for the more offbeat humorous stuff. Powerpuff Girls is as good as Dexter, and it's surprisingly entertaining even for guys, despite all the tongue-in-cheek cutesiness of it.

That's assuming that all these '90s shows are as "retro" as Gargoyles is. If you're old enough, you could dig around for older early '80s stuff that you might've grown up on, like He-Man. Even if it's not nearly as good as it seemed at the time, it's amusing to see how cheesy some of it actually is.

But if you really wanna go retro, you could get the DVDs of the old Disney animated shorts, which seem to have all but been ignored by their TV departments, including Toon Disney. Watching them constantly on the Disney Channel was one of the simple pleasures of my childhood.

When is Muppet Babies ever gonna get released on DVD?
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:27 AM on October 16, 2007

I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned yet, but Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is fantastic. Freakazoid is alot of fun and silly too. As far as old-school camp is concerned, i'll nth Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Batman: TAS, and The Tick.

For more modern american animation, check out The Boondocks, The Venture Brothers, Futurama, and Invader Zim.

Beyond all that, if you're feeling a little anime, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, and Full Metal Alchemist all have more than acceptable dubs, which make them easy to watch. Just be aware that it isn't the norm for Anime to have shiny happy endings, but it also gives you guys an opportunity to share some emotions as things happen.
posted by phredgreen at 10:50 AM on October 16, 2007

Darkwing Duck and Batman
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 10:53 AM on October 16, 2007

I've noticed two recommendations for Animaniacs, but none for Tiny Toon Adventures ... which has much of the same charm and humor. (They once did an episode that were They Might Be Giants music-video cartoons.)
posted by WCityMike at 11:12 AM on October 16, 2007

Nthing Animaniacs and 2nding Tiny Toons... remember the episode where Babs was an actress on the show thirteensomething?
posted by kidsleepy at 12:45 PM on October 16, 2007

Another vote for Batman: the Animated Series (not The Batman) and Samurai Jack. If it's the serial nature of the animated shows that appeals to you, I have fond memories of Duck Tales and (to a lesser extent) the Gummi Bears, although it depends on how much you can tolerate the more kid-centric shows.
posted by Paragon at 1:16 PM on October 16, 2007

The whole series. Other cartoons can't compare.
posted by metaname at 1:17 PM on October 16, 2007

Animaniacs
Looonatics Unleashed has turned out not to be as ghastly as you'ld expect. I mean, Bootsy Collins as a bad guy?!?

Invader Zim is good kiddy fun

How about a little Courage the Cowardly Dog, Freakazoid and The Tick for catchphrase-a-rama.
posted by djrock3k at 1:36 PM on October 16, 2007

My girlfriend and I bond over Avatar. It's not retro and the series isn't complete yet, but it's good. My girlfriend and I both studied animation in college and considered it as a career opportunity, so when I say that neither of us expected this level of quality from an American animation, we're saying that from a certain level of experience and expertise. It's really really good.
posted by lekvar at 2:46 PM on October 16, 2007

Batman seems to be the closest one thematically+it trumps X-men (which was a good show in it's own right). The other suggestions seem a bit bleh-blah-squirt-silly cartoons. But A good narrative retro (90's) is "Where in the world is Carmen San Diego" or "Spider-Man".
posted by Student of Man at 4:37 PM on October 16, 2007

Seconding Mysterious Cities of Gold. Used to watch it with my college boyfriend. Excellent stuff.
posted by naoko at 4:59 PM on October 16, 2007

For more details about your "when's the rest coming out" question, check TVShowsonDVD
posted by softlord at 5:35 PM on October 16, 2007

While browsing through blockbuster online I saw that the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was available on dvd, so I did a quick search to see what other old cartoons were available. Check out this site for a great list of dvd's available through amazon
posted by Sufi at 8:18 AM on October 17, 2007

DuckTales is another good one, at least from what I can remember originally. I've seen a couple episodes since, but I haven't seen enough to conclude if it's as good as it was when I was a kid.

It seemed to have been pulled from Toon Disney in the past couple of years (which still shows TaleSpin and Rescue Rangers), and I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that it recently became available on DVD.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 12:11 PM on October 17, 2007

Thundercats! (Hoooooooooooo!)
posted by CwgrlUp at 5:09 PM on October 17, 2007

Seconding (?) Justice League and - Unlimited. There're ups and downs, but many of the episodes are quite excellent. Some deep character dynamics, and the multi-episode arcs are great.
Also cannot but throw in a vote for Venture Bros, which is so, so good.
posted by zusty at 11:54 AM on October 18, 2007