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Good western animated shows

F

Fou-Lu

Member
I've always been more of an anime guy when it came to watching animated programming, but The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra and (surprisingly) Mystery Incorporated showed me that good western cartoons can compete with good anime and can be just as enjoyable to an adult audience as the kid audience. Are there other western shows at that level?
 
S

Sölf

Member
I still haven't seen it myself (at least not more than a few episodes), but doesn't Wakfu fall in the same niche?
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
The Real Ghostbusters, up until they replace Lorenzo Music with Dave Coolier (and a lesser extent, Arsensio Hall with Buster Jones)

That said, it's basically just a "monster of the week" show, but it's largely written for adults and can be very funny.
 
G

GlitchyDegree

Banned
Adventure Time. I stopped watching western cartoons in my early teens until this show brought me back.

EDIT: I'll echo everyone else & say that Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Rick & Morty, and Samurai Jack are great. Keep in mind it takes a while for Steven Universe to get good.
 
MiguelMexMIstery

MiguelMexMIstery

Member
The Amazing World of Gumball

c7b8b1caa1b15b3aec98f69d7d6b6134.gif
 
G

Gnome

Member
I want to know why the rule for western cartoons is comedy with very few exceptions. There's so many western properties that would make for great animated adaptations. A whole bunch of Image Comics properties would make for cool shows, there's also a lot of SFF novels that would work as well (anything by Brandon Sanderson for example).
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
The original DCAU (Batman: The Animated Series through Justice League Unlimited) is phenomenal. BTAS is still unrivaled for US animation, so fucking good. The Batman is average at its best, with the possible exception of the Batman vs. Dracula movie that is about a thousand times better than it has any right to be given its pedigree and premise.

Seconding things mentioned in this thread:

The Real Ghostbusters: It's a bit rough by virtue of being a product of the state of the art at the time, but easily the best cartoon to come out of the 80's. It starts to lose altitude in the later seasons, culminating in a complete collapse when they went to 15 minute episodes to pair up with 15 minute Slimer slapstick shorts, but there's tons of good stuff to be had.

Invader Zim: Not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Fucking dark, though.

Bojack Horseman: Stick through the first few episodes until it finds its swing. It's hilarious, has too many sight gags to possibly catch them all, but damn does it get bleak from time to time.

Rick and Morty: Generally good, but extremely scattershot. The latter half of the first season and first half of the second season are the goldilocks zone. Rick's constant vomit drool hanging off his lip is incredibly off-putting.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Fou-Lu said:
I've always been more of an anime guy when it came to watching animated programming, but The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra and (surprisingly) Mystery Incorporated showed me that good western cartoons can compete with good anime and can be just as enjoyable to an adult audience as the kid audience. Are there other western shows at that level?
Click to expand...

Kid audience? Well, MLP is the most enjoyable TV-Y show I've ever seen.
Past that rating, there's a ton of stuff already mentioned in this thread.

Gnome said:
I want to know why the rule for western cartoons is comedy with very few exceptions. There's so many western properties that would make for great animated adaptations. A whole bunch of Image Comics properties would make for cool shows, there's also a lot of SFF novels that would work as well (anything by Brandon Sanderson for example).
Click to expand...

Budget mainly, along with audience expectations. There's also the school of thought among animators that not going weird and wacky is a waste of the medium, which naturally lends itself more to comedy.
 
S

Superflat

Member
Gravity Falls. It's got a bit of everything (humor, drama, horror), and the art design is deep and gorgeous. It starts off as a show with inventive stand alone stories but later develops into a large scale storyline.

Batman the Animated Series will always be one of the all time greats.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
Admiral Woofington's thread recently convinced me to binge-watch Wakfu. I ended up really enjoying the show. It's similar in a lot of ways to Avatar, even surpassing it in some aspects, such as the villains. It takes a while for S1 to get going (much like A:TLA, again), but the plot-driven episodes are done exceptionally well in my opinion. It's worth mentioning that the English voice-overs are supposedly pretty bad, so I watched the whole show in French - now I'm half tempted to learn the language, heh
 
TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
Mike M said:
The original DCAU (Batman: The Animated Series through Justice League Unlimited) is phenomenal. BTAS is still unrivaled for US animation, so fucking good. The Batman is average at its best, with the possible exception of the Batman vs. Dracula movie that is about a thousand times better than it has any right to be given its pedigree and premise.
Click to expand...

No way, the show has plenty of fantastic episodes. "Seconds," "The Laughing Bat," "Meltdown," "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind," etc. It never hits the peak of episodes like "Heart of Ice," but when all cylinders are firing it comes close.

You are correct that The Batman vs. Dracula is great though.

wFE7iUb.gif
 
S

StoneFox

Member
Voltron: Legendary Defender should be up your ally, it has a good chunk of the same people from Avatar and Korra working on it and season 3 looks hype as hell. Plus it's based on an anime so you can't beat that.

Also backing people's suggestions of Gravity Falls, Batman TAS, and Rick and Morty. Also adding Batman Beyond.
 
P

Permanently A

Junior Member
Young Justice - superhero sidekicks forming their own team

Steven Universe - DBZ if Gohan was the main character

Samurai Jack - gotta get back, back to the past

Jackie Chan Adventures - ONE MORE THING

Gravity Falls - what mysteries lurk in this quaint town?
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
TheRedSnifit said:
No way, the show has plenty of fantastic episodes. "Seconds," "The Laughing Bat," "Meltdown," "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind," etc. It never hits the peak of episodes like "Heart of Ice," but when all cylinders are firing it comes close.

You are correct that The Batman vs. Dracula is great though.

giphy.gif
Click to expand...
It certainly found its stride and wasn't awful, but it was always far lesser in dialog, characterization, and plotting.

Plus the sky was frequently some stupid color like green. What was up with that.
 
S

Sir_Crocodile

Member
It would help to know exactly what you're looking for OP. Anyway, all the below are good, though some of them are aiming for younger audiences:

Batman : The Animated Series
Superman : The Animated Series
Batman Beyond
Justice League
Justice League Unlimited
Static Shock
Young Justice
Batman : The Brave and the Bold
Avengers : Earths Mightiest Heroes
Jackie Chan Adventures
Megas XLR
Archer
Samurai Jack
Futurama
Simpsons
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)
Teen Titans
Pinky & The Brain
Animaniacs
Tiny Toon Adventures
The Boondocks (Seasons 1 & 2)
Daria
The Tick
X-men Evolution
Rocko's Modern Life
Hey Arnold

Older stuff:
Spider-Man (1994)
Prince Valiant
Visionaries
Dungeons and Dragons

80s Thundercats was good when it was written by Leonard Starr. It often wasn't though.
 
TheUzukiLives

TheUzukiLives

Banned
Gnome said:
I want to know why the rule for western cartoons is comedy with very few exceptions. There's so many western properties that would make for great animated adaptations. A whole bunch of Image Comics properties would make for cool shows, there's also a lot of SFF novels that would work as well (anything by Brandon Sanderson for example).
Click to expand...

Because the west, mainly America, still see cartoons as childish. I know there are cartoons made now that aren't comedy or made for children, but try telling the old people who pay for these cartoons to be made that it's okay to break away from the norm. Also it's harder to sell merchandise for more serious series and that's where cartoons make the vast majority of their income back. It's why shows like Symbiotic Titan, Samurai Jack, and Thundercats (the reboot) where cancelled. They were aiming for an slightly older audience, that audience doesn't buy merchandise, or at least not the kind that the network makes, merchandise doesn't sell, then the show is draining more money then it's worth making. It's why shows like Spongebob and The Simpsons can run for 20+ years with varying degrees of quality. Sure we can complain that the last 10 years of those shows have been mediocre to poor, but kids are still buying spongebob merch on a daily basis so it's here to stay.


As for the OP's original question I've been watching this show called Buddy Thunderstruck on Netflix. If you like Talladega Nights, wordplay and slapstick then you'll have a good time with it.
 
TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
Mike M said:
It certainly found its stride and wasn't awful, but it was always far lesser in dialog, characterization, and plotting.

Plus the sky was frequently some stupid color like green. What was up with that.
Click to expand...

Agree to disagree, then. I can agree that it was never as good as peak TAS, but there were definitely episodes far better than the average TAS episode, and can at least hold their own against some of the best.

And . . . yeah, the technicolor skies could be a bit much. But I always liked how fucking weird its Gotham looked.

pan06.jpg

wbMV4u7.gif
 
N

Not

Banned
Steven Universe is actually good. Better than all anime
by default because it's progressive

It'll click once you get to fusions in "Giant Woman." Until then, just know that the payoff for everything being laid out during the slow first episodes is WORTH. IT.
 
Y

Yeoman

Member
Justice League Unlimited
Batman Beyond/of the future (In the UK)
Megas XLR
X-Men: Evolution
Samurai Jack
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Dexter's Lab
Courage the Cowardly Dog
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
Not said:
Steven Universe is actually good. Better than all anime
by default because it's progressive

It'll click once you get to fusions in "Giant Woman." Until then, just know that the payoff for everything being laid out in the slow first episodes is WORTH. IT.
Click to expand...

the problem with SU is that it peaked at the season 1 ending, and then never quite managed to reach the same heights again. It's still enjoyable throughout S2 till now, there are a couple great episodes in-between (Sworn To The Sword being my personal favorite episode), and the latest Steven Bomb could signal a return to form at last , but for the most part it just meanders around aimlessly, and the Beach City episodes are just the worst, let me tell you. I've gradually become less enthusiastic about the show over the time

btw, OP, you simply need to watch Futurama and Rick and Morty, if you haven't done so already. I mean, they are nothing like story-focused shows you're probably looking for, but these are some of the very best Western animated shows out there

oh, and another recommendation for Over the Garden Wall from me as well
 
K

kurahador

Member
Batman The Animated Series --- plenty of episodes to go through, better to just watch the recommend ones.
Superman The Animated Series --- same case as above
Justice League
Batman Beyond
Regular Show --- first 2 seasons especially were great fun.
Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes
 
N

NipplesAndToes23

Member
Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Young Justice, Batman The Animated series, Batman Beyond, Samurai Jack, The Boondocks, and Jem and the Holograms. All good shit.
 
N

Not

Banned
Violet_0 said:
the problem with SU is that it peaked at the season 1 ending, and then never quite managed to reach the same heights again. It's still enjoyable throughout S2 till now, there are a couple great episodes in-between (Sworn To The Sword being my personal favorite episode), and the latest Steven Bomb could signal a return to form at last , but for the most part it just meanders around aimlessly, and the Beach City episodes are just the worst, let me tell you. I've gradually become less enthusiastic about the show over the time
Click to expand...

Huh, well I just disagree 100%

It's maintained its quality from the end of S1 onward. Easily. How long ago was
Mr. Greg? Mindful Education?
Both of those surpassed the S1 finale.

You wouldn't care about the characters if they didn't take time to build them up with "meandering." EVERYTHING pays off in this show.
 
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