The nineties were a time of crazy backwards clothing, 99 cent gas, oval office oral opprobria, and of course…CARTOONS! Man were kids ever catered to back then Disney channel was mostly cartoons and (shocker) so was cartoon network! I know crazy right? Well that was until some…changes…
The WB had morning cartoons as well and all was right in the toon world, we even got a live action crossover movie with the biggest basketball superstar of all time. So things were great. So to narrow it down to five is going to be rough but here are my top five as I remember them, If I leave any out feel free to list your “favs” in the comment section! The rules for inclusion I’m doing shows primarily meant for kids so no…Ren and Stimpy isn’t on here, it had to have STARTED in the 90s so 89 and before doesn’t cut it. Ok…here we go!
#5 Doug
Centering around the new kid and his huge imagination, Doug lured everyone in with its accessibility, and kept them there with their zany characters. Doug is a kid who doesn’t quite fit in but he’s got hi pal Scooter and his dog Porkchop along to help him out. With his huge imagination and strange ability to get into awkward situations, he’s able to keep us entertained. Plus every now and then he becomes one of the coolest superheros to wear a belt… QUAILMAN.
#4 X-men
Yes based on the extremely popular comic book series this show brought it off the page and onto your television set. Along with being just a great show in general, it gave us one of the best theme songs in the history of man-kind. I mean most of us are still hooked off the intro alone. Here’s something to try, walk into a crowded place and blast this song and watch what happens.
The character selection was great, they had Morph, Beast, Rogue, Cyclops, Storm,Wolverine, and much more. Even Jubilee served as a pretty good character in terms of introducing us to the X-men’s world. They did a really good job with character development and keeping them close to their comic book counterparts. From Wolverine and Sabertooth’s rivalry, right down to having Storm be afraid of tight spaces. This show really shaped the direction that Marvel has taken and helped it become the force in film that it is now. Without it we’d still be stuck with movies like the 90s captain america and the Avengers movie would never have existed! Thank you X-men!
#3 Ducktales
Ok the 90s has the crown when it comes to theme songs. If people can agree on nothing else we can at least agree on that! When this song comes on try not to go WoooOOO!
The show circles around Scrooge Mcduck, the richest duck in the world, and his 3 grand nephews. I’m not exactly sure who the father is(Darkwing duck?) but Donald is their uncle. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and their uncle get into all sorts of adventures while Scrooge tries to protect his riches while gaining more. My personal favorite is the episode the hound of castle mcduck. Based off of the book “the hound of the baskerville” it really demonstrates the variety of the show and its ability to make a story it’s own. Plus it taught us all that if you have enough money you can do this-
#2 What A Cartoon!
The What a Cartoon show was Cartoon Networks testing grounds. It just so happened that most of their tests were amazingly forward thinking, creative, and outright fun. You never knew exactly what you were going to get when this show came on, and that was half the fun. The other half was knowing that this one shot episode might come back later on for several seasons. Many great shows got their start here including the Power Puff girls, Courage the cowardly dog, Dexter’s laboratory,Johnny Bravo,Codename: Kids Next Door, and little known fact Family Guy!
With all these great shows owing their existence to “What a Cartoon” we have to give it its respect. Side Note: I wish that they’d come out with another show like this, it would really accelerate the amount of good shows being put on television.
#1 Batman The Animated Series
Oh Superman fans stay out of your feelings! Without this shows success your guy never would have made it.
If you’ve ever read even ONE of my blogs you knew Batman was going to be somewhere on this list (Statics not here because he just missed the cut off airing 9-23-2000). Seriously though even non fans have to admit with music by Danny Elfman backing it up and an atmosphere that completely changed the way people saw superheroes, it had to be on here. Batman led the way for other fan favorites such as Superman the animated series, Batman and robin the animated series, countless amazing DVD DC universe features, and a little show called The Justice League. Dare I say without this animated series we might not have seen Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” as any Bat-Fan will tell you if anybody got the Bat right it was this series and Nolan DID study it. It introduced to the world outside of comic books so many things such as how Gotham looks, the relationship between Batman and the police, and the infamous…Bat-Glare!
Little known fact that’s actually a superpower…joking but he has used it to effectively shutup Superman, Martian Manhunter and just about anybody else foolish enough to question his methods(except wonder woman who insisted on making him her boyfriend).
Close your eyes and try to listen to Batman’s voice…now the Jokers…how about two face? Penguin? I’m willing to bet that you heard in this order: Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Richard Moll, and Paul Williams. I’ve watched every Batman movie a million times over and still these are the voices I hear, no matter how great Heath Ledger was in the Dark Knight that was a one time gig, Hamill has been the joker for decades now. Kevin Conroy has been Batman for just as long and why? It’s off the success of this amazing program. The artwork was amazing in fact they had to give it its own name as it didn’t fit into any category that came before it “Dark Decko.”
Nominated for 19 awards and winning a Daytime Emmy this show embodied not only the Dark Knight and Gotham, but the entire idea of what we want to see in our superhero cartoons. Each hero has a fan following for a reason, when you bring that to the screen you keep those fans and add more (I don’t get what’s so hard about it? Stop letting your ego get in the way Hollywood.)
That’s the best five for right now but as I was doing more research I’m thinking about making a top twenty because WOW the 90s weren’t playing when it came to cartoons! So for now I hope you enjoyed this but I’ll definitely be updating it soon!
Thanks for reading Sincerely,
Brian Bell-Wiseguy Industries
Wiseguy Industries Media 