The 90s had so many great cartoons: Ren & Stimpy, Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, Simpsons, Duckman, Dr. Katz Professional Therapist, Eek! The Cat, Animaniacs, I Am Weasel, Beavis and Butt-Head
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Definitely the '90s. It's no contest.
- Reboot
- Back to the Future
- Hammerman
- Project Geeker
- Bobby's World
- Rugrats
- The Critic
- Beetlejuice
- Aaaah! Real Monsters
- Doug
- Super Mario Bros.
- Mario Brothers 3
- Super Mario World
- Batman The Animated Series
- Darkwing Duck
- X-MEN The Animated Series
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Animaniacs
- Pinky and the Brain
- Hey Arnold!
- Tiny Toons
- The Tick
- Talespin
- Rocko's Modern Life
- Pokémon
- Spider-Man the Animated Series
- Freakazoid
- The Angry Beavers
- Tales from the Crypt
I was a cartoon junkie as a kid. Good times.
How did Dragonball Z not make the list? First season was in 89? Still a quintessential 90s show
ReBoot was great at the time but looking at the cgi now is hard. I still do, but it's like, damn younger me was so much better at watching it with imagination!
Your inclusion of doug makes me doubt the rest of your list
The Critic.
Let’s not forget The Critic.
If we are all being honest, the early Kricfalusi Ren & Stimpy episodes were the apex of cartoons; Animaniacs being a close second. Though nothing really leapfrogged the boundaries of reality like The Brothers Grunt. That show only made sense to me while I was tripping balls.
And yeah, I know Kricfalusi was a terrible person. Sucks to have that stigma on such a masterpiece of a show.
40s/50s. No more black and white bopping characters, before the cheaper limited animations of the 60s. Bugs bunny and Tom and Jerry would stretch, transform and push what the medium could do with huge expressiveness and inventiveness.
Wabbit season
Duck season
Ooh, I was thinking of some more modern stuff, but that's a really good call-out. You can still see a lot of influences from that era today, not to mention that they're still enjoyed today.
The newer Mickey Mouse series felt like a modernized take on that era. If you haven't watched it I would give it a shot. The country-based episodes are all really well done and show how little dialouge is needed to tell interesting and compelling stories.
I'd be interested in seeing similar modern takes on that era, but not Disney and certainly not Mickey.
I was personally surprised myself, as generally Looney Tunes is considered superior to mickey mouse (in regards to older animation). However the country focused ones are worth giving a shot (especially Tokyo, Paris, and the Indian one [can't remember which city]). If you like those, then you might like the rest.
I grew up on Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, Voltron, He-Man, Duck Tales, Inspector Gadget, The Smurfs, Dungeons & Dragons, and dozens more. They don't all hold up the same 40 years later, but this was basically the last generation of free, over-the-air Saturday morning cartoons.
Late 90's-early 00's. Still had all the old classics, but got Simpsons, South Park, KotH, and Futurama. TV was the only option and so network programming was generally better.
Before my time, it was only Saturday mornings for cartoons.
We still got Lunny toons, Flintstones, and Jetsons regularly back then.
We still got Lunny toons
Now I wanna see some bootleg version of Looney Tunes.
Lenny Toons ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)
Right now, because we also have all the cartoons from the past to watch.
Right now.
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake.
New Avatar: Last Airbender animated series in the works.
Knights of Guinevere, a show by Owl House showrunner Dana Terrace and crew, looks like it's going to be fantastic.
Lower Decks is some of the best Star Trek out there.
We're getting a Steven Universe spin-off based on Lars in his Space Pirate Captain Harlock era.
And this isn't even touching on all the great stuff in other markets.
The second-best decade for cartoons was the one right before this one, and the third-best is the one before that, because they're all building off of each other.
New Avatar: Last Airbender animated series in the works.
What's wrong with the old one that there is need for a new one?
Oh. Have you seen Korra? These aren't reboots or remakes. The new ones don't erase the old ones, they build on them.
The early 2000s. Last Airbender was the best. :D
Terrytoons in the 40's and Warner Brothers in the 50's.
Everybody here have great suggestions. I’ll add that there’s great cartoon now (maybe more adult maybe ?)
Steven Universe, Infinity Train, Lower Decks, (maybe) Dungeon Meshii, Symbiotic Titan/Primeval/Samuraï Jack (early 2000s).
The way Infinity Train was treated by HBO is so sad.
Also, I feel like Symbiotic Titan is hard to recommend as it was canceled after one season leaving the story very unfinished.
Depends on what you consider a cartoon.
I can't pick a single decade either. I'm a fan of the 30's-50's cartoons, in spite of any content/stereotypes that hasn't aged well.
Fast forward a little bit I think the 90's have some of the best cartoons produced, with cartoon network and nickelodeon taking the lion's share of it.
If you consider anime a cartoon too, I would say the 80's is where it's at.
I agree. I mean the toy cartoons of the eighties are corny so with anime and more adult level american fair its improved in a away but not in a way that invalidates the fun of earlier stuff.
Idk but I feel like anime really peaked between the late 80s and late 00s, both stylistically and content-wise. Even the wackier concepts were done well/with love, but it's been at least a couple of decades that it all feels undercooked and shows that get massive praise today would've been at most Claymore-tier had they come out a couple of decades ago. AOT, an undercooked Code Geass, is a good example of this, IMO.