A lifetime of cartoon viewing: A visual catalogue

One of my pet peeves is people who automatically dismiss animation as kids' stuff. It's kids' stuff so therefore it's automatically uncreative, undemanding and unworthy of attention.

Well, as I recently reflected on my animation viewing habits over the years, it was interesting to discover that I managed to transition from childhood to adulthood watching cartoons all the way. Even as I got older and my entertainment tastes changed, there was always something that spoke to me. Although I'm as guilty as the next person for referring to animation as a genre, truly it is more accurate to describe it as a medium, conveying stories for audiences of all ages.

In chronological order, these are the cartoon series - shortlisted down to essentially one for each year of my life - that have left a mark on me over the past few decades:


































Some of the other animated series that made an impression on me, but just didn't quite cut the Top 30 list for various reasons, are:
So now I open to the floor to you: Are there any absolute faves that I have missed? What had you glued to the box as a child, teen and adult?

Out of interest, this is a fabulous list of animated TV shows to jog your memory. And you can see that over the past 15 years or so Anime has really come to dominate in the serial cartoon department.

Comments

Unknown said…
The cartoons I grew up with and see missing are: Biker Mice from Mars, Swat Kats, The Raccoons, Mighty Max, Casper and friends.

Other than those I mentioned, your list is spot on ;)
Paul Crilley said…
Agree with all those (except what's with the Ghostbusters pic? Don't remember an ape). I'd add Droids. And around the Willy Fog time period there was Dogtanion.
SilentiSonas said…
Awesome list and brought back some memories I had buried a long time back.

Missing from the list for me would be Bionic Six, Captain Planet (not a favourite but a parents choice) and Galaxy Rangers.

In my older years I found that anime resonates with me more in terms of complex story telling and I find Western cartoons of the last 5-10 years just haven't been the same. Its probably a mix of nostalgia in there as well but they just don't seem as good.
Rhymelark said…
Jemmmmmmmmmm
Jem is excitement!
Oooo Jemmmmmmmmmmm
Jem is adventure!
Oooooooo
Glamour and glitter,
Fashion and fame!

Jemmmmmmmmmm
Jem is truly outrageous
Truly, truly, truly outrageous
Woo ooo Jemmmmmm
Jem
the music's contagious
outrageous
Tim said…
Most significant animated series of my youth was that bastardized anime import, Robotech. Although I loved boarding school, I was really sad to not be able to watch the second series :P
MJenks said…
GI Joe and Transformers were two of the most important cartoons to my young viewing. But, you and I had mostly the same viewing tastes, it appears, though your Ghostbusters is markedly different from ours. Some of the "foreign" cartoons, too, I hadn't seen. But, they're pretty close.
Pfangirl said…
There were 2 Ghostbusters series. The first was Filmation's Ghostbusters with Tracy the Gorilla, which is the one I'm referring to here.

The other series was called The Original Ghostbusters and was, of course, based on the live-action film.

We got both shows in South Africa, but for me the one with the ape and conveyor belt "getting dressed for ghost busting action" scene always came out tops.

Tim, I remember one season of Robotech, from when I was a bit older and could appreciate it more. Most of the time the characters were running around on the surface of a planet, and the rock star with them was not the gender they were supposed to be. I have no idea what season that was though.
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