Cartoons of today: will they ever be classics? (2008 edition)

Heh, pretty interesting thread here. Well, I'm going to ignore the easy targets like Spongebob, South Park, and the like since their places will certainely be cemented.

Avatar is a show I think will definately have some longevity & ultimately I think it'll be a more popular Sonic SatAM as the years pass (a cult classic if you will), maybe not well remembered by the mainstream but something its biggest fans will never forget. And I'm certain it'll be a basis of inspration for future shows.

Naruto will likely be this generaton's DBZ as far as action shows go. Justice League will definately be listed in the same breath as Batman TAS.

I'm not ready to put Spectacular Spider-Man in the same class yet. It's had an awesome first season, but it's still only one season.

Also, just to throw this in, I was surprised to see Zoids: Chaotic Century on the initial post & I agree with the assement. It was such a fun series, but CN always gave it such crap time slots, so I had to tape it just incase I'd oversleep. Though the bright side meant I ended up having a good 70% - 80% of the series on CD-R! :D
 
I believe that, without a doubt, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Batman: The Animated Series (and all of the Bruce Timm cartoons for that matter...) will be classics.
 
In my opinion, here are some of the main modern classics:

The Bruce Timm Batman School
Most popular Nicktoons
Most popular Disney Cartoons
The Steven Spielberg Saturday Morning Animation School
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Most popular anime (and some more obscure cult titles).
(anime is going to be like wuxia film 30 years from now, except more mainstream.)
Most Toonami shows
Most Adult Swim shows
Many Cartoon Network shows
Pixar cartoons
South Park
The Simpsons
Beavis and Butt-Head
The Todd McFarlane / Peter Chung school of animetion.
And (much as I hate to admit it) Family Guy


More things will be remembered in the future than the classics of yesterday are by todays standards. That's because there's more ways to preserve their content (i.e. YouTube, Google, IMDB, Anime News Network and Wiki). In the future it will be like one big catalogue of everything that's ever been produced regardless of whether it's "immortal" or not. It's already starting to look that way.
 
Doubtful, considering Batman was really the first of it's type and completely re-defined action cartoons. IMHO, even as good as some action shows are now, Batman, the Animation Series is simply untouchable because of what it was able to accomplish for the time it was made and for how revolutionary it was.

My list of shows that will be considered classic years from now is actually pretty small:

The Simpsons
Batman the Animated Series
Spongebob Squarepants

And that's pretty much it.
 
I can pretty much tell you every single Cartoon Network animated show, with the possible exception of the "horrid" 2005-2007 era. :shrug: Spongebob will definitely be considered classic...that is, if it ends within a few years. :sweat: The DCAU will also be considered classic. And I will tell you now that today's classics will soon be referred to as ancients. ;)
 
Something that should be brought up is the matter of who will be considering these things to be classics. Lessee, where's that diagram I made...

mainartgkcq4.jpg


Not 100% watertight, I know, but it'll do.

I'd say that a cartoon would have to have appeal to at least two of these demographics before it really qualifies. Something like B:TAS, which has a lot of geek appeal but not so much appeal to the mainstream (aside from kids) or to artsy types, is a teensy bit too niche for "classic" status.
 
I forgot to mention the cartoons from "The Disney Afternoon" block (Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, Talespin), as well as Animaniacs, and Tiny Toon Adventures.
 
As much as I love these shows...I don't think so. These shows have cult interest at best, and if they were actually considered classics I think we'd have complete DVD collections of all of them by now.

Or maybe I'm just bitter.
 
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