Series that aged well

L

Lucky Mom of 2

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There's a lot of series out there that have aged really, really well over animation history. It's those series that you can watch years after it originally aired and still beat the test of time.

Which series for you aged very well?

//edit

Because there's already been some warnings in other threads about the list rule, I feel its necessary for the thread to remind everyone that when you are talking about series to give some good reasons behind each series you pick.

Try to avoid just listing all the series you think aged well =).
 
For me, one series I feel aged amazingly well is The Real Ghostbusters. Everytime I watch the series, I still am amazed with how well it was written especially for how long ago it was produced.

The animation is still pretty clean (especially compared to other things produced in the 80s) and the writing is still pretty good. Best yet, there's minimal technology and social/political references that really tell how old the series is.

For the most part, its still really easy to relate to this series.
 
MTV's Daria and Downtown. Both of their time and place, but still brilliant.

Cowboy Bebop - perhaps it hasn't really been all that long, but it still holds up very well. Perhaps the very distinctive depiction of the future is part of the reason.
 
I agree about the Real Ghostbusters.
Most of the episodes from Disney shows like The Gummi bears and Ducktales also look pretty good to today.
Same goes for Batman the animated series. Some hit and miss episodes in the first season, but a solid show overall with top notch voiceacting and writing.
 
It's not black and white. But in general, I'd say that cartoons that I liked in the 80's haven't really aged all that well. However, cartoons that I enjoyed in the 90's have. Again, I'm not saying that all 80's cartoons haven't, and all 90's cartoons have. But, in general I'd say it's basically how I feel.
 
I'd actually say a lot of series in the 90s actually didn't age as well as many remember them.

Lets take the Uncanny X-Men for instance. At the time, it was awesome, it was a great series, it was cutting edge. Going back now and looking at it, then comparing it to X-Men: Evolution or Wolverine and the X-Men, the dialogue is very disconnected, the flow of many episodes is disjointed and scenes shift without good transition.

There are defiantly exceptions, but some of the main staples of the 90s just aren't as good as they appeared back in the day.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still sit down and watch Uncanny X-Men, I'll often even turn to DX to watch X-Men over many other series on TV that are probably better, but its not because the series is truly better, its because it's really nostalgic value of watching it.

One series that I don't think has gotten nearly enough credit is Rough Neck Chronicles. It didn't get a lot of air time outside of BKN, but that was one nice series. It still suffered a bit from bad scene transition, but it certainly had a deep rich adaptation of the book.

It's currently free to watch on Youtube. I'd certainly encourage everyone to give it a shot.
 
One series that I think aged well is Beast Wars. I became a fan of the series when it aired on Fox Kids, and when I got the series on DVD, I still thought that it was an awesome series. Heck, I might enjoy it more now than I did back then!

Another series that I think aged (mostly) well is Digimon. Back in 1999-2002, I was really into Digimon. When I rewatched the series on Toon Disney in 2007, I still thought the series was great, even though I finally realized the dub to this series wasn't very good.
 
Beast Wars was defiantly awesome. I think the first season had its moments of either being too campy or suffered from bad dialouge, but as a whole, the series most certainly aged very well. I might actually say it aged better then any other transformer series.

Beast Machines might be the other exception, but I know a lot of people who would like to pretend that series never happened :crying:
 
Beast Wars FTW. The CGI for the charachters is still better than Many CGI series today, even those made by the same company, mainframe. I've never seen such expressive CGI faces on TV before or since.

The CGI for the backgrounds does look dated, but it's hardly unwatchable. I`m glad I have the DVDs.

About Beast machines, let it be known that Gary Chalk, Optimus's VA, absolutely detested the fact that Bob Skir made his charachter into essentially a southern Preacher, and actually talked Skir DOWN from some more religious moments. With the amount of ones there were in the show already, one can only imagine what it was like before.
 
My picks are:

Super Mario Bros
The Legend of Zelda
The California Raisins
Looney Tunes
Tiny Toon Adventures
Beetle Juice
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (classic series)
The Real Ghost-Busters
Spongebob Squarepants (not as funny as it used to be, but still good)
Gumby (still a legend)
Garfield and Friends
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show

These shows are still awesome. The jokes, charisma, and plots are just as entertaining as when they first started. I still love (and get a kick) out of watching them when I first started.

There are also many that I am missing, but these are the only ones I still like, at least from the top of my head.

Looneytunes/Disneytoons
 
I'm going to have to disagree with this one, if only because it occasionally bordered on Animaniacs-levels of celebrity humor. I remember watching How I Spent My Summer Vacation recently, and there was a particularly jarring scene where someone finds themself in a crowded room full of random celebrities from the early 90s.
 
Dragonball/Dragonball Z: The show aged pretty well it took years for Cartoon Network to stop airing it. The fact that its still airing in japan in a new refurbished version and people keep buying the show despite the fact that its been rereleased like five diffrent times. Theres just something about that monkey tailed alien thats just keeps grabbing people.

Batman the Animated series: After all these years I can watch it and never get bored. The writing the animation the whole show is a master piece.

Beast Wars: It still looks better then most of the CGI series on tv to this day. Its the best written Transfomer series as well nothing has yet to capture its awesomeness.

Gargoyles: Very simular to Batman the animated series its just a shame we dont see shows like this being made anymore. Pretty much where everything just comes togeather writing acting animation artstyle. The only shows in the the 2000 era that can think of is probraly TMNT2k3 and Avatar.
 
Let me get the obligatory "Gargoyles" mention out of the way. LOL!

I am going to agree with "The Real Ghostbusters" - At least the JMS seasons. Good stuff. Probably the only 80s cartoon that has aged well.

"Batman: The Animated Series" is every bit as cool as it was the first time I saw it.

"Cowboy Bebop" is just a masterpiece.

"ExoSquad" has held up quite well also.
 
Captain Planet & the Planeteers

But seriously, every body's already mentioned the obvious stuff like Gargoyles, Real Ghostbusters and B:TAS. So I'm going to go a little off the beaten track and pick season two of the 90s Iron Man toon. Unlike a lot of Marvel's 90s toons the animation holds up relatively well and the writing is pretty close to B:TAS in quality. This show single handedly made Iron Man one of my favourite superheroes. Shame about that god awful first season.
 
I was wondering if anyone was gonna mention Exosquad.

I can't really, in good faith mention it myself because of how few episodes I've seen, but I've heard a lot of good things from a lot of people about this series.

The few episodes I've seen were very good too.
 
I used to joke that this series was on so long at the 5:00A Slot just to tell people "If you're still awake GO TO SLEEP! If you're just getting up, GO BACK TO SLEEP!"

Lol



The second season of Iron Man was really good and it really doesn't get nearly enough credit. The first season was really campy and almost plane bad. The difference in writing between the two series ... er seasons is like night and day.

Heck, the dialogue and streaming of the series is just plain better then Uncanny X-Men or the Amazing Spiderman.
 
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