Series that aged well

T

talkitive_kiwi

New member
So, we have about 40 years of solid animation in the US and many series aged a lot better then others.

Which series do you think aged very well?

Please, remember the rabroad list policy, if you're going to list a series, tell us why it aged well.
 
Here are some animated series from the 90's that I think aged well.

X-Men: The Animated Series and Beast Wars - These series have aged mostly well. While the animation to these series don't hold up to today's standards, the stories and characters in them are still great.

Superman: The Animated Series - In my opinion, the animation and stories in this series are still great, by today's standards.

King of the Hill - The animation still looks good, and the humor usually doesn't rely on pop culture references, making it easier for future generations to enjoy the show.

As for an animated series that hasn't aged well...

Transformers G1 - The animation and writing aren't that great, but I still enjoy it. The 1986 Transformers movie, on the other hand, has some great looking animation.
 
A lot of stuff from the 90's aged well in my opinion, a lot of it is 10-20 years old and lot's of stuff like X-Men: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series still have a modern look and feel to them that has not become seriously dated. I honestly think that western animation aged better than eastern animation when it comes to visuals, these day's I find that most eastern animation is better than western, but back in the 90's I would give the edge to western animation, in the 80's it's a total toss up since some western animation in the 80's was downright terrible.
 
Agreed, G1 was rather hokey in both writing and animation (seasons 1 and 3 especially). And season 2 was a mixed bag, with City of Steel, The core, B.O.T. the Autobot Run, The Immobilizer and Autobot Spike being the worst of the lot in animation and writing quality. While Atlantis Arise was the best in animation of the season.

Beast Wars improved over time of course. With season 3 being the best of the three seasons. X-Men was just... yeah. Both the writing was rather over the top and the animation was just crummy. I'll agree with KOTH however.



Eh, it's your call, some 90's shows have aged decently, some have not, X-Men, Gundam and the Sonic Cartoons (sans the SatAM version) have not.
 
I find that X-Men has aged pretty darn good, the story is still as good as anything being told today (western) and the animation is still very strong in my opinion, but I guess others may feel differently than I do on this matter and that's fine too.
 
I'm actually surprised anyone is saying The Uncanny X-Men aged well. I mean I'll still watch it flipping through the channels, but both Uncanny X-Men and The Amazing Spiderman just didn't age well IMHO. Oddly enough, I think of all the 90s Marvel cartoon productions, Ironman Season 2 aged the best. The more recent Spiderman and X-Men franchises just make the 90s versions look and feel like crap.

Transformers the movie is actually rather remarkable at how well it aged.

A series I don't see float to the top of many people's minds is The Real Ghostbusters. For it's day, I think it had the best writing and acting of almost anything else around. Its *REALLY* hard to top that.

Another one that aged AMAZINGLY well is the 4-part mini series Inhumanoids. The concept initially doesn't feel all that solid, but its very rewatchable and still very enjoyable.

Two series I don't think really got the exposure they should have in the day and stand out are Wheeled Warriors and Pole Position. The whit both series had and acting made them pretty darn good.
 
It is definately debateable, but I personaly think that Silverage WB shows aged well. At least, some parts did. I think Tiny Toons didn't age as well as the later shows.
My favorite part of them was the energy and creativity behind them (specificaly A! F! And P&TB).
 
I personally think that most of the Disney Afternoon shows have aged well. From the few that I have revisited, Ducktales, & Darkwing Duck, are still as enjoyable as they were for me when I was child, though I have come to appreciate them even more. Ducktales is still the show with adventure feel that I love, though now that I'm older, I love the antics of Scrooge McDuck. As for Darkwing Duck, I have come to love it more with the fact that I know it's more a satire/parody of Batman, and other comic book superheroes.
 
I would love to see someone re-score the music in the transformers movie. Expect for the 80's rock songs, which define the film's era and are awesome, the BGM is some of the WORST EVER. It's practically Muted, and sounds like the MIDI from a low-end NES game. Awful, awful junk. They spent so much for animation and key songs they forgot to hire an actual orchestra for the BGM.
 
I really have to disagree with Transformers G1... i watched it as a kid but these days i find it pretty much unwatchable. Beast wars on the otherhand i can still very much enjoy.
Gargoyles is an obvious one that aged well.
Sonic SATam, is STILL the best animated sonic series.
Superman and batman are just about as good today as JLU and so forth...
X-men i think is still pretty strong, but i'm not sure if i can say the same for other marvel shows
Animaniacs is also still bloody brilliant...
and hell, if we wanted to go even furthar back we could include a lot of the aged old classics, such as looney toons, aswell

Going into anime...
DBZ aged ok; i don't enjoy it as much as once did as i can't ignore a lot of writing, but it's watchable. frankly there really are much better shonen
Tenchi muyo aged well, as long as you ignore the more recent 3rd OVA (irony?)
Most of the gundam series are still good...
Lupin the 3rd is still enjoyable
 
King Of The Hill aged really well. It might be the style of humor, but I can watch any of the early episodes and I would never be able to tell when they were made unless someone told me.

I agree with this. You can watch these now and still be impressed with them and enjoy them. I'd say Rescue Rangers didn't age as well as the rest of the best, but it did age better than all of the post-Gargoyles stuff.
 
90s X-Men was enjoyable because they basically animated entire comic book storylines.

But visually it was bad. REAL bad. I don't know how you can defend its animation, watch any given episode and you see chest muscles that seem to morph and shift from frame to frame, awful draftsmanship of human anatomy, horrible use of "spotted blacks" and female boobs that inflate and deflate from scene to scene! Sunbow's cartoons had charming mistakes and miscolorizations, but Akom's X-Men was simply garish and grotesque to look at most times.

The dialogue wasn't great either. They were basically using Chris Claremont's purple-tongued speeches.

But the stories were good. They had drama and emotion that somehow made it engaging as a serial. But it doesn't leap to my mind as a well produced show.

The 80s X-Men pilot was, IMO, the best looking X-Men show I've ever seen. The dialogue and voices were crap, but if any of the X-Men toons looked like that I'd be all over it.
 
I'm quite surprised at how well I can get into most earlier KotH episodes, barring season 1 for some reason, I kind of like some of the stories in them, like the time Hank got Bobby addicted to smoking. I think my problem is that the animation and the art direction in season 1 makes me cringe. I'm glad that the designs were updated past season 2. Sure, the show may seem dated with references to celebrities of our time, along with certain issues as well, but at least unlike other show, the celebrities don't play a big part in a majority of episodes.


I say that the scripts, the quality of the animation, and the voice acting quality also play a big role in making most of the DA show have a timeless feel to them. I know it's an old saying and one that reeks of nostalgia, but they really don't make them like they used to, or at least, animation wise. But yeah, I remember even when shows like Timon & Pumba, and Quack Pack were on, I didn't like them. I really also need to get on to own the rest of Ducktales, & Darkwing Duck, along with getting the volumes of Gummi Bears, Chip & Dale, Gargoyles, and Talespin to add to my collection. Who knows, maybe Disney will finally give us the rest of the DVDs to complete the set. With that said, I think if I have kids, I might try to make them watch these shows.
 
Actually, the ones who have mentioned G1 has said that it HASN'T aged well. And frankly I agree with them and your second statement.

I believe "Swat Kats" is a show that one can watch as easily today as before.
 
G1 the series, IMHO, suffers the same problem as many series from the 80s. It's pacing is all over the place. They took what should have been 2 part episodes and typically squeezed it into one and have transitions from one scene to another far too fast and with very little eloquence.

Later episodes certainly got better, much better. Remember the 4-Part red virus episodes after Rodabus became leader? The pacing got so much better at that point.

The one thing I have to say about G1 is the overall story and dialogue was superior for it's time. This is very much evidence when Optimus and Megatron faced off in a duel.

The pacing however, really made the quality of the dialogue feel much, much, much worse then what it really was.

G.I. Joe aged better IMHO but I think the reality is the top 3 series of the 80s (G.I. Joe, Transformers and Thundercats) didn't age well at all.
 
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