Time Travel principles and paradoxes in cartoons

S

Stripe Panther 1989

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While killing time in Wikipedia, I ran across entries for the different types of paradoxes and principles applied to time travel, such as the predestination paradox/Novikov self-consistency principle (history is immutable and every case of time travel was already part of history; nothing can occur to change history), the grand-father paradox, alternate timelines (every possibility occurs in its own parallel universe, and time travelers travel not only through time, but through probabilities as well, preventing paradoxes), etc.

Gargoyles relies exclusively on the predestination paradox for its time travel rules (Vows, M.I.A.). The DCAU has both alternate timelines, and time as a breakable entity (The Once and Future Thing). The second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon has both one immutable ?main? time-line (Timing is Everything, The Return of Savanti Romero), as well as alternate timelines (Same as it Never Was). Teen Titans uses a version of the grandfather paradox in its time-travel episode.

So, which are your favorite portrayals of time travel in cartoons? Which is your favorite time-travel "rule"? Does the very idea of time-travel give you a headache? Talk here.
 
I kinda like the "Gargoyles" version.....Time can't be altered,anything that happens was always meant to happen....

.....though,implausible as it is,I also loved the use of time travel in Futurama's "Roswell That Ends Well",where Fry ends up becoming his own grandfather (the episode has one of my favorite Farnsworth lines... "Oooh....a lesson in NOT changing history from Mr. "I'm-my-own-grampa".....SCREW HISTORY!!!!")
 
I recall the Silver Age Superman comics, where they stated that Superman couldn't change history (following the predestination paradox rule) and that he'd turn invisible when arriving in a past or future era during which he was alive... modern Superman time-travel rules (and in the TV shows/movies/etc.) of course don't follow either rule, going with the "Back to the Future" approach of the past being alterable.

Speaking of which, there's also the two early 90's time-travel cartoons based on movies, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures" (two seasons, the first on CBS and done by Hanna-Barbera, the second on Fox and done by DIC) and "Back to the Future" (aired two seasons on CBS, done by some animation department of Universal Studios'). I enjoyed watching both, particularly BTTF---still waiting to see it come out on DVD (though guess I shouldn't hold my breath...).

Re: favorite time-travel rules: Guess the "Back to the Future" approach (past is alterable) is my favorite...
 
The Farnsworth Parabox episode of Futurama is the best (and funniest) dealing of alternate realities I've seen. "Now, now. Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything."
 
My favorite time-travel stories were from X-Men TAS: Days of Future Past and One Man's Worth. In the latter story, I liked the fact that Wolverine and Storm had to wear special devices to protect them from changes they made to their own timeline. They could have done the whole "kill your own grandfather" paradox and still survived, at least until their batteries ran out.
 
So did they continue the predestined paradox routine as the movie or just alternate? I remember the cartoon, just the full specifics. Though I do remember when they considered recruiting the Giant from Jack And The Beanstalk to do with a bully, only for the other point out that he's a fictional character.

I suppose for myself, though, either are both equally entertaining.
 
MIB had a few episodes involving time. There was a nifty device that opened up a portal to another point in time.

I think it showed up 2-3 times in the entire series.
 
It's even funnier when the main characters by end decides to completely disregard any time mishaps and go gung-ho on Area 51 to take back their spaceship. Best plot twist ever.
 
What about recursive time traveling paradoxes like in that one episode of Pinky and the Brain (When Mice Ruled the Earth) or the messed-up version in Sealab 2021 (Lost in Time)?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zubby
The Farnsworth Parabox episode of Futurama is the best (and funniest) dealing of alternate realities I've seen. "Now, now. Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything."



That's a different episode. The ep where (or should that be when?) the gang traveled back in time to 1947 was "Roswell That Ends Well".
 
Even though I believe in the grandfather paradox, for the sake of storytelling, I like it when when the future can be changed by tampering with the past.
 
A Darkwing Duck episode or two dealt with Time Travel paradoxes.

One dealt with Darkwing not changing his past, and as a result going to a future in which it had changed drastically (Darkwing even meets an alternative version of himself). It's more or less the Back to the Future effect.

The other episode in which DW went into the Future, and Darkwing never finding her. This resulted in a rather drastic change in the hero, and a a darker future. However, when DW goes back in time, she effectively nullfies it.

What did I learn? Time travel episodes are largely a plot device to explore what makes a hero a hero. That, and Time Travel makes no sense.
 
The Bill and Ted cartoon (in the first season on CBS) kept the predestination paradox angle of the movies up (they encouraged Henry Ford to get into building cars by bringing him back to the present to fix a classic car Ted's dad owned), though one episode had Rufus warn them against going back in time to the 50s to meet Bill's dad as a kid (lest they alter the past)---which they try to do anyway, only to find they were tailing the wrong kid. :-p

The second Fox season, on the other hand, put more emphasis on the booth's newly gained ability to enter fictional realms (TV shows, fairy tale books, etc.); one notable episode had them prevent Columbus from going to America, thus altering the present by preventing Europeans from going to the new world (San Dimas turned into a forest undeveloped by man, and Rufus became British...). Making it even odder was that they'd already met Columbus during his 1492 voyage on an episode from the CBS season...

The BTTF cartoon kept the usual past-is-mutable motif of the movies...
 
But what I liked to wrap my brain around, was how their visit to the past could have 'caused' the original Roswell visit of 1947.

Basically, if it werent for them going into the base, then the incident wouldnt have happened.
 
Xiaolin Showdown ended on a two-part time traveling story, where Omi ended up in a bad future where Jack Spicer ruled and all his friends were eventually killed. Then he went to the far past to try and make the present better, but he screwed things up even worse.
 
The final episode goes in a different direction. Basically Darkwing and crew go back in time to find out the origin of a museum amber in which the person trapped inside is DW. Needless to say the trip through time leads into him being trapped in the amber. Launchpad and Gosalyn arrive to the present to free him from it.



Thanks for the info.

Aside from Gargoyles since it's been brought up, has any other show stuck with their established time travel rule. Or do all of them just go back and forth?
 
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