Most Underrated Western Animation Series?

I say we all put our heads together and try to decide which is the most underrated.

I say Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". It was just as good as the original, but people were apparently upset because "omg ren n stimpi r gai now".

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I'm going with either Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates or Highlander: The Animated Series really.

The former has a lot of nerd-cred actually (especially since the Nostalgia Critic once talked about it), but it isn't all that well known to the public at large, mostly because Fox treated it as a "filler" show and didn't realize its brilliance despite Tim Curry having won an award for his performance as Captain Hook. But yeah, when I need proof that Americans can write deep, complex characters or plotlines that aren't retarded or hampered by conservative morality (the show could be downright Gray and Gray at times), then I look at this.

The latter has the unfortunate curse of being a Highlander spin off, so fans tend to be all like "OMG Canon Defilement!" (nevermind that Highlander never really had a consistent canon to begin with) over the idea that the immortals all (except two) gave up fighting so they could preserve human civilization after the apocalypse, and that now the Quickening can be done via a sort of meditation instead of needing to cut off the other dude's head (though it's implied that the latter is still one method). If you take it on its own though, its actually quite good, probably the best animated series of the 1990s.

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Post-Movie Sponge Bob

I am completely, utterly, and thoroughly done with Sola Sonica and 2D

God, The Devil and Bob. That show never got a fair trial (due to combining religion with comedy).

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The Batman, because unlike other series it wasn't just ignored but people outright hated it for no good reason.

"Aren't you cold, Finn?"

Dungeons & Dragons

For the time it was made (mid-80s), it had fairly well rounded characters, wonderful character designs and background art, and an occasionally mature scripts (again, for its time).

Star Trek The Animated Series. The single best thing Filmation ever did, although I have no ill memories of its Tarzan either.

For the "gets a lot of flack but isn't really that bad" kind of underrated, Viva Pinata. It's got Dan Green in it being his hammy, hammy self as an egotistical papier-mache horse; what's not to love?

For the "well-liked just obscure" kind of underrated, Cybersix. Slashiest straight couple ever.

For the "just plain unknown" kind of underrated, the 1990's Rupert Bear series. Now that was an awesome adventure/fantasy cartoon.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

Totally forgot that this existed until I just read this. This show hasn't crossed my mind since... uh, it was still running. Yow.

Except [condescending response follows]. Because [sarcasm here]. You do understand [snark], right? POTHOLE TO SARCASM MODE

It's still prominent in the memories of 90's children, but Tiny Toon Adventures seems to get a lot of hate, for some reason, and no one talks about it.

For the time? The second season still has some of the most adult stories in animation ever.

I mean, the kids teaming up with Tiamat in order to fucking murder the arch-villain, and bullying Dungeon Master into helping them? That's some holy shit right there.

Also sorta-seconding Tiny Toon Adventures. For some reason it keeps getting flack while Animaniacs is everyone's favorite, despite being (arguably) a worse show with less likable characters.

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In 1993, I was convinced that Tiny Toon Adventures was the actual return of Warner Bros. classic cartoons, and that it would be remembered in the future just as much as the original shorts.

Then I grew up.

Then the animation industry changed.

The Bob Morane series. A show about a freelance agent, who fights aliens, time travelers, dinosaurs and immortal Chinese crime lords should get way more attention. It is pretty much a modern pulp series.

I concur. God damn, I remember watching the Bob Morane series. That was interesting. I loved it as a kid, and suspect I still would. In fact, I think now that I have more developed sensibilities I could draw a good amount of inspiration from it.

Would I be in any way wrong to say that it's a front-runner for the most badass character in Western Animation? Just look at this intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xk-XXBvwbs

Christ, I remember that music too. /nostalgia

On that note, anyone remember the old Horrible Histories cartoons?

edited 3rd May '11 11:23:51 AM by Gault

yey

Code Lyoko (this got a bit more attention than most shows, though) W.I.T.C.H. (Damn Disney. TT_TT) Oban Star Racer (I've truthfully only seen one episode, but that's because I'm too stubborn to sit down and watch the series on Youtube in crappy quality.)

Is there a coincidence that all above suggestions are European? No, no, it isn't.

I always thought the animated Viva Pinata series came first, not the video game. Guess I was wrong.

Curse you, Sasuke's brother......I will get you back.....someHOW. ~Naruto: Comedy Spoof Fandub Series Show

Seconds on W.I.T.C.H. I don't think it got the recognition it deserved.

Alpha And Omega and Rio. They seem to attract a lot of flak, but I view both movies as nothing more than average.

Some folks on the Internet think they're a special GIFT to the world, and others aren't. In this perspective, they're kind of right.

Definitely Cybersix. Really good show that only lasted 13 episodes, and was banned in the states because of the cross dressing protagonist. Never mind that in terms of animation it blows most other shows out of the water.

Do not be so quick to make foolish offers, Daemon. Araghast too once thought I would be an asset to his cause. Look what has become of him.

Is this "Cybersix" thing available on DVD anywhere?

Another one I'd like to add to the list is Battletech: The Animated Series. America doing Giant Mecha might sound like a recipe for disaster, but it's surprisingly good. Also, the show had this gimmick where during some of the fight scenes, it would switch to computer-rendered graphics. When I watched the series as a kid I always thought that was awesome. Saw a few eps on Youtube recently and the show overall still holds up.

edited 5th May '11 12:42:49 PM by MoeDantes

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Cybersix did run in the States, though. It just didn't last very long. And I think the cartoon even came out at a similar time to Mulan, so I'm not entirely certain the crossdressing was the fault of that...

And while it's not on DVD, the whole series is on You Tube, last I checked.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

Mission Hill, most definitely. One of the few shows about twenty-somethings that wasnt just demographics pandering, and had actual heart too. And a criminally short run, alas.

Also, while it certainly gets recognition, I'm gonna go ahead and say King Of The Hill in that too many people seem to watch it and think "lol rednecks" but they don't quite appreciate just how great the writing is *

. Few other shows are that attuned to just what makes the characters tick.bAnd again, it maintains a real sense of heart without ever getting schmaltzy. It's one of those shows where too many people focus on the wallbangers and not enough recognize what made it so special.

On that note, the writing for Beavis And Butthead was actually a lot smarter than people gave it credit for,

Also, Home Movies is one of those Needs More Love shows, along with Dr Katz. The latter sadly seems to be forgotten about today.

Emperor Wu liked cake, but not exploding cake!

Sidekick. The only reason why I know about this is because Christian Potenza is an egotist.

edited 5th May '11 4:16:47 PM by truteal

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Daria. Well-liked, well-remembered, but the fact that the show she spun-off of is more well known, so much so it's being uncancelled today, still gets to me.

Cyber Six needs more attention than it gets. How often can you find something that has not only great animation but with a postive female lead character? Not often if you ask me! Its a shame that this isn't on DVD.

I also second on the Ren and Stimpy Adult Party cartoon. It gets too much hate for being too adulterated, but hell. I enjoyed three episodes from the show, while the rest were medicore. If I remember right, John K stated that he didn't knew if Ren and Stimpy were gay or not right?

Sonic Satam, Spicy City, and Swat Kats are up for the mention as well but mostly for Spicy City. I just wish that people would take film noir seriously for animation over being done for a parody, and this is the best I can get for film noir animation. Swat Kats and Sonic Satam have great writing, great voice acting, and great animation that sadly enough got Screwed by the Network due to the stupidity from the heads of the companies.

edited 5th May '11 5:11:06 PM by Theoriginalblader

King of the Hill isn't that underrated. It ran for 13 seasons (seven more than it should have), which definitely means a lot.

Also Daria seems to get more notice than Beavis and Butt-head in some circles, to the point where Beavis and Butt-head becomes the forgotten show rather than Daria (probably due to Mike Judge refusing credit for Daria and choosing to work on King of the Hill instead).

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