The unfortunate successor to The Golden Age of Animation, starting in the late 1950s and lasting until the mid 1980s. Limited Animation, as well as the limitations of Mismatched Atomic Expressionism, was the rule, not the exception, during this time. Its start coincided with the Fall of the Studio System in Hollywood. The theatrical short slowly died off, and cartoons moved to television. Naturally, this era would leave a lasting impression on American culture, for better or for worse, as the primary target audience for cartoons became children.
Originally, Limited Animation was primarily an artistic choice for filmmakers like Chuck Jones, Robert Cannon, and John Hubley who were tired of Disneyfication. With the closures of UPA and MGM's animation studios, it became primarily about saving time and money.note Hanna-Barbera – founded by the eponymous duo in response to MGM abruptly shuttering its animation unit and firing them – was very prominent during this time (to the extent of holding a monopoly over the Saturday morning animation market by the '70s), thanks to how cheaply produced and rushed their television cartoons were. Given how these series used dialogue over visuals to move the stories forward, they rapidly became what Jones would describe with justified derision as "illustrated radio". Still, they created not only successful kids fare in the 60s like Yogi Bear, but prime time series like The Flintstones and The Jetsons and the influential Adventure Series Jonny Quest, which created a whole new television animation genre. Unfortunately, the studio soon fell into a crippling creative rut with the Saturday-Morning Cartoon timeslot, which led to them endlessly copying the concepts of their most successful shows, with Scooby-Doo and the long-running, oft-retooled Super Friends the most prolific templates.
Filmation also got its start during this time, although it wouldn't hit prominence until much later during the '80s. In the meantime, it did give us shows like Star Trek: The Animated Series (which was a continuation of the original show after it was cancelled), Flash Gordon, and Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle which were wonderfully respectful of their source material, while Bill Cosby's Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was a surprisingly enduring Edutainment change of pace. However, like Hanna-Barbera, they also relied on notoriously low budget animation (even more so than H-B) and corner cutting to get their cartoons out as quickly and cheaply as possible. Hanna-Barbera writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears also formed Ruby-Spears around this time and churned out a number of properties based on celebrities, toys, and other Animated Adaptations of sitcoms, mimicking their former employer's animated style to a T. Former WB director Friz Freleng kept his own hand in the field with De Patie Freleng Enterprises, which supervised the final batch of theatrical Looney Tunes shorts and then created The Pink Panther and various series before being purchased by Marvel Comics to become Marvel Productions.
Unfortunately, the budgetary constraints became ever more onerous on producers, with rock bottom arguably being Clutch Cargo with its ridiculous "Synchro-Vox" method of using live action lips speaking the dialogue; while scarcely less limited in terms of animated motion otherwise, Grantray-Lawrence's xerography method for The Marvel Super Heroes at least largely captured the heady energy of artists like Jack Kirby to make it look like the comic artwork comprising their source material had come to life. Furthermore, the Animation Age Ghetto was made all the worse with parents groups pressuring the networks to impose ever more onerous and arbitrary content restrictions, such as The Complainer Is Always Wrong and Never Say "Die" while classic cartoons like Looney Tunes were censored to near oblivion. In fact, it got to the point where, by the mid-80s, basic conflict, the soul of drama, was all but discouraged on Saturday mornings, creating bland, moralistic gruel like The Get Along Gang, and the short development period for greenlit shows before the season opening made things worse. However, that lobbying did have some positive results – the push for educational programming helped create the classic Schoolhouse Rock! shorts, which taught whole generations with wonderfully tuneful songs.
In somewhat better artistic position was the realm of prime time TV specials, which didn't have the overwhelming budgetary and production time demands of full series. For instance, there was Rankin-Bass, which created a large series of Stop Motion productions in a process called Animagic such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, spanning from the former's debut in 1964 to the mid-80s. There was also the animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip by Lee Mendelson and Bill Meléndez beginning with the instant-classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, whose rushed production was more than compensated by a profound artistic sincerity and the jazz music compositions by Vince Guaraldi.
However, this does not mean everything from this era was bad. Disney's output remained respectable and generally well animated. Walt Disney, had, by this time, begun to draw away his focus on films due to his increased interest for television and theme park projects during the '50s. Disney had been feeling more and more creatively stifled as the decades moved on; the bold, experimental projects that had made him a household name in the 1920s and 1930s nearly ruined him in the 1940s as audiences' tastes changed and his artists experienced the strain of appeasing his demands (while receiving virtually no on-screen credit, none the less) within an increasingly industrialized working environment, as opposed to the more close-knit familial atmosphere of the studio's early-30s incarnation, climaxing in a 1941 strike depriving Disney of over a thousand staff members, including master animators Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla. Resultantly, Disney's lofty ambitions for the medium rapidly eroded over the following decades, increasingly delegating the creative tribulations of his feature films to directors such as Gerry Geronimi and the emergent group of directing animators dubbed the 'nine old men' and shifting to an emphasis on generally more family-friendly and formulaic material while pursuing other creative ventures. He attempted one last shot at a more experimental animated film at the end of the decade with Sleeping Beauty, an enormously high-cost attempt to craft a film coherently translating the angular, stylized concept art of staff background artist Eyvind Earle into an hour of full animation. Despite Disney's initial high ambitions for the film, its mammoth cost, compounded by creative conflicts between Earle and the film's directors, elongated production across almost a decade and resulted in the film's box-office 'failure', given the magnitude of earnings required to recoup its budget. Subsequently threatened by bankruptcy, Disney laid off a number of his staff members (including several longtime animators), retreated from fairy tales for the next 30 years, and reluctantly ceded to using the xerography process, a dry photocopying process that eliminated the need to hand-ink the animation, which was both a cost-cutting measure and the only practical way to produce a film with such visual complexity as their next feature, 101 Dalmatians. However, the technology only allowed for black outlines, which forced a hard scratchy visual style for years (at least until The Rescuers, when softer outlines with various colors became technically possible). These changes had a noticeable effect on the quality of the 1960s Disney films, and the death of Walt in the middle of the decade hit the company extremely hard, sending their studio into a hard slump post-Jungle Book. Although they would release a few features that critics enjoyed and made money, Disney continued to struggle, forced to use re-releases and the theme parks to stay afloat, until the release of two movies in the late 80's that were huge hits with critics and audiences and showed that they finally recovered enough to be compared to their Golden Age heights.
Looney Tunes was still producing some decent and entertaining shorts late in The '50s, as some of its most memorable shorts were from this decade. While the animation was increasingly limited following the studio's re-opening (after a six-month closure in the wake of the 3-D craze) in 1953, the writing, along with the continued high-quality output emerging from the unit under the directorial wing of Chuck Jones, managed to produce some timeless classics in spite of that. However, due to budget problems, Warner Bros. forcibly shut down its animation studio for good in 1963 (though a brief revival was unsuccessfully attempted in the late 1960s). The characters would get a revival in the form of the smash hit anthology repackaging series The Bugs Bunny Show, which reaired many of their old theatrical cartoons and, being exposed to younger audiences, ultimately helped to immortalize the characters as pop culture icons. In syndication, The Porky Pig Show did the same for many other shorts that weren't shown on its parent series. (And not just Warner Bros., either; if any motion picture company had a theatrical short to their name, animated or not, they would be on the bandwagon). With the onset of the 1980s, the surviving players of the Golden Age were about to get back in the game in a big way.
Limited Animation pioneer John Hubley did his best work at UPA in the early '50s, with theatrical shorts such as Rooty Toot Toot. After falling victim to a HUAC blacklisting at the height of the Second Red Scare in 1952, Hubley was fired from UPA and became a noted independent animator, producing a series of distinctive and personal films with his wife Faith as well as educational shorts for PBS shows. This was a booming period for trippy, avant-garde European animation such as Fantastic Planet and Yellow Submarine. In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada encouraged exploration in all kinds of Deranged Animation techniques, most famously with the work of Norman McLaren who produced wildly creative shorts like Begone Dull Care
(drawn-on-film animation set to Oscar Peterson's jazz music), Neighbours (pixilation) and Pas de deux (ballet with optical printing enhancements).
Animator Ralph Bakshi, who got his start in this era in the twilight years of Terrytoons working on the Sad Cat shorts and the Mighty Heroes TV show, rose to prominence during this era thanks to his breakout hit Fritz the Cat. This film, along with Watership Down, challenged the idea that cartoons were solely "kids' stuff", an idea that was becoming increasingly popular at the time due to the diminishing quality of the cartoons of that time period, as well as people becoming overly familiar with the Disney style of family oriented entertainment coming out.
Bakshi would also go on to make a variety of animated features that challenged the Animation Age Ghetto such as an animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which despite extremely mixed critical reaction was ultimately a box office success. Lesser films included the downbeat urban drama, Heavy Traffic, the musical history drama American Pop and the Frank Frazetta-inspired fantasy, Fire & Ice. The Canadian Heavy Metal would create its own cult interest late in the game (1981) with its erotic dark fantasy stories set to throbbing music. Even Hanna-Barbera brought a respectable adaptation of Charlotte's Web to the big screen in 1973. Some cartoons from this era may have had mediocre to poor animation but were ultimately saved by good writing; shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle would be a particularly good example of that. Likewise, Terry Gilliam's surreal animated skits in Monty Python's Flying Circus – utilizing his own artwork, antique photographs, and classical music and military marches played at double speed – would prove to be enormously influential.
Also, Anime was making its first impact in North America with such imports as Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Space Battleship Yamato (aka Star Blazers), Kimba the White Lion, Battle of the Planets and, toward the tail end of the era, Voltron. Not to mention the various kiddie series that populated basic and pay cable channels, such as Superbook, The Little Prince, and Honey Honey. While it often was crudely Bowdlerized, the form's distinctive look and content created a cult following that would eventually grow into much more, although production quality – following the tricks of the trade pioneered by Osamu Tezuka – started and remained very low-budget and corner-cutting until the medium blossomed in the early 80's in tandem with Japan's rising economic fortunes. In Japan itself, animation as a medium began to slowly break out of its version of the Ghetto with Tezuka's Mushi Productions' "Animerama" films plus 1971's Lupin III: Part 1, the first anime specifically for adults… which failed in its initial run but was later vindicated by reruns and served as a green-light for networks to air less-kiddy shows from the likes of Go Nagai and Leiji Matsumoto. Many popular animated franchises (some still going to this day) got their start in this era, like Sazae-san, Doraemon, World Masterpiece Theater, Urusei Yatsura, and the Gundam franchise.
The Soviet Russian Reversal, however, was still in effect. Behind the "Iron Curtain", many Soviet cartoons saw light at the end of the tunnel. Some are dark, some are educational, some are just damn fun. And not only were they successful inside the country (Not even talking about a huge amount of fans who love them even today and make English translations), one of them even got a ton of awards. Considerably, Limited Animation was not an option for Ivan Ivanov-Vano's cartoons made in this era, every one of which felt like a throwback to the time of Disney's golden era when hand-drawn people and animals moved as smooth as never before (or after). However, the Eastern European industry also brought forth Gene Deitch's Tom and Jerry shorts in the 1960s, which were… interesting to say the least.
Animation Age Ghetto is a trope that has its roots firmly planted in this era, due to a growing emphasis on conservative values from the 50's onward that led to Moral Guardians attacking anything that they didn't consider child-friendly. Check it out to see the full impact of this era on the typical viewer's idea of a cartoon nowadays.
The end of this period is usually believed to be the early 1980's, though the exact year is debated. Some say the dark age ended as early as 1981note , others say it was in 1983note , while others say in 1985note , 1988note ; the latest ending given for it is generally 1989.note
For this era's successor, see The Renaissance Age of Animation (which lasted from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s).
Chances are whenever you see a parody of this era or something that was made during it, it's either a Take That! or an Affectionate Parody at the least.
- For anime series from this era, see:
- The Adventures of Lariat Sam (1962)
- Adventures of the Little Koala
- Ai Shite Night
- Alice of Wonderland in Paris
- Allegro non Troppo: Europe's Fantasia
- The Alvin Show
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The 1980s series iteration of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
- The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan
- American Pop: A music-heavy (not a musical) drama film by Ralph Bakshi that came out at the end of the Dark Age.
- Animalympics
- The Archie Show
- Archie's TV Funnies/Archie's Funhouse
- The Captain and the Kids, a classic comic strip, is adapted as a segment.
- Archie's TV Funnies/Archie's Funhouse
- Aquaman
- Astro Boy
- The Atom Ant Show
- Bambi Meets Godzilla
- The Banana Splits
- Banjo the Woodpile Cat: Don Bluth's first solo project, which showed some light at the end of the very dark tunnel this era of animation was. A few years later, he would quit Disney and form his own animation company, which would fuel the animation renaissance.
- Barefoot Gen (1983)
- Batfink
- Beany and Cecil (1962)
- The Bear That Wasn't: A 1967 short by Chuck Jones, based on the book by Frank Tashlin.
- The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas
- The Beatles (1965)
- Birdman (1967) (more notable for Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, its Millennium Age spoof, than the actual show)
- Bunnicula (1982): An animated adaptation of the series of books by Ruby-Spears.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids: Scooby-Doo with musical instruments. Or, to put it another way, Josie and the Pussycats minus the cat ears.
- Calvin and the Colonel
- Candy Candy
- Captain Harlock
- Casper and the Angels
- Charlotte's Web (1973)
- Closed Mondays: Will Vinton's Oscar winner.
- Clue Club
- Computer Critters: A series of PSAs that aired on the American Broadcasting Company in 1984.
- Condorito (1980)
- Cool McCool (1966)
- Coonskin (1975)
- Cri-Cri el Grillito cantor: A 1963 Mexican film with an animated sequence that Disney contributed guest starring ''The Three Little Pigs'.
- Cutey Honey (1973)
- Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines
- The Deputy Dawg Show
- Disney Animated Canon: This is known to some as Disney's "sketchy" or television period, referring to the style of animation these films employed. Animated movies were made on the cheap, often recycling animation from older Disney classics. Don Bluth got his start here as well, as anyone with a good eye for animation will be able to tell just by watching these. With the death of Walt Disney, the dark age of animation hit the company particularly hard. The Disney studios were nearly closed for good around this time, and wouldn't recover until the late 1980s.
- 101 Dalmatians (1961): The first film to only use the Xerox method.
- The Sword in the Stone (1963): The final film Walt saw released.
- The Jungle Book (1967): The final film Walt oversaw.
- The Aristocats (1970): The final film Walt green-lit.
- Robin Hood (1973): Finally, the first film Walt didn't green-light. The final film all the Nine Old Men saw completed.
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977): This was a re-packaging of the original Pooh featurettes edited into one film, with the only original material being the wraparound segments between the three featurettes.
- The Rescuers (1977): The final film any of the Nine Old Men completed and which Walt had had even the slightest involvement in the production of (he was still alive in its earliest planning stages).
- The Small One (1978): Shown in theaters before the re-release of Pinocchio.
- The Fox and the Hound (1981): The final film any of the Nine Old Men worked on and the first which Walt had no involvement in whatsoever.
- The Black Cauldron (1985): Was such a colossal critical and box office failure that it nearly ended the canon and closed the studio. To add insult to injury, it was beat out at the box office by The Care Bears Movie.
- The Great Mouse Detective (1986): While it was a box office success and is credited into reviving the studio’s optimism for the future, it still had cheap animation and was competing against An American Tail, in which the latter was more successful than this. This was a success party due to its small budget.
- Oliver & Company (1988): Definitely the last of Disney's Dark Age since it's the last to use cel overlay. This film also received mixed reviews from the critics and the last critical failure from the Disney Animated Cannon till Pocahontas.
- The Doonesbury Special, a 1977 Animated Adaptation of the comic strip that was John Hubley's last work.
- Doraemon: The series began its run during this period.
- Down and Dirty Duck: Regarded by many as an extremely low-budget cash-in of Fritz the Cat.
- Doctor Slump
- Fangface
- Fantastic Four
- The 1967 series produced by Hanna-Barbera.
- The New Fantastic Four, produced by DePatie-Freling and featuring H.E.R.B.I.E. in place of the Human Torch.
- Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
- Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo): At the end of the 1950s, Felix the Cat managed to snag himself a decent TV series under the helm of former Otto Messmer alumni Joe Oriolo, and even introduced his iconic magic bag of tricks, even though his character was still using the flanderized portrayal similar to the ill-fated 1930s Van Beuren Felix revival.
- Flash Gordon (1979)
- The Flintstones
- Frosty the Snowman
- The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang: Infamously, sure, but still noted for being absolutely insane AND badly animated, even when compared to the show's most fantastical moment.
- Frank Film
- Fraidy Cat
- Frankenstein Jr.. and the Impossibles
- Fritz the Cat: Don't expect this one to be like any of the others on the list.
- The Funky Phantom
- Galaxy Express 999
- GeGeGe no Kitarō (1968)
- Gerald McBoing-Boing: The popularity of UPA] and its Limited Animation in The '50s can be seen as the beginning of the 'dark age', though it would take a while for the cartoon studios' output to decline in quality. Nevertheless, it should be noted that it was the excellence of several UPA shorts, such as this onenote , that made Limited Animation acceptable.
- George of the Jungle
- The Get Along Gang
- Gigantor
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
- Golden Book Video
- Golgo 13: The Professional
- The Great Grape Ape
- Halloween Is Grinch Night
- Harold and the Purple Crayon shorts: A Picture for Harold's Room (1971) and Harold's Fairy Tale (1974)
- Hedgehog in the Fog (one of the great cartoons of all time) and other Soyuzmultfilm's golden era animation classics
- Heathcliff (1980)
- Heavy Metal
- Heavy Traffic
- The Hillbilly Bears
- The Hobbit and The Return of the King: Surprisingly good animation for its time, co-produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and Japan's Topcraft (which would later become an important contributor to Studio Ghibli).
- The Return of the King became noticeably darker in content and production quality, though.
- Honey Halfwitch, based on the "Poor Little Witch Girl" Modern Madcap theatrical cartoons, became a pretty sophisticated, witty series under Shamus Culhane and Chuck Harriton's direction.
- Hong Kong Phooey
- Hokey Wolf
- Hoppity Hooper
- The Houndcats
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
- The Huckleberry Hound Show
- Il était une fois...
- Inch High, Private Eye
- The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964): A Roger Rabbit Effect driven film. Its failure shut down Warner Bros.' animation department for good.
- Jabberjaw: Pretty much Scooby-Doo UNDERWATER with a shark that sounds like Curly Howard.
- The Jackson 5ive
- Jana of the Jungle
- Jim and Judy in Teleland: A series of super low budget made for TV cartoons.
- Jonny Quest
- Josie And The Pussy Cats
- JOT
- Journey Back to Oz (1974)
- Kimba the White Lion
- King Dick
- The King Kong Show (1966-1969): An In Name Only adaptation that only happens to have the title character in it.
- The Kwicky Koala Show
- Laff-A-Lympics
- Life in a Tin (1967)
- Linus the Lionhearted
- The Littles (1983)
- Looney Tunes in the '60s: This era covers the final days of Termite Terrace before they closed the studio.
- Looney Tunes in the '70s (and Onward): Post-Termite Terrace.
- The Lord of the Rings: Specifically, Ralph Bakshi's Animated Adaptation of it.
- Lucky Luke:
- Lupin III: the franchise got its start during this period.
- Lupin III: Part 1
- Lupin III: Part II
- The Mystery of Mamo (1978)
- The Castle of Cagliostro (1979): As Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut, this film is regarded by some to be one of the works that heralded the coming of the animation renaissance.
- Macross: The franchise began at the tail-end of this period with Super Dimension Fortress Macross.
- Manxmouse (1979)
- Mad Monster Party?
- The Magical Girl genre in anime emerged during this period, with Toei Animation producing its series of "Majokko" shows during this time:
- Sally the Witch (1966)
- Himitsu no Akko-chan (1969)
- Mahou no Mako-chan (1970)
- Sarutobi Ecchan (1971)
- Mahou Tsukai Chappy (1972)
- Miracle Shojo Limit-chan (1973)
- Majokko Meg-chan (1974)
- Majokko Tickle (1978)
- Hana No Ko Lun Lun (1979)
- Mahou Shojo Lalabel (1980)
- Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982)
- Marine Boy
- Mary Poppins: Had an animated segment which made use of the Roger Rabbit Effect.
- The Marvel Super Heroes
- Mazinger Z
- Mel O Toons
- Mickey's Christmas Carol, released theatrically alongside The Rescuers
- The Mighty Hercules: An animated TV series produced by Joe Oriolo. The lead character's design was notably the inspiration for the DCAU design of Superman.
- The Mighty Heroes
- Mighty Mouse
- Milton the Monster
- The Mini-Munsters (1973): An unsold pilot intended as an animated spinoff of The Munsters
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The original 1979 series aired towards the end of this era.
- Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist
- Mr. Magoo
- National Film Board of Canada from the early 1960s onwards.
- The New Adventures of Superman
- The Night the Animals Talked: An early 1970s TV Christmas Special directed by Shamus Culhane.
- The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat
- Nu, Pogodi!: Animated series that ran in the Soviet Union throughout this period.
- The Nutty Squirrels: An obscure made-for-TV cartoon series.
- Noddy: The franchise gained its first animated adaptation in 1963 by Peter Lee and Arthur Humberstone titled "Noddy Goes to Toyland" (based on the book of the same name)
- Osomatsu-kun (1966)
- Partridge Family 2200 A.D.
- Peanuts (the various TV specials, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, and feature films) — a high point of Limited Animation from the period, not so much for the graphics, which were lifted directly from the newspaper comic, as for the mature storytelling and jazzy soundtrack.
- A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
- You're in Love, Charlie Brown (1967)
- A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)
- Snoopy, Come Home (1972)
- You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (1972)
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
- It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974)
- Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)
- Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)
- What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! (1978)
- Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980)
- She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown (1980)
- It's Magic, Charlie Brown (1981)
- The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
- The Pink Panther: Created by Friz Freleng, after he left the Warner Bros. animation studios. It originated as the Animated Credits Opening to the live-action film of the same name; the credits then inspired the cartoon series. The series ran in theaters from 1964 to 1977.
- The Pink Phink (1964)
- The Plague Dogs by Martin Rosen, a follow-up to Watership Down which proved to be a Genre-Killer for dark adult Western Animation due to its content. It's basically Grave of the Fireflies with dogs. Brad Bird worked on the film.
- The Point (1971): The first made-for-TV animated feature ever made.
- Princess Knight
- Quasi at the Quackadero
- Quick Draw McGraw
- Q.T. Hush (1960)
- Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
- The Robonic Stooges, as well as the earlier The Three Stooges cartoon that included live action segments.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle
- Roger Ramjet
- The Rose of Versailles
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
- Rubik, the Amazing Cube
- Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies
- Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
- Sanrio Animation: Short-lived animation studio by Sanrio that made animated films based on Japanese literature note , manga note , and original content. The studio was active from 1977 till 1985 with a total of ten animated films. Their works were notable for containing disturbing imagery and depressing storylines while aimed at children. Compared to other animations studios during this period, Sanrio Animation's films contained high quality animation with characters being very expressive and memorable music scores.
- The Mouse and His Child (1977)
- The Rose Flower and Joe (Bara no Hana to Joe) (1977)
- Chiisana Jumbo (Little Jumbo) (1977)
- Chirin no Suzu (known as Ringing Bell in the west) (1978)
- Metamorphoses (a.k.a. Winds of Change) (1978)
- Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather (1979): The titular character's animation debut.
- Nutcracker Fantasy (1979)
- The Sea Prince and the Fire Child (1981)
- The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (1981)
- Unico in the Island of Magic (1983)
- Be Invoked (1983)
- A Journey Through Fairyland (1985)
- Saturday Supercade
- Sazae-san: The longest-running anime series in history, began during this era.
- Schoolhouse Rock!
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and the botched American dub that came out of it.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and its many clones
- Sealab 2020, (more notable for its Millennium Age spoof Sealab 2021)
- Secret Squirrel: The original incarnation.
- Sesame Street, with its classic animated segments.
- Sherlock Hound: A Japanese-Italian co-production between TMS Entertainment and RAI, with Hayao Miyazaki involved as well.
- Shinbone Alley (1971): Animated feature adaptation of both the eponymous musical, as well as the Archy and Mehitabel stories the musical was adapted from.
- Shirt Tales
- Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (1974)
- The Smurfs: The Hanna-Barbera cartoon series aired towards the end of this era.
- Predating the 1980s series was Les Schtroumpfs (the franchise's original french name) produced by TVA Dupuis and aired on RTB (Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française) in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, West Germany and Austria from 1961–67. note
- La Schtroumpfette (The Smurfette) was a Belgian television special that only aired in 1969 and made by the same producers behind the 1961 TV series. The special is currently lost and never reaired in Belgium.
- The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976): A feature-length film and the first animated adaptation of the original comic series.
- The Snorks
- Space Battleship Yamato
- Space Ghost
- Speed Buggy
- Speed Racer
- Spider-Man (1967)
- Spider-Man (1981)
- Star Trek: The Animated Series
- Super Chicken (1967)
- Superfriends
- Tales of the Wizard of Oz
- Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
- Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle
- The Thief and the Cobbler was produced during this period. By which we mean the entire thirty-year duration of the period, before its creator Richard Williams lost control of the project after briefly obtaining funding to distribute it following the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of the films that definitively ended the Dark Age.
- The Thing (1979)
- Thundarr the Barbarian
- Tokimeki Tonight
- Tom and Jerry: Revived three times during this era. First by Gene Deitch (the less said, the better), then by Chuck Jones (generally considered the best produced theatrical cartoons of the 1960s, though that isn't saying much), and finally as a Hanna-Barbera TV series (which Flanderized the characters beyond recognition, ironically by the very people who created them in the first place).
- The Tom and Jerry Show
- The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show: Filmation's revival of Tom and Jerry, once again just as the Dark Age was winding down, though this adaptation suffered from the same Limited Animation as the Gene Deitch shorts. And yet it was still more true to the original shorts than Hanna-Barbera's TV series.
- Tom Terrific. Both this and Lariat Sam were produced by Terrytoons, who also did Mighty Mouse.
- Tomorrow's Joe
- Top Cat
- The Trouble With Miss Switch (1980)
- Tubby the Tuba
- Ulysses 31
- Underdog
- Unico: Received three animated adaptations during this period.
- Urusei Yatsura
- Wacky Races
- Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Ur-Example of the animated dysfunctional family (think All in the Family if it were a cartoon series), which would later inspire all the FOX animated sitcoms about dysfunctional or quasi-dysfunctional families (The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show). The Barkleys is another one based both on All in the Family and The Honeymooners. Produced by DePatie-Freleng, it ran in 1972–73 and had only thirteen episodes.
- The Wall, with its animated segments.
- The animated sections of The Water Babies.
- Watership Down by Martin Rosen. Concept drawings by John Hubley for the dream sequences. Hubley wanted to do the whole film in Limited Animation using Aboriginal-style 60s-70s primitive expressionism. He left the film over "creative differences" with Rosen, who wanted detailed and bloody naturalism. You decide which parts of the film are more disturbing.
- Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
- Winky Dink
- Wizards
- Woody Woodpecker: His theatrical cartoons would keep going until 1972, and he also had a hit TV series appearing during this era.
- Wolf Rock TV
- World Masterpiece Theater:
- Dororo (1969)
- Andersen Stories (1971)
- The Moomins (1972)
- Rocky Chuck the Mountain Rat (1973)
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974): One of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki's early projects.
- A Dog of Flanders (1975)
- 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976)
- Rascal the Raccoon (1977)
- The Story of Perrine (1978)
- Anne of Green Gables (1979): Miyazaki and Takahata's last TV project before moving to the big screen.
- Yasashii Lion (The Kindly Lion or The Gentle Lion): A Japanese animated short from 1970 by Mushi Production which adapted the Japanese children's book of the same name. Osamu Tezuka is an executive producer for this adaptation, while Takashi Yanase (author and illustrator of the original book) written the lyrics for every song in the film.
- Yellow Submarine: featured a who's-who of British animation from the period and The Beatles.
- Yogi Bear
- Zagreb Film (1961's Ersatz), Pannonia Film Studio (1980's The Fly) and many European animation studios got their start.
- David DePatie and Isidore "Friz" Freleng
- Norman Prescott and Lou Scheimer
- William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- Ralph Bakshi: Got his start early in this era as a worked at Terrytoons during its late years, later became the most prominent independent animator in this time period, whereupon he hired (and fired)…
- John Kricfalusi got his start late in this era as a worker at Filmation. He does not have fond memories of the place.
- Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, producers of most of the classic Christmas Specials
- Chuck Jones: One of the few creators equally associated with both the Golden Age and Dark Age.
- John Hubley: helped pioneer Limited Animation as high art during his tenure at UPA studios before being shown the door; died prior to release of Watership Down.
- Gene Deitch
- Bill Melendez: Lead animator for most of the Peanuts films & specials.
- Don Bluth resumed working during this era, after leaving Disney in the early 60s to go on his Mormon recruitment mission, eventually getting fed up with the public's complacency with mediocracy and was famously the first animator who did something about it.
- James Wang: Former Hanna-Barbera employee who'd go on to form Taiwanese animation company Wang Film Productions near the tail end of the 70s.
- June Foray: Did a lot of the voice acting she was famous for during this era.
- Osamu Tezuka: Started doing animation in this era, founding his studio Mushi Productions.
- Osamu Dezaki: Started at Mushi (Osamu Tezuka's studio) in this era.
- Hayao Miyazaki: Started at Toei Animation in this era.
- Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who founded Ruby-Spears around this time.
- Isao Takahata: Though he came from Nippon Dōga-sha during The Golden Age of Animation of the 1940s (post-World War 2), he did many things when Nippon Dōga-sha became Toei Animation in this era.
- Yasuo Ōtsuka
- Yōichi Kotabe
- Bob Clampett
- National Film Board of Canada's animation staff who produced some of the most creative professional animation of this era
- Most notably, Norman McLaren.
Tropes associated with this era include:
- All-CGI Cartoon: A far more primitive version of this in the form of Scanimate existed during this period. Unlike later eras, it was usually limited to just commercial and title work due to the cost of producing and maintaining the machines to make them combined with the technical limitations of the era.
- Animal Superheroes: Mighty Mouse, Atom Ant, Underdog, Batfink…
- Animated Adaptation: for example, The Three Stooges cartoons, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Filmation's adaptations of Batman, Superfriends, The Beatles (1965), etc.
- Animated Shock Comedy: Ralph Bakshi and his X-rated animated film Fritz the Cat, which inspired a number of other adult comedy animated films, can be considered an Unbuilt Trope example..
- Animation Age Ghetto: While the stigma didn’t really originate from this era, as early forms began to emerge in the previous eras, this era is where the stigma truly began to become strong, and it’s therefore associated with this stigma, particularly after the mid-1960s, as most of these cartoons became directed for children, with a few exceptions.
- Animesque: Though far more readily associated with The Renaissance Age of Animation and The Millennium Age of Animation, this concept actually has its roots here. The first American animated series to deliberately employ anime tropes was Frankenstein Jr., which was closely based on Gigantor.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: The idea of an adult oriented cartoon in general was a no-go for producers during the 70s and 80s. Hanna-Barbera had to learn this the hard way.
- Averted with Ralph Bakshi who practically kick-started the adult animation industry in the U.S. with a series of financially successful films.
- Band Toon
- Christmas Special: These were in vogue during this era, and most of the classics we know today were made during this time.
- Conspicuously Light Patch
- Deranged Animation: It was The '60s (and The '70s) after all. Many people mistakenly think this trope started during this era, which is not the case.
- Everybody Do the Endless Loop: A byproduct of all the Limited Animation.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Though this trope arguably predates the Dark Age by a few years, it's here where it was used in particular abundance.
Scooby-Doo: Scooby-dooby-doo!
Everyone else: Ahahahahahaha! *iris out on Scooby's face, occasionally with a wink* - Expy: If a character was popular and successful during this era, another cartoon show would make a character very similar to that character.
- Five-Man Band
- Follow the Leader: Half the Saturday morning cartoons in the '70snote can be summed up as "Scooby Doo, but instead of a dog they have…"
- A car (Speed Buggy)
- A shark (Jabber Jaw)note
- A ghost (The Funky Phantom)
- More dogs and another Ghost (The Buford Files and the Galloping Ghost)
- Two dogs! (Clue Club)
- A band manager (Josie and the Pussycats) They also had a cat, but the Scooby role was basically filled by the manager.
- A caveman (Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels)
- A bunch of cavemen (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show)
- A werewolf (Fang Face)
- A tiny man (Inch High, Private Eye)
- Gratuitous Animal Sidekick / Team Pet: Moptop, along with two pandas.
- Half-Hour Comedy
- Humans Are White: Non-white characters were rare during this era, but they were more common than they were during the Golden Age. Hadji, from Jonny Quest, was the first non-white main character in an American animated TV show.
- Laugh Track: Why they'd need it in animation, who knows. But many of the shows were basically sitcoms on lower budgets than live action.
- Lazy Artist
- Limited Animation: Very much an understatement here, but it's generally agreed upon that Filmation was the absolute worst at it.
- Limited Wardrobe
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Hanna-Barbera, which owned most of the popular cartoon characters on television at the time, was able to do this a lot.
- Motionless Chin
- Off-Model: Due to the low budgets of the time, animation not only would move jankily, but look the part too. Hanna-Barbera would eventually intensify it by farming some of their work out to Australia (and later, Taiwan) to mixed, but often sub-standard, results.
- Offscreen Crash
- Prime Time Cartoon: This trend lasted until the late 1960s (save for numerous animated specials), though it has been revived during the beginning of The Renaissance Age of Animation.
- Recycled In SPACE: A recurring theme (Jabberjaw is Scooby-Doo under water, The Mighty Mightor was Space Ghost as a caveman, Gilligan's Planet LITERALLY had the Castaways in space, etc.), particularly for the Sat AM Hanna-Barbera and Filmation cartoons.
- Ring Around the Collar
- Saturday-Morning Cartoon: Saturday Morning cartoons experienced their heyday during this period, which continued for quite a few years afterward. Not only were Hanna-Barbera cartoons regular airings, but cartoons from The Golden Age of Animation would be exposed to a new generation, and in some cases, become even more widely popular than they were originally.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors
- Show, Don't Tell: Most cartoons of this time were seriously bad about following this. In addition to the paltry budgets the studios worked with, some of them such as Filmation were so rigid that you were literally never allowed to draw anything but a handful of stock expressions and poses without being considered "off model". This regimented system precluded any kind of expressive animation or real character acting, so more often than not, studios fell back on the soundtracks of their cartoons (namely the voice acting) as the backbone of cartoons (as Chuck Jones called it, "illustrated radio").
- However, there were some exceptions that followed the classic animation pantomime tradition, such as Chuck Jones' Tom and Jerry shorts and Sib Tower 12 shorts, Disney's cartoons, Richard Williams's early works and Depatie Freleng's Pink Panther shorts (indeed, while Dark Age aspects like crude artwork, Limited Animation, and a Laugh Track crept into them over time, Pink Panther always averted this and remained almost entirely free of dialogue throughout its run). Independent animators like Norman Mclaren and Ralph Bakshi, despite eschewing the old fashioned tradition of animation acting, also relied on heavy visual storytelling to put their ideas across instead of the soundtrack alone.
- Speech-Impaired Animal
- Team Pet
- Unmoving Plaid
- Wacky Racing: The Trope Namer is Wacky Races which was one of a number of Hanna Barbera shows that saw a number of their most famous characters competing in races and similar endurance competitions.
- Wheel o' Feet
- Wraparound Background
- You Meddling Kids: In all the Scooby-Doo-esque shows.
