Western Animation Recommendations

Are we still acting like shows with long-term story arcs are a rarity in Western animation, and not basically everywhere?

You even have a Ben 10 pfp, which predates a lot of the typical examples people use of serialized long running cartoons...

Long-term story-arc shows have been a thing since Gargoyles, but I'm under the impression that they're the exception rather than the norm.

If it's an incorrect impression, do let me know.

And my profile picture comes from Alien Force, the first Ben 10 sequel.

I wouldn't exactly call the first series a long-term story-arc show.

It wasn't fully, but it certainly had some semblance of continuity and a larger story and mystery.

I just see a lot of people act like no cartoons EVER had overarcing stories or mature themes before Adventure Time, and these same people usually dismiss Ben 10, Teen Titans 2003, etc as things like "wannabe anime". It's a sort of confirmation bias thing for a lot it seems, everyone wants to think their favorite show was some kind of unique novelty, when even in the early 2000s plenty of shows were taking themselves mostly seriously.

Hell, Generator Rex got away with way more than any show could nowadays.

I strongly remember the big explosion of outrage earlier this year when The Prince was announced, so for those of you looking for adult animated content that isn't yet another Family Guy or South Park-styled show, might I suggest the (partly) Canadian production Delta State? It's got a serious overarching sci-fi story that's very solid overall, but the real highlight is the animation. This Nelvana production is done ENTIRELY through Rotoscoping, giving it a very unique, striking, memorable, and surreal style.

Watching it on Retro Rerun^note Nelvana's official cartoon channels are a blessing on my life atm and deeply enjoying it. Hearkens back to a time when the late Teletoon at Night (or Detour as it was called then) commissioned interesting and experimental (if sometimes raunchy) animation in the vein of Adult Swim and not mediocre wannabes of popular FOX animated sitcoms made for people who don't even care much for cartoons.

Edited by MagnusForce on Dec 9th 2021 at 11:05:05 AM

Athleticus. Animals doing sports n offbeat 2-minute episodes is pretty amusing. Expect some poetic episodes mixed with some humorus ones.

I've never actually seen Richard Williams' "The Thief And The Cobbler" until last night (watched "The Re-Cobbled Cut").

Not a bad film, all things considered. I've never seen the "official" Miramax version so I don't know what was cut or not (apart from moments that only exist as storyboards or pencil tests), but I'm aware the Miramax version has song sequences... which is odd that Miramax would go through the trouble of adding musical numbers, when they could have just finished off whatever Williams had left to animate.

As noted on the film's YMMV page, probably the biggest problem with the film is there's a lot of Padding. While I understand the point of the film was to show off the capabilities of hand-drawn animation, there's a couple scenes in here that don't really do that.

In the Disney thread I commented how some scenes in Snow White drag, like the washing scene, but another Troper pointed out, it's basically showing off what could be done in animation. With "Thief" though, sometimes the Padding doesn't have that excuse. There's a couple scenes where it's just two people talking with not much movement.

That said, the fact that everything is hand-drawn or hand-painted is impressive. There's several moments where I thought "That looks like CGI..."

Zigzag has probably one of the most gruesome deaths in any animated film. Yikes.

I do like how there's not too much dialogue. It's also nice that a lot of scenes don't even have music. I don't know if that was intentional, or a result of Williams' version never being finished, but it works.

Also can someone confirm whether or not that was Sean Connery voicing Tack at the end? I've seen conflicting sources. For the record, it doesn't actually sound like his voice. The end credits to the Re-Cobbled cut lists him.

If you want to get really technical, cliffhangers and multi-episode story arcs in Western animation go all the way back to Rocky and Bullwinkle. In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that the coverage of animation here on TV Tropes a strong "recency bias", especially regarding when certain trends appeared.

Edited by ElSquibbonator on Feb 13th 2022 at 7:37:02 AM

That seems like it needs to be brought up.

Anyway, I recommend Zig & Sharko. It is somewhat like the coyote and roadrunner shorts, but crazier, and a bit higher paced.

Really, most troping in general is for newer works. Almost any show, movie, or video game released nowadays gets troped, but only the most famous older ones do, and their troping tends to be less thorough. But what can ya do? It's not like we can force people to watch and trope all those older shows.

I have a recomendation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG13b4_3gcU This short is the pilot for "Tales from Scorchwater Valley: The Rhino and The Redbill", made by freelance animator Alexander Henderson. It's about a blind rhinoceros mercenary named Niles and his guide-bird, Red the Oxpecker. They are traverssing the Valley in order to find a place to stay (and also for their unhatched baby, Sam, to be safe), but find themselves surrounded by a Mad-Max like gang after Red tricks his friend to going through a shortcut. The creator started this short through a Kickstarter campaign in 2019, but that one failed. In 2020, he tried again and managed to succeed, and after 2 years of production and exclusivity to Animation Festivals, it was uploaded on You Tube two weeks ago. The crew is really looking forward to continue the story of these characters again in the future, and we could give them a hand by giving them their own page here. Another awesome short by the same creator is "Breathing Space", released in 2018. A standalone sci-fi musical featuring a duo of a human woman and an alien gator against their greatest enemy, with a banger song playing through its entirety. It still hasn't been acknowledged by this website yet, but maybe we can change that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRkND6PnKvE

There's a really good animated drama webseries on youtube that I found recently. Its called 'ION object show/Investigation into Object Nuclearity' and was created by Heloise&RS. while it only has one episode It has a lot of potential from what I've seen and according to the creator the second episode is well into production. It's in Russian but it's fully translated into English through subtitles. It's a Mystery/Science Fiction with a bit of dark comedy and set in an abandoned Nuclear power plant. I can't tell you a lot about it (spoilers!) but I honestly give it a solid 8.5 or 9 out of 10 so far.

first episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BvjuU8UZhQ

Edited by Oreozzzzzzz on Mar 13th 2023 at 2:34:03 PM

The 2003 teenage mutant ninja turtles series by 4kids.

I don't know if this was ever brought up, but there is a webseries called "Satina". About a normal guy with a very young demon daughter. Here is episode 1:

I figured there probably wouldn't be enough interest to warrant its own thread. Its actually a fun show. But I noticed that the viewers have drastically declined with each episode. Probably because there are long gaps between episodes, and all of the episodes after the first are very short. This show would benefit from either longer episodes, or more frequent episodes. Or both.

But I know they probably have pretty limited resources. Not all animated web shows can be like Helluva Boss.

the smaller views could also be becouse they haven't been viseable for as much time so becouse of that they haven't accumulated as much views.

Okay guys. I am BEGGING you not to sleep on Fright Krewe. It’s really good. It’s dark. It’s scary. It’s imaginative. It’s a perfect Halloween binge. Hulu’s probably gonna be the easiest place to find it. PLEASE give this some love.

Can someone recommend me a good show with heroic cats? My little orange Jonesy just passed after a short illness and I'd like a pick me up. I know of Mao Mao and Thunder Cats I'm looking for something less mainstream. I don't care if it's a kid show either. Just something with lovable cats.

There’s an Australian cartoon called Kitty Is Not a Cat That comes to mind for me. I’ve seen it; it’s about a little girl who wants to be a cat and is adopted by a group of talking musician cats. IMO, it’s a very funny and charming show that’s kinda like Top Cat.

Edited by MagnusForce on Oct 30th 2023 at 4:32:02 AM

There are quite a few animated Hello Kitty shows, but for a specific recommendation I'll say Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, since it's the only one I've seen so far (and it falls within the scope of this board, being made for the American market). HK and friends are stage actors reenacting the plots of various classic stories, and she usually plays heroic roles.

I haven't watched it yet, but Bagpuss is a stop motion show where the main character is a sentient cat plushie.

Edited by CosmicCat on Oct 31st 2023 at 7:50:22 AM

This might be stretching the strict definitions of both "heroic" and "cat", but I think Bee and Puppycat might fit in spirit.

I just want to say I truly appreciated the recommendations. It still hurts losing Jonesy, but the pain has lessened. I think he would have liked these shows.

This is a new one from Spain, Robot Dreams.

I watched last Saturday here in Madrid and I am surprised that Pablo Berger, that really owned in his silent and bullfighter version of Snow White (Blancanieves), is able to hit again with another silent (but animated) film based on a graphic novel by Sara Varon.

The movie won the Best Animated Film of the Year in the European Film Awards and is contending for local Goya Award for Best Animated Film, probably it came a little bit late to contend with the big boys (Spiderman and The Boy and the Heron), but this simple, but heartbreaking film about a guy that buys a robot in order to have a friend is, simply one of the best films of the year.

You know what? I’m gonna reccomend Hit-Monkey. Underrated gem that takes a silly premise dead seriously and makes it work. Shades of Tarantino’s Kill Bill throughout, a top notch cast with fun action - honestly, it might be my favorite adult animated show.

Bumping with another one: Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. Just a low key meditation of youth in a very specific era that scratches an oddly specific itch for me. It’s less about telling a story and bringing you into the sixties. If anyone has a similar film or show, please share.