Better Than It Sounds/Western Animation

Remember those cartoons you watched as a kid? Try summing them up now. For feature films, see the Film entries.

Please sort new titles alphabetically to avoid double-entries.

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series: Three spotted pups and a chicken guard their farm against a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
• Action League NOW: Toys fight crime, but not very well.
• Adventures from the Book of Virtues: Two children seek help from four anthropomorphic animals to solve their problems with stories and their virtues.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Colorful Animals harass a fat man. Its most memorable moments are one specific post-show advice segment and a quote by the fat man cropped down to sound like a genital organ.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: A speed freak, a nudist princess, a cybernetic Southern Belle and a French stereotype fight to protect the environment from a fat man dressed up like a superhero. It has a very memorable theme song. Due to its easily confusing name, it has a nickname taken from its time slot. Loosely based on a video game.
  • Sonic Underground: Said Speed Freak then forms a rock band with his brother and sister and set off on a quest, thwarting a wolf bounty hunter.
• Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers Four cybernetically-enhanced Space Cowboys team up. They Fight Crime. The universe itself resembles a cross of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and Clint Eastwood westerns filtered through a generous portion of The Eighties.
• Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Brightly-colored talking ursines ferment berry juice as powerful stimulant/steroid and defend a castle from a nasty duke.
• Adventure Time: A human and a dog hang out with princesses and go on adventures. It's Crazy Awesome.
  • A surreal land with two adventurers who have to stop Tom Kenny from capturing princesses.And a post apocalyptic world filled to the brim with all kinds of non existent and amazing creatures and even a back story for some of the Crazy Awesome characters.
• Aeon Flux: An anarchistic terrorist in bondage gear and her Mad Scientist archnemesis/boyfriend engage in over-the-top, surreal action sequences intercut with Mind Screwy dialog and kinky sex.
  • Alternatively, barely dressed Anti Heroine may be trying to save the world, but keeps getting distracted by her habit of having sex with the villain. She dies. Repeatedly.
• Aladdin: A hobo, a near-omnipotent comedian, two greedy animals, and a piece of fabric. They Fight Crime.
• The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan: A Chinese stereotype and his 10 kids solve mysteries.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: The misadventures of a young cat and a goldfish with feet in a town full of mismatched characters.
• American Dad: An ordinary American family have general misadventures that includes the father's work and his nerdy son's quest for boob. The family pets include an alien and a talking German goldfish.
• American Dragon: Jake Long: A "hip" Asian-American teen and his annoying kid sister take up their grandfather's old job.
• Animaniacs: Three Funny Animals of indeterminate species live in a refurbished water storage device and spend their time driving people insane, making fun of their writers, and breaking the Fourth Wall at every given opportunity. Also features shorts of mobster pigeons, a jack-of-all-trades giant chicken, and a Genre Savvy retired actor.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Three giant sentient fast-food items do nothing in particular, even though they're supposed to be detectives.
• Archer: An idiotic secret agent who looks like the guy who voices him has wacky adventures with a group of other secret agents who look like the people who voice them.
• Arthur: A bunch of anthropomorphic animals, who look nothing like the animals they are supposed to be, learn Aesops. Occasionally, there is an off-the-wall episode, including a Musical Episode. The show's most infamous episode dealt with the main animal attacking his sister.
• Assy McGee: An ass and a fat guy are Buddy Cops.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: A heavily tattooed kung-fu Dalai Lama, his Eskimo pals, a blind Chinese preteen of mass destruction, an angry burn victim and some animals that don't exist (but should) take on Luke Skywalker and his army of arsonists who wear giant shoulderpads.
  • Or A disfigured Troubled but Cute teenage arsonist chases and harasses underage boy to please Luke Skywalker, gets his butt kicked repeatedly and is dissatisfied when he finally wins.
  • Alternately, a cheerful and brightly-colored children's show about child abuse and genocide.
  • Or A culturally diverse group of kids learn about the evils of imperialism.
• The Legend of Korra: A hotheaded teenaged Eskimo, a pair of mixed-race athletes that live on the street, a heavily-tattooed middle-aged man, and more animals that do not exist (but should) try to suppress a civil rights movement led by Steve Blum. Its name was altered twice to avoid confusion with a blockbuster movie about blue aliens and its predecessor's horrible film adaption.
• Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes: An old guy wakes up from a 65+ year nap, a rich guy with a lot of toys, a blond, long-haired dude who speaks funny, a really strong yet really cranky fellow, a scientist and his flighty girlfriend, an archery fanatic and a guy who dresses like a big cat all get together and... you guessed it... they fight crime!!
• The Backyardigans: Three colorful mammals, one colorful arctic bird and one colorful alien run around their backyard and pretend to be whatever comes to mind.
• Babar: European-tutored African monarch leads his people against slaving warlord.
• Batman the Animated Series: A highly athletic orphan and his immigrant friend must keep an eye on various mental defectives with snazzy fashion sense in a town where people still think it's the 1940s.
• Batman Beyond: A teenager volunteers to be tutored by a reclusive elderly billionaire, putting his social and family life on hold while avoiding questions about what they do together.
  • Or, an iconic adult superhero, except in High School.
    • Or, Teenager goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against a walking glow-stick for killing his father by becoming an animal cosplayer. With the help of a reclusive billionaire and his Black Best Friend he eventually discovers his father was never truly dead. Executive Meddling was had initially but thankfully nobody listened.
• The Batman: An athletic orphan dresses up as an animal and fights crime with a ridiculous assortment of gadgets against people with weird fashion tastes, including one Ax Crazy guy with red eyes, green dreadlocks, a straitjacket, and a creepy voice oh and the sky is always red.
• Batman the Brave And The Bold: Rich Man has many friends and is suddenly incapable of doing his job alone.
  • Or to be fair: Rich Man brings back weird and Campy elements which had long ago been discredited from his character. Decides he likes hanging around with his many, many friends. Then, They Fight Crime!
  • "Mayhem of the Music Meister": A Musical Episode of the above show, featuring a previous supervillain voicing the supervillain. Perks include the entire cast of the local insane asylum participating in a musical number and a hero/villain conga line.
• Beast Wars: Transforming Mecha become cyborgs because their fuel source is poison to them, reenact historical events on an alien world while Sufficiently Advanced Aliens get pissed that they're ruining their petri dish.
  • Beast Machines: The surviving Transforming Mecha fight robots ruled by a giant floating head, all the while acting as a parable for living in our modern technological society.
• Beavis and Butthead: Two phenomenally stupid high school heshers irritate everyone they come into contact with, including each other. Their most notable trait is their tendency to chortle hysterically at the slightest sign of a (usually unintentional) double-entendre.
• Beetlejuice: A teenage girl is best friends with a dead con artist.
• Ben 10: A boy with a tricked-out wristwatch, his affirmative-action girl cousin, and a retired Man in Black fight space Chthulu while touring the USA.
  • Ben 10 Alien Force: Three teenagers hunt aliens in a world crawling with Face Full of Alien Wingwong.
    • Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: Boy gets new watch to fight The Collector while taking crap from a Strawman Political. He then suffers Deja Vu from six years previously when his friend becomes a Jerkass. Then he fights a Eldritch Abomination.
• Biker Mice From Mars: Funny Animal Harley Davidson enthusiasts fight against alien fish.
• Bonkers: A nutty cartoon star loses his acting job and becomes a policeman.
• The Boondocks: Middle-class black family moves to an upper-class white neighborhood and learn a thing or two about race relations.
• Bubble Guppies: Bushroot is a talking fish who teaches a Wacky Homeroom of four-year-old mermaids about rock and roll, planets, construction, restaurants and other topics, each with catchy songs.
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Overtly correct guy, Rebellious Princess, hyperactive child and clumsy Ascended Fanboy. They Fight Crime.
  • A Defictionalization of a television show IN SPACE mentioned in a movie. Also spawned a direct-to-video movie, featuring a song during the end credits by William Shatner.
• Camp Lazlo: A hyperactive, absurdly friendly and forgiving monkey, a high-strung elephant with a funny accent, and a savant rhinoceros go to summer camp. Among their friends are an angry platypus with a deep voice, a neurotic hamster/guinea pig with allergies, and an overworked slug. The camp is, rather appropriately, called Kidney.
• Captain N: The Game Master: Teenager lives out every child's dream by being sucked into a video game world.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A Five-Token Band with a custom-made set of friendship rings and a mulleted superhero with too many powers and too many weaknesses save the environment.
  • Wicca with a green mullet.
• Captain Scarlet: A group of colour-coded soldiers with very odd accents try to stop a bunch of glowing green lights from destroying all life on Earth.
• CatDog: Siamese twins go on wacky adventures while dealing with their asshole roommate and a gang of three mean, anthropomorphic dogs.
• Cats Don't Dance: Talking Animals perform a Beast Fable about racial integration in the movie industry. Oh, and the villain is an eight-year-old girl.
• Catscratch: An ambitious black cat, a Not-Actually-Scottish Cat, and a dim cat inherit their owner's fortune and use it to buy lots of root beer.
• Celebrity Deathmatch: Some of the most well-known people settle their differences within a wrestling ring.
• ChalkZone: A buck-toothed kid discovers a world where erased chalk drawings live like normal people.
• The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: Adventures of a manic-depressive, a diva-in-training, an immature philosopher, an artistic prodigy, a tomboy with her possible future life partner and a canine who always steals the show.
• Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: Rodents and an insect fight crime.
• Chop Socky Chooks: A group of poultry practicing martial arts protects a city from an evil blob of paste.
• Chowder: Mix-and-Match Critters, monsters, and various caricatures living in a whacked-up fantasy world cook, and have many insane adventures. It is also important to note that half of the inanimate objects, and most of the food they cook, are sentient.
• Classic Disney Shorts: The lives of a really nice guy, a really clumsy guy, and a really short-tempered guy. And sometimes their girlfriends and pets.
• Clerks the Animated Series: Two guys who are rude to customers get involved with crazy stuff.
• Clone High: Amusing genetic copies of historical figures vie for each other's affections, and apparently John Stamos is all about helping people.
• Code Lyoko: Nerdy kid opens a Pandora's box in the form of a Reality Altering Super Computer, finds a cute AI inside, resolves to drag three random classmates along to save the girl, her father, and the world from an evil AI akin to Skynet (two out of three ain't bad). Also, time travel removes all consequences of social stupidity and class cutting, except within the UST laden hero relationships.
• Code Monkeys: Video game sprites make video games in The Eighties.
• Codename: Kids Next Door: Child Soldiers battle tyrants and criminals in this wacky comedy.
  • Or: Unsupervised children wage war on anyone who's older than them and any form of authority.
• Cool McCool: Super Spy battles weird villains. Sometimes he thinks about his father, a law enforcement agent.
• Count Duckula: Vegetarian Vampire Duck with vaguely American accent and his servants have a series of misadventures while trying to become famous.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog: A jumpy pink dog from Kansas with a misleading name protects an old lady from monsters. Her husband doesn't like the dog very much.
  • Or: B-grade horror with Funny Animals.
• Cow and Chicken: A couple gives birth to a bovine and a bird. The two siblings deal with a sadistic man without pants while the audience gets weirded and/or grossed out.
• The Critic: A short, overweight, and balding New York television personality has to put up with an overbearing boss, a snarky hairdresser, his ex-wife, and has to sit through countless examples of bad cinema.
• Cyberchase: Three kids travel Inside the Internet with a robotic bird. Together, they must stop an evil Elvis impersonator from taking over the world the Internet using algebra and common sense.
• Cybersix: Artificially created superhero crossdresser, battles mutants with the help of big cat and some bisexual guy.
• Danger Mouse: A mole and a one-eyed mouse with an incredibly Cool Car fight crime.
• Danny Phantom: Freak lab accident causes a teenage boy to become not quite undead. This leads him to fight crime caused by dead people alongside his two best friends and, eventually, his older sister. Also, the Big Bad wants to bang the hero's mom.
• Dan Vs.: The adventures of a short-tempered jerk with a persecution complex.
• Daria: A cynic, with a swearing father and a workaholic mother, makes fun of everything while her sibling runs a fashion club where people wear the same thing all the time.
• Darkwing Duck: A Funny Animal who thinks he's Batman balances fighting crime with being a single dad.
• Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines: Three men and a dog in Cool Planes chase a pigeon.
• Dave the Barbarian: A cowardly muscleman, his two sisters, his talking sword, and their crazy uncle house-sit while their parents are away on a business trip. Oh, and did we mention the main villian is a pig?
• DCAU Decade of plots spans four series before being fully resolved. Eventually, some super dudes and dudettes make friends with each other.
  • Batman the Animated Series: Rich kid watches his parents get shot. Decides to squander their fortune by terrorizing population of home city. His arch-nemesis is a jocular Luke Skywalker.
  • Superman: The Animated Series:Mr Krabs fights a metal-associated survivor of a holocaust (who is sometimes a jerk). Spawned an awful video game.
  • Batman Beyond: Troublemaking kid takes up old man's creepy cosplay fetish to get revenge on a Corrupt Corporate Executive that glows in the dark. The old man likes to watch.
    • By the way, it's Batman in the future revolving around teenagers with teenage issues.
  • Justice League: Some BFFs make a club in an exclusive clubhouse. Together, They Fight Crime.
    • A hacked invasion of the earth brings together three aliens (consisting of one Martian telepath, one Sole Survivor of a doomed planet, and one with wings, one Hot Amazon, a Badass Normal and a Speedster with the metabolism from hell). They save the world, and decide they like this team thing so much they're gonna keep at it. One of the Aliens turns out to be a Spy, then rejoins the side she was pretending to be a part of anyway and everything works out. Eventually.
    • An illegal alien, a spy for a hostile foreign power, a man who works for another foreign power, a golem, an immature frat-boy, another illegal alien, and a psychologically disturbed crime victim team up. Paragons of Americana all, They Fight Crime.
    • Justice League Unlimited: BFF club becomes less exclusive, everyone grows beards. The government doesn't like this club and beefs up its own rival club (the Sharks, or something).
    • Justice League Unlimited: Various larger-than-life superhumans prove to be less entertaining than an unstable Conspiracy Theorist with a Nice Hat.
    • Next season, they fight a secret organization headed by a a talking gorilla.
• Detention: A group of sixth graders have wacky adventures that result in them being sent to the confinement room of the show's title.
• Dexter's Laboratory: Boy gets tormented by his older sister, who manages to bypass all things he builds to avoid her. The boy also has a rival, whose true name is Susan.
• Di-Gata Defenders Four teenagers barely past puberty must save their homeworld from invasion by evil nation of Pod People. Utilises magic spells and real world science with interesting results. Heavily anime influenced.
• Doug: Ridiculously Average Guy writes in his diary about his life in a town filled with really colorful folks.
• Drawn Together: Cartoon characters live in a house and kill, maim and sleep with each other while making fun of dead babies.
• Duck Dodgers: A Small Name, Big Ego arrives in the future and becomes a starship captain with a stuttering sidekick. Fights a man that has a broom on his head. Features Tom Jones on the opening theme.
• DuckTales (1987): A rich old man and his nephew's nephews have adventures.
• Earthworm Jim: Homer Simpson is a worm in a spacesuit, who saves the world with the help of a puppy who regularly hulks out on him (actually, that generally sums it up).
• Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy: Three similarly named boys try conning their neighbors in order to buy oversized candy. Humiliation ensues.
• Exo Squad: The Solar system is overrun by Cloning Blues and a daring bunch of Humongous Mecha pilots set out to save humanity.
  • Or: The American version of Mobile Suit Gundam
  • Or: The European Theater reenacted In Space
• The Fairly OddParents: A hyperactive bucktoothed kid in a pink hat acquires a pair of shape-shifting magical goldfish who defend him from the local nasty babysitter, school bully, and Sadist Teacher, while frequently giving him lessons in Be Careful What You Wish For.
• Family Guy: A fat slob, his attractive wife, their lazy son, unpopular daughter, evil talking baby and talking dog all go on adventures.
  • Alternately, a show that divides its time mostly between an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist whose wacky hijinks cause major collateral damage and an Author Avatar who spends a lot of his time antagonizing an Enfant Terrible or dating stupid but attractive women.
• Famous Fred: Two British kids visit a funeral for their cat, and hear an eulogy from a slightly camp guinea pig. A lot of singing is involved.
• Fillmore!: Middle schoolers act like characters in a 1970s cop show.
• Fish Hooks: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Teen Years.
• The Flintstones: Pre-historic Honeymooners.
• Flying Rhino Junior High: An evil genius, bent on revenge due to recieving a D in shop class many years before, lives in a school basement with his talking rat sidekick and alters reality with the use of a super computer he built. And the school's principal is a rhino. And the janitor is a pig. And a spy.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: A young boy hangs out in a large Victorian mansion with imaginary creatures, including a blue prankster with a psychopathic streak, a big purple Spanish monster, a 10-foot-tall red thing that lost an arm in a basketball-related incident, and what seems to to be a combination between a palm tree, a bird and an airplane.
• Freakazoid!!: Nerd gets superpowers while losing sanity. Eventually, insanity dilutes into everyone else, including the audience.
• Frisky Dingo: An idiotic nude vows to destroy the world but never quite gets around to it. His even-more idiotic nemesis treats his psycho girlfriend like crap. Their employees attempt to stiff the two as much as possible.
• Futurama: A pizza delivery boy goes on a one-way trip. He meets and befriends a physically deformed orphan and an alcohol-fueled criminal. They all quit their jobs to work for the delivery boy's senile nephew.
• Galactik Football: Recovering magic steroid addict recruits 8 kids to play space soccer, bad dubbing ensues. No one ever goes to school.
• Garfield and Friends: Nerdy, depressed cartoonist with poor social skills is excited by the most boring things imaginable, his lazy Deadpan Snarker cat and dumb dog go along for the ride. Said cartoonist seems to think he's having conversations with his cat's thoughts. These are interrupted by segments of Talking Animals on a farm all with their own extreme personality disorder.
• Gargoyles: Evil billionaire rebuilds family heirloom on top of New York City skyscraper, unleashes Noble Demon creatures that really don't like to get up in the morning.
  • Legendary creatures are constantly outsmarted by a rich man with a ponytail.
• Generator Rex: A mutant boy works for a mutant-fighting government faction in a world where everybody and everything already is a mutant.
• George of the Jungle: Muscleheaded klutz lives in wilderness with a enormous pet, a chattering bird, a smart primate and a hot redhead. Goofiness ensues.
  • Super Chicken: A socialite tries to fight crime after drinking martinis, and glibly ignores the complaints of his long-suffering sidekick.
  • Tom Slick: A professional driver who doesn't know when to quit travels around the world.
• G.I. Joe: Patriotic soldiers fight the good fight against terrorists. Neither side can hit the broad side of a barn. The main bad guy has "RETREAT!" as his Catch Phrase.
  • G.I. Joe Extreme: A group of serious steroid abusers fight the forces of a Darth Vader wannabe.
  • Sgt Savage and His Screaming Eagles: A frozen World War II veteran is resurrected to fight Nazi robots.
  • G.I. Joe: Sigma 6: The original main bad guy escapes from prison as the patriotic soldiers fights his armies of robots. They all still can't hit the broad side of a barn. Looks different somehow.
  • G.I. Joe: Resolute: The terrorists learn from their mistakes.
  • G.I. Joe: Renegades: A group of A-Team Expies is on the run. The terrorists are now a Mega Corp.
• Godzilla: The Series: A scientist goes on adventures with his son, who happens to be a giant lizard. Also contains a robot that has the same luck as Kenny.
• Gravedale High: Rick Moranis becomes a teacher at a high school for monsters. And the vampire is friends with a werewolf.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: A no-nonsense girl and a life-loving boy prevent a thin man from doing his job.
• Halloween Is Grinch Night: A bunch of animals can't knock off their racket, so a green guy goes down a mountain to vent his frustration on a peaceful community.
• Western Animation/Hammerman: A superhero version of MC Hammer with a pair of sentient magical shoes battles villains with his dance moves and The Power of Rap.
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law: Former superhero becomes a defense attorney for cartoon characters from the '60s and '70s.
• Hey Arnold!: A Marty Stu solves problems around his neighborhood. Meanwhile, one of his bullies goes insane over her crush on him.
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Two Japanese chicks with weird hair travel around in their bus playing rock music and getting into weird hijinks.
• Histeria!: An eccentric cast consisting of two old people, a flatulent baby, a ditzy tour guide, a man with really tall pants, and some wacky kids star in comedy sketches with historical figures.
• Home Movies: A feminine ADD-riddled kid makes movies with a fat kid & masculien girl. He also takes advice from his fat middle-aged coach, whose only pick up line is to ask women if their father was fat.
• House of Mouse: A bunch of cartoon characters go to a night club to watch cartoons.
• Hot Wheels AcceleRacers Series: A Merchandise-Driven series about a bunch of racers who drive improbable cars and fight robots. In the second series, one of the bad guys is the lead's father. In the third instalment, the helper AI looks a lot like Cortana and they fight furries too. The movies and series are made by some people who made a show about people who live in your computer, and other people who made a series about bad supervillains and knights with airplanes.
  • Hot Wheels Battle Force 5: A Merchandise-Driven series about a bunch of racers who drive improbable cars and fight robots and beastmen for keys.
• Huckleberry Hound: An oddly-colored canine gets punched and sings folk music.
• Insektors: A civilization of colorful hippies struggles against a mechanized pollution-clogged empire's attempts to exterminate them. Said empire aims to accomplish this by uprooting flowers and using mechanized frogs.
• Inspector Gadget: Cyborg detective accidentally thwarts a Diabolical Mastermind's attempts to kill him. His niece and his dog do the rest of his work for him.
• Invader Zim: A short megalomaniac and his idiotic robot slave from a society where height determines rank tries to conquer/destroy the ultimate Crapsack World while being opposed by the ultimate Butt Monkey. Also involves pigs and monkeys. And doom.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: An archaeologist and his family fight criminals and demons with the power of magic and kung-fu. His niece gets on his nerves.
• Jem and The Holograms: Based on a line of dolls in The Eighties during The Dark Age of Animation. To get control of her father's company back from a Corrupt Corporate Executive, a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter becomes a pink-haired Idol Singer, and her younger biological and adopted sisters become her back-up band. They all deal with a crush from the Idol Singer's boyfriend, the annoying punk band that the Corrupt Corporate Executive hired, and everyone's gigantic crazy hair.
• Jimmy Neutron: A hydrocephalic boy, an asthmatic boy, and a hyperactive psychotic boy have crazy adventures.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: A pollyanna runs around Hell with the Anti-Anti-Christ and a Mad Scientist with a Yandere-level crush on him.
• Johnny Bravo: Good-looking but sleazy Elvis impersonator who lives with his mother gets into weird hijinks and gets beat up by nearly every woman he meets.
• Johnny Test: A pair of scientists supply high-tech weaponry to a volatile maniac and his best friend (who, by the way, is a dog). The government fails to put a stop to this.
  • Or: The inverse of Dexter's Laboratory
• Jonny Quest: A scientist and a body guard take two children on life-threatening adventures.
  • The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: Update this for The Nineties, add a fourteen-year old Action Girl, and some Deep-Immersion Gaming.
• Justice League: Seven gifted orphans and misfits beat up mean people.
  • Justice League Unlimited: They invite all their weird friend to join them.
• KaBlam!!: A disaster-prone boy and a cute yet sarcastic girl host a show containing many different cartoons.
• Kaeloo: Three guys and a Hermaphrodite play children's games.
• Kim Possible: Schoolgirl who takes on a lot of extra work ends up dating her best friend since pre-school. Fans read lesbian subtext into Disney cartoon, creators are happy to oblige.
• King Arthur and the Knights of Justice: Merlin recruits an American football team and their waterboy to protect Camelot and find lost keys.
• King of the Hill: It's like The Simpsons in Texas, and it tries to show how Texans are just like everyone else. So it's like the Simpsons.
• Lazer Tag Academy: Teenage chick goes back in time to help her teenage great great whatever grandparents save the future. Has a gun that shoots light.
• The Last Unicorn: A unicorn has an identity complex which is solved with the help of a wizard who can't do magic, a scullery maid and Jeff Bridges while Christopher Lee tries to catch her for his own. Also, there's tree boobs.
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: A girl keeps peace among monsters Invisible to Normals.
• Liberty's Kids: The American Revolution for kids!
• Lilo and Stitch: A girl adopts a dog. Said dog turns out to be a wanted alien criminal. The girl ends up keeping him, and having the aliens who were hunting her dog/alien criminal living with her and her sister.
• Linus The Lionhearted: A number of commercial mascots for a cereal company engage in wacky adventures.
• Looney Tunes: Ensemble piece featuring the adventures of an overtly smart rabbit, wacky fowl with bad luck, a stuttering swine, Extreme Omnivore marsupial, a smelly Don Juan, an unlucky persistent canine, and a rooster with a mean streak.
  • Daffy Duck-Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd shorts: A duck and a rabbit use various tricks to avoid a hunter who intends on eating them.
  • Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner: A desert canine, despite being backed by millions of dollars of technology and equipment, fails to catch a flightless bird, albeit one who can keep pace with The Flash.
    • Or: A depiction of the struggles of a canine to catch its prey, who used cunning and the ability to disregard the laws of nature to avoid apprehension.
  • Pepe LePew: A Romantic Comedy where the male lead is a Stalker with a Crush on a woman with paint on her back. This is sometimes reversed, though.
  • Bugs Bunny: A Deadpan Snarker rabbit defeats hunters, monsters, carnivores, and Those Wacky Nazis.
  • The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: An old lady travels around the world solving crimes while her cat tries to eat her bird.
  • Taz-Mania: Brown furry animal with speech problem lives with family, works at a hotel, tries to avoid being captured by two reptiles, and hangs out with an orange canine who collects soda caps.
  • Russian Rhapsody: One murderous tyrant tries to bomb another. The latter tyrant sends a magic legion to stop the former. Hilarity Ensues.
• Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil: A trio of extremely violent clergymen travel to San Francisco in an attempt to hunt down and kill the Antichrist, a female barkeeper who is genuinely indifferent to her father's comically ill though-out evil plans. Unless they involve dildos (don't ask). Also, Jesus is a DJ.
• MAD: Robot Chicken for kids.
• The Magic School Bus: A crazy red-haired woman regularly subjects elementary-aged children to life-threatening situations without the knowledge of their parents. Protests from the children are usually ignored or glibly dismissed.
• Making Fiends: A little girl is cheerfully oblivious to the fact that her hometown sucks and her best friend wants to kill her.
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: A boy, his stepmother whale, and a washed-up pirate with prosthetic hands live in a run-down harbor town where weird and disturbing things happen, and search for candy and/or adventure.
• Meet the Robinsons: An Gadgeteer Genius orphan searches for his mother and meets his son from the future along the way. Add a Bowler Hat Guy and Hilarity Ensues.
• Megas XLR: Lovable slacker from New Jersey refurbishes a Humongous Mecha from the future that he finds in a dump. Aliens want to steal the mecha for their own purposes. Lots of things explode.
• Metalocalypse: A well-off group of famed, socially inept musicians enjoy the ups and downs of their above-the-law status, while a board of powerful figures think they're a force to be reckoned with and attempt to stop them. The bands manger is a Magnificent Bastard ninja-accountant. Hilarity Ensues.
• The Mighty Ducks: Crime fighters from another universe come to Earth... and play hockey.
• Mission Hill: An aspiring cartoonist puts up with his younger brother.
• Moral Orel: A Cheerful Child thinks Jesus Was Way Cool. It's horribly depressing.
• Mr Benn: A man makes regular visits to a costume shop but never buys anything.
• Mulan : A Chinese officer makes a real man out of a bratty little teenage girl so that she can do what real men do.
• Muppet Babies: Kindergarten versions of famous puppet characters let their imaginations run away with them.
• The Mysterious Cities of Gold: A 16th century boy with the power to control the weather goes treasure-hunting in the New World with a princess and a rag tag band of misfits with the help of a devious bastard. While there, they stumble upon at least half a dozen Wacky Wayside Tribes, including a band of giant Vikings, some G-rated Amazons and a tribe of highly advanced asexual elves.
  • Acquiring along the way a giant solar-powered warship (which they self-destruct to take out an enemy ship) and a solar-powered aircraft. At the very end, they narrowly avert a nuclear meltdown. Not only am I still not making this up, it all makes sense in context, and is really really cool.
• My Gym Partner's A Monkey!: Due to a spelling error, a boy ends up going to school with animals.
• My Little Pony Talking ponies who may or may not be lesbians live with human siblings in a magic Lady Land^[1]
• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: A half-hour toy commercial about rainbow-colored talking livestock learning the value of friendship, spawning thousands of memes.
  • Or: Chuck Jones meets Lisa Frank.
  • Or: a sarcastic bookworm reluctantly befriends a stubborn farmer, an ultra-feminine fashion designer, a painfully-shy animal lover, a pink-haired space cadet, and a boastful jock.
  • Or: One of the most widely despised franchises of all time is revived with Flash animation and a self-confident feminist attitude. It rips off the style of other popular shows and enjoys a fandom no one outside the series creator saw coming.
  • Or: Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra WITH HORSES!
• Oban Star Racers: Pod racing to appoint God.
• The Penguins of Madagascar: Crazed birds spy on humans.
• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: Seven little men protect an heiress from her greedy guardian and his twin henchmen.
• Phineas and Ferb: Two boys shaped like their initials try to not get bored during summer vacation. Sometimes girl scouts help them. Their long-necked sister tries to get them in trouble for things. Meanwhile, a cartoony-looking animal fights a pharmacist-looking guy.
  • Alternately: The same exact thing happens every single episode. A good portion of the characters are voiced by Disney Channel stars. Meanwhile, an aquatic egg-laying mammal wrecks the dreams of a European man.
  • Alternately again: A clingy sister stalks her younger brothers in the hopes of getting them in trouble with their oblivious parents. They in turn work with highly dangerous material that they don't seem to ever pay for and neglect their pet, actually a secret agent who goes through the whole dog-and-pony act with his lame arch-nemesis who is sometimes quite sympathetic.
  • Alternately yet again: Evil is thwarted in the b-plot while a teenage girl runs herself ragged trying to stop a group of kids from having fun.
  • Still alternately: Marvel as a teenage girl suffers a steady plunge into mental illness!
  • Alternately once more: Ferris Bueller, split in half and ON STEROIDS!!
• The Pink Panther Cartoons: A Cool Cat who is male despite his color and usually has no voice has random adventures in a diamond. He is usually accompanied by an inept French policeman; a talking ant and aardvark, both of whom imitate famous people; and two hungry frogs from Mexico.
• Pinky and The Brain: Two lab rats, one short and irritable, the other tall and easily impressionable, devise schemes to Take Over the World.
  • Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain: The two lab rats continue to devise schemes to Take Over the World - provided, of course, they put up with the distractions of their new owner from another series.
• Pirates of Dark Water: Small, ragtag band of heroes search the oceans for ancient treasures that are needed to stop an all-consuming black sludge from devouring the world. The fact that the show never finished became a Running Gag on Cartoon Network for years.
• Postman Pat: A man delivers letters to a local village while driving around in a red van with his cat. Often helping the locals out with their problems.
• Potatoes and Dragons: A jerkish King is repeatedly harrassed by a dragon, and hires knights to get rid of it. They fail due to the King's daughter, jester, and a child being in cahoots with said dragon.
• The Powerpuff Girls: Three super strong chemically perfect little girls with no fingers are hired to destroy a city on a regular basis by fighting monsters and a monkey with a big head.
  • Alternately: Three kindergartners fight a monkey, an angry pink redneck, a spoiled brat, and Satan.
• Project G.e.e.K.e.R.: Two characters named after literary figures attempt to shelter an artificial god from another man named after a literary figure.
• Quick Draw McGraw: The adventures of a Wild West sheriff who fights better when armed with a guitar and hangs out with a Mexican jackass.
• Rainbow Brite: A pug-nosed toddler, her furry sidekick, and her egotistical horse fight evil with the power of the visible light spectrum.
• ReBoot: Green-skinned humans and oddly-shaped... things defend a city from megalomaniacs and pocket dimensions created by their "god".
• Recess: A Five-Man Band of elementary school kids who do stuff on the playground.
  • Recess: School's Out: The kids commit several felonies in order to stop a Professor Moriarty wannabe.
• Regular Show: Two Funny Animals working at a park turn their mundane activities into bizarre and surreal adventures.
• The Ren and Stimpy Show: A cat and dog have disturbing adventures.
  • Or: An asthmatic chihuahua and an overweight manx cat survive through being beaten up, hanged, electrocuted, set on fire, ripped off of their skin, put in a teargas room, sent on a mission to space to do nothing in particular that takes them 36 years while they suffer mental distabilization/being sucked into a black hole/alienated on a Crapsack World planet.
• Road Rovers: A few dogs owned by world leaders are selected to become Animal Superheroes who fight a cyborg who was once a cat that seeks to conquer the world by turning dogs into mutants.
• The Road to El Dorado: Two suspiciously close Spaniards attempts to cheat a Native American tribe out of money.
• Robot Chicken: The childhood memories of a whole generation are mercilessly parodied.
• Rocko's Modern Life: Misadventures of an Australian immigrant, whose best friend was Raised by Wolves.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: A moose and a squirrel travel the world, thwarting evil and making bad puns.
• Roger Ramjet: A pill-popping superhero and his army of Child Soldiers save the world.
• Rugrats: A group of babies have adventures while their parents aren't looking.
• Sam and Max Freelance Police: A naked guy and his dog hurt people and tell an underage girl to do stuff.
• Samurai Jack: A warrior is knocked into the future by a Large Ham Eldritch Abomination, and lands in a time after the abomination has conquered the world. He tries (and repeatedly fails) to get home, and occasionally thwarts his enemy's schemes for good measure.
  • An Asian man performs good deeds on a one way trip.
• Scooby Doo: Four teenagers and their talking dog repeatedly fail to realize the monsters they keep running into are just greedy people in cheap costumes.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Three teenagers and a talking dog are lead by another rich teenage stick in the mud with a trap fetish in solving mysteries in a town that has odd tourism gimmicks.They have UST with each other and the Disc One Final Boss is a talking parrot that wears glasses and has a strange accent.
• Sealab 2021: Idiots and loonies in a underwater research center routinely die.
• "Secret Mountain Fort Awesome": Five monsters live in a mountain and do stuff.
• Secret Squirrel: A squirrel and a mole fight crime.
• Shadow Raiders: A miner leads a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits in a war against an Eldritch Abomination.
• Sheep in The Big City: A sheep attempts to evade capture by an incompetent military organisation while also settling into city life, frequently interrupted by fake advertisements and rants by the narrator.
• The Simpsons: A weird family in a weird town.
  • The Simpsons Movie: A fat guy dooms his town with pig crap.
• Sintel: A hobbo girl who loses track of time to find her pet ends up killing it. Deception ensues.
• 6teen: A sextet of adolescents hangs around in a shopping center. Misadventures ensue.
• South Park: Boys have messed-up adventures while having to deal with idiotic adults, pop culture parodies and weird sex acts. Features lots of swearing and snow.
  • Or more simply, weird things happen to children.
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast: A retired superhero, evil mantis/locust bandleader, cameraman made of molten lava, & retarded cat host a Talk Show, where they constantly blow off their guests by arguing with each other & reliving their glory days.
  • Cartoon Planet: A retired superhero, an evil mantis, and a mentally challenged space pirate host a light and fluffy kids show. With musical numbers.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series: A censored as hell cartoon about the world's whiniest superhero based on his adventures in The Dark Age of Comic Books.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: A pretty horsie's musical adventures in the Old West.
• Spliced: Mutants do stuff.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Cheerful, dim-witted kitchen utensil works as a fry cook at an underwater fast-food restaurant.
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Said fry cook and his even dumber friend try to find a crown stolen from a bald king by a villainous microscopic organism and return it to him. Oh, and it has David Hasselhoff.
    • Alternatively: Two guys go to a gift shop to get a hat.
• Squidbillies: A comedy about a poor boy living in the Georgia mountains with his drug-dealing aunt, abusive alcoholic in-and-out-of-prison father and incoherent, dying racist grandmother.
• Star Trek: The Animated Series: An Animated Adaptation of that is both bargain basement cheaper and more visually spectacular than the original series.
• Star Wars: Clone Wars: The story of a Galactic war told three minutes at a time.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: A troubled twentysomething and a Little Miss Badass rescue a mob big shot's son as a prelude to their misadventures (as well as those of a Deadpan Snarker blind to his best friend's failings, a pacifist who has to do a lot of fighting, her none-too-bright sidekick, a knee-high old man, a man who's sick of these motherfucking Evil Overlords in this motherfucking galaxy, and their mass-produced legions who will one day betray them) throughout a galactic war.
• Stickin' Around: Children face their everyday life with drugs their imagination.
• Stoked: A sextet of adolescents hangs around at the beach. Misadventures ensue.
• Storm Hawks: Five teens on X-wing motor bikes fight evil.
• Super Duper Sumos: Fat men rub their butts together.
  • Or: Three young obese men fight crime using their scantily-clad bodies.
• The Superhero Squad Show: A Super-Deformed Marvel Universe centers around a team who fight against their enemies to collect shards of a powerful weapon.
• Superjail: What if Willy Wonka ran a high-security prison?
• Super Ted: A defective teddy bear is brought to life by an alien with spots and given super-powers by Mother Nature. Each episode, the teddy bear says his secret magic word, rips off his own skin, and goes and fights a cowboy and his henchmen, one of whom is a living skeleton.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Teenage boy breaks into a Giant Mecha and is rewarded with Super Powers and five colourfull pets. They Fight Crime to defend the planet from the Undead, a midgit, a Robot with a Verbal Tic, a Fanboy and a 200 foot Gangsert Colon.
• Swat Kats: Two police cadets are forced into auto repair because their boss was a glory hog. They decide not to let him completely get away with it.
• Sym-Bionic Titan: A deposed princess, her moody bodyguard, and a robot amoeba try to keep a low profile. For some reason, this involves fighting giant space monsters.
• Tale Spin: Indian wildlife who pilot airplanes, in the Caribbean, set in The Thirties, who have Indiana Jones-like adventures, dogfight European wildlife working as pirate pilots, and deliver cargo to Ruritania-like countries, most of which are hostile or eccentric.
• Teacher's Pet: A dog disguises himself as a human in order to go to the same school that his owner goes to.
• Teamo Supremo: Three ordinary schoolchildren get time off from their schoolwork to fight crime.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Four pet-shop reptilians get covered in radioactive gunk, and grow into adolescent three-fingered freaks who learn how to fight from an anthropomorphic rodent. Their enemies include a guy with spiked armor and, depending on which series, a sentient brain with battle armor or the spike armored one's daughter.
  • Or: premature reptiles studying ninjitsu while eating processed italian food.
    • Just saying the title gives a person a need to argue the show is Better Than It Sounds.
  • Turtles Forever: Three versions of the series overlap into a full on Crisis Crossover, with the gritty originals, an Lighter and Softer adaptation, and the more accurate series, and said spiked armor man becomes an Omnicidal Maniac who wants to destroy every universe.
• Teen Titans: A goth, an orange-skinned space babe, a shapeshifter, a robot, and a guy in spandex hang out in a giant "T" and argue over who gets the last slice of pizza. They Fight Crime.
• Tex Avery Cartoons: No Fourth Wall exists in the worlds of a sad-looking but pleased basset hound; a crazy squirrel; updated versions of two characters from classic fairy tales; and dozens of other characters.
• Thomas the Tank Engine: An ex-Beatle, a foul-mouthed comedian, and a character from 30 Rock narrate the adventures of extremely outdated pieces of machinery. Most of the adventures consist of crashing into things.
• Thunderbirds: Marionettes save the day while piloting brightly coloured vehicles.
• Thundercats: A group of humanoid felines battle freaky minions of an evil mummy/wizard. Their leader wields a blade that also serves as one heck of a scanner.
• The Tick (animation): A muscle-man in blue tights fights crime with the help of his roommate, an accountant in a moth costume. At the end of each episode, the blue guy gives inspirational speeches that make no sense whatsoever.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: A kids' show by the same producer as Schindler's List where cartoon characters, all of whom are rehashes, go to school to learn how to be funny.
• Tom and Jerry: A mean cat and an asshole mouse butt heads. The mouse almost always comes out ahead.
  • Or: A cat tries to stop a mouse from causing trouble (such as stealing food) in his house but always ends up getting in trouble (and even executed once) when the mouse defies the laws of nature.
• Total Drama Island: Twenty-two dysfunctional teenagers are tricked into going to summer camp, where a sociopathic actor/producer and an angry black man help make their lives miserable.
  • Total Drama Action: Some of the same teenagers are forced to participate in film pastiches by the same sociopathic actor/producer and angry black man.
  • Total Drama World Tour: The sociopathic actor/producer and angry black man force teens to travel the world and sing.
  • Total Drama Revenge of the Island: The sociopathic actor/producer and angry black man find new sucke-cough, I mean, contestants and send them to a radioactive island.
    • Alternatively: the writers play too much Team Fortress 2.
• Totally Spies!: Narcissists steal high-tech weapons and use them to showcase all manner of fetishes.
• Toy Story: A kid loses his toys.
  • Toy Story 2: After being kidnapped, a cowboy learns about his past.
  • Toy Story 3: A kids toys are accidentally taken to a day care. There, they re-enact The Great Escape.
• Transformers: Giant robots trapped on a primitive world wage war on each other while hiding from the planet's populace.
• Transformers Animated: A washed-up team of robots flees to Earth after discovering a powerful artifact during a routine repair assignment, winds up in a coma for 50 years. Upon awakening, They Fight Crime.
  • Or: A bridge repair crew winds up in Detroit after finding a legendary artifact. Their arch nemesis may or may not be the leader of a rebellion against an oppressive regime, and spends the first season as little more than a disembodied head.
• Transformers Prime: Mechanical survivors of a devastated world must defend their adopted planet against their enemies.
• Twelve Ounce Mouse: A Chaotic Neutral Mouse, Man/Woman, No-Eyed Square Guy, & man who grows corn dogs named Roostere live in a City with No Name that's also a City of Adventure & wonder about a Government Conspiracy.
• Two Stupid Dogs: A pair of staggeringly dim-witted canines do stuff.
• Ugly Americans: The Only Sane Employee in an alternate New York comes to the aid of every fantasy, sci-fi and/or horror legend you could imagine (and some you couldn't) while having sex with the spawn of Satan.
• Underdog: A pill-popping street urchin fights crime.
• Up: Old man trying to cope with his wife's death kills their mutual childhood hero, steals his pets and vehicle.
  • Alternatively, an old man accidentally kidnaps a boy and takes him to South America, where they have "adventures".
• Veggie Tales: Pieces of anthropomorphic produce teach children Bible stories. And there are rubber ducks.
  • Alternatively: talking, singing vegtables teach kids lessons from the Bible.
• The Venture Brothers: An incompetent scientist living in his father's shadow, his really violent bodyguard, and two dopey sons go on adventures.
  • Or: A scientist with daddy issues goes on adventures with his idiot sons and his overzealous bodyguard while an army of men butterfly suits tries to kill him. Meanwhile, David Bowie commands a guild of villains (who's ranks include Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Henry Kissinger). (This really is better than it sounds)
• Wacky Races: A driver fails to win first place, no matter what he does. He has a dog.
• Wakfu: A boy and his friends go on a journey to find his missing family while being chased by a former clockmaker.
• Wallace and Gromit: A clueless British inventor and his dog do stuff.
  • A Grand Day Out: They spend their vacation going a very long way to stock up on cheese.
  • The Wrong Trousers: They rent out a room to a Feathered Fiend.
  • A Close Shave: The wool industry is Serious Business.
  • A Matter of Loaf and Death: The inventor falls for a homicidal maniac.
• Weebl and Bob: A pair of nigh-unintelligible egg-people who are obsessed with meat pies do stuff. Their friends include a hairy guy, a talking money who isn't toilet trained, and a ninja-pirate mushroom.
• Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?: A robot that lives in The Eighties attends middle school on a quest to understand humanity, while two evil nerd brothers attempt to steal his brain. Hilarity Ensues.
• Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego??: A Fiery Redhead Action Girl, her blonde male sidekick, and a Voice with an Internet Connection fight a hot woman with long black hair. No, not the series you're thinking of.
  • Or: A woman tries to alleviate her boredom in imaginative ways.
• WITCH: Five girls discover they have superpowers, their leader's powers the weakest by far. Along the way, they meet a smelly (but strangely cute) green creature and hook up with cute guys that they never wind up fighting each other over.
  • Or: Five girls win powers from a jewel and try to stop a Prince from looking for his lost Sister
• Woody Woodpecker: A bird with an Annoying Laugh causes trouble.
  • Chilly Willy: A bird tries to stay warm.
• Word Girl: A superhero who uses big words fights a man with a mouse brain fused to his head, a retailer of meat, a ten-year-old boy, a granny, and a man with a face shaped like a sandwich. Among others.
• Xiaolin Showdown: Four kids who know karate and a nervous dragon race to get magical artifacts before an egotistical teen genius does. In later seasons, they also have to save the world from a talking bean and a guy who turned evil when he drank a bowl of soup.
• X-Men:Evolution: A group of teenagers with genetic abnormalities go to a special school while also going to a regular high school for some reason. They spend a lot of time dealing with typical high school problems and fighting other teenagers with genetic abnormalities.
• Yakkity Yak: Talking mountain animal tries to be funny.
• Yogi Bear: A hungry ursine and his friend steal picnic baskets at a national park. Sometimes there is No Fourth Wall in their other adventures.
• Young Justice: A fish out of water, a foster child, an overeater, an unwanted child, an immigrant, and a secretive girl all try to be respected by thier mentors in between love triangles and black ops missions.