Old School Lane: Old School Lane presents Kevin's Top 100 Favorite Animated Shows (10-1)

Talk about a great show from Nickelodeon that has such relatable characters and surprisingly real scenarios compared to many other kids' shows. The show involves a 9-year-old boy named Arnold living his normal life in the city surrounded by his diverse friends. His best friend Gerald, the mean bully with a good heart Harold, the bitter Helga who bullies Arnold but actually loves him, her intelligent best friend Phoebe, the clutzy Eugene, the spastic Sid, Arnold's crazy and eccentric grandparents, and so much more. There are so many memorable episodes in which we see the characters' development and personalities. Seeing this great characters reminds me of people that I use to know when I was a kid, a trait that many shows of today are lacking.

Overall, it's still a classic in my eyes. It's just a shame that the conclusion of Hey Arnold in the form of The Jungle Movie was never released. Hopefully now that Hey Arnold has been released in The 90's Are All That, the executives of Nickelodeon will allow Hey Arnold creator Craig Bartlett release it so that we can have a satisfying closure. But sadly, most likely it'll never happen.

9. Rocko's Modern Life (1993)

When rewatching this show again for the Nickelodeon summer tribute, I couldn't believe how many adult jokes and sexual references there were in this show! It's unbelievable! Now I appreciate this show a lot more as an adult compared to when I was a kid. The show's pretty straight forward: a wallaby named Rocko gets involved in so many crazy scenarios in O-Town alongside his best friends Heffer Wolfe and Filbert Turtle. Simple tasks just as taking out the trash, doing laundry at the laundromat, renewing his driver's license, and using a dating service end up being chaotic and crazy, but always enjoyable to watch. Sure, a lot of people refer to this show as a Ren and Stimpy ripoff, but trust me, it's not.

8. Beetlejuice (1989)

This awesome animated series is completely different compared to the movie is was based on and it was awesome! In this cartoon, Beetlejuice and Lydia are best friends and they go through many adventures in the Neitherworld, a world full of monsters, zombies, and ghosts. There are also additional characters that wasn't included in the movie such as Jaques LaLean, a French skeleton bodybuilder, Ginger, a dancing spider, and Claire Brewster, Lydia's rival. This show was created by Tim Burton and it definitely shows as you see the dark, unusual, and atmospheric settings and faithfulness to the original material, despite that changes. The opening theme was insane and awesome and each episode was fantastic. Check it out.

7. Crayon Shin-chan (1992 in Japan)

Called The Simpsons of Japan, Crayon Shin-chan is an amazing anime full of adult humor and crazy characters. The story involves 5-year-old Shin Nohara living his normal life in Japan with his crazy and laidback mom, his perverted dad, his baby sister, and his equally crazy friends. Admittedly, I first saw this show while it was on Adult Swim back in 2005 and I loved every single minute of it. Every second of each episode got me laughing so hard! Especially, the super hero Action Bastard, Shin's ass dance and drawing a face on his dick calling it Mr. Elephant. I have no idea why it didn't become popular in America! The sad part about it is that Japan is still running new episodes to this day. However, I still watch them on YouTube from time to time and it's just as funny as it was back in 2005.

6. Garfield and Friends (1988)

This fantastic animated show based on the popular comic strips by Jim Davis was one of the most popular cartoons from the 80's. Each character from the comic strips was there: Garfield, Jon Arbuckle, Odie, Nermal, Liz, and more. There were even new characters introduced in the show such as Orson, Wade, Roy, Booker and Sheldon in a segment called U.S. Acres. Overall, it was very faithful to the original comics and it's still a great show to see.

5. Jim Henson's Muppet Babies (1984)

The show that started it all with baby versions of popular cartoon characters, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies was truly one of the most influencial shows ever made. Being a huge Muppet fan myself, it was such a treat to watch this. Each episode involve almost every single Muppet going through an adventure through the power of imagination. Just like the other Muppet shows and movies, it had so many movie references like Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, and more. This was one of my favorite shows from my childhood and I'm so happy that the Muppets had made such an amazing comeback today.

4. Dragon Ball Z (1989 in Japan)

I'm not much an anime fanatic, but I have to admit that this show is beyond epic and awesome! The sequel to Dragon Ball, it involves the same character Goku, now a grown man married to Chi-Chi and a son named Gohan go through many obstacles and adventures alongside his friends Krillin, Yamcha, Tein, Yajirobe, Master Roshi, and Bulma. Piccolo, one of the main villains of Dragon Ball, became friends with Goku. Many memorable characters from the Dragon Ball universe like Vegeta, Trunks, Cell, the Androids, and Frieza were introduced to this anime and became household names among many anime fans. Almost every episode had so much action, violence fighting, and amazing story arcs that end in cliffhangers that make you want more.

3. The Real Ghostbusters (1986)

This is truly, in my opinion, the best animated series based on a movie ever made. Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, The Real Ghostbusters took everything from the first Ghostbusters movie and increased the storyline, main character development, and creative monsters and ghosts. Each episode was filled with humor, action, and scares. In the episode where the Ghostbusters go after the Boogeyman is one of my absolute favorites. Their adaptation of the Boogeyman scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Everything about this show was great from beginning to end.

2. Batman: The Animated Series (1992)

One of the most influencial animated shows ever released, Batman: The Animated Series took the inspirations from Tim Burton's Batman movies, Max Fleischer's Superman animated shows, and Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns comic book series and made it into a dark, serious, and epic animated superhero show. Gone are the campy, lighthearted segments from the 1960's Batman show and 1970's animated series. Each episode was packed with action, memorable characters, epic music, dark and shadowy atmospheric settings, and so much more. What made this show so great was the way they took characters such as The Penguin, The Joker, and Mr. Freeze and made them more developed and tragic. It's also the show that introduced new characters like Harley Quinn, The Joker's assistant. A fantastic show from beginning to end.

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)

Yeah, that's right. This amazing show has the mixture of a classic cartoon: Action, humor, memorable characters, great story arcs, hilarious references, and a catchy theme song. Based on the 1984 comic books, this was indeed one of the best shows of the 80's. Every kid I knew was a huge Ninja Turtles fan and we would talk for hours about our favorite Turtle, our favorite villians, our favorite episodes, and more. The story involves with the lives of 4 mutant turtles; Leonardo, the leader of the group, Donatello, the technically intelligent turtle, Raphael, the serious fighter, and Michaelangelo, the goofy, pizza loving turtle. Raised by their master, a rat named Splinter, they would fight the evil Shredder, Krang, the Foot Clan, Baxter Stockman, Bebop and Rocksteady from taking over the world.

Their human companions, April O'Neal, a news reporter, and Casey Jones, were extremely memorable and kickass in their own ways. Over the years, I've collected the action figures, the reproduced comic books, the movies, the DVDs, the video games, and t-shirts. Almost every single adaptation of the Ninja Turtles were awesome and I can't wait for the new animated show coming out for Nickelodeon. Seriously, I can go on for hours talking about this show, but I think you get it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is my absolute favorite animated show ever!

That's all for now. Thank you so much for following me on this long nostalgic trip of these classic cartoons. Do these cartoons bring you back happy memories? Which cartoons that didn't make it to the list are your favorites? Post it in the comments below and let us know! Hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading.

-Kevin

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Old School Lane presents Kevin's Top 100 Favorite Animated Shows (10-1)

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