My '90s Cartoon Five

When last we visited my fives, I was breaking down my Five Favorite ‘80s cartoons. Flash forward a decade to the ‘90s, and an age at which society would have me discard my love of animation, and we have at least five more great shows:

1) Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1999):
Who knew that Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's retro-modern take on the Dark Knight Detective would last so long, or spawn several related series in the DC animated universe? There was a theatrical film, several DVD exclusive films, and Kevin Conroy established himself as the definitive voice of Batman. It premiered in the Summer between my Senior year of high school and Freshman year of college, and as it continued into the Fall it gave me something to race home to watch after classes, something I hadn't done since the mid-80's. I was quiet about this until I realized I had several like-minded classmates all with the same love of a show that would lead to fourteen years of excellent all-ages animation.

2) Beast Wars (1996-1999):
I basically hated this Transformers spin-off the first time I saw it. I watched the first episode and didn't understand that these characters were descendants of those from the show I grew up with, since several had the same or similar names to those I was familiar with. Though initially excited about computer generated animation, it was fairly rough, and robots falling and folding into animal forms looked unnatural. I forgot about it for a few years, then happened to catch some of the later episodes of the first season and early episodes of the second season by accident. The animation had vastly improved, the cast had expanded, though there were also several significant deaths, and the storyline became more intricate and linked to the original series with one of the greatest time travel twists of any series ever. The show ran at the nearly unwatchable time of 6:30 AM on Sundays, but my VCR served me well when my fanaticism faltered in favor of sleep. The second season ended on an insane cliffhanger, and the third proved to be the best of all in both animation and story, leading to a remarkable and, dare I say, perfect conclusion. Beast Machines picked up where Beast Wars left off, at a much more reasonable and mainstream Saturday morning timeslot, but with a new creative team and direction, it never quite compared to its predecessor. If nothing else, the shows proved that transforming robots and a related toyline could be popular to nostalgic older fans as well as a new generation of young fans, and sparked a resurgence of the original line in comics and toys even as a live action film, something I only dreamed about in 3rd grade, finally became a reality.

3) The Tick (1994-1996):
Ben Edlund is an evil genius. These days, you might catch the writer's name in the credits for some of the more offbeat episodes of Supernatural, and he certainly put his mark on the final season of Angel, most notably with the infamous puppet episode. But before all that, Edlund created The Tick, an underground independent superhero spoof with enough of a cult following to lead to a faithful animated series. The Tick was mighty, but a moron, especially in contrast to his beleaguered sidekick Arthur, a meek accountant in a moth suit. In The Tick's world, superheroes are common, and often as disturbed if not moreso than the villains. Townsend Coleman brought the larger than life super idiot to life on an animated series so faithful and wacky that the rest of the world could finally see what comic book geeks were cackling about. Who could forget the first time he uttered The Tick's ill-conceived battle cry of “SPOOOOOON!!” or his dazed infatuation with Speak, a capybara he repeatedly mistakes for a talking dog after head injuries. It was quirky and hilarious, and I still miss it. The short-lived Patrick Warburton live action Tick definitely lacked the scope of its animated predecessor, although Nestor Carbonell's Batmanuel had his moments.

4) X-Men (1992-1997):
I remember my excitement the first time I saw a commercial for this show. The X-Men would finally have their own series, after a failed pilot and guest appearances in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. The roster and general look of the team mirrored the Jim Lee artwork of the contemporary comics, and over its run the show adapted many of the most popular stories, most notably the Dark Phoenix Saga. In hindsight, the animation and dialogue do not hold up over time, but the show retains significance for opening the door, not just for a new Spider-Man animated series, but for future X-Men series such as X-Men: Evolution and the current Wolverine and the X-Men, both of which took nods from the comics while building their own unique mythology.

5) Gargoyles (1994-1997):
To this day, I can't believe this series was part of the Disney Afternoon. Every other show in that lineup was based on previously established anthropomorphized animal characters from classic movies and comics, while Gargoyles was a much more mature and epic saga that borrowed heavily from mythology and Shakespeare. In medieval Scotland, a clan of gargoyles and their leader Goliath(voiced inimitably by Keith David) are cursed and betrayed by their human allies. Flesh by night and stone by day, they are trapped in their stone forms for a thousand years, until a corrupt industrialist voiced by Jonathan Frakes transplants their castle to the top of his Manhattan skyscraper. The curse would be lifted when the castle rose above the clouds, and so the gargoyles awake. Frakes' Xanatos intends to manipulate the noble creatures for his own ends, but they cannot be corrupted and eventually catch on. The show had many mature themes and the characters faced real threats as they struggled to fit into a city and a time that had only fear and hatred to offer, save for a few bright spots like their friend Elisa Maza, a NYC detective and love interest for Goliath. It's a tragedy that low sales kept more than one and a half seasons from being released on DVD, and hopefully someday the whole series will be available for fans old and new.