Topic: Are 90s cartoons really better than today's cartoons?

Depends on the country I think. I feel Anime has gotten better while American cartoons have gotten worse. I can't find shows like gargoyles, or batman. superman x-men (before the final season) and spiderman (again before the final season) those shows had pretty well written storylines. However I also have an animation bias. I can't stand the way most cartoons look right now let alone their content.

Are 90s cartoons better? Well, Xmen. That is all.

Some cartoons are better, some are worse. There does seem to be a decline in 'taste' among some of the newer ones though, the idea that toilet humour (in kids shows) or vulgar humour/black comedy (in adult cartoons) is the only thing that's funny.

But there were still a ton of bad shows in either decade, you just mostly remember the good ones due to the nostalgia filter.

Considering that started in full force in the 90's...

I don't particularly like almost any (or perhaps any) cartoon (or what passes for a cartoon) in the last few years. Certain shows that a large group of people enjoy, in fact (Adventure Time/MLP), I think are terrible. I'd say that, at least from my point of view, cartoons from the 1990s-early 2000s were better. That's just my opinion, of course.

X-men evolution

That is all.

I can't comment on today's cartoons (as I haven't really watched many), but I have to disagree on your anime comment.

What I found so fascinating about 90's anime is that they all tried including the "real world" in some way.

Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, & Tenchi Muyo! all featured people from the real world getting thrown into fantastic worlds/situations, which made them more interesting, IMO. Even if it was just a small theme, the fact that they had to juggle the two worlds was always neat.

Then you had shows like Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, & Ruroni Kenshin that actually took place in "our world". Kenshin mixed in a lot of actual Japanese history, and the rest made it clear that this was "our" future.

Also, due to the connection with the real world, other than a bit of anime hair, the character/world designs were kept in check. Compare that to some of today's big anime, like One Piece's Usopp with his 10 inch nose, or Soul Eater with it's moon that has freakin' bleeding gums, lol.

As for newer stuff, I find One Piece, Gurren Lagann, & Soul Eater fun, and I look forward to them, but they'll never be anything more than "fun", due to the silliness of some of the design choices. As for Naruto, it failed to illicit either a positive or negative reaction from me. Bleach started out wonderfully, but then went downhill (though recent chapters have been somewhat better). Attack on Titan looks fantastic, but it's following the zombie trope a bit too much for me. Blue Exorcist would have been perfect, if the main character hadn't been the Devil's son.

Sword art Online, Deadman Wonderland, Gundam 00, & Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are the only newer anime I'd consider to be truely great (sure, FMA:B isn't connected to the real world, but they kept silliness in check for the most part). I also really liked Space Dandy, but that's more of a comedy.

@RR529 - Um...there are still plenty of anime set in "our world", just as there were loads of anime set in fantasy worlds back in the 80's and 90's. Those numbers never changed. I'd argue that a bigger problem is the quick and insistant power creep in a lot of modern series, which usually don't spend enough time setting limits and grounding the situations so they still have an impact. But then again, Dragon Ball Z had that problem past the first major arc, too. I'm not just talking about longer series, either. Sword Art Online and Irregular Magic High School have these problems, too (though in at least the latters' case, they butchered the transition and the light novel went into waaay more detail, apparently...Shadowfox would probably know more about this...).

X-Men evolution was neat, but it basically degraded the characters down to teen-drama levels of bland. I remember the bad guys (who actually had some interesting interactions) more than anything involving the actual X-Men...unlike, say, Teen Titans, where damn every character left some sort of impact.

I honestly prefer some of the cartoons of the 2010's-present,including some from the middle of the 2000's.Avatar:The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are my top favorite shows next to Gravity Falls,Regular Show,The Amazing World of Gumball,Wander Over Yonder,etc.What I will say is that cartoons now are just as bad as cartoons back then(ex:Mega Babies,TMNT rip-offs,etc.)

IDK but lets see...

Scooby Doo
Sky Commanders
Centurians
Captian Planet
Jetsons
Flinstones
Tom And Jerry
Popoye
Dexter's Laboratory
Pokemon
Dragon Ball Z
He-man
Yogi Bear
Birdman
Batman
Superman
Power Rangers

& Loads More...

I don't think any cartoons of today comes close to these, some cartoon are good with the potential but there are far few than what it used to be then I guess...

Really, my entire basis for that statement was nostalgia. Your probably right.

I loved it as a kid, but rewatched a few episodes 2 years ago and found it wasn't as great as I remembered, while the original X-Men, which I rewatched soon after, was a bit better in certain ways, though I always thought the 90's X-Men, while very good good for its time, hasn't aged quite as well as some fans say. It's animation, at least at the beginning, was kinda jerky, for instance.

I will say that the 2003 TMNT was pretty good for the first 2 or 3 seasons. I never saw the original, so I can't compare the two, but I found it thoroughly entertaining in its own right.

Oh, and as good as the original Transformers was, I liked most of the successors more. Robots in Disguise, Armada, and Energon were great, though admit it got a bit long in the tooth by Cybertron. Overall, though, I just felt they had more interesting plots that steadily flowed better with each new series. I guess you could say it felt less like I was watching a cartoon and more like I was watching a good Super Robot anime after a while.

BTW, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go and Megas XLR are still two of the best shows I've ever seen. Very entertaining romps and parodies that really got it right, and were even interesting stories in their own right. SRMTHG also had a fantastic climax, which is rare for western TV shows as far as I've seen. I don't think even Teen Titans went out with a bang the way that did.

...actually I'd say at least the early 2000's had a lot of noteable shows. Maybe the 2010's aren't as great, but we're only halfway there, there's still plenty of time for some great shows to come out and current shows to reach their full potential.

Well to start the Pokemon anime was garbage. It always has been.

Here are some greats 00s and 10s shows that definitely stack up.

Jackie Chan Adventures
Teen Titans
Fairly Odd Parents
Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius
Justice League/Unlimited
Phineas and Ferb
Spectacular Spider-Man
Young Justice
Star Wars: Rebels

And some shows I haven't watched but heard good things about.

Superman TAS
Star Wars Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Gravity Falls
Adventure Time
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Legend of Korra
Avengers:EMH
Wolverine and the Xmen
Green Lantern TAS.

And a few late 90s shows that stayed strong in the early 00s

Rocket Power
Powerpuff Girls

I think the main thing to note is that animated comedy programming on Nickolodeon, Disney, and CN really nosedived in the early 00s. But at the same time, Action Programming really boomed on Kids WB. CN stayed strong there as well. It kind of fell with the end of the DCAU and Kids WB. But then we saw another boom in the late 00s and early 10s.

Depends on the context I love Regular Show and Bee and Puppy Cat because from a story and plot perspective being a young twentysomthing I can relate to how aimless the main characters are.

I grew up in both the late 90s era of cartoons up until now, and the only big difference is the creators today have a bit more creative freedom and are allowed to do so much more concept wise.

Plus Action cartoons while being a dying breed typical are much cooler than the 90s.

Star Wars Clone Wars 2D
Clone Wars 3D
Rebels
Young Justice
Green Lantern
Avengers EMHs
Avatar and Korra
etc

Ha! You and me, both.

I think 'No' to the OP, full stop. But... The answer could be decided by the best 10 Modern animations compared to the 10 best 90's. I don't think it would be fair to say 100 hundred of Anime compared to 90's worst animations and then Modern cartoons win.

Yes, 90's cartoon are better.

Anybody born past 1990 is an idiot, and if you think the Wii was Nintendo's best generation, you should be taken out back behind the shed and shot.

Ok, not really, but that's pretty close to the truth to be honest.

That's way too harsh...
Anyways as far as western cartoons are concerned the 90's had much better cartoons when compared to the mindless fluff of today's western cartoons. Anime has fared a little better and there are some pretty good ones still, but the overall quality has dropped.

@sub12 It depends on what genres of games you like. If you like platformers, adventure games, or fishing games "Fishing Resort is widely viewed as the best fishing title of all-time" then the Wii is one of the best, if not the best Nintendo console for those kinds of games, but if you're like me and are a huge fan of Strategy games, action games, and JRPG's then the Wii was sorely lacking compared to most of Nintendo's older consoles.

Your kidding right?

You might want to put "& Loads More..." in bold, too.

Is there a unanimous agreement on NintendoLife that Nickelodeon had better programming in the 1990s than today?