I’m an unapologetic fan of cartoons of all shapes, sizes, styles, and eras, so putting together this list was more of a treasure than a trial for me, especially as my research led me into some of the dusty corners of the internet and my memory; the nostalgia is strong in this one, my friends! If you’re like me, you’ll delight at the chance to revisit some old pals like T-Bone and Razor, Goliath and his clan, Guardian Bob, and the Toxic Avenger.
Now, you’ll notice some glaring omissions from the 90s cartoon classics you know and love. That’s because we’ve filtered out any cartoons derived from comic books and video games, likeX-Men,Batman: The Animated SeriesandMega Man; you may find them in another list down the road. The cartoons that made the cut had to have the majority of their episodesinthe 90s themselves, even if they started before or ended after that glorious decade. Also, to keep the list on the slim and trim side - it is the “best” after all - we’ve eliminated some of the sillier “action series,” likeBill & Teds' Excellent AdventuresandAttack of the Killer Tomatoes. That still left us with some Honorable Mentions, which include:Wing Commander Academy,Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, andVan-Pires, to name a weird few. Check out our list, in no particular order, to see if your favorite made the cut!
The theme song to T-Bone and Razor’s high-flying adventures should be playing in your head right now. Its rocking riffs accompany the title “kats,” two vigilante pilots who masquerade as junkyard dealers when they’re not busy flying their high-tech fighter jet in defense of Megakat City. This show rarely wasted time on exposition or deep character development (though the main characters' backstories are well told), opting to get right to the action. The Radical Squadron ran up against such villains as Dark Kat, Dr. Viper, The Pastmaster, Morbulous, and even the city’s own military defense fighters, the Enforcers. Luckily, their endless array of weapons, vehicles, and skills get the Swat Kats through even the deadliest of scrapes.
The show’s original creators, the Tremblay brothers, found success ina Kickstarter campaignfor a reboot of the series, dubbedSwat Kats: Revolution. Keep an eye out for it!
If you love exo-suits with rocket-launchers, space pirates, and an exploration of sociopolitical factors during interplanetary war, then boy is this series for you! Or if you just like to watch colorful characters by such names as J.T. Marsh, Wolf Bronsky, and Marsala fly around in battle-suits and blow shit up, thenExoSquadwill work for you just the same.
This American series, created in response to popular Japanese anime, followed the ragtag members of Able Squad as they attempted to aid the human resistance during the Neosapien War in the 22nd century. It dealt with its story in a much more mature manner than similar series: characters could die, detailed strategy played a big part in each episode, and the theater of war was more realistically portrayed. (Though Bronsky did belch a lot, so it wasn’t like it was all super-serious.) Unfortunately,ExoSquadwas cancelled following a cliffhanger finale which introduced a newer, greater threat that would face humans and Neosapiens alike.
The Powerpuff Girls
There’s no way this classic cartoon wasn’t going to be included on this list. TheCraig McCrackencreation had been floating around in various forms throughout most of the 90s before blasting its way onto Cartoon Network’s main rotation in 1998. After numerous award wins and nominations, spin-offs, merchandising opportunities, and even a current reboot to the series, the originalThe Powerpuff Girlsremains one of the best cartoons ever made.
Centering on the title characters Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup,The Powerpuff Girlssees the three superheroic daughters of Professor Utonium defending Townsville, USA in all manner of ways. This could easily have been a cutesy “girls save the world” cartoon, however, each of the characters - heroes and villains alike - are positively brimming with quirks, quarks, and quintessential traits that play out in their individual arcs to the nth degree. It’s a hilarious show, touching at times, and absolutely packed full of action in ways that might surprise you now if you happened to miss it along the way.
Darkwing Duck
Ah, now we get to the classic Disney toons that introduced new spins on existing characters in their storied catalog. First up is theDuckTalesspin-off that featured that series' character Launchpad McQuack partnering up with mild-mannered Drake Mallard, better known by his costumed alter ego ofDarkwing Duck. The title hero, who possessed no real superpowers of his own (he couldn’t even fly), was often more concerned with fame and adoration than he was with actual crimefighting. Though he ultimately was able to protect St. Canard from villains such as Negaduck, Dr. Bushroot, The Liquidator, Megavolt, and Quackerjack with the help of his allies, he normally did so in a silly, slapstick fashion.
And yetDarkwing Duckis still a show that focuses on action over adventure. Where it really succeeds is in its open and obvious parody nature, paying homage to such cultural touchstones as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Batman, among others. However most of these references probably fly over the heads of kids like the Thunderquack, but the silliness shines through just the same.
IfDarkwing Duckwas all about superhero slapstick and Golden Age parodies,TaleSpinis a cartoonish take on classic adventure stories and even the Oscar-winningCasablanca.Again, it’s a Disney property that takes characters from one of its properties (theJungle Book, this time) and reimagines them in a pseudo 1930s setting. This time around, Baloo the bear is a bush pilot who flies cargo out of his base in Cape Suzette (puns!), which is plagued by air pirates (led by the fantastic and flamboyant Don Karnage) and the machinations of industrialist Shere Khan. Once the gang saves the city yet again, they all hang out at Louie’s Place, a bar owned by King Louie, the orangutan.
TaleSpinis one of very few cartoon series that are all about classic adventures. It doesn’t have the jet-fueled dogfights ofSwat Kats, or superpowers, or advanced technology; it’s just good, old-fashioned fisticuffs, flying aces, and races to beat the bad guy to the punch. This wasn’t being done all that often in the 90s and it’s barely done today, so do yourself a favor and revisit a classic era through the lens ofTaleSpin.
I’ve made numerous attempts to drag Disney’s attention back to their fantastic seriesGargoylesin the hopes that someonesomewheremight realize the potential of this diamond in the rough and polish it up for another go ‘round. We’ve seen parodies of Golden Age comic books and classic adventure stories, butGargoylestook a very serious run at Shakespearean themes, Arthurian legend, and various mythologies … just with monstrous creatures who happened to be stone by day and winged warriors by night.
Their origin story is one of tragedy and betrayal, just as their seemingly triumphant reemergence in the modern world is fraught with difficulty and disloyalty. I’ve always loved the idea of these powerful and intelligent guardian creatures who have a glaring weakness: they have to either hide themselves away during the day or trust a human with protecting their vulnerable stone selves in the daylight. The core story ofGargoylesis solid, allowing for a fantastic mythology to grow from there. It’s just unfortunate that we haven’t seen a modern-day live-action franchise built around these maligned monsters.
Sometimes, Disney realized that they really didn’t have to reinvent the wheel and create new characters out of their existing properties. Sometimes, you just take your successful movie characters and plunk them down into a TV show to continue their adventures. It worked pretty well forAladdin, which followed after the events of the feature film sequelThe Return of Jafar. Oddly enough, this series found Aladdin engaged to Princess Jasmine, but he and Abu were still resigned to live in the slums of Agrabah. Magic Carpet, Genie, and Iago offered up plenty of sidekick humor and plot complications/solutions along the way, as you might expect.
As far as I’m concerned,Aladdinis the best of Disney’s more direct series adaptations, especially when we’re talking about action. Genie’s magic offered up limitless opportunities for adventure while the rich setting of Agrabah was quite literally a huge sandbox to play in. Some viewers might have preferred the Classical stylings ofHerculesor the underwater musical musings ofThe Little Mermaid, but I’ll stick with the Street Rat.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Guys! The environment! Save it! Well, it was a good effort fromTed Turner & Co.who created this team of super kids and their co-op superhero Captain Planet with an eye toward educating audiences about the threat to our ecosystem. It was a fantastic creation that still holds sway in the zeitgeist today, even as our environmental problems seem to be getting worse instead of better. Perhaps giving five kids elemental rings with the power of conjuring a solitary hero tasked with protecting the entirety of the Earth from ecological disaster was a fine start, but just a step forward on an endless journey.
For its time,Captain Planet and the Planeteers(and its sequel seriesThe New Adventures of Captain Planet) introduced viewers to action-packed pro-environmental adventures against such dangers as overconsumption (Hoggish Greedly), poor sanitation (Verminous Skumm), unethical and unregulated scientific research (Dr. Blight), the threat of nuclear power (Duke Nukem), and poaching/unethical business practices (Looten Plunder). It was simple, it was memorable, and it was downright fun. There’s never a bad time to revisit this series, but I think it’s also well past time for a reboot.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?
One of the few (okay, maybe the only one) educational series on this list is the Daytime Emmy-winning adaptation of the popularCarmen Sandiegocomputer games. For the uninitiated, the central idea of the games was to teach players various lessons related to geography, history, and other academic subjects. Yeah, it tricked kids into learning things while they were playing a game, just like this series (sorta) tricked kids into learning things while they were watching a cartoon.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?was different from other cartoons on the air at the time by design. In order to meet standards set by the property owners and to distance itself from the violence of other shows (it was a PBS show after all), the creators set the series inside a video game which followed a pair of siblings tracking down the title villain and preventing her and her henchmen from stealing priceless artifacts. For an educational cartoon on public television, that’s about as good as it gets!
MIghty Ducks
What a whirlwind of meta-adaptations this thing was! It debuted in the fall of 1996 on Disney-owned ABC, inspired by the live-action Disney films (the 90s triple deke ofMighty Ducksmovies in ‘92, ‘94, ‘96) and the actual NHL ice hockey team founded in 1993 as The Mighty Ducks (before changing, thankfully, to Anaheim Ducks in 2006). That’s a pretty weird string of real-life occurrences, so the adaptation of the property into a cartoon about alien duck-like humanoids from the planet of Puckworld (Oh God, I’m starting to rethink this one) isn’t the strangest thing that happened.
Thestrangest thingis how the plot of the showMighty Ducksweirdly mirrored the real-life franchise. When the ducks land on Earth - where their fight against the evil Saurians has taken them - they’re soon scooped up by an ambitious hockey manager who gives them a “believable” cover as a legit hockey team. Sure! Cartoons! Honestly, this one’s on the list not because the premise is so bizarre, but because the fights (and the puns) are fun to watch. We owe it to the poor writers who were tasked with cooking up something watchable out of a featherweight premise. (And it was still better thanProStars.) Kudos, writers!
