People who say kids don’t have good cartoons anymore aren’t paying attention. Cartoons today have some of the most interesting characters and inventive stories on television, and this is all in a medium technically aimed at children. Below is a list of shows, new and continuing, from the past year that make me think, laugh, and sometimes cry, and that I’d want to share with every kid I know.
Best Cartoons of 2012
1) The Legend of Korra – The Legend of Korra brings back all the best elements of The Last Airbender — great humor, deep plot, and awesome, complex characters — yet it this is no mere continuing story. With older characters (16 vs. 12) and a consistent setting, TLoK has a different dynamic. Romance plays a bigger role, and the story takes a darker turn as benders are persecuted. There’s also the interesting concept of how the new (technology) can replace the old (bending), and if that’s for the best. There are plenty of treats for the old fandom: we the grownup children of the old cast, Zuko’s voice actor makes an awesome return, and we even see some of the old guard, like Katara and, through a flashback, Sokka going on about his boomerang. There are also some highly appreciated jokes about TLA, like the cabbage man, and what the heck ever happened to Zuko’s mom. Those things aside, TLoK is it’s own show that can be watched with no prior knowledge of the old cartoon. DiMartino and Konietzko obviously gave this show just as much love and attention, and it shows in the fluid animation, the complex story, and the amazing, complicated, flawed characters.
2) Adventure Time – Adventure Time has always had recurring characters, occasional connections to past episodes, and inconsistent off-the-cuff remarks about how the world got to its post-apocolyptic state, but mostly this has been a show you can watch at random, delighting in the crazy humor and imaginative world. But fans know there has always been a little more to the story than is immediately visible, and this past year Pendleton Ward has been making plot increasingly visible. There have been new characters — Flame Princess as an age-appropriate love interest — and sudden twists, like Lady’s pregnancy, broaden the cast and stand to change the dynamic of the show. Even side characters have been getting fleshed more than you’d have expected, like with the surprising, and sad, truth about Marceline and the Ice King’s past that actually had me tearing up. Adventure Time stays strong with the humor of course, keeping it weird and quirky to the point that it’s almost stupid before swinging right back around into brilliant (Princess Cookie, I’m looking at you). This is a hilarious show that respects its audience, and I can’t wait to see how it surprises me next.
3) Young Justice – Though I was initially disappointed with the time skip (did we seriously only get one Robin-centric episode before Dick Grayson graduated to Nightwing?) the show has been proving that this wasn’t just an arbitrary move. The characters had progressed pretty far by the end of season one, and a little break was needed for new problems to arise. This also allowed the show to transition into the invasion storyline without such a big time lapse that we forgot it was even important. And the writers handled the time skip very well. Instead of resorting to flashback, they very effectively deal with information gaps through dialogue, disproving my initial gut feeling that a time skip was the wrong move. The story is just as strong and multilayered as before with secret missions and engrossing emotional issues. Plus there’s been the addition of some fascinating new characters, like Beast Boy and Blue Beetle, and while the cast may be getting too complicated this still stands as one of the more well thought out action cartoons I’ve seen in a while.
4) Gravity Falls – My first notion when I saw the commercial for this cartoon was that Disney was trying to mark out their own territory in the Adventure Time fandom. That might still be true, but Gravity Falls managed to stand out on its own with creative villains like Multi-Bear and the Summerween Trickster, a monster made up of unwanted “loser” candy. While “Summerween” is one of the best episodes thanks to its creepiness, “Fight Fighters” is an absolute treat to videogame nerds as Dipper brings a pixelated character from a fighting arcade game (basically Street Fighter) to life in order to win a fight with a teenager. Dipper steals most episodes, spending a lot of time dealing with being a kid and not as cool as he wants to be, but there are a lot of treats from the other characters, like his weird sister Mabel who runs around in purple kitten sweaters and nacho chip earrings, and store clerk Soos, who utters the best, laugh-out-loud lines in the entire show. Each episode follows a bit of a formula, but right now that formula works like a charm.
5) Regular Show – To be honest, Regular Show took a little bit of time to grow on me when it first aired. I found it funny and smart enough, but the repetitive plot structure got on my nerves and I didn’t go out of my way to watch each episode as it aired. I got over it enough to keep with it, and after this year I’m glad I did. The season premier broke up the structure and basically rewarded the fans with the return of every awesome villain and ally from the shows run: the Blondes, Gary Bobby Ferguson, and most importantly, the ducks. J.G. Quintel really pushes the limits in something that is ostensibly a kid’s show; not just creepy things like a pie that eats people, but violence — a group of animatronic thugs shoot guns at the group, and Santa Clause — SANTA CLAUSE — gets hit with a bullet and falls out of his sleigh. Nothing gratuitous, and both made for great stories, but I don’t understand how they got on TV. If nothing else there was Death Bear, who alone would probably have won the show a spot on this list.
