25 cartoons to get obsessed with, now and forever

[soybean]

Gravity Falls (2012-2016; two seasons)​

I’m a twin, so I’ve always had a soft spot for twin-related media — especially the kind that recognizes, hey, we’re each our own person here. Gravity Falls’ two main characters, Dipper and Mabel Pines, are twins. They’re also a brother/sister pair of diametric opposites, who truly care for each other in the face of the supernatural secrets they encounter in their great uncle’s attic during their annual summer vacation. The show’s central unexplained mysteries are offset by that family loyalty and all the lighthearted goofs that come with it.

Here’s what I said about Gravity Falls after the series finale aired in 2016:

Both twins were defined by their love for adventure and affection for investigating the world around them; these are qualities most readily found in the under-13 set. What most excited the brother and sister pair about their summer stay in Gravity Falls, Oregon, was uncovering its secrets. [...] But that element of the show always worked best when it was supporting a greater story about the awkwardness of being 12. Time loops and unicorns are strange and hard to understand, as is adulthood. But they’re ideas kids can’t help but fantasize about, for better or worse.

—AF

 

[soybean]

Nickelodeon

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008; three seasons)​

A game-changer that influenced many of the other shows on this list, and many more besides, Avatar: The Last Airbender did just about everything right.

It was just one of many young adult fantasy series of the early aughts — think Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and innumerable fantasy anime (a medium to which Airbender is heavily indebted). But where most of them fumbled their themes or collapsed in the home stretch, Airbender never did.

Airbender invested in long, believable character arcs, as it slowly built its story about a team of kids trying to save the world into a profound protest against colonialism and military aggression. Sporting gorgeous animation and rich cultural details, Airbender above all bursts with wit, humor, and imagination. It won my heart faster than you could say “penguin sledding,” and it remains one of the most satisfying TV shows I’ve ever watched all the way through. Many of its episodes and memes have become iconic, and its May 15 Netflix release is much anticipated — with extremely good reason. —Aja Romano

 

[soybean]

“sPoNgEbOb iS MaYbE My fAvOrItE ShOw oF AlL TiMe!” Nickelodeon

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SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present; 12 seasons)​

SpongeBob SquarePants is maybe my favorite show of all time, even if I stopped watching new episodes a long time ago. But I’d put its early run — the first three seasons, and the first movie — on the same level of “important animated comedy” as The Simpsons. SpongeBob himself is an enthusiastic, high-energy central character, and like The Simpsons’ Springfield, the world of Bikini Bottom outside SpongeBob’s famous pineapple under the sea is full of unique characters and wacky small-town scenarios.

There’s a SpongeBob quote or image or reference or meme to suit almost every single situation; the show is reliably funny and layered, with a different joke grabbing you every time you rewatch. It’s a lot more childish than The Simpsons or and other greats, which is probably because it’s a cartoon on a kid-centric TV network. But it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you can get on its wavelength of talking sea creatures, random gags, and high-energy antics, SpongeBob is forever. —AF

 

[soybean]

Over the Garden Wall (2014; one season)​

Over the Garden Wall is a 10-episode miniseries that packs a lot into each 11-minute episode, telling a somewhat dark but very moving story about two brothers who get lost in an enchanted forest on Halloween. There’s no time wasted over the course of the series, which manages to feel like a fun romp through a magical world while also moving forward at a steady clip toward the characters’ end goal of getting out of those woods.

What makes Over the Garden Wall so appealing across age groups is its adherence to the fairy tale formula — young heroes embarking on dreamlike adventures. But its style is more unique than traditional Hans Christian Andersen-style folklore. “The [quirky Americana] aesthetic makes Over the Garden Wall feel distinct among other fantasy or fairy tale cartoons,” wrote my friend Simone de Rochefort at Polygon in 2016. “We have a rich, weird folk history in this country, and watching Over the Garden Wall made me wonder why we don’t put it to more use.”

Over the Garden Wall is a great intro to the beauty of Weird Americana, with similarities to the animated classics The Secret of NIMH and Coraline — or maybe a better first dip into the slightly scarier side of bedtime stories. —AF

 

[soybean]

Mickey Mouse (2013-ongoing; five seasons)​

Mickey Mouse is so culturally pervasive that he’s as recognizable to Americans as a dollar bill, even if he’s mostly a brand mascot these days. But Disney has actually done Mickey some good in recent years, with this wonderful, novel series of shorts that star Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and the rest of the core Disney crew getting into mischief of escalating intensity.

I say “novel” because the animation is more pop art-esque than we’re used to seeing from anything Disney, giving each character a design overhaul. These shorts, which are never more than about eight minutes long, are also often pretty weird; one of the first that Disney released has no dialogue except for some sporadic French. That leaves the viewer to really focus on the unique animation, which provides the ageless humor and heart of these breezy episodes. —AF