Best-Animated series

[JustJack]

NO! Not best animated-series!! The Best-Animated series! Sheesh!

haha, anyway. What shows on TV have the best animation? Like, for example, remember the ol' Fox Kids Avengers cartoon? I'd give that show a -16 on the "animation" scale. it was sooo badly animated. see what I'm talking about?

My top picks?

Jackie Chan Adventures: While background art isn't really, well thought out, The character designs, & smooth animation makes this an easy show to watch. And the fight scenes are done very well, action packed, but goofy.

Ren & Stimpy/Ripping Friends: I like the "sick, perverted, detailed, goofy, obscene" style of Spumco. They have what it takes.

X-Men Evolution: Character designs, smooth animation, more detail than you see in most shows today. Me like.

Samurai Jack: Very stylized, and unlike anything else. looks like a moving painting! simply stunning.

As for Anime...
Cowboy Bebop: Perfect at every angle!

Akira: Who can complain with such excelent detail, and perfected movement?!

Princess Mononoke: The background & characters blended to make such a beautiful masterpiece...


I just hope that when I become an animator, I can hopefully get a job at cartoon network. Work on something like Justice League, where they want the show done right, not fast. I'd pull detail outta the wazoo on whatever show I'd be working on! hehe!

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

That's not fair, Akira and Mononoke aren't series...

Anyway, here's what I think:

Ripping Friends
The Simpsons (yes, it's simplistic, but it has become very slick over the years...)
Tarzan (sucky show, but the animation is pretty good for TV...)


Anime:

Cowboy Bebop
Most episodes of 08th MS Team

Other than these, most of the TV animation is pretty limited and/or simplistic these days. A lot of action animation isn't particularly well-choreographed, and lack design consistency.

[NewMaxFranklin]

Best Animation:

Gargoyles had some of the best, if not the best, animation on Tv. Even towards the end of the shows run, when the the writing became more pedestrian, the animation was still good. I can still picture the scenes with the gargoyles flying over Manhattan aty night. And the direction was so cinematic. Just the right amount of panning and tracking to keep it all very dramatic. (Not to mention the, voce-acting, music and sound, but this is about the animation.)

The animation of BTAS was equal to, or better than that on Gargoyes at times, but on the whole it was less consistant. There were clunky/funky ones like Christma with the Joker and Batman in My Basement. Then, there were dazzlers like Feat of Clay part 2.

I lover the animation on Dexter's Lad & PPG too.

I've mentioned before that I think the animation in Street Fighter 2 is just great.

-The Simpsons
-X-Men Evolution
-Nick Park's (Ardman Animation) Wallace and Gommit
series
-Toy Story 2

There's got to be more...

[optimal321]

Well, seeing as how i agree w/ everything you guys said, i'll just add on to the list:

Beast Wars. Yeah, i know season 1 was pretty bad compared to the standards today. But i'd say by season 3 the CGI was at its peak! They were finally able to put detail into the backgrounds, making the whole scenery, including the characters look awesome. And the water effects are some of the best i've ever seen. But back to the characters: I think it was just amazing how realistic their emotions were. And unlike Max Steel, they weren't restricted to keeping out the more "cartoony" movements. That just added to the fact that you could feel what they were feeling.

Mummies Alive. Okay, the show and its normal animation sucked. But the scenes when they transformed "by the power of Ra" or something were animated really well. I don't even know how i remembered this show.

Escaflowne. I'm not the biggest anime buff, but i think this looked really good compared to the other anime i'd seen (like Pokemon). I was just in awe of the amount of detail they put into it. The dragon in the first ep and the big robots especially.

Anything else?

[JustJack]

Mummies Alive! how could I forget it. The Transformation scenes were the best out of any show I've ever seen.
But, unfortunatley, this is the kind of show that has a series of animators working on it, some of which are good at what they do, & some of which are bad at what the do. You can tell the difference between episodes.
Like, one episode is very well detailed, smooth, you can see the grain's in the shabti's bodies, or the rip of their wraps. Then, the next episode, you see a badly drawn mass of what kind of look like armon...

But, alas, many shows meet that kind of fate. Either way, Mummies Alive! was one of the best shows of all time. Shame that it was canceled.:(

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

I say any DC animated series on the KWB. They paid much attention to detail and shadowing. It was a joy watching them.

Yes, the Simpsons' simplicity has become a hallmark. And it's at least gotten better...some o' the first season eppys were VERY sucky looking.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I am indifferent towards' Gargoyles' animation. Overall it was very high quality stuff, but the designs were fairly inconsisent. The first episode had sharp direction and more "menacing" character designs. Later on, the designs got too soft and "cute" at times.

[James]

Starship Troopers: The Roughneck Chronicles: Fantastic mindblow CGI animations. Yet to be topped IMO.

BTAS: Out of all the DC series this has to be the best. The latter series' seemed to suffer in quality IMO. I remember being blown away by it at the time.

Futurama: Why has no one mentioned this? It's crisp, fresh and beautiful. A true mix of new and old animation concepts... I certainly prefer it to the Simpsons.

Road Runner: Still holds up. :cool:

[Salvor]

TNBA season 1. TMS animation is always top-notch.

I love the animation on PowerPuffGirls as well.

As for anime series, Cowboy Beebop tops them all!

[Fish]

I think I love Ed..she is sooo CUTE!! - Ed is the little girl in CB...just to ley ya know *GG*!


<>< F I S H ><>

[optimal321]

Also just remembered Cybersix had some great animation. Not sure if i cared much for the character designs, but the animation was just spectacular. It's the reason i first tuned in.

[Tim Drake]

As much as I love BTAS. I must admit the animation was inconsistent. Same thing applies with BB. TNBA and STAS were actually pretty consistent though.

I love watching Xmen evolution I hate listening to it

Jackie Chan!! The way they make that Asian martial artist move is so smooth and hilarious at the same time.

Gargoyles was pretty consistent but there defintiely was some rushed episodes in season 2.

I haven't seen enough anime but I love Neon Genesis and the Street Fighter Alpha two series.

[Nightflower]

Originally posted by optimal321
Also just remembered Cybersix had some great animation. Not sure if i cared much for the character designs, but the animation was just spectacular. It's the reason i first tuned in.

Agreed ;)

http://www.sixies.org/users/nightflower/nightflower.gif

[Calhoun07]

Cowboy Bebop, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman the Animated Series, and Clerks make my current top choices.

[oranthal]

evangelion is a very good series but in terms of animation, it is pretty average.


Originally posted by Tim Drake

I haven't seen enough anime but I love Neon Genesis and the Street Fighter Alpha two series.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by oranthal
evangelion is a very good series but in terms of animation, it is pretty average.



Can you say "stock footage?"

Actually, what little animation there is is actually pretty good, but they reuse a lot of shots and footage.

[Frozen]

Anybody here heard of a series called "Insektors"? It's French/British series about good bugs vs bad bugs (sort of!). Anyway, I used to love that, especially the voice cast. A friend of mine said the animation was fairly poor, but I thought it was cool (but what would I know!)

Why has no one mentioned Reboot? What few bits of that I saw looked really nice.

[Lonestarr]

Downtown

Daria

X-Men Evolution

Samurai Jack

Wallace & Gromit

Family Guy

[Frozen]

How, how could I forget Wallace and Gromit? They really do rule!!! The first time I saw The Wrong trousers, I nearly wet myself laughing! Even when I see it now I change into old pants just on the off chance...

Is that more information than you wanted..?

[sun]

It looks to me as if Animaniacs was animated in the old style, of toons, made for the theater in the 50s...Full animation if you please.. The l00 eps, taken as a whole, probably contain some of the best animation ever put on tv, if indeed,full animation was used. Now the humor, and style of characters, satire, took away from art, some eps, lacked effort, as is true in all long runs.
A great series, will make the parts look less important than the whole...So one might not even notice the great music, even if you get "a good feel from that toon" (it had truly great satirical music)
In BATS, there is some outstanding animation, especially, with the use of fire, light, and shade...The darkness of many stories, reflected the darkness ot the mood of the character, and the animation ,although not full, carried the stories well.(and reflected that darkness) ..I like the movement in "Robin's Reconing" A scene with the bad guy shooting at Batman thru a a "Merry -Go-Round" was great. Note that one ends with a full shot of the sun coming up. Very rarely in any of the BATS or even Batman Beyound, do you see the sun.

[Bluntman]

The animated series with the best animation, bar none, is Robotech. The animation is so fluid and awesome looking. Other really well animated series are: Transformers, Gundam(any series), Voltron, and Galaxy Rangers. Some of these are old cartoons, but were pretty awesome for the time

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Bluntman
The animated series with the best animation, bar none, is Robotech. The animation is so fluid and awesome looking. Other really well animated series are: Transformers, Gundam(any series), Voltron, and Galaxy Rangers. Some of these are old cartoons, but were pretty awesome for the time

Robotech? Maybe in 1983 it was impressive. The Macross movie, "Do You Remember Love" is certainly well animated, but the TV show? EHHHHH....

Most Gundam shows have average animation. Only about half of them stand out in animation quality.

[JustJack]

Yeah, I remember the Macross movie..I liked it..but the TV show was kinda....choppy, I guess.