Top 10 Bad Animated Series Finales

Like many shows that stay on the air for too long, “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron” suffered a dip in quality in its last year. What was supposed to be an epic finale to one of Nickelodeon’s best shows ended up being a disappointing hiccup. In his ultimate attempt to rid himself of Jimmy, King Goobat rallies up the boy genius’s greatest foes. A cliched plot, yes . . . and what makes the finale worse is that the villains spend more time bickering than...you know, being villains! And so, we may never know what became of Jimmy and Cindy’s relationship or what happened to Betty Quinlan.

Celebrity guest appearances were no stranger to “Johnny Bravo,” especially in its later seasons. However, would it really be appropriate to end the entire show with one? Johnny just wants to hit on cheerleaders at a basketball game, but he finds himself being Shaquille O’Neal’s good luck charm. (Cue the obvious Shaq joke.) “Back on Shaq” feels more like a pilot to a rejected Shaq cartoon than a traditional “Johnny Bravo” episode, putting the titular character in the backseat while we’re supposed to laugh at a tired basketball gag. We get it - Shaq had terrible three-pointers. Did the show really have to close out with this instead of Johnny learning how to get a girl?

“All Grown Up” may not have been around as long as its predecessor “Rugrats”, but it put our favorite babies in an interesting new light and became another memorable Nicktoon. If only the show stayed consistent with its quality until the bitter end. “Golden Boy” puts Tommy and Dil in a cliched sibling rivalry as they fight each other to become Grandpa Lou’s favorite grandson. What makes this finale so frustrating is that it could have made a statement on growing up, given how much time we had spent with the franchise up to this point. Instead, we get an overly-simplistic plot for a show that deserved more.

When your fans don’t even acknowledge a season’s existence, you know something went terribly, terribly wrong, and that’s precisely what happened with “The Boondocks”. The Adult Swim series had a stellar run up until its fourth and final season, and while the whole season felt like a slap in the face, the series finale was the equivalent to a punch in the throat. It lacks the edge that made “The Boondocks” unique, and the finale feels like it was lazily cobbled together, relying far too heavily on parodies for jokes. Maybe it's just best to end a show when its creator leaves? Just a thought…

Speaking of cobbled together finales, “Drawn Together” was another adult animated series that suffered a floundering end. “American Idol Parody Clip Show” is roughly what you’d expect from a mashed up title like that, comprised of nothing but characters reminiscing about various moments from across the show, juvenile behavior, and jarring editing. Every punchline feels forced and rushed, and some moments run so long that it gets awkward. It’s almost as if the joke of “cartoon characters from different eras living in the same house” had run its course a long, long time ago.

While it wasn’t as big of a hit as Joe Murray’s famed wallaby, “Camp Lazlo” still garnered a respectable amount of fans. We just wish they were given a better ending to the show… “Lumpus’ Last Stand” is about as deranged as its plot with the Scoutmaster discovering wet paint as a better alternative to wearing clothes. (Yeah, we’re a little creeped out, too…) However, the episode ends with Lumpus getting arrested, and the Bean Scouts meet the REAL Scoutmaster Lumpus before parting ways. The ending is so abrupt and jarring that it almost stains the rest of the show, leaving us wondering why we even bothered watching in the first place for such an unsatisfying conclusion.

When it comes to cartoons based on video games, our expectations are already pretty low. As campy as it was, “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” carried its own charm, but that didn’t save the show from having a dumb ending. In the campily-titled “Sonically Ever After”, Grounder and Scratch trap Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik in a fairytale book where the duo must help its characters find their happy endings. We could go on about the messy plot or blatant advertisement for another season (which never happened), but suffice it to say, this remains a disappointment.

“Golden Boy” was a pretty awful way to close “All Grown Up”, but considering “Rugrats’” quality and long history, you might have hoped that the show would end with a big bang or a meaningful message, right? Well, we couldn’t have been more wrong. The final episode of the show has the babies searching for Kimi’s birthday cake… and that’s it. Nine seasons, thirteen years, and all we get is a cake expedition. Part of what made “Rugrats” such a fun show were the imaginative fantasy elements conjured by the babies. When compared to episodes like “The Inside Story”, “Kimi Takes the Cake” pales in comparison.

The long-running “The Fairly Oddparents” overstayed its welcome, many fans will tell you. As if the later seasons weren’t disappointing enough, the series finale felt like a massive insult to longtime viewers. “Fancy Schmancy” focuses on Timmy and Chloe trying to celebrate Friends Day, but their parents won’t let them . . . because society. In hindsight, we shouldn’t be surprised by the poor writing and lazy humor, but you couldn’t make a memorable goodbye after being on the air for sixteen years?! Not even a message on growing up or how to power through life’s toughest moments? If “The Fairly Oddparents” didn’t lose its magic when Sparky was introduced, it did now.

One thing that “Ren & Stimpy” fans can agree with is just how horrendous the supposed “lost episodes” were, and the resentment grew worse when they saw the final episode of this spin-off of the original show. As if the title didn’t scream “lazy attempt to shock”, “Stimpy’s Pregnant” was disgusting and tasteless even by the series’ standards. The episode starts with Ren learning that Stimpy is pregnant with their child, but in the end, its discovered that Stimpy was just constipated. However, Dr. Horse doesn’t want to disappoint the newfound parents. And so, he lets them believe the . . . object is their child named Little Ricky. What a way to tarnish a show’s legacy…