Top 10 Cartoons That Deserve A Second Chance
Oh, what we’d give for a revival of these classic ‘toons. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Cartoons that Deserve a Second Chance.
For this list, we’ll be looking at cartoons and animated series that need a chance to end properly on the small screen, as they were cancelled prematurely or ended on a cliffhanger that will likely never be resolved. Shows that eventually had revivals, follow-up TV films, etc. are excluded however. Beware of spoilers ahead!
#10: “Tron: Uprising” (2012-13)
Set between 1982’s “Tron” and 2010’s “Tron: Legacy”, this sci-fi “interquel” only lasted for one season on Disney XD. In this series, we’re once again brought into the Grid where an updated version of Clu, General Tesler and their henchmen rule with military might. Under Tron’s guidance, a young program, named Beck and voiced by Elijah Wood, becomes a skilled protector and revolution leader. Despite the CG series winning a Primetime Emmy for art direction and earning mostly positive reviews, only 19 episodes were ever produced and aired. “Tron: Uprising” was given another chance when the season became streamable on Netflix, but this run lasted only a year and we’ve yet to hear anything since.
#9: “Mission Hill” (1999-2002)
This treasure from the early 2000s came courtesy of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who served as head writers and showrunners on some of the best seasons of “The Simpsons.” The pair left the show to focus on a project of their own, one that focuses on 20-somethings unsure of their place in the world - something “The Simpsons” never included. The result was this underground hit about a group of friends trying to make their way in the world. Unfortunately for fans, the show was put on hold after only 2 episodes aired on The WB Network and then was officially cancelled after another 4 were aired the next summer. The episodes were later aired on other networks in full and collected on DVD, helping it develop a cult following.
#8: “Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars” (1991)
In the early ‘90s, animated shows featuring anthropomorphic animals were all the rage, and this well-remembered series combined the craze for animal people and mutants with “Star Wars” style space adventure. Based off a comic of the same name, the show sees a ragtag group of space outlaws, including Captain Bucky O’Hare, First Mate Jenny, the four-armed gunslinger Deadeye Duck, and a human boy named Willy, battling the evil Toad Empire. The series only lasted for thirteen episodes and we’d love to see more, if for no other reason than to hear more of that classic theme song. Bring on the gritty revival!
#7: “Pinky and the Brain” (1995-98)
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The eminently singable theme song to this ‘90s classic pretty much says it all, but for the uninitiated, this series chronicles the nightly efforts of two lab mice, one hyper-intelligent and the other…. less so, to take over the world. As you can imagine, things rarely went to plan. Spinning out of the “Animaniacs” series, the show was hugely popular in its day, and remains a fan-favorite years later, though the follow-up, “Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain,” is somewhat less well-remembered. With news of an “Animaniacs” revival currently in the works, it’s hard not to hope that the diminutive duo will return as well. But please, no Elmyra.
#6: “The Oblongs” (2001-02)
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From the kid-friendly to the decidedly adult oriented, this slightly demented series centers on a family suffering from various maladies and deformities due to the unsanitary living conditions of their suburban town, which rests in the shadow of a much more opulent and well to-do neighborhood... and did we mention this is a comedy? The show’s incredibly dark sense of humor kept it from finding an audience, and The WB axed the series before it could even finish its first season. But maybe now’s a better time for a series that focuses so heavily on class disparity, and the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.
#5: “The Critic” (1994-95)
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Trust us, being a film critic isn’t all sunshine and roses, and no series has ever captured this better than this show from “Simpsons” writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. Following the life and mis-adventures of movie critic Jay Sherman, voiced by Jon Lovitz, the show puts a more human face on the popular depiction of movie critics as joyless, arrogant windbags. Despite a wit that recalls some of the best episodes of “The Simpsons,” the show was cancelled after 2 seasons. There’s plenty of territory that a revival of this series could explore, especially given today’s new critical landscape of blogs and YouTube channels.
#4: “Clone High” (2002-03)
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The names Phil Lord and Christopher Miller might sound familiar, as they’re the duo behind such modern comedy classics as “The Lego Movie” and “21 Jump Street.” But back in the early 2000s, they were hard at work on this series set in a high school populated with teenaged clones of historical figures. Even back then, Lord and Miller’s comedic wit was a breath of fresh air, but Indian audiences took issue with the often less-than-flattering depiction of the teenaged clone of Mahatma Gandhi, and the show never got a second season. The series ended on a shocking cliffhanger that still hasn’t been resolved, and we’re still torn up about it.
#3: “Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man” (1994-97)
This crass, adult-oriented series about a lewd, ill-tempered, and idiotic private detective who also happens to be a talking duck ran for a number of seasons, each one rife with low-brow humor and a surprising amount of heart. But when the fourth season ended on a shocking cliffhanger involving the sudden return of a character who’d been dead for the entire series, fans could only wait to see what would happen next. And wait they have ever since. Would a TV special finally giving us the closure we’ve been craving for over two decades be too much to ask? Well who cares if it is, we’re asking anyway!
#2: “Sym-Bionic Titan” (2010-11)
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When three aliens flee to Earth after their home planet is conquered by the evil General Modula, the trio find themselves with an even greater challenge to face than Modula’s giant space mutants: high school! Combining high school drama with giant robot action, all brought to life by series co-creator Genndy Tartakovsky’s signature animation style, this series was a gift to giant robot fans everywhere that sadly met with cancellation after only one season. Given that Tartakovsky’s fan-favorite series “Samurai Jack” was given the chance to fully wrap up with a revival years later, we’re hoping this unsung classic will be given closure as well.
Before we reveal our number one pick, here are some of our honorable mentions.
“Megas XLR” (2004-05)
“Dino-Riders” (1988)
“G.I. Joe: Renegades” (2010-11)
“Green Lantern: The Animated Series” (2012-13)
“Motorcity” (2012-13)
#1: “Gargoyles” (1994-97)
Not many kids shows can claim to have drawn characters inspired by Shakespeare, but this classic fantasy adventure is one of them. Following a group of living gargoyles transported to modern-day New York, this series drew in devoted fans for its dark tone and rich, well-developed plotlines and characters, including numerous figures drawn from mythology and literature. The fact that most of the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” were series regulars didn’t hurt either. Despite cancellation in 1997, the show later continued in comic book form, and an animated adaptation of this continuation, or a new project entirely, would be an absolute delight for fans of this animated treasure. With Jordan Peele having expressed an interest in directing a reboot in July 2018, who knows what could happen...
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