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The best cartoons of 2017

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Best-cartoons-2017

Forget the Fleischer Studios animating Superman in the 1930s or whatever Disney pumped out between the late 1980s and the 90s: The golden age of animation is now. The last couple of years have seen a surge in the medium, resulting in numerous fantastic new shows being broadcast. Whether it be video game-inspired adventures or goofy escapades, the genre has had plenty to offer.

2017 was another knockout year for cartoons, resulting in the finest animation around. While there could only be one winner, the honourable mentions below are still well worth several hours of your time. Let’s get the ball rolling then, with:

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Voltron Legendary Defender

Despite having it’s third season sliced in two and broadcast in two halves, Netflix’s Voltron series was still easily flying high. All the quality of a Studio Mir animation production, two seasons worth of galaxies to explore and more action than you could shake a robot lion at. Voltron’s third and fourth seasons continued to do what it did best, rewriting its lore and the dynamic between its paladins to produce some of the finest cosmic adventures ever seen on a flatscreen.

We Bare Bears

We Bare Bears

With a trio of lovable misfits at its core, We Bare Bears is classic fish out of water comedy that also happens to be the most charming entry on this list. There’s wacky hijinks aplenty, but We Bare Bears is at its strongest when it focuses on the brotherhood between its three stars and the friendships forged with society’s other outcasts.

Also, Ice Bear. Ice Bear is the best.

OK KO: Let’s Be Heroes

OK KO Let’s Be Heroes

A gung-ho attitude on the surface for rampant robot destruction may be what comes to mind when you first see OK Ko: Let’s Be Heroes in action, but there’s more to the show than just mere fisticuffs. There’s a genuine heart beneath all of the robot rampages, an infectious optimism that has you rooting for the underdog as all manner of chaos erupts around him and his pals.

The Amazing World of Gumball

The Amazing World of Gumball

More than half a decade since it debuted, and the Amazing World of Gumball is still a benchmark for throwing everything at the screen and watching it stick. Whether it be the oddly incredible plethora of animation styles that pop up in each episode or the cleverest parody of Star Wars since Mel Brooks released Space Balls, The Amazing World of Gumball still manages to feel as fresh and exciting today as it was when it first began airing in 2011.

Hotel Transylvania: The Series

Hotel Transylvania The Series

I freakin’ loved the Hotel Transylvania films. Adam Sandler’s best performance since he earned some drama stripes in Punch Drunk Love, the films were visually zany and fun for all ages. How do you take that signature style and translate it to a 2D medium? Amazingly well if the current spin-off TV series is anything to by, as Mabel rightfully takes the spotlight in the absence of her father and attempts to juggle life, education and running a hotel for monsters in one kid-friendly adventure.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia

Anime has had another fantastic year so far, but out of all the action series focused on extinction-level events and food wars that deliver foodgasms, it’s the touching story of a young girl overcoming all odds so that she can reach for the stars that sums up the best of the Japanese medium. Little Witch Academia has heart, style and charm in addition to quality animation and a core cast of characters whose friendship feels almost tangible on the screen.

It’s a series about youth, about pushing past limitations and discovering the joy of life. Little Witch Academia is simply magical.

Big Mouth

Big Mouth

While most of the entries on this list are suitable for any age, Big Mouth is the inverse of that. It’s also the most divisive cartoon on this list, as some people love its hideous examination of puberty while others loathe its dirtier sense of humour between the cast and their blossoming sex lives. Whichever side you take, Big Mouth will certainly leave an impression on you.

Castlevania

Castlevania

Speaking of adult series, Netflix had more than one production in the bag this year when it came to animation. Resurrecting the lord of darkness himself, Castlevania was a sweet and short revival of the classic video games, spinning a tale of the Belmonts, Dracula and humanity once again being a massive collective dick in this gorgeously animated mini-series.

Duck Tales

Duck Tales

I’m not exactly certain what a Duck Blur is, although I’d guess that it’s Donald Duck singing Song No.2. Still! Disney decided to bring back their most classic of Sunday afternoon TV series this year, and the result was nothing short of mesmerising. Managing to modernise certain elements perfectly while retaining other legacy beats, life certainly was like a hurricane again thanks to a renewed interest in Duckburg.

With David Tennant filling in for the late Alan Young, Scrooge McDuck lived once again in adventures that could only be described with one exclamation: Woo-hoo!

Justice League Action

Justice League Action

DC Comic’s may be struggling to find an identity on the big screen, but the same can’t be said for the animation department that features iconic characters such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. The complete inverse of Marvel’s cheap and nasty cartoons, Justice League Action hit the screen with a simple plan: Short adventures, that appealed to any age group and featuring consistently solid animation in every episode.

Justice League Action hit all of those goals and then some, as the latest incarnation of the world’s greatest heroes shines brightly on a smaller screen.

Samurai Jack

Samurai Jack

Years in the making, Samurai Jack finally got the ending that he deserved when Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim imprint gave the wandering warrior the license to finally spill some blood. Beautifully realised and executed, Genddy Tartokovsky’s cult-classic icon finished what he started so many years ago, as Jack’s battle to return to the past finally saw him victorious.

It was a pyrrhic victory in the end for Jack, and an incredible farewell to one of the greatest heroes in the entire history of animation.

Pickle and Peanut

Pickle and Peanut

Sometimes you need a cartoon that is just downright stupid. Something silly, juvenile and compeltely bonkers. Pickle and Peanut is that cartoon, a classic duo of idiocy in action as the weirdest and craziest adventures unfold around the gigantic talking Pickle and Peanut. What makes the series different however, is that Pickle and Peanut may just be the nicest guys to ever find themselves recruiting a massive paramilitary organisation to help them find a missing bird.

There’s a genuine warmth to the characters, as every action that unfolds is done with a smile on their faces and good intentions in their surprisingly breakable bones. That doesn’t mean that Pickle and Peanut aren’t averse to darker moments of comedy, but out of all the entries on this list? This is one show that’ll leave you smiling, confused and dazed in the best way possible.

Regular Show

Regular Show

2017 may have seen some fantastic new cartoons debut, but it also saw more than one series reach the finish line. Regular Show’s final season may have been on the verge of jumping the shark, but somehow the oddballs of a cartoon show that ended with universal gods battling it out with multiverse-extinction at stake managed to strike a personal note with its fans.

Regular Show’s final season was its grandest yet, ending on a touching finale that saw the cast return to the Earth while David Bowie’s magnificent Heroes track played in the background. It was a touching and satisfying farewell to one of the best Cartoon Network originals that had ever been greenlit. You know who else likes to end TV shows to the tune of David Bowie? MY MOM!

Uncle Grandpa

Uncle Grandpa

I’m not going to lie to you: Uncle Grandpa was basically a visualised acid trip and I still have no idea how it was even allowed to be on TV. That being said, the sheer fact that a cartoon series starring a magical man-child person who could apparently bend the laws of reality while riding a rainbow-farting stock photo tiger was allowed to exist for multiple seasons, is a triumph in and of itself.

Star Wars Rebels

Star Wars Rebels

While Star Wars Rebels is only halfway through its final season, the handful of episodes released so far have been nothing but solid in 2017. With a larger threat on their doorstep and time running out for the crew of the Ghost as the events of Star Wars: Rogue One and A New Hope draw ever closer, Rebels has already proven that it’s the finest use of the Star Wars license since Kellog’s came up with C3P0’s breakfast cereal.

Scaling back on the galaxy and focusing on a smaller slice of the Star Wars universe, the current final season of Rebels feels more focused than ever before as the endgame draws closer. If the second half of this season is anywhere near as good as what we’ve seen so far, then Rebels has already earned itself a place in the hall of fame.

And the best cartoon of 2017 is…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

TMNT

Out of all the shows to end this year, it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I’ll miss most of all. Across several seasons, Nicklelodeon’s new TMNT series has done it all. It made the quartet relatable again, it paid homage to the past and it remained consistently entertaining. Whether it was the streets of New York City, Dimension X or the far reaches of space, TMNT was an incredible adventure in any and all realities.

Funny, brilliantly animated and continually evolving, TMNT was also home to the best damn fight scenes ever rendered on TV. Mikey, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo were a force to be reckoned with, their constant battles giving the films such as Ong Bak and the Raid a run for their money as their ninjutsu stole the show each and every time in conflicts that managed to escalate to Hollywood blockbuster levels.

While the Turtles will return next year in a new series, it’s this current incarnation of the heroes in a half-shell that will go down in history as their finest incarnation ever.

Last Updated: December 4, 2017

28 Comments

  1. Ottokie

    December 4, 2017 at 15:22

    Star vs the Forces of Evil’s story is coming together nicely, been my favorite cartoon since it started airing.

    Reply

    • Original Heretic

      December 4, 2017 at 15:37

      • Ottokie

        December 4, 2017 at 15:38

        Ah. The best part of the intro. Singing it loud AF at this part.

        Reply

        • Original Heretic

          December 4, 2017 at 15:40

          I freakin’ love the intro. All of it.

          Reply

          • Ottokie

            December 4, 2017 at 15:41

            Just don’t make the intro your ringtone, you will get a heart attack with a midnight spam call.

          • Original Heretic

            December 4, 2017 at 15:44

            I learned long ago not to make any tune or sound clip that I actually like into any of my phone’s notification tones. It’s a sure-fire way to start hating something you like in less than a week.

          • Ottokie

            December 4, 2017 at 15:47

            Yup. Now I just use a generic built in sound. The most soothing one I can find, I could care less if I hear it or not.

          • Original Heretic

            December 4, 2017 at 15:49

            My phone is always one silent, so on the odd occasion that it’s not, and it rings, my first reaction is, “Wtf is that?!”

  2. Kromas Ryder

    December 4, 2017 at 15:31

    Just putting this here. Anime is not cartoons.

    Reply

    • Ottokie

      December 4, 2017 at 15:33

      To be fair, both those where American made. So they might as well be classified as cartoons.

      Reply

      • Kromas Ryder

        December 4, 2017 at 15:44

        Depends on staff as well. I believe that Afro Samurai to be an anime because while it was developed in America the art director and producer as well as 90% of the rest of the staff were Japanese anime salary men.

        But I digress it is more about the art style and story directions for me. You can see a clear distinction between an average anime and a cartoon series in almost every single case.

        Reply

        • Ottokie

          December 4, 2017 at 15:46

          Little Witch Academia for instance you could see from the get go in the art that it was American made. As for Afro Samurai, I never did watch it. I knew the actors were american so I skipped it.

          Reply

          • Guz

            December 4, 2017 at 15:52

            Whaaaaaat, you didn’t watch it??? It was fantastic, also the sound track was super dope , lol

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            December 4, 2017 at 15:53

          • Ottokie

            December 4, 2017 at 16:02

            Yea yea I know. Rhymes with “itch”

  3. Original Heretic

    December 4, 2017 at 15:35

    The only cartoons I watch these days are those suitable for a 3 year old. And then I watch the same shit over and over and over again.

    For anyone looking for toddler suitable cartoons, I highly recommend Blaze and the Monster Machines. Not because you’ll also enjoy it as an adult, but because it’s entertaining and educational for the little’uns.

    Reply

    • HvR

      December 4, 2017 at 17:17

      No no no

      Buy the Lollos series of DVDs and feel your soul slowly die as you watch it over and over.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        December 5, 2017 at 08:37

        I just Googled Lollos.
        I would rather die than show that to my son.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          December 5, 2017 at 11:39

          I guess that means you’ll definitely be showing it to your son then.

          Reply

  4. Dresden

    December 4, 2017 at 15:38

    Whaaaat?! There’s a new Voltron out? I need to see this!

    Reply

    • Ottokie

      December 4, 2017 at 15:39

      I am pretty sure season 3 is already airing 😛

      Reply

      • Dresden

        December 4, 2017 at 15:43

        No, I mean like a new iteration of it.
        The last one I’ve watched was Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

        Reply

        • Ottokie

          December 4, 2017 at 15:44

          Yea it’s totally made a new. I’m on season 2 right now with it.

          Reply

  5. Fnuik

    December 4, 2017 at 15:42

    “this current incarnation of the heroes in a half-shell that will go down in history as their finest incarnation ever”

    LIES LIES LIES!

    Reply

  6. Dresden

    December 4, 2017 at 15:44

    Woo-hoo!

    Reply

  7. Guz

    December 4, 2017 at 15:46

    Man I waited years for that Samurai Jack, thought the ending was really good, Honorable mention to

    Castlevania, also very good if a bit short

    Reply

  8. Craig "CrAiGiSh" Dodd

    December 4, 2017 at 16:25

    – Big Mouth
    – Castlevania

    Enjoyed both.

    Reply

  9. jGLZA

    December 6, 2017 at 15:06

    I know some of the write ups mention where the respective shows originally aired (Netflix, Nickelodeon, etc) but can you add a short bullet listing of where we can watch/find these shows?

    Reply

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