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The Best ’90s Cartoon Network Shows

The 90’s were an important decade for the animation industry. The previous years had been ruled by Disney cartoons, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera productions. While deserving of their classic, they were also a product of their times — relying on princesses and songs, slapstick, anthropomorphized animals and other foundations that had begun to show their age. These trappings also limited the reach and impact of such cartoons, because they had been created as “kid stuff,” and decades later were still largely considered as such. The fact that most ’80s cartoons (centering around G.I. Joe, He-Man, The Smurfs and more) were made primarily to sell toys certainly didn’t help.

Animation was ready for a revolution, and the industry delivered in spades. First, a strangely subversive new show called “The Simpsons” began appearing just as the ’90s came in, taking a decidedly adult, satirical look at modern society. Then the Cartoon Network launched on October 1, 1992 with the promise of airing cartoons 24/7, a feat unheard of at the time.

To fill a complete day’s worth of programming, Cartoon Network relied on a legendary team of animators to create the next generation of cartoons for kids. These new cartoons were not afraid to tackle adult themes, reinvent the way characters looked in a kid’s cartoon, and quite frankly were cool in ways the medium had never seen before. Here are 14 Cartoon Network shows from that era that continue to inspire devotion among fans and critics alike.