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List of Best Rated TV Series as voted by the Fediverse
Almost anything Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters. I only exclude the Michael Bay TMNT and the two recent Ghostbusters movies, everything else is great.
Reboot and Beast Wars were also two of my favorites when I was young. I’ve rewatched Reboot, I’m going to have to find Beast Wars. Now I’m going to have to find my Beast Wars toys too.
Avatar both Aang and Korra, easily some of the best characters and world building for a kids show
Zoids
Teen titans
Lot of the nickelodeon shows around early 2000s SpongeBob, fairy odd parents, jimmy neutron, Danny phantom. They kinda were releasing bangers for awhile
Adventure time I watched as an adult and really enjoyed it
Not including my top show ever despite being too old for it, Franklin ( that preschool show ablutnthe turtle ), I'm going with Summer Camp Island as maybe 2nd place right now since I started rewatching it again. 6 seasons of a show starting off fairly episodic before coming together to tell what I consider a beautiful ending, even if it kinda feels like they had a network rush placed on them. Absolutely LOVE the final episode.
Though I have also been rewatching Code Lyoko since they have a full dedicated channel to the English dub of the show on yt. One of my all time favorite kids sci-fi TV shows period. Giant foreheaded minors attending a boarding school and fighting a virus capable of doing impossible tasks like making teddy bears turn into giant monsters or take control of rats to cause a plague or something along those lines? What's not to love?
Invader Zim (obviously...)
Phineas and Ferb
Powerpuff girls
Gravity Falls and Steven Universe are the first two to pop into my head. Both start out having pretty self contained episodes before opening up to a big story arc. I think Star Wars Rebels gets overlooked even though it has seems to have less filler than Clone Wars did.
My kids are no where near the target demo anymore, but we've watch all of Bluey as a family too. The number of times I've teared up at that show is ridiculous.
I'm also a fan of the Adventures of Pete and Pete, Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, and Magus XLR but they all have a heavy dose of nostalgia for me too.
Oh yes, Gravity Falls and (at least the first couple seasons of) Bluey!
I rather liked Prinze as Kanan in Rebels. (Also just enjoyed it in general.)
Clone Wars has an (IIRC official) episode guide I used the last time that was pretty good to get past most of the filler. Last few seasons were amazing for the most part.
Ren & Stimpy. Real talk.
Steven Universe has a really special place in my heart it's really a show for all ages with the themes it grapples with in many episodes.
My personal favourites are ATLA and The Owl House, I know they were already mentioned though.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Owl House, for sure.
Also, Infinity Train comes to mind.
Dexter's Laboratory.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is goated with the sauce. Love the themes, the artstyle, the soundtrack, the characters... No joke, it made me cry on three occasions on my last watch (my 3rd). It's all even better when you're stoned.
She-ra and the Princesses of Power is really good. I like toxic yuri, and characters who just keep digging every time you think they've hit rock bottom.
Like others have pointed out, ATLA, Steven Universe, Infinity Train, Gravity Falls and The Owl House are all good, too.
most DC and Marvel superhero cartoons.
ducktales original and 2017.
Adventure Time and Spongebob had a lot of stuff that only adults could catch. Also, a lot of shonen anime deal with mature subject matter.
Definitely SpongeBob! I don't even think this was intended to be a kids show in the first place. Anyhow, SpongeBob is clearly a teenager or even young adult.
I really liked Adventure Time, too. Probably very much intended to be high quality children's content, suitable for adults as a side effect.
i’ve tried watching spongebob a few times but couldn’t get into it. could you recommend a specific episode?
No specific episode. I can totally understand that somebody wouldn't like it. First time I saw it was when my 5yo son was watching it, I found it horrible. Many years later I tried for myself and found it increasingly funny. As ever so often, I'd say the first few seasons are best.
I'm going to shout-out Kids Next Door and Arthur. Loved both of them both as an adult and as a kid. Also, Recess.
The Dragon Prince is fantastic!
Watched it seasonally since S1 and enjoyed it but hit a wall at S6. Been meaning to finish it. Has some good high/epic-fantasy in there though. (Which I am a sucker for.)
Reminded me of Netflix's Voltron series which I also quite enjoyed. Nothing too complex but it had something going for it.
Azumanga Dioh
The Sisters Grimm
Darkwing Duck
Gargoyles
Fraggle Rock
Phineas and Furb
Animaniacs
Just some off the top of my head that I have enjoyed rewatching recently
Animaniacs? Well now that I think about it, yes.
Rob Paulsen is a fucking genius of words though, even after his throat cancer...
~~Starblazers.~~ ~~Battle of the Planets.~~
~~Interestingly, these were Japanese imports that were re-edited and dubbed well. One of these days I’m going to watch the Japanese versions because supposedly they are a little more adult.~~
Gargoyles
Been meaning to rewatch that for a long while now.
I do love me some Keith David. Despite seeing (hearing...) him in many roles before he'll always be Commander Anderson from Mass Effect to me first though. Dunno why, but it's the most memorable role for some reason. (For me.)
PRODIGY is a good nutrek, unlike the 3 "live action ones", lower decks can be considered for teens? and good for adults. SGU wierdly try to target teens, but it failed poorly. young justice, some of the newer animated x-men spinoffs.
I liked the first couple seasons of SNW. Spock Amok had me in stitches and Pike is the captain we've needed for a while now.
Lower Decks is... frighteningly good as the seasons progress. Their ability to target and poke fun at Trek-tropes was better than any YT channel I've seen, yet they respected the source material and mimicked it with commensurately great ability. I was torn between laughing and crying while they did laps around DS9. (DS9 being my fav trek.) And I was genuinely surprised they got Jolene Blalock back given I thought she hated the franchise after her time in it. Even if the humour was more miss-than-hit for me early on in the series.
SGU was weird and originally felt like a BSG knockoff, but I loved their big sci-fi hook and wish we got to know what it was. (BIG spoiler for it below. It's an old show but still. If you haven't seen it don't click.)
spoiler
Pattern in the cmbr, really cool sci-fi idea
That said, most of SGU, aside from the early eps when critical offline systems were important, didn't really land with me. High concept; poor execution.
Prodigy was the Voyager continuation we apparently all needed but didn't know. (At least I didn't.) Was glad to hear a lot of familiar voices in S2, reprised.
A couple not posted yet... Bluey, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends
Going back aways, too, Blues Clues. Not that I still watch it, but when my kids were of that age, I enjoyed watching it, and I'd even watch it without them sometimes.
Can't believe no one's mentioned SpongeBob!
I did a rewatch of Avatar: the Last Airbender with my kids this summer leading up to the Magic the Gathering set, and I forgot how good it was.
Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces of Evil. Not sure how broadly we're defining "kids" here, these I guess might be more like pre-teen/teen/YA, idk.
Spectacular Spider-Man, I think I watched it at 17 TBF rather than 18 but it's amazing and I will be rewatching it again in the future.
iCarly.
Both Avatar shows.
Oggy and the Cockroaches
Teen Titans Go
Lol iCarly not a cartoon, but was pretty goated. Spencer easily the best character
I also love Star Trek: Prodigy
Other than that:
Avatar: The Last Air Bender
Star vs. The Forces of Evil
Star vs wrecked me in a way I didn't think was possible.
How?
The finale. I'd watched so many shows where the ending was perfect for the show but wasn't ultimately "happily ever after." Whether that was the direction of the writing or idiots in the executive suite Steven Universe Future, Owl House, Gravity Falls, etc.
Star vs really is a "happily ever after" and made it work within the bounds of the show. Very little lampshading or deus ex machina hand waving.
Been watching Sonic: Boom. It's great.
I haven't seen Bluey but I'm probably going to.
Also Adventure Time, Regular Show, Chowder, Gumball, and Gravity Falls also csme out when I was already an adult and I love those.
Since ATLA was already posted (what a show, truly a pearl of Western animation), I'll say YuYu Hakusho. Yeah, it's a bit slow and repetitive but the emotional highs and lows still hit, and the animation and writing is still much better than much of what we have today. Also, seeing Yusuke's very real struggle (broken home, missing dad, alcoholic mom, feeling utterly pointless) still makes me feel strong feelings...
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
OH MY GUCCINESS, YESH! Also Hey Dude
Amphibia
Hilda
Steven Universe and Future although Future is definitely aimed at an older audience.
Jurassic Park Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory.
Hilda
I (middle aged) enjoyed that, and it does have a vibe of being made specifically for both kids & adults.