Nothing makes our monthly Community Challenges as entartaining as nostalgia! This time we’re encouraging you to go back in time and share your favorite cartoons from your childhood, or in other words - your youth.
Share in the comments below any title that comes to your mind. Don’t worry, “cartoon” is just a theme. Feel free to mention regular series or other television productions as well - the more, the better!
Benefits of taking Community Challenges!
Every participant receives a unique “Cartoon Badge”
You will also get +100 bonus points for extra activity
Growing up in Sweden my favorite cartoon as a child was Bamse. It’s about the nicest and strongest beer in the world and his adventures with the fastest rabbit in the world and the smartest turtle.
Other than that, once I moved to the Netherlands I learnt a lot of Dutch from reading Donald Ducks.
In TV, my childhood was spent watching cartoons like:
- Tom & Jerry
- Woody Woodpecker
- Bugs Bunny (and friends)
There are others, of course, but these are the core. Tom & Jerry is by far the favorite. The soundtrack is perfection.
For comic books, as Brazilian, I really love “Turma da Monica”. My parents purchased the subscription every year, and I just followed the tradition with my kids now.
Since I don’t like the way they make cartoons today, I use the streaming services to let my kids watch the same old cartoons as I did at their age. Maybe I am too old to enjoy current cartoons, or the old ones are really the best.
This challenge has led to some introspection on my side As I was writing my replies, I started figuring out that some of my favorite cartoons might have conditioned my future life…
My favorite cartoons are from, well, a long time ago…
Speedy Gonzales
Having lived near the Spanish border, I did see a lot of Spanish television. And Speedy Gonzalez was clearly my favorite Spanish talking cartoon… Ándale! Ándale! Arriba! Arriba! Yeehaw!
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
Was a great fan of Scooby-Doo’s nephew, and how he got to the root cause of mysteries in surprising ways! Puppy power!
Pink Panther
Yes, I would hum the Pink Panther tune over and over again! Many years later I rediscovered it as one of my now favorite Salsa songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLN6MC01Ueo
Created by Akira Toriyama, who passed away in March this year, this show was huge in Portugal. And I mean huge, as in, the entire country would stop to watch Dragon Ball. Classes were interrupted, recess was extended, Universities rebuilt class schedules around this, I even remember my dad complaining about having to delay work meetings because of Dragon Ball (until he too started watching it). And then later there was the famous Abridged Version, a fan made dub that was hilarious. I highly recommend it to anyone that knows DragonBall, it’s on youtube.
I loved the games as a kid, so the anime was a must watch. I followed the adventures of Ash and Pikachu for a long, long time as they traveled across regions to collect badges and compete in pokemon leagues. I was always a bit frustrated because Ash would never actually win the league in the end of the seasons, instead usually being defeated and learning from that. But I discovered recently that on Nov 2022, after 25 years, Ash finally became world champion.
This was one of the first and most significant western takes on the japanese anime genre. A young boy’s coming of age story in a world at war which reflects his growth in the face of immense responsibility he did not ask for and was not prepared to handle. This one is a masterpiece of story telling.
Honorable mention to Uncle Iroh for being one of the best advice-providing characters in the world
Naruto
There’s a reason why Naruto is one of the three most successful anime franchises coming Japan. Great story telling, memorable characters, etc. To me as a child, what stood out the most and immediately grabbed my attention was one particular innovation: Naruto was terrible at everything, and that made him relatable to me . We were all used to other heroes like Goku who was the strongest fighter, Superman who was the strongest man alive fighting for justice, etc. Naruto had one job: To be a ninja. And he was terrible at it! Skipped classes, pulled pranks on teachers, etc. all for attention. The story is about his growth as a person and his strive to gain the respect and admiration of his peers despite initially being hated by everyone.
Death Note
I discovered Death Note later, during my last teenager years. It was important because it broke the stigma that anime and cartoons was exclusively for children. This one is a true story-telling masterpiece and to this day remains one of the (if not the) best police/criminal thrillers I have ever watched. Death Note answers one question nobody knew they wanted the answer for: How do you catch a serial killer who wields the power to assassinate by writing names on a notebook? In fact, how do you even prove this person and notebook exist in the first place? Unlike other police dramas, you know who the killer is from the start. Which could’ve been a buzzkill but isn’t once you realize they give that information up so they can tell the story from both sides, with completely unexpected plot twists that keep you on your toes.
Honorable mentions: Doraemon, Ninja Hatori, Beyblade, Medabots, One Piece, Bleach.
Woohoo, a topic that brings back so many good memories! These shows had me on the edge of my seat during my childhood and adolescence, and even now when I watch them again, they still hold a special place in my heart:
Naruto and Naruto Shippuden: These series were some of the most significant ones during my childhood and university years.
Super Robot Red Baron (in Latin America, “El Barón Rojo”): This comedic and action-packed mecha anime aired very early in the morning, so we had to wake up early to catch it. It was worth every early morning!
Power Rangers Series: From Power Rangers in Space to Wild Force, these series were a staple of my childhood. The adventures and battles of the Rangers were always thrilling to watch.
Gundam Series: Gundam 0079, Gundam Z, and Gundam ZZ were other mecha series that I enjoyed during my adolescence. The epic battles and intricate plots were captivating.
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: This series had a fabulous opening theme and exciting episodes that brought the Marvel superheroes to life in a fantastic way.
And of course, there were many others like:
Pokémon
Saint Seiya (“Caballeros del Zodiaco”)
Zoids
yu gi oh
ben 10
dragon ball
These shows are a big part of my nostalgia and continue to bring joy whenever I rewatch them.
Me and my childhood best friend loved Blues Clues. At some point we even drew our own Blues Clues-based comic book which we really wanted to send to the show production but I think we didn’t dare doing that in the end :D.
And this one we watched so often that my dad is now able to still recite every Team Rocket rhyme ever. Once you get him started, the speech goes on for a minute.
These shows are an unforgettable part of the childhood memories for many 90’s Indian kids! From the magical pencil in Shaka Laka Boom Boom to Shaktimaan as the first Indian superhero, the eerie adventures in Vikral aur Gabraal, and the epic fantasy in Hatim, each one was iconic in its own way. They captured the imagination of an entire generation and are still cherished today. Every 90’s Indian kid can relate!
When I was a child in the 1970s, the TV animation “Tom and Jerry” was broadcast in Japan. I loved the show and watched it often. There were many scenes in the show where Jerry secretly ate cheese. The cheese was a type of cheese that was not seen in Japan at the time, so it remains in my memory.
Every participant receives a unique “Cartoon Badge”
As I was writing my replies, I started figuring out that some of my favorite cartoons might have conditioned my future life… 
. We were all used to other heroes like Goku who was the strongest fighter, Superman who was the strongest man alive fighting for justice, etc. Naruto had one job: To be a ninja. And he was terrible at it! Skipped classes, pulled pranks on teachers, etc. all for attention. The story is about his growth as a person and his strive to gain the respect and admiration of his peers despite initially being hated by everyone.
My list:
