Top 10 Nicktoons, go! (Or hell, rank them all if ya want)

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

We're only counting shows produced as Nicktoons, not stuff produced elsewhere they air like the new Chipmunks show. Also these are just our personal rankings, nothing definitive.

1) Avatar: The Last Airbender
2) Rocko's Modern Life
3) Hey Arnold
4) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
5) My Life As A Teenage Robot
6) Rugrats
7) The Legend of Korra
8) (early) Spongebob Squarepants
9) Invader Zim
10) Chalkzone

[cool]

1.Rugrats
2. Hey Arnold
3. Doug
4. Catdog
5. SpongeBob
6. Rocko's Modern Life
7.Fairly Oddparents
8. Jimmy Neutron
9. Angry Beavers
10. Ahh Real Monsters

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No particular order, but my top ones are probably...

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rocko's Modern Life
Hey Arnold
Angry Beaves
My Life As a Teenage Robot
Invader Zim
As Told by Ginger

Dunno on the rest of the list. Loved Fairly Oddparents and Jimmy Neutron as a kid, but I get the sense I wouldn't like either now, and never liked things like Rugrats, Ah! Real Monsters, and Ren & Stimpy. Then there's Korra, where I'd probably put season one on the list, but hate everything that came after it.

[fw91]

Rugrats
Hey Arnold
Doug
Rocket Power
Spongebob
Jimmy Neutron
Fairly Oddparents
Rocko's Modern Life
?
?

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1. Pelswick
2. The X's
3. Super Duper Sumo
4. Planet Sheen
5. Butt-Ugly Martians
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?

But seriously...


10. Ren and Stimpy - There's a lot of people that would put this much higher in either because they thought it was innovative and unique at the time and/or "it was really that good". Speaking as someone who watched it at the same time as Rocko's Modern Life, I thought it was several steps behind. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style (to the point I constantly forget the name of the well-known artist who draws like that, mostly because I just don't care enough to remember), and while some episodes are really good, there are some I remember seeing that I thought just sucked. Maybe I was just in the wrong time for it, but I could never ever put it up there with the shows at the top of my list.

9. Doug - I had this higher when I originally made the list, but in typing this description I had to pull it back a little. It was a little heavy handed in trying to be educational and teaching lessons. But it always did so in unique ways, which was the strength of the show. It was strange in surreal in both the writing and art-style, and was incredibly unique for its time. A lot of people thought the Disney version took a sharp dip, though I would disagree personally. I don't think it's as good, of course, but I don't think it took this sharp decline that stained everybody's perception of it, mostly because I wouldn't put Doug too high. I loved the art style, and the way it presented its lessons/morals was special. It was an educational show that almost never felt like a typical educational show and could very easily just be enjoyed as a piece of animation.

8. Fairly Oddparents - Switch this and #7 if we just count early seasons. Has some funny moments and good continuity. And "Abracatastrophie" might be the greatest film-length Nicktoon programming ever if you don't consider the 3-part Sozin's Comet episodes of TLA to be one "film-length program" like some do. But it got old quick, and has relied on the same "key term, run it into the ground each episode" scheme (it's a reason Phineas and Ferb got stale to me WELL before it ended). Plus there's some times where it explains and details things that are pretty obvious, and not in a "character has a moment of clarity" way, but in a "we don't think the audience gets it, so we better explain it" way, which is a major pet peeve for me. A lot of people think Spongebob or Doug took a humoungous dive in quality after the movie or writer's change or whatever it may be, but the dip for this show was much bigger IMO. It took the few smart moments in each episode that it really couldn't afford to strip itself of, and stripped itself of them.

7. Rugrats - The art style was awful regardless of what era of Rugrats we're talking about. And the early pilot, while funny, hasn't aged well at all. It looks ugly and you could tell the people voicing the babies were either phoning it in or weren't too confident in what they were doing. But the writing and humor (while not absolutely hilarious) worked despite all that. Though the later seasons were straight-up not good and I HATED both Dil and Kimi, both because of the characters themselves and how Tommy and Chuckie became foils for them and pretty much became robots that only spoke "Yeah but, Dil/Kimi guys!". But even if it was just the early seasons, it would still be right here at 7. For me, there's a sharp rise in quality from this to the #6 show...

6. Spongebob Squarepants - I would swap this with Angry Beavers if only for the early seasons when EVERYTHING (except maybe the animation quality) was on-point. Now the show is just...inconsistent. There's some newer episodes that are just as good as the older ones, but then there's some really really REALLY awful stuff (and I'm not just talking about the...can't believe I'm saying this..."Squidward Torture Porn"...the episode "Treats!" literally gave me a headache, I've never had a children's cartoon do that to me before...and I couldn't turn it because my niece was watching it and she'd have had a fit if I turned it). When the show is/was good, it was hilarious and smart. And even though it's undoubtedly been dumbed down, there are some moments and some episodes that still hit the mark. Though some characters are getting/have gotten stale (Mr. Krabs is UNGODLY annoying and shallowly written in the newer episodes).

5. Invader Zim - Sucks that everyone thinks GIR was THE highlight of the show, because he was far from being that for me. Johen Vasquez was so ahead-of-the-curb with this show. The art style was insane, the humor (while an acquired taste) was spot on and smartly written, it was just great for the short time it had. It sucks Nick never seemed to truly get behind this show. At a time where animated shows like this and anime like Fooly Cooly were doing loud and obnoxious humor mixed with complex stories, given more episodes and more support from Nick, this could have been an insanely huge hit, much more so than the cult status it enjoys now.

4. Angry Beavers - I remember thinking I was gonna HATE this show when the early ads ran for it, so it was about a year into the run before I gave it a go. But holy hell, was it fantastic. Just funny and well-written. Sucks we'll never see that final episode acknowledging being cancelled. I think that could've been gold. Just on pure humor and the writing alone, it sits here.

3. Rocko's Modern Life - A lot of people would put Ren and Stimpy higher, and it did it's style of gross-out vulgarity better. But when it comes down to just being funny, Rocko wins it running away. If we were ranking the list on just a comedy standpoint, this would be #1 for me and it would not even be close.

2. Avatar; The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra (just tying it all together) - Just damn good on all levels. If I was ranking the shows just for face value, this would be #1, even though some parts of Korra soured it a little (and even if I split them into two shows, TLA would still be #2...Korra would probably be 9 or 10). The story is exceptional, the animation is masterful, the characters are well written and fleshed out (for the most part...there's a few characters I find grating at times, but never so much that I don't want to watch), it knew when to be funny even in the light of serious things, and it made you want to watch more so badly.

1. Hey Arnold - One of those cartoons that, other than the urban setting, I could really relate to at the age I watched it. A few episodes really hit home. Hard to not put a show that had so many "I can relate" or "I am going through that" moments at that age at the top. Well made, smartly written (though there were a few exposition dumps that seemed silly and unnecessary), had a good mix of humor and sincerity, and didn't dumb it down just because it was for children, which is something that really sticks in my craw, especially when it was obvious when I was a kid (I'll get to that later). The list of memorable episodes and moments is huge for me.