Everyone knows The Fairly Oddparents, Spongebob Squarepants, The Ren and Stimpy Show, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. As far as Nicktoons go, they're the cream of the crop. Ren and Stimpy broke new ground by calling back to animation's heyday even as it innovated in brilliant—and deranged-- ways. Spongebob Squarepants built on Ren and Stimpy's success, lifting some of its stylistic choices and retrofitting them for its own outrageous purposes.
Discussed much less frequently are Nicktoons such as Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Danny Phantom, animated shows that don't rank among the best but still boast solid quality. In the interest of highlighting these underrated series, we've put together a list of Nicktoons we feel deserve more love.
Danny Phantom
For some, Danny Phantom is Butch Hartman's best creation. It never received the recognition or acclaim that The Fairly Oddparents enjoyed, but it carved out its place in Nickelodeon's decades-spanning pantheon of Nicktoons. It's funny, charming, and full of fun, inventive character designs that help establish the show as one of Hartman's most creative and unique endeavors.
The series focused on Danny Fenton, a teen who became a human-spirit hybrid after a mishap with a portal to the “Ghost Zone.” Now, with some help from his best friends Sam and Tucker, he takes it upon himself to protect the world from supernatural threats.
Danny Phantom is undoubtedly the most popular Nicktoon on this list, and to this day more and more people are beginning to rediscover Hartman's criminally underrated series. For good reason, too. Despite being a 'toon from the early aughts, the show holds up remarkably well, with few (if any) of its elements holding it back or dating it to a distracting degree.
T.U.F.F. Puppy
Compared to Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy is a much more recent—and much less memorable---Hartman creation. The series premiered in October 2010, receiving mixed reviews from critics but still cranking out 60 episodes before getting the axe. That said, the series showcases some really fun ideas---many of them in the form of over-the-top villains with super catchy names. Verminous Snaptrap, Bird Brain, Holy Cow, and Peck Me are just a few examples.
T.U.F.F. Puppy followed the missions and misadventures of Dudley Puppy, a spy for T.U.F.F. (Turbo Undercover Fighting Force) who has sworn to protect his city (called Petropolis, because of course it is) from the forces of evil.
Fans of Hartman's style will find plenty to love here, even if the show never amounts to much more than a fun, funny distraction from the world's woes.
CatDog
I feel like I'm the only person who still enjoys CatDog. It's an essential Nicktoon: funny, bizarre, and brazenly opposed to resembling anything else on television.
CatDog centered around...you guessed it! A half-cat, half-dog hybrid with no butt and tons of attitude. Peter Hannan created the series while Spongebob Squarepants writer/creative director Derek Drymon lent his talents to writing/storyboarding duties.
It lost to Rugrats twice at the Kids' Choice Awards, first in 1999 and again in 2000. Sure, it may not have the same charm as Rugrats, but it had an energy and an earnestness that other Nicktoons didn't possess. CatDog is absolutely worth a watch, if only to marvel at how unapologetically strange it is.
Rocket Power
Rocket Power is another Nicktoon that seems to have been forgotten. Rugrats co-creators Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo created this fun, sport-focused series, which ran from 1999 to 2004. Like other entries on this list, Rocket Power came from creators better known for other projects. That doesn't take away from its fun factor, though.
The show followed the day-to-day lives of a group of sport-obsessed friends. Otto Rocket, his sister Reggie Rocket, and their friends Squid Dullard and Twister Rodriguez are residents of the fictional Ocean Shores, California, where they spend most days dabbling in sports and navigating the tricky business of adolescence. It's an undemanding, kind-hearted cartoon that tackles themes and feelings we're all familiar with---and it has a blast doing it.
Anyone who can vividly remember the late '90s/early 2000s will likely recall flipping through channels and catching glimpses of Rocket Power. I recommend giving it a shot. It may not stand the test of time the way other Nicktoons do, but it's a show you can appreciate without thinking too deeply about anything it's saying.
The Angry Beavers
The Angry Beavers is one of the lesser-known series on this list. It never quite gained the traction other Nicktoons of its day did, and there doesn't seem to be many reasons for new viewers to go check it out.
The show revolved around Daggett and Norbert Beaver, two beaver bachelors living in the woods near the fictional Wayouttatown, Oregon. The show is pretty straightforward and mostly lacking in depth, but its fun premise and hilarious cast of characters helped it stand out among Nicktoons from the early days.
Stylistically, The Angry Beavers is bizarre, with neither Daggett nor Norbert resembling beavers all that much and the backgrounds strikingly minimalistic. The show did manage to earn praise from critics, mainly in the form of an Daytime Emmy Award for Sound Editing and a pair of World Animation Celebration Awards for series creator Mitch Schauer and Robert Hughes.
The Angry Beavers may not be high on your list of “must-see” cartoons, but it certainly has its appeal for viewers who are partial to the humor and prevailing energy of '90s animation.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is a blast. It never caught on the way many hoped but it did do well enough ratings-wise to inspire a Mattel toy line and a promotion in select boxes of Cinammon Toast Crunch. That's something, right?
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters followed the adventures of young monsters Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, who enroll in a monster school run by the deceptively explosive monster known only as The Gromble.
Like most of the other entries on this list, Aaah!!! Real Monsters doesn't have the staying power of Spongebob, The Fairly Oddparents, or Avatar: The Last Airbender. But as a harmless foray into a world of strange, funny, endearing monsters, it's excellent, and it definitely deserves more love than it gets. Not every cartoon needs to blow your socks off to be entertaining, right?
My Life as a Teenage Robot
Jenny may be a robot girl with big responsibilities (like saving Earth from certain doom) but she wants a normal life, too. Enter My Life as a Teenage Robot, a spectacular animated series that is more deserving of a revival than any other entry on this list (aside from Danny Phantom).
The series earned tons of award nominations and premiered to positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. Its premise was appealing to younger viewers who found themselves overwhelmed by the pressures of adolescence and familiar to older viewers who remember what it felt like to struggle with those same things.
My Life as a Teenage Robot definitely has its fans, but with the kind of attention it got when new episodes were airing, it's surprising that it's not on more radars. It was an incredibly fun and relatable show that doesn't have to be overlooked as much as it is. It's worth your time, even if all it ends up being was a way to kill a half-hour.