The 5 best kid – adult crossover cartoons that are on TV right now

“That’s the thing I like about cartoons – I get older, they stay the same age.”
~the creepy dude from Dazed and Confused said something like that.

But it’s true! I might be old, but I still love cartoons, and there are some cartoons that are getting it done in a big bad way as I believe they are pleasing to both kids and adults. Here today, I present to you (in no particular order), the 5 best kid – adult crossover cartoons that are on TV right now.

Adventure Time

I’m just getting into this show, but it clearly has the goods. The scope and complexity of Adventure Time is kinda baffling, but I’m looking forward to getting caught up.

Phineas and Ferb

It’s formula, but it works. Phineas and Ferb just keep dishing it out, over and over, in a clever and entertaining way every time out. I’d think it would get stale, but it doesn’t, which is a tribute to their writing and well conceived cast of characters.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The new TMNT is brilliant. It pays loving tribute to the 80s show while making the old stuff its own and creating fun new characters or great twists on old ones. I loved what they did with April O’Neil, Baxter Stockman and the Krang, so I naturally can’t wait to see what they have planned for Casey Jones. I very much want their classic TMNT theme cell phone ring for my phone!

The Amazing World of Gumball

This show just knows what I like. The characters, the voice acting, the visuals – it’s all good. I especially love the visuals – I’ve never seen a show that looks like this, and that goes a long way with me.

Regular Show

Not to take anything away from the other shows, but this is probably my favorite of the group. The Regular Show does have a formula (“Do it or you’re fired!” then there’s some kind of battle at the end) it employs in most episodes, but it still manages to be fresh, which is certainly a tribute to the writing but also to the unique characters For now reason, the show seems to take place in the late (or early?) nineties – maybe it’s because people who grew up during this time have kids by now? Or maybe the writers are just writing what they know, but whatever the case, it’s fine with me because this show is awesome sauce. I presume that the video game console they have in their living room is a Sega Master System… at least that’s what it looks like to me. There’s also a fair amount of large cell phones, cassette tapes (see “That’s my jam” – best episode ever!), CDs and other little clues that seem to elude that the show doesn’t take place in present day… anyway, just a fun side note. The show is awesome, regardless of time period.

Runners up
Star Wars: the Clone Wars

This show didn’t make it into the list because of its ups and downs (some really good and really bad episodes in there), gratuitous violence and it’s genre specific appeal. I feel I should point out that of all the shows mentioned, this is the one I’ve been watching the longest and it’s the only one that doesn’t have a comedic slant – at least not in the way that the other ones do.

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
Not to be confused with its inferior replacement, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, which is better than no Avengers cartoon at all… and that’s about it. EMH was great, but I can’t imagine it had all that much appeal to mass audiences, especially younger girls, who didn’t have much in the way of characters to connect with. On the other hand, MAA is poorly paced (the voice direction is especially odd), visually confusing (switches from full frame to scope randomly) and not especially well written (The Falcon/Sam Wilson is especially poorly written – he comes off like a Tony Stark pretender). Oh well – maybe it’ll get better over time.

note: uncle grandpa is too new to be considered for this list, but it does look like it has promise.