“Pokemon”
Do you wanna be the very best? Like no one ever was? Then we recommend catching — ha, ha, get it? — up on some “Pokemon.” But not the new stuff. Anything after “Master Quest” is an insult to our childhood.
No, we’re going old, old school with the OGs: Ash, Brock and Misty, back when Ash wasn’t quite so cocky, and it wasn’t annoying that he literally hasn’t aged since 1998.
Go back and see how the journey began. Watch the battles that enraptured our generation and had us throwing plastic pokeballs at one another and wasting away our days on Gameboys back when they were cool.
“The Wild Thornberrys”
Eliza Thornberry was the envy of every child from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Not only did she get to travel the world with her family in a zebra-print RV, but she could talk to animals. And she had a pet monkey.
“The Wild Thornberrys” offered an amusing family dynamic with the two clever-but-ditsy parents, a snobby older sister who practically invented glottal frying and an adopted younger brother who was raised by orangutans. And of course no family is complete without the intellectual primate dressed in shorts and a striped bro tank.
But really, we watched the show to vicariously live our dream of talking to elephants and lions. And TBH, we haven’t stopped dreaming about it.
“Scooby-Doo”
Everyone wants a talking dog. And after 1969, everyone specifically wanted a brown and black-spotted talking Great Dane with a bottomless stomach.
Scooby-Doo and the gang has been a cultural phenomenon spanning multiple generations. You most likely got into it because your parents watched it while growing up, and at the rate Cartoon Network is going, our grandchildren will be watching it in 40 years.
“Scooby-Doo” has undergone quite a few style changes, and relationships have been explored and ignored, but the original story remains intact. Four nosy teenagers and a talking dog solving crimes will never get old.
“The Powerpuff Girls”
Sugar. Spice. Everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect cartoon. Actually, it was the combination of a confident leader, a sweet animal-lover and an aggressive tomboy that sparked the 1998 series any little girl could relate to.
“The Powerpuff Girls” were everything. Finally, there was a show for children with girls who didn’t fall solely into the innocent, cutesy trope. These girls were not to be messed with, no matter how adorable they were. Blossom will rock a bow and still freeze you with her special ice powers. Bubbles will stop to pet a bunny and then light you on fire with her laser vision. Buttercup will trample you before you even open your mouth.
“SpongeBob Squarepants”
SpongeBob’s shrill laugh will echo in our heads until our dying breath. The moment we saw that little yellow sponge in his pineapple house sitting at the bottom of the ocean, we were hooked. There was just something about a sponge hanging out with a starfish and owning a pet snail named Gary.
You either loved SpongeBob or you hated him. There was no in-between. SpongeBob was obnoxiously happy, and watching him naïvely harass his pessimistic neighbor and co-worker, Squidward, or irritate his money-grubbing boss, Mr. Krabs, either cracked you up or made you cringe. Either way, SpongeBob has been lighting up screens on Nickelodeon since 1999, and if the recent film is any indicator, he won’t be going anywhere.
