7 Forgotten Animated Shows That Have Aged Like Milk

Animation is a limitless format when done right. Creators can conjure up magical, experimental, ambitious worlds on screen without worrying about the constraints that come with live action. That creative freedom has given audiences some of the greatest stories of all time.

However, the same idea can also backfire pretty badly when storytellers are given more playing room than they know what to do with. Taking risks does not automatically make something good, and these forgotten animated shows prove exactly that, because boy, have they aged like milk.

‘Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon”‘ (2003)

Ren & Stimpy never needed an adults-only version, and Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon” is a pretty convincing argument for why. The original Nickelodeon series was already one of the strangest cartoons on television. It follows the unstable chihuahua Ren (John Kricfalusi and Billy West) and the painfully dim-witted Stimpy (Billy West and Eric Bauza) through stories filled with gross-out humor, surreal imagery, and jokes that should never have aired on a children’s network. This controversy surrounding the cartoon was a huge reason why it became part of mainstream pop culture conversations back then. Then, in 2003, creator John Kricfalusi returned with a revival specifically designed for an older audience as part of the network’s new adult-animation lineup.

Ren and Stimpy were still getting themselves into ridiculous situations, but now the show could be far more explicit with its violence, sexuality, bodily humor, and whatnot. The network ordered several episodes, but only three episodes actually aired during the original television run, and thank goodness for that. Now, the issue wasn’t that the series was going too far. In fact, that was the entire identity of the original cartoon, too. The difference was that the original actually had some creativity behind all the grotesque humor. The revival seemed to believe that stretching those same ideas beyond their endpoint was the way to go. With time, Adult Party Cartoon has only gotten grosser with its violence and need to make every joke as uncomfortable as possible.

‘Stripperella’ (2003–2004)

Image via Spike TV

Stripperella might just be one of the strangest things comic-book legend Stan Lee has ever created. The animated series follows Erotica Jones, voiced by Pamela Anderson, an exotic dancer who secretly works as the superhero Stripperella. She fights crime for an organization called T.H.U.G.G. and takes on villains with names like Cheapo and Pushy Galore while using an arsenal of increasingly ridiculous abilities and gadgets, one of them being a lie detector built into her chest. Now, on paper, there is actually something fun about the idea. Stripperella is confident and far more competent than everyone around her. The problem is that the series wants credit for making her powerful while simultaneously turning practically every part of that power into another sexual joke.

Even the villains and storylines revolve around breast implants, beauty standards, sex, and increasingly desperate innuendos. After a few episodes, it becomes obvious that the show has exactly one joke and is going to keep finding different ways to tell it. That pretty much “strips” the otherwise intriguing premise of all meaning, no pun intended. The series ran for just 13 episodes, and with time, its cancellation has only made more sense. The show’s idea of being provocative now feels less rebellious than stereotypical. Its constant objectification and obsession with turning every female character into a punchline make the humor feel painfully dated, especially because the series rarely has anything else to say underneath all that shock value.

‘Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling’ (1985–1986)

Image via DIC Enterprises

Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling arrived at the height of Hulkamania, when the WWF was aggressively moving professional wrestling into mainstream pop culture. However, for a show about the iconic Hulk Hogan, the series barely features any wrestling. The show follows an animated Hogan, who leads the good guys alongside cartoon versions of André the Giant, Junkyard Dog, Wendi Richter, and Hillbilly Jim, while Roddy Piper heads a group of villains that includes Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, and Big John Studd. Instead of settling their problems in a ring as one would expect, the wrestlers spend most episodes getting involved in goofy adventures that have nothing to do with the sport. There is something fascinating about watching the show now because it’s easy to understand that it was little more than a marketing ploy for the WWF.

Every wrestler is reduced to the broadest stereotype of their in-ring persona. Wrestling already relied heavily on exaggerated characters during this era, but turning those gimmicks into cartoons somehow makes them feel even more ridiculous. The strangest part is that the wrestlers did not even voice their animated counterparts because their touring schedules made recording together impractical. Instead, the actual wrestlers appeared in occasional live-action comedy segments between the cartoons. That disconnect was always hard to ignore. The cartoon itself was simplistic and boring after the first few episodes. It’s interesting to revisit as a piece of wrestling history, but there’s nothing that would make fans want more of it.

‘Father of the Pride’ (2004–2005)

Image via DreamWorks Animation

Father of the Pride is less of a cartoon and more of an animation identity crisis. DreamWorks tried to bring feature-quality CGI to network television with this primetime sitcom based around the animals from Siegfried & Roy’s Las Vegas show. The series follows Larry (John Goodman), a white lion who performs at the Mirage and lives behind the scenes with his wife Kate (Cheryl Hines), their two children, and Kate’s overbearing father Sarmoti (Carl Reiner). Imagine a traditional family sitcom, except everyone is a lion and Siegfried & Roy occasionally wander into the story. NBC reportedly paid around $2 million per episode, so this was an enormous gamble for an animated comedy at the time.

Now, the production value definitely shows at moments, but the biggest problem with Father of the Pride was that it could never decide between being a cute DreamWorks cartoon versus an edgy adult comedy. The show follows Larry as he deals with marriage, parenting, and work, but those stories are constantly punctuated with sex jokes and crude humor. The show sits somewhere between family animation and raunchy adult TV, which is a combination that just didn’t work for anyone, and with time, that confusion has only gotten more glaringly obvious.

‘Minoriteam’ (2005–2006)

Image via Adult Swim

Minoriteam is a classic Adult Swim animated sitcom. The series follows a superhero team made up of exaggerated racial, ethnic, and religious stereotypes who use equally stereotypical abilities to fight discrimination. There is Dr. Wang (Dana Snyder), the team’s wheelchair-using leader, the Jewish superhero Jewcano (Enn Reitel), Indian convenience-store worker Non-Stop (Keith Lal), and several others. Their main enemy is called White Shadow (Adam de la Peña), who operates a corporation alongside villains like Racist Frankenstein (de la Peña) and Corporate Ladder (Todd James). The entire concept was designed as an intentionally offensive parody of superhero comics and racial stereotypes.

However, the execution was a total mess that destroyed any kind of value that the show could have brought to TV. Minoriteam might try to show how ridiculous these racial stereotypes are, but the series exaggerates them to the point where any social commentary loses its point. Almost every character, superpower, accent, and punchline circle back to the same racial caricatures. The heroes themselves repeatedly reinforce the attitudes the series is supposedly ridiculing, which defeats the very purpose of the kind of satire the show attempts to emulate. The writing is plain lazy and lacks any sense of personality, and those things become even harder to ignore almost two decades later.

‘Chozen’ (2014)

Image via FX

Chozen had an opportunity to be genuinely subversive, and it’s unfortunate how things turned out. The FX animated series follows Phil “Chozen” Collins (Bobby Moynihan), an overweight, gay white rapper who returns from prison determined to rebuild the music career that was stolen from him by his former friend and bandmate Phantasm (Method Man), who framed him for a crime and went on to become a successful rapper himself. Once released, Chozen moves in with his sister, Tracy (Kathryn Hahn), and begins putting his old crew back together so he can finally take his revenge and reclaim his place in hip-hop. That premise gave the show plenty to work with. It was interesting how the series was specifically designed around a protagonist whose sexuality challenged gender norms and the very masculine identity that people associate with rap culture.

However, like most shows on this list, Chozen used its premise as a source of shock-driven humor instead of anything remotely meaningful. The show was borderline vulgar with how it inserted prison jokes, sexual encounters, drugs, and harassment into everything. That’s not to say Chozen did not make funny observations about the cost of fame. Later episodes of the cartoon even give supporting characters, including Ricky (Michael Peña) and Crisco (Hannibal Buress), enough room to become funny outside their stereotypes. Unfortunately, some of the show’s best ideas are never fully developed because it spends most of its short run re-telling the same crass jokes over and over again.

‘Butt-Ugly Martians’ (2001)

Image via Nickelodeon

Butt-Ugly Martians has aged like milk, but it felt dated even back when it was still airing. The series is set in 2053 and follows three Martian soldiers who are sent to Earth by Emperor Bog to conquer the planet. The problem is that the soldiers love the planet after discovering junk food, video games, and human culture. They completely abandon the invasion and befriend three teenagers while sending fake progress reports back home. Whenever trouble arrives, they activate their “Butt-Kicking Mode” and transform into armored versions of themselves to save the planet they were supposed to destroy. The premise is harmless, and the show could have definitely become a fun early-2000s sci-fi cartoon.

Unfortunately, it arrived at exactly the wrong stage of TV CGI. The characters look stiff, the environments feel empty, and there is an uncanny-valley feel to the show that one just can’t shake. If the series had relied on traditional, tried-and-tested forms of animation rather than jumping on a new trend too early, it could have been a moderate success. Instead, Butt-Ugly Martians turned into a lesson about how staying ahead of the curve might not always be the best idea. Aside from that, the show also didn’t benefit from its forgettable villains and repetitive humor. All of that contributes to why it has become a forgotten relic of the 2000s.

Butt-Ugly Martians

Release Date

2002 – 2001-00-00

Network

Nickelodeon

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  Charlie Schlatter

  B-Bop A-Luna (voice)

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  Kath Soucie

  Shaboom Shaboom (voice)

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  Ogie Banks

  Cedric (voice)

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  Robert Stack

  Stoat Muldoon (voice)