Cartoons from the 2000s: Whose Memories？

A lot of people weren’t expected to live through the 2000s. At the start of the 2000s, people thought the famous Y2K bug would cause all computers to crash. Instead, the decade brought us cold-tipped hair, plain white t-shirts, and new cartoons shaping the next decade.
Fans have come to know the aughts as the start of a new age in cartoons.

‘Danny Phantom’ (2003 – 2007)

Some people think that Danny Phantom was one of the best Nickelodeon shows ever, and they’re not wrong. It is one of Butch Hartman’s best early 2000s cartoons. It’s a great mix of fun and action for preteens. Hartman is the creator of The Fairly Odd Parents.

Dan “Danny” Fenton, played by David Kaufman, is a teen who turns into a half-ghost by mistake and becomes the superhero “Danny Phantom.” One thing that could be said against this show is that it only lasted three seasons, which is too short.

Codename: Kids Next Door (2002-2008)

We’re sure the 10-year-old operatives of Kids Next Door, a secret organization battling villainous adults, had the cartoon world’s coolest treehouse. There was something vaguely Out of the Box-y about it if the playhouse in Out of the Box featured, you know, high-tech weaponry.

‘Kim Possible‘ (2002 – 2007)

Watching Kim Possible weekly was important to any fan’s early childhood. It’s hard to think it’s an old cartoon from the 2000s. The show is about a high school girl named Kim Possible (Christy Carlson Romano) who fights crime. The town of Middleton, USA, is kept safe from evil people by her sidekick and best friend, Ron Stoppable (Will Friedle), as well as his pet mole rat, Rufus.
Danny Phantom on Nickelodeon and Kim Possible on the Disney Channel both had a great mix of comedy and action. It was right for the kids they were meant for. Kim Possible is still one of the best Disney Channel shows.

The Proud Family (2001 – 2005)

Penny Proud and her girl gang were great, but we all know Suga Mama was why we watched this show. It combined cartoon-level absurdity. Remember the peanut humanoids in The Proud Family Movie? with slice-of-life relatability, as Penny navigated her early teens in a multi-generational household. Get to know the Prouds again before the show’s revival, featuring both the original cast and big-name guest stars. They like Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and Normani, comes to Disney+ in 2022.

What’s New Scooby-Doo? (2002 – 2006)

What’s New Scooby-Doo? The show’s ninth incarnation helped the Mystery Inc. crew live on for another generation, as did the live-action movies that coincided with it. This chunk of Scooby stories attempted to bring the show into the 21st century. The gang uses the internet! But ultimately, it kept the same mystery-solving formula that made the original such a classic.

‘Fillmore!’ (2002 – 2004)

Many people still need to remember this Disney show. But true fans still remember Fillmore. When the show starts, Cornwall Fillmore, played by Orlando Brown, is 12 years old. And he joins the safety patrol after being “arrested” for stealing a load of chalk.
Even though Fillmore was a parody of 1970s police procedural dramas, it had a great voice cast and ideas that kept both young and old viewers interested. It’s a shame that there were only 26 episodes. A movie could give the show the ending it earned.

‘Ben 10’ (2005 – 2008)

When Tara Strong’s character, Ben Tennyson, finds the powerful Omnitrix, it changes his life because it lets him change into different alien creatures, each with their special skills in Ben 10. My young hero has to learn how to use his new skills to stop the increasing danger of alien bad guys. He does this with the help of his cousin Gwen (Meagan Smith) and grandfather Max (Paul Eiding).
The beautifully created aliens in Ben 10 are a great way for viewers to remember their childhood’ excitement. Each alien is more interesting than the last, and the characters are just as interesting. Every episode has new, exciting adventures as Ben fights bad guys who are becoming more dangerous. Watching them again brings back memories of those exciting times.

‘The Fairly OddParents‘ (2001 – 2017)

For fans of old 2000s cartoons, it may feel like The Fairly OddParents ended just yesterday, and the series is still alive in audiences’ hearts. Timmy Turner is a regular kid until he meets his fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda. And his world is turned upside down.
The show follows the godparents as they grant Timmy’s wishes with magical powers, which often backfire in hilarious ways. It’s a great cartoon for a young child to watch since it teaches valuable lessons like patience, hard effort, and the true value of things while still being hilarious.

Rocket Power (1999 – 2002)

Unlike many cartoon characters of this era, the kids on Rocket Power were likable. And by likable, they were cool. Reggie was an aspiring publisher! With a zine! Who was also crazy athletic and had purple hair! Case closed.

Courage the Cowardly Dog (1996 – 2002)

We understand, we understand. Many Courage ran in the 1990s, but it has to be included in any cartoons from around 2000. From sci-fi to horror to black comedy, it’s a very creepy show that still makes me uneasy today.

‘The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy’ (2001 – 2007)

The idea behind this funny Cartoon Network show was wild. Two cynical girls, Mandy (Grey DeLisle) and Billy (Richard Steven Horvitz), “befriended” the Grim Reaper (Greg Eagles) by beating him in a limbo battle and making him work for them forever.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy hit the big time after its debut as a feature on the Grim & Evil Show. It became one of the best cartoons on the network that decade. Even though this 2000s cartoon is mostly forgotten (except by die-hard fans), it’s worth watching again because it was a gem of dark comedy.

My Life as a Teenage Robot (2003-2009)

As part of the genre of “extremely unordinary teen girl strives to be ordinary while also saving the world” cartoons, this show was a smashing success. Created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon, it’s in good company with other shows the animator and director have worked on. Among them? The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? Talk about a best-in-class 2000s cartoon resume!

‘Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003 – 2005)

Star Wars shows are easy to find on streaming sites, but in the early 2000s, Star Wars: Clone Wars filled in the gaps in the new Star Wars universe. In Clone Wars, which takes place between Episodes II and III, Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Mat Lucas) watch as the Galactic Republic starts to fall apart because of Sith and global war.
The TV show Star Wars: Clone Wars brought George Lucas’s space opera to life with all the same excitement and action as the movies. It had beautiful visuals and an exciting plot.

Johnny Bravo (1995 – 2004)

Johnny Bravo was, in a word, a tool. The sunglass-wearing, pompadour-sporting cartoon’s sole mission in life was to get women to go on dates with him, but as a kid, it was pretty entertaining to watch. That could be because we had yet to reach the age of fending off Johnny Bravos in real life. (Just a theory.)

Ed, Edd N Eddy (1999 – 2008)

This cartoon was a nine-year advertisement for Jawbreakers, the candy of choice that repetitively named friend trio Ed, Edd N Eddy are constantly trying to buy with the money they’ve swindled from neighborhood friends.

‘Teen Titans (2003 – 2006)

Since it aired repeatedly on Cartoon Network, Teen Titans Go! is the more well-known version of DC Comics’ superhero team. However, many people say the picture that came before was better.
It started on Cartoon Network in 2003 and was one of the most famous shows for five seasons. Teen Titans was based on a popular comic book series. After ending in 2006, the show was returned as Teen Titans Go. Fans of the first series didn’t like how the new show was geared more toward kids, which made them unhappy.

CatDog (1998 – 2005)

Of the 2000s Nickelodeon shows, this was one of the best, featuring the ever-dopey Dog and his conjoined sibling, the fame-hungry Cat. It’s gross when a Cat enters a Dog and his stomach to look for their pet fish in an episode. CatDog fits in with other frightening Nickelodeon shows. AH!!! The Angry Beavers and the Real Monsters.

‘Invader Zim’ (2001 – 2006)

Invader Zim was about a little alien named Zim (Richard Steven Horvitz) who wanted to destroy Earth to show how big and bad he was. However, many things stood in his way, and he failed to reach his final goal.
That might seem like a light show, but this Nickelodeon show was much darker and deeper than its idea suggested. The animation was great, and the show had just the right amount of comedy, action, sci-fi, and scary parts for older viewers. Even though the idea of Invader Zim was weird and silly, the shockingly dark episodes had a lot of plots that pushed the limits of how silly the show was.

As Told By Ginger (2000 – 2006)

It was, honestly, an important show. Like Hulu’s Pen15 but in cartoon form, As Told By Ginger was relatable, featuring conversations about preteen girlhood that other shows weren’t having. From fighting her mom for permission to start shaving her legs to battling an addiction (to caffeine, but still), Ginger’s storylines felt real. The show earned praise, too, for letting its characters age and develop throughout the series, a rarity for cartoons at the time.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (2005 – 2008)

Nick’s Avatar: The Last Airbender was praised as one of the best-animated shows ever on network TV before the movie ruined its image. In many ways, it still is. The show’s main idea is that the world is full of “benders,” who can telekinetically control and change one element.
The four nations—Water, Earth, Fire, and Air—usually get along, but when the Fire Nation starts a plan to take over the world, the balance is upset. Avatar Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), skilled in all four elements, is the only one who can make the world whole again. I think Avatar: The Last Airbender is the best-animated show ever made in the 2000s. It has beautiful animation and an adult, interesting plot, and it still holds up very well today.

The Powerpuff Girls (1998 – 2005)

The idea behind Powerpuff Girls was simple but effective, which is why it is a classic of Cartoon Network shows from the 2000s and even later. There will be a live-action version at some point. What do fans have to say about it? So, Lil Nas X won’t just be in The Proud Family when it comes to cartoons coming back. Fans started asking him to play HIM, the widely queer-coded PPG bad guy, after the “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” music video came out. We’ll pay The CW to do that.

House Of Mouse (2001–2003)

Before Captain America: Civil War became known as the biggest crossover event in Disney’s history, there was House of Mouse. Hosted by Mickey Mouse and staffed by Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy, the House of Mouse is a nightclub where all the famous faces of Disney come out to play. Everyone from Snow White to Simba appears in the show, making it a regular who’s who of Disney royalty. Like a real talk show host, Mickey would even do crowd work with the audience of villains, heroes, and side characters. House of Mouse is among the best cartoons of the 2000s for exemplifying just how fun the era was for Disney cartoons.

Spongebob Squarepants (1999–Present)

There is a new meme about Spongebob Squarepants every month, and there’s even a hit Broadway musical based on the show. The show, which the late Stephen Hillenburg created, is a contemporary extravaganza in the vein of Pee Wee’s Playhouse; it frequently blended the bizarre and the surreal in its episodes and had a lively, upbeat vibe. Sadly, the show never returned to its best after The Spongebob Squarepants Movie and several subsequent seasons. Several spinoffs were also revealed to be in the works after Hillenburg’s death, although he strongly opposed the idea.
Still, the good years of Hillenburg’s creation were a blessing, and classic Spongebob remains among the best cartoons of the 2000s.

Conclusion

It was the start of internet animation and the rise of anime, but these shows are some of the best kids’ cartoons of the 2000s.
Some great cartoons from the 2000s get less attention than those from the 1980s and 1990s or today.