“SpongeBob SquarePants”
This silly cartoon from Nickelodeon is about the life of a sea sponge (named SpongeBob) who wears pants and lives in a giant pineapple under the sea. It has just enough absurdist plots and tongue-in-cheek adult humor to draw approval from both kids and millennials alike. After an initial run from 1999 to 2001, the series was revived twice. Squidward is a fan favorite; he’s a sardonic, miserly, miserable old squid. Patrick is great, too; a stupid but loyal pink starfish (SpongeBob’s BFF), blissfully ignorant of life’s injustices.
“Adventure Time”
This trippy recent cult classic is a Cartoon Network animation following Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, two pals who live in the Land of Ooo and go on wacky adventures together. The writing is irreverent and boundlessly inventive, and the animation is imaginative. “Adventure Time” also features a melancholy and complex backstory; the magical land is actually the remnants of society left behind by a nuclear war centuries ago.
“Gravity Falls”
Plenty of adults seem to be hooked on this one, airing quite recently on the Disney Channel (of all places). It’s about a pair of quirky 12-year-old twins who go to spend the summer in Gravity Falls, an isolated town where their great uncle lives. It’s sort of a kid-appropriate “X-Files;” this Oregon town is weird, and it’s up to the siblings to figure out what the hell is going on. There are demons, beasts, gnomes and countless other supernatural mysteries.
Anya Jaremko-GreenwoldDGO Staff Writer
