The Cartoon Shows on Disney+ Right Now

DuckTales (1987)

The first animated series Disney produced for modern television is arguably still the best (its theme song is undeniably the best). DuckTales follows the globetrotting adventures of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and their grotesquely wealthy uncle Scrooge McDuck. After Donald Duck dumps his nephews on Scrooge so he can go to war (not a joke), Scrooge takes the boys to exotic locales around the planet on quests to find valuable treasures to increase his status as the richest duck in the world (yes, that is his sole motivation). It’s a fun show in the style of old adventure serials, and the animation, which was leaps and bounds better than anything else on TV at the time, still holds up.

Gargoyles

You’ll never look at rooftop gargoyles the same way after watching Gargoyles. The mythology at the heart of the story centers on the title characters: stone gargoyles by day, defenders of the innocent at night. The group of gliding gargantuans, led by Goliath, have a contentious relationship with humans that stretches back more than 1,000 years and continues into the present day. These relics of the past, from a world of “superstition and the sword”, find themselves flung into our modern era where science, technology, and advanced weaponry make their very existence even more perilous.

This surprisingly dark and dramatic Disney show was on par with Batman: The Animated Series back in the ’90s, and remains solid even today. It’s developed sort of a cult following thanks to its memorable characters, Shakespearean thematic material, and powerful performances from voice actors like Keith David, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Ed Asner, Jonathan Frakes, and Marina Sirtis, among many others. It’s impressive that the original idea, created by a committee of sorts, still holds up among the best of the best animated series today.

X-Men: The Animated Series

Iconic, stirring, emotional, groundbreaking, and folks, that’s just the theme song. (Sorry, it’s in your head now, too.) For a specific pocket of people, X-Men: The Animated Series is the ultimate form of nostalgia overload, an instant emotional call-back to a mid-90s Saturday morning. But, surprise! The show holds up shockingly well in every department from animation to storylines to performances. So much of that is down to the fact that the series is pretty much the perfect adaptation of everything great about X-Men comic books. There’s all the inter-team mutant banter you could want; Wolverine (Cathal J. Dodd) passive-aggressively calling Cyclops (Norm Spencer) “bub”, Storm (Alison Sealy Smith) casually dropping wisdom between thunderclaps, Gambit (Chris Potter) being shockingly pervy at all times. But the show, like the comics, was also never afraid to delve into deep territory, making sure audiences both young and old understand that prejudice is an evil worth fighting.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons have been an American television institution for 30 years, inspiring everything from catchphrases to merchandise and tackling nearly every hard topic one can think of. As South Park told us, there’s nothing the Simpsons didn’t do first. And as of 2009 the show has officially become the longest-running scripted television show in history and, as of 2018, has the most episodes in any series’ history. As part of Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox this year they also secured the rights to every single episode of The Simpsons, which means audiences can watch the well-over 635 episodes. Despite Disney+ not carrying any R-rated or non-family friendly content they look to be making an exception with The Simpsons which is just fine with us. You can literally watch nothing else but The Simpsons on Disney+ and be completely happy.

Spider-Man (1981)

The forgotten stepchild of the Spider-Man animated universe, Spider-Man ‘81 is a real cabinet of curiosities. It was a crossover show paired with Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, which is the 80s Spider-Man cartoon that people actually remember. It’s essentially an updated version of the famous ‘67 series (“updated” in the sense that Peter has a more modern hairstyle instead of an Eisenhower buzzcut and his clothes actually look like he bought them sometime within the last five years). Several of the character models are virtually identical to the 60s show, and it has the same hokey earnestness. However, the theme song absolutely slaps, and many of the “bring me pictures of Spider-Man” memes you’ve seen of J. Jonah Jameson are actually screenshots from this obscure series. It’s worth watching just as a historical document, if nothing else.