Five Animated Series That Should Return

Today fans are finding themselves reunited with faces from the past as the re-enter center stage for a new chapter. Regardless of one’s thoughts on the subject reboots are an ever growing trend. In truth it does feel like every instance you blink another project is being announced and plastered all over social media.

Even though so many series are in fact returning there are countess that only live on within the depths of the hearts of fans. And that is what we will be venturing on.

As mentioned there are a lot of series worthy of returns, and moreover deserving of them, and this is just a small sampling of shows that stood out. Being the Disney Afternoon fangirl that I am, I could have filled the entire list up with titles from that, but rather made the choice to go forth and showcase series both from Disney as well as Nickelodeon. Out of fairness series that are returned, or in the process of being so either as a new animated series as well as comic have not been counted.

The selection process was tricky and thought provoking. The selections where choice based upon potential that could be built on or continued from the original source material. The series end, of lack thereof, was also taken into consideration. Of course this is very subjective, and opinions and suggestions of other titles are warmly welcomed down in the comments.

Besides selecting the titles, the feat of ranking them was a struggling task. Therefor this line-up bares no rankings. Thus making a slightly discord alignment.

-Hey Arnold!: Even though the show ended back in 2004, fans still have a strong and fire-y love of Hey Arnold!, so much that there are efforts to bring the football shaped protagonist back on screens.

The series itself is that of primarily slice-of-life as the events of the episodes focused in on Arnold and any number of the other characters in his life as they deal with what life tosses at them. Despite being a nine-year-old, Arnold often finds himself in some instances in which he ends up taking matters in his own hands and sometimes leading and offering that needed pushed to other, and often older, characters. A lot of the show deals with some type of life problem, such as trying to protect a tree-house that is in danger of being taken down. But there are often times when the main point of conflict is coming from something that Arnold brings more or less upon himself.

Hey Arnold is a very notable series that has the great mix of humor and heart that ventures into some more emotional and often barrier breaking lines. Even though the series does feature kids as the majority of the main cast and is a series for kids, it does allow itself to be deep and leave you walking away with something potentially intertwined with your own life. Something that has still resonated with fans as they have grown.

One of the most common things you hear about Hey Arnold, outside of the quality, is the ending of the series. Unlike most of Nick’s series, Hey Arnold took their final bow with a theatrical film release. Originally it was supposed to tie up loose end in regards to Arnold’s parents. At some point the story alerted and became about the cast needing to band together in vain attempts to save their beloved neighborhood from being tore down.

Hey Arnold did end with some rather notable loose ends that have left viewers with what-if dangling in their minds. Ideally it would be nice to see another film, even if it was OVA, to complete Arnold’s chapter. But the series also has strong enough of a baseline that in the right hands could make for a good reboot.

-KaBlam!: Out of all the titles, even I have to admit that this is a rather odd selection. Even though there are countless other series that operate off the variety show-esque vibe, KaBlam blended both the medium of animation and comics into one with…interesting outcomes.

This sketch-comedy combined shorts in the likes of Action League Now, Life with Loopy, Angela Anaconda, and The Off-Beats in a half-hour block hosted by Henry and June. But Henry and June’s role on the channel was not contracted simply to being host of KaBlam, as they were often acting as ‘mascots’ of sorts for the channel as they appeared in ads, hosted other endeavors and appeared in the Nickelodeon Magazine.

During the run, KaBlam was highly popular series on the channel. This can be chalked up the mixture of content with the shorts and Henry and June’s own story-line, as it offered a lot of different ranges of story-telling and animation in one package. The success of it all was grand enough to allow Henry and June their own spin-off, after the first airing it vanished.

Today the series has become highly obscure, with some fans recalling it more fondly than others. Add in the fact the series has never received any type of official release on home media or streaming service only adds to this. And unlike other series in the list, some of the content does not hold as strong as it could. There is a lot of reasoning for that.

Because the series offered no end-game, or critical plot point that had to be achieved, there was no impact final. And the series ended much like any other of their episodes would have. At this point it does seem very unlikely that we would ever see a true return, but to see a reboot or even a show that pays homage is much more likely.

-Danny Phantom: Danny Phantom has not only found itself hailed as a great series, but that of even of being one of the last great series Nick has produced. Even though it is still on the more recent side of this list, the series still has a great amount of impact to the point fans want more still. And to keep up such passion is always a momentous level.

Danny Phantom, or as I should be saying, Danny Fenton was a character that may can related to and grew attachments with. He was the ordinary teenager that was struggling to find not only himself, but a place within his family of ghost hunters- but in life in general. But once he obtains ghost powers and transforms into one his life is forever altered into something of science fiction. Like most series, there was a fair amount of slice-of-life plot to each episode as we seen Danny confront not only ghost with less than admirable aspirations, but deal with school, friend and family centric issues. And in each episode we often seen the implications of both of Danny’s halves, as well as own actions, trigger a chain reaction of events that had to be faced head on. But sometimes the revolution was not that of ending in a neat, orderly package.

How could things end in such a state when half the time he is looked upon as a misfit and rest of the time as a half-baked hero?

Danny Phantom, despite not being as risky for lack of a better term, than other series, did have a bar set high. The series has moments when it was very down to Earth with moments when you drew sympathy for Danny- and other times when you kind of wanted to slap him up-side the head. The villains where also very interesting and less than run of the mill with their own personas, agendas and methods.

Was the series very action driven, yes. But to me personally it was the characters and the interactions along with the writing that stand out. I am a firm believer that your story, no matter how good, is nothing without a strong cast of characters that can not only achieve what it is they must, but reach the reader or viewer’s heart and add a human level. Danny Phantom does this. Because when fans recall the series often times the characters are the first things that come to mind. Besides, there has to be a reason we still see plenty of Danny Phantom cosplayers.

There has been some teases of possible advancements of the series, but they are just that at the time being. Teases. It can happen, or not. And because the series is still rather new, it would be hard to think that they would be willing to want to start completely over. Danny did receive a proper final; but it was rushed with the pacing leaving something to be desired and instead of closing a door- it felt more like one opened.

-Kim Possible: How could I not place the girl who can do anything on this line-up? Kim Possible is a great example of having a very strong female leading up a great cast and really inspiring the viewers episode after episode. I can still recall my then seven-year-old self (now I feel beyond old!) watching the series opener.

Even after all this time I still hold a fondness for the series and can see what it is that got me, truthfully, obsessed.

Kim Possible fell into a trope I was familiar with filled with characters taking a call to action as they took matters into their own hands to do what they could to right the wrongs.

Despite running of that base-line, Kim did offer up a new spin on the hero world. A typical teenage girl who believed very strongly in the fact she could do anything did just that- and she used her abilities to help anyone in need that reached out to her. In exchange for Kim’s own efforts she was granted a favor that often permitted her to continue helping others. Cheer-lead by day, crime-stopper by night. I remember that tag-line very fondly. The core of the story was the adventures and mission that Kim, and her best friend Ron went on and the sub-plots usually honed in on their typical teenage existence. At least as normal as it could get for the duo.

There is a lot more to say about Kim Possible, and I am sure there will be more chances to do so. One thing I can say about Kim, despite often teetering into the Mary-Sue zone, is that she was a great character to admire. She cared deeply for others and would go to great lengths to do whatever it she could and would not give up without a fight. Very glad I got to grow-up watching her and Ron.

Now fast-forward to the present, Kim Possible remains to be a huge inspiration for fans who have even created fan-driven projects to continue on Kim’s mission during her college days. Last year I cosplayed as Kim at New York Comic-Con, and was stopped often and heard other fans chatter about their still present love of the series. Before I even started writing this I was actually watching the series.

Fans want more. It was because of devoted fans that the series was saved from the vault and returned for an additional season that capped off with an hour long special to end the series. Even though the series did get a strong ending, there is still much more ahead for Kim and Ron as they continue to grow. Or at least that is what fans believe firmly.

-House of Mouse: What-if all the Disney characters where to descent in one location that was a night club hosted by Mickey Mouse? That is the basic and bare bones of what House of Mouse was. Despite the summary sounding rather cheesy, the execution was good and gave fans some interesting encounters.

You would think that something so centric to Disney’s star Mickey would not be such a distant memory. But sadly, House of Mouse is. The plot was simple as it enlisted Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie and Daisy along with their friends as the staff of a popular night club known as The House of Mouse. And all the guest where that of the likes from some of Disney’s most popular films and appearances from various series. Much like Kablam, the series had a selection of Disney shorts airing during the main duration of the series resulting in a sub-plot being driven around the staff.

By no means was the series a plot-heavy or even driven piece of fiction. The majority of the episodes where often consumed by the insert shorts centric of the staff. The true heart of the story was in the sub-plot. Something that you never hear. It was then that not only did we get to see more to the iconic mascots, but their interactions and relationships with one another and even other Disney characters. The latter had never been done before outside the walls of fan fiction.

The last new episode of House of Mouse aired back in 2003, since then there have been massive amounts of new characters that have lined screens of all sizes. With so many characters there are limitless possibilities of what could be if X and Y meet House of Mouse could be a great medium for that. Elsa meets Goofy- you can image meets left and right.

Out of all the series in this line-up there seems like there are the best odds for a return of House of Mouse. But I can be wrong. Even though it was simple in terms of plot it was the characters that really drove the story along, every day Disney grows and expands their range of characters. So many chances here.

For every series I mentioned I knew that there are at least a dozen more out there that are just as worthy or returns or reboots. Some of the series have official release and others are not as lucky. The best way to let the companies that you want more of a specific series is to support any official releases.

Join the conversation: Do you agree with any series on this list? Any series that are missing?