20 items
Nickelodeon's animated epic about the last Airbender and a world where people bend the four elements. The show's serialized storytelling, humor, and character arcs (especially Zuko's redemption) proved surprisingly mature and acclaimed for kids' television. It ran three seasons from 2005 to 2008 and spawned an enduring fandom.
![Video thumbnail — Beavis and Butthead Do America (1996) Theatrical Trailer [4K] [5.1] [FTD-1015]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RzYWKWtRmzQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
MTV's cackling couch potatoes trade their couch for a cross-country road trip when their TV gets stolen. It's chaotic, it's vulgar, and it opened #1 with the biggest December weekend any film had ever managed at the time. Mike Judge's feature debut turned a controversial TV phenomenon into a theatrical event that felt impossibly big.
MTV's gleefully violent claymation series, in which caricatures of real celebrities beat each other to a pulp in a wrestling ring. Premiering on May 14, 1998, it staged absurd stop-motion grudge matches — pop stars, actors, and politicians torn limb from clay limb — narrated by ringside commentators Nick Diamond and Johnny Gomez. Gory, silly, and weirdly beloved, it signed off each fight with the same line: "Good fight, good night."
A pint-sized boy genius with a secret laboratory hidden in his bedroom, a fake scientist's accent, and one recurring problem: his fun-loving sister Dee Dee, who breezes in and wrecks everything by pushing the wrong button.
![Video thumbnail — Finding Nemo - Official® Trailer [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bMtzgW-FVLY/maxresdefault.jpg)
A clownfish searches an ocean for his kidnapped son, guided by a forgetful blue tang with the most memorable catchphrase of the decade. Pixar's Finding Nemo won instant hearts with its vibrant coral-reef world, stellar voice acting, and emotional stakes that proved animated films could make you cry.
Disney's dark, Shakespeare-quoting cult classic: stone gargoyles who wake after a thousand years to protect modern Manhattan by night. Half the voice cast came straight from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Football-headed Arnold navigating urban life with his boarding house family. Nickelodeon's unusually melancholy animated series about childhood loneliness, gentrification, and the quiet moments between the gags.
The prehistoric buddy comedy that put Blue Sky Studios on the map: a woolly mammoth, a sloth, and a saber-toothed tiger reluctantly team up to return a lost human baby to its tribe, while a nut-obsessed squirrel named Scrat wages an eternal, silent war against a single acorn. A surprise blockbuster that launched one of animation's biggest franchises.
The Disney Channel animated series about high-school cheerleader and part-time crime-fighter Kim Possible, her clumsy best-friend sidekick Ron Stoppable, and his naked mole rat Rufus, foiling villains like Dr. Drakken and Shego. Catchphrases 'What's the sitch?' and 'So not the drama' became part of the language; created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle.
The unhinged Nicktoon about a psychotic chihuahua and a dim-witted cat — gross-out close-ups, surreal violence, and adult humor that sailed clean over kids' heads (and past a lot of censors). One of the original three Nicktoons, and the one that pushed hardest at the edges.
Rocko the wallaby and friends stumbled through suburban absurdism in a show that smuggled adult satire past Nickelodeon's censors. Crude, weird, and weirdly brilliant — the launching pad for future SpongeBob creators.
Nickelodeon's 1991 animated series gave the world the Pickles household — a group of talking babies narrating their daily adventures and misadventures with brilliant, absurdist humor. Rugrats proved that cartoons for kids didn't need to be dumbed down; the show's clever writing and wild imagination made it appointment TV for 90s kids and their parents.
The grumpy ogre who just wanted to be left alone, dragged into a quest to rescue a princess and discover his own capacity for love. Shrek arrived in May 2001 as a subversive fairy-tale comedy from DreamWorks, won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and spawned a franchise that defined early-2000s family cinema.
The absurdist sponge working the fry cook line at Bikini Bottom, living under the sea with his starfish best friend, and radiating genuine optimism. SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon in May 1999 and became the network's biggest hit — a cultural juggernaut that turned early episodes into an endless meme quarry.
![Video thumbnail — The Incredibles - Official® Trailer [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ixKqYNMqcnE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Pixar's 2004 superhero film about a family forced to hide their powers in suburban normalcy — Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and their kids Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack. They're drawn out of retirement to battle the villain Syndrome, and the film balances family comedy with genuine action and heart. The Academy Award–winning film proved animation could deliver both laughs and thrills.
The film that taught you to roar and made you cry at a father's death—all before your tenth birthday. Disney's juggernaut — Hamlet with lions — dominated the box office and pop culture like nothing before it, a phenomenon that didn't fade with the VHS but exploded into merchandise, video games, and eventually Broadway's best-grossing production ever.
Ms. Frizzle's class rode the Magic School Bus into the bloodstream, through outer space, and into a volcano—all while learning science in four seasons of PBS's most unforgettable animated series. Lily Tomlin's fearless teacher and Bruce Degen's original illustrations made learning an adventure, and every kid left knowing 'Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!'
The babies hit the big screen: newborn brother Dil arrives, the Reptar wagon careens into the woods, and the Pickles crew has to find its way home. Nickelodeon's first feature-length animated film, released November 1998, became the first non-Disney animated feature to cross $100 million at the US box office.
Pixar's Toy Story was the first fully computer-animated feature film, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as mismatched toys Woody and Buzz. Released November 1995, it reinvented animation and launched a franchise that still dominates 30 years later.
The fever-dream Nickelodeon interstitial that pulled back and back forever — each image revealed to be a tiny detail inside a bigger one, pulling back until the whole world shrinks away. A strange, hypnotic minute wedged between the goofier bumpers.