Anyone who was a kid during the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons most likely remembers those weekend programming blocks as a bright spot of their childhood. That array of creative kid-friendly shows taking over the channels that were otherwise reserved for grownups and heralding two full days of freedom is something that simply no longer exists, but won’t soon be forgotten.
What has been forgotten, though, is just how dark some of those shows could get. Whether they were dealing with grim themes, depicting harsh realities, or simply providing an eerie and unsettling tone, these shows had some moments that flew under the radar of the sugary cereal-crazed youths they were made for and reflecting on them as an adult can be pretty interesting.
6 Sonic The Hedgehog
Any kid who first watched Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the other Sonic cartoon that oddly ran concurrent to Sonic the Hedgehog, was probably shocked by the massively different tone the latter show had. Adventures was a run-of-the-mill goofy slapstick cartoon that depicted Sonic the Hedgehog as an elusive Woody Woodpecker-style thorn in the side of the show’s villains. Sonic the Hedgehog was not.
This surprisingly compelling children’s show places Sonic in the middle of a dystopian future where Robotnik is destroying the planet and turning animals into robots. The hedgehog and his friends (collectively called the Freedom Fighters) have formed a rebellion and seek to reclaim their forest and save their lost loved ones who have become robots. If it sounds a little intense, that’s because it really was.
5 Captain Planet And The Planeteers
Captain Planet and the Planeteers attempted to provide its young viewers with a moral compass they might use to navigate a world becoming ever more besieged by hate, greed, pollution, and apparently a ton of toxic waste. To do this, the show enlisted the help of an impressive roster of notable actors and covered an array of timely topics with environmentalist and humanitarian themes.
The nature of this noble but preachy pursuit required the show to frequently feature some truly dark subject matter that was only mildly lightened by its bright colors and cartoonish villains. Captain Planet and his international crew tackled everything from gang violence to designer drugs to HIV/AIDS to puppy mills to nuclear bombs to animal testing to Adolph Hitler himself. It deserves a salute for its efforts, but it no doubt caused more than a few Saturday afternoon anxiety attacks.
4 Recess: Little Kids Dealing With Grown Up Stuff
Many Saturday morning cartoons dealt strictly in the world of fantasy. Recess, on the other hand, was a lot more grounded in reality. It was still a cartoon, of course, but the characters from this ABC's One Saturday Morning show lived in a place closer to our own world and they faced some pretty adult problems that often went over the heads of younger viewers.
Season one’s “Speedy We Hardly Knew Ye,” provides a great example of this. The class’s pet hamster dies, setting up a poignant exploration of death and mourning that most cartoons would much rather avoid. Beyond that, the show in general tucked away hidden ideas about social hierarchies, authoritarianism, capitalism, imperialism, and even some still-prescient social justice themes thanks to world’s coolest teacher, Ms. Grotke.
3 Pokemon: Death, Violence, And Adorable Animals
Yes, weird as it may sound to some, Pokemon absolutely counts as a 90s Saturday morning cartoon. Its first appearance on American television was on Kids WB! in 1999 and new episodes would air on Saturday morning, so it perfectly fits the criteria.
From day one, this show was massively popular and it served as an introduction to anime for many American viewers. It also had a surprising amount of sad and dark moments for its time, especially in its first season. Anime is often willing to go places that American kids shows rarely will, but oftentimes those shows feel more “adult” than Pokemon does. Episodes like “Snow Way Out,” “The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak,” and “Bye Bye Butterfree” pack a lot more emotional punch than you might expect from an animated show about a boy and his electric mouse.
2 Mighty Max: An Epic Dark Fantasy Toy Ad
The Mighty Max TV series was way better than it ever needed to be and it stands as an underrated gem of the 90s Saturday morning cartoon era. Its sole purpose was to act as a long form toy commercial, but it wound being way more than that. The show was filled with action-packed, adrenaline-loaded adventure stories with cool characters that had interesting back stories and genuinely effective emotional moments. It was also super dark.
The intense two-part finale offers a great example of that darkness, with two of the three main characters actually dying, but the time-loop ending sort of softens the blow a bit. However, there are no blows softened in the first season finale “The Maxnificent Seven” which contains a shocking amount of heartbreaking hero death for a show made to sell toys. The poignant final scene easily deserves a spot in the pantheon of Saturday morning cartoon moments.
1 Life With Louie
Life with Louie was a cartoon account of the childhood of comedian Louie Anderson that aired on Fox Kids from 1994 to 1998. The show was mostly intended to be funny, but it was also sweet and melancholic at times, much like any recollection of one’s youth tends to be. Most of the sad or serious bits were hidden beneath the show’s comedic surface, but one episode in particular brought it boldly to the fore.
Season two’s “The Thank You Note” doesn’t just address grief and loss, it tackles it head on, resulting in an absolute tear-jerker of an episode. Louie keeps putting off writing a thank you letter to his grandmother for the birthday sweater she knitted him, when suddenly she passes away leaving him full of remorse. His subsequent journey to wrap his little head around death and get the letter to her is heartbreaking, beautiful, and really, really heavy for a Saturday morning cartoon.