All right, it may be a bit ambitious of me to start this rolling while Video Games is still going, but honestly, Battles tend to be mostly self-reliant once they're started. All the graphic work for that is done (other than the weekly bracket updates, which are almost automatic), so I'm idling and looking for something to do.

So, since I know it'll take a couple months for me to get all the info and graphics ready anyway, I'm making an open call for nominations to the Battle of the Cartoons, where we will be debating our favorite animated series. Here's the deal:

1. Anybody on the site can send me a PM with up to twenty nominations. PLEASE rank your nominations. I know it can be hard when there's that many, but seeding is really difficult if you don't. When you rank something as #1, #5, #17, or whatever, that helps me to determine what its seeding is and where it belongs in the brackets.

2. The Battle is on animated series, not films. Toy Story, Cinderella, and Titan AE, for example, are not eligible.

3. Series that started as loose collections of individual short works are eligible. Looney Tunes and Walt Disney's classic cartoons are both eligible examples. And these collections will be treated as one entity; Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Merry Melodies are all Looney Tunes; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Chip & Dale short cartoons are all Walt Disney Classics.

4. Cartoon means moving imagery, not real objects. 2D animation is eligible. 3D animation is also eligible. Puppetry, stop-motion, and of course live-action are not.

5. There is no restriction on the target age group. Cartoons for kids, such as the Smurfs, cartoons for teens, such as Beast Wars, and cartoons for adults, such as the Simpsons, are all eligible.

6. Anime series are eligible if and only if they have been aired in English on a station based in America. Thus, Voltron and Speed Racer are eligible, but something which is known only to Japanese-speaking enthusiasts is not. I'm not saying that stuff isn't good, but if it's not accessible to most people here, it's going to lose anyway, and besides, my computer doesn't have a kanji font.

7. If there's a possibility of ambiguity, please try to disambiguate it before you send it in. While I will reply back with any questions when the situation arises, it's easier if I don't have to. So, for example, if you want to nominate "Super Friends", please say which of the many similar-but-different shows you mean: the original 1973 one with Wendy and Marvin, "Challenge of the Super Friends", "Super Powers: Galactic Guardians", etc., etc.

8. Contrariwise, if a show really is the same, just under a different title (such as "Rocky and His Friends" becoming "The Bullwinkle Show" when it changed from ABC to NBC), then it will be treated as one show.

9. Any questions, feel free to PM me or ask in this thread.

What about Robotech and Macross? Are they considered the same series or different? Or is Macross ineligible because it hasn't had widespread airing?

Being the all knowing CO, I'm sure you know that Robotech was actually 3 different anime series cut and pasted and dubbed together into one hella cool series. Macross was the first saga, and has been translated (and in some areas aired) as a series unto it's own.

*Chaomancer Omega shoots Spikor

My head hurts. So should yours.

OK... I'm inclined to say just treat Macross as part of Robotech. I can't find an indication of a widespread airing of Macross as a standalone, though I could easily be wrong. But since it was part of the big Robotech saga, I'm personally comfortable with the idea of it getting "slighted" by not having a separate inclusion.

But, as I don't know much about it, if there's a lot of people here who disagree, I can change my mind.

*Spikor 's head reforms T-1000 style

I doubt anyone will disagree. It's the best part of Robotech, and as such any votes for Robotech would also be for Macross. I think that's fair enough. I know has aired on Teletoon (the suckass Canadian cartoon network) but it's not that important.

I'm very much looking forward to this battle.

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited are also considered the same show for this purpose.

What about the 2 good and one horrible incarnation of He-Man?

Or when the Smurfs time-traveled?

That was still the Smurfs though, and is without a doubt the same series. The 3 He-Man series I'm pretty sure would be categorized differently.

I don't care what anyone says, that was not the Smurfs.

The three He-Man series are three different series. A lot changed between each version, and they weren't concurrent either. (To explain why Justice League/Unlimited are the same, consider that Unlimited started right after JL, it continued the same plots, had the same style... the only real difference was that the guest stars that peppered JL became more frequent and more prominent.)

As for the Smurfs, I haven't heard of the time-travelling incident, but IMDB and Wikipedia only reveal one Smurfs series.

The final season of the series had the Smurfs Quantum Leaping through time based on a random attempt at putting together some set of crystals that was probably called something really original, like "The Crystal(s) of Time."

They pretty much faced some ancestor of Garamel in every time and place they went. Solved a problem, found the missing crystal that they had lost, for example, and then tried to put the crystals together again. Hoping each time that it would be the leap home.

Still plenty of room for people to make nominations in this! Come on, I know you guys watched cartoons...

Mine are coming... I've been out of town, and will be again shortly. I'll have some in probably on Sunday.

I'll get some in this weekend. Sweer.

Same here. I've just been busy with school starting up.

I've been looking up a bunch of old cartoons through Netflix that I used to watch when I was a kid and there sure were some good ones.

Hey, anybody remember Reboot?

Or Gargoyles?


Okay, I'm done plugging shows now.

My list is in.

Gah, too much work! Okay, tomorrow night, I promise.

Gargoyles was fantastic. Best thing Disney ever did. And then they disowned it.

Still plenty of room for anybody to throw nominations in here, folks.

you got it....

I'll have one in tomorrow, I typed it up and my browser crashed.

And as a side-note both ReBoot and Gargoyles were on my noms.

Excellent, the more the merrier!

Of course. They were afraid of too much success. But have you seen some of the fan conventions that are still around today? Ca-razy.



AWESOME. You the man.

Psst. You'll get your money in a small envelope in the alley at midnight.

Noms in.

NOMINATION PERIOD CLOSES SATURDAY AT 11:59 PM PST

So if you want to nominate, be sure to do so before then. Thanks!

I'll try, but I think this might be the first battle in a long time I won't do it for. I'm in the middle of a nine day work week, and I'm sick on top of it. But we'll see.

I got my whole start on these crazy things called internet forums on a Gargoyles fan forum when I was 11-ish. I wouldn't be here today if not for Gargoyles. I *am* one of those crazy fans.

Oh well in that case, forget I said anything. In fact, it was Dragoon. Yeah, that's it.

Yeah I used to watch that show every day. Now it just seems a little sad.

No way, not sad at all. I just got the last of the first season from Netflix and it's still a great show even after all these years. I can't wait to start watching the second season.

Incidentally, folks, I think it's only fair to warn you: Someone nominated the "Osmonds" cartoon show. So for all you fence-sitters, keep this in mind: if I don't get enough nominations from you guys to bump that out, there will be an infestation of Osmonditis in the Halls. I don't think we want to see that.

Help prevent Osmonditis. Send in cartoon nominations.

I'm a little bit country. CO's a little bit rock and roll.

I could have gone the rest of my life not knowing there was an Osmonds cartoon, thanks for ruining that for me CO.

I am sorry, Dragoon, but I felt it was necessary. You see, by mentioning it here, it might scare more people into nominating. And then I might get enough nominations to bump it off the list.

If I don't... you'll have to see screenshots from the cartoon. And I think we can all agree that'd be far worse.

Oh dear sweet lord! CO, you must reveal who commited this atrocity. They must be punished.

How many nominations do you require?

Well, it's at 101 right now (before your noms came in). Of course, whether there will be enough depends on who else nominates and what they nominate.

Hey now, whoever nominated the Osmonds cartoon obviously thought it was good enough to make their top 20 (it wasn't me, by the way, CO can confirm that). Unless they just nominated it as a joke, we shouldn't totally mock them.

Hell, I nominated Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

Actually, the person who nominated it (and it wasn't KJB) said they nominated specifically because they wanted to see people groan. So yeah, it was a joke nom.

I remember that show, it used to be on every Sunday at 7am. Oh course as a cartoon hungry kid I'd already been up for an hour before then. But I loved that show it was fantastic. I think that and Battle of the Planets were two of my favourites.

I didn't nominate Captain Planet.

But I could have.

I loved that show as a kid. I even had a Planeteer ring. The wind one. It was also a watch.

I was cool.

A ring and a watch surely you jest. Such things would shake the very fabric of the known universe and lead to nothing but destruction.

Damn, BotP is ANOTHER one I should have nommed. I'm not laughing at anyone. I nominated this:

Hey, it was a Planeteer ring. It could do anything.

Was I deprived that I never had anything so cool?

oooohhh Fogs..?

I remember that show! Depending on what it's up against, I will seriously consider voting for it in the first round.