Image via Filmation Associates
Published May 25, 2026, 5:36 PM EDT
Lisa Nordin is an actress, writer, and fan of all things performing arts. Her favorite genres are Sci-Fi and Fantasy. She is a self-published author and enjoys exploring how fictional stories help define and qualify the human experience.
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The 1980s were the era of the cartoon. From the immensely popular Saturday Morning lineup to prime-time television, the '80s were a decade positively overflowing with animated series. The topics and tones explored within the medium were vast and varied. From loveable and exciting shows aimed at kids to flashy and trendy topics meant for teens and adults, every audience had a chance to find something they would enjoy watching.
As '80s nostalgia sweeps the nation with everything from restaurants to fashion embracing blasts from the past, now is an ideal time to revisit some of these classic cartoons. Whether you grew up in the '80s or simply want to experience the era, these animated TV shows are sure to please. Here are the greatest '80s cartoons that are worth revisiting today.
'Voltron: Defender of the Universe' (1984–1985)
Image via Universal TelevisionVoltron: Defender of the Universe has it all. Space, robots, lions, human heroes. The plotlines focus on a group of pilots who control lion-shaped robots. When fighting against a particularly challenging foe, the metallic lions combine to create one giant robot called Voltron.
Voltron: Defender of the Universe is an excellent visual blend of anime and Western styles. It features a combined robot years before Power Rangers, and both the main characters and villains are exciting to watch. A live-action remake of Voltron is in the works, with Sterling K. Brown and Henry Cavill appearing in the movie. Although filming has wrapped, a release date has yet to be officially announced. Now is the perfect time to check out the source material before the movie debuts.
'Jem' (1985–1988)
Image via HasbroOne of the greatest contributions the 1980s gave the world was its music. Stars like Prince, Madonna, and Boy George became icons of the zeitgeist and defined what pop culture was. An animated series that captures some of that magic is Jem. A forerunner to hits like KPop Demon Hunters, Jem focused on a group of female singers who lived and worked together.
Jem continues to be a fan favorite and inspired the 2015 live-action movie Jem and the Holograms starring Aubrey Shea. BOOM! Studios recently announced that they will be issuing a limited comic series to tie up loose ends from the finale that left fans wanting more. This dedication from devotees, four decades strong, is a testament to the treasure Jem really is.
'Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends' (1981–1983)
Image via NBCWith recent hits like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the love for the friendly neighborhood hero is at an all-time high. Given that the trailer for the much-anticipated Spider-Man: Brand New Day broke viewing records with 718 million views in the first 24 hours, now is the time to embrace all things web-slinger.
In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Man (Dan Gilvezan) teams up with Iceman (Frank Welker) and Firestar (Kathy Garver) to fight crime in New York City. It is a stellar series because comic book fans not only get to see Spider-Man in action, but also recognize cameos from other famous Marvel characters as well. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is interesting to watch as Spider-Man interacts with other superheroes. Most of the other TV shows involve Spider-Man fighting villains and grappling with superhero woes on his own, so the ensemble setup is sublime.
'ThunderCats' (1985–1989)
Image via Rankin/Bass Productions"ThunderCats Hoooo!" Inspiring a movie and several follow-up series, ThunderCats follows feline-human hybrid characters who travel to Earth when their home planet is destroyed. Animated series in the 1980s were often full of rich world-building and mythos, and ThunderCats is no exception. When sci-fi and fantasy were two of the leading genres of the time, ThunderCats fit perfectly into the offerings and gave audiences a series full of drama and intrigue.
ThunderCats, like many series in the '80s, was integrally linked with toy sales. TV shows like Transformers and G.I. Joe were so intertwined with their merchandising goals that you often couldn't have one without the other. Despite its obvious attempts to get viewers to buy physical objects, ThunderCats told a fascinating story, and audiences responded.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Transformers' (1984–1987)
Image via Sunbow ProductionsA series almost more well-known for its toy line than for its content is Transformers. The popular series centered around alien robots that could disguise themselves as normal machines like planes and vehicles, and then transform into fighting robots. There was a clear struggle of good versus evil between the two factions of the Autobots and Decepticons, and Earth became the unlucky location where their war was waged.
Transformers was massively successful in the 1980s and continues to be, nearly half a century later. Given that the main aim of the show was to sell toys for Hasbro, producers were shocked when public outcry arose after they tried to kill off one of the main characters, Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), in the feature-length movie. They had unwittingly created characters that fans felt passionate about, and the admiration received for the TV show was a surprise. Transformers is one of the best mega-robot series of all time, and it is still fun to revisit.
'DuckTales' (1987–1990)
Image via Walt Disney Television AnimationFeeling like a mix of Indiana Jones and Back to the Future, DuckTales has time travel, adventure, and lots of fun. The series takes viewers along for the ride as Scrooge McDuck (Alan Young) and his three nephews have all sorts of harrowing adventures. DuckTales ran for four seasons and is 1980s kids' nostalgia at its best.
DuckTales is not only lively and upbeat, but visually engaging. Its bright colors and easily identifiable Disney animation styles made it a hit for many young TV viewers. DuckTales was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards and took home the trophy for Sound Editing. DuckTales continues to be a choice watch for Disney fans. It has solid characters, thrilling sequences, and is as entertaining as it was upon its advent.
'The Smurfs' (1981–1989)
Image via NBCThe little blue people that live in mushrooms inspire a divisive love/hate response from audiences. Either they are the cutest, best thing ever seen, or they are outdated and full of gendered stereotypes. No matter how viewers feel about the imaginative IP, its influence on pop culture and cinema is undeniable.
Movie studios keep trying to make Smurf movies that no one really asked for. These failed attempts serve as a testimony that sometimes, you can't beat the original. The 1980s cartoon is charming, quaint, and perfect for what it is. The Smurfs was nominated for several Daytime Emmys and was a fast favorite with fans. Everything from lunchboxes to PEZ dispensers were emblazoned with the little fellows' likeness. If you want to partake in the uniqueness that is The Smurfs, skip the movies and go straight to the source; it really is the best iteration of the lore.
'The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' (1988–1991)
Image via Walt Disney Television AnimationBased on the beloved children's books, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh followed everyone's favorite toy bear as he navigated all sorts of situations with his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Starring the unmistakable voice talents of Jim Cummings as Pooh and John Fiedler as Piglet, it is a series full of warmth and wonder. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was nominated for five Daytime Emmys and won twice for Outstanding Animated Program.
Watching the series for a few minutes, it’s easy to see why it was outstanding. The unassuming charm of each of the characters makes them easily relatable. No matter what mood you're in, there’s a character in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh you can relate to. There is Eeyore (Peter Cullen), with his glass-half-empty, persistent negative outlook, or Rabbit (Ken Sansom) with his compulsive need to have everything perfect. Each character is believable and relatable. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a lovely and tender way to examine some of life's most realistic challenges, like fear, envy, and loneliness, and it remains as relevant as ever.
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (1987–1996)
Image via Fred Wolf FilmsRunning for an impressive 10 seasons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the best projects about the teen and green fabulous four. It was the cartoon that started it all. Originally a comic book series, the easily recognizable heroes got their own animated series in the 1980s, and the rest, as they say, is history.
There is something so pleasing about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They don't have any real superpowers, and they aren't super rich. They are just local citizens trying to make their city a better place, and eating tons of pizza in the process. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the public's first chance to fall in love with the comic book dynamos, and it is a relationship that is still going strong with recent films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem being financial and critical successes. If you haven't checked out the TMNT OG, now is the time, but you might want to order a pizza first.
'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' (1983–1985)
Image via Filmation AssociatesWhen it comes to '80s cartoons, it doesn't get more quintessential than He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. When He-Man (John Erwin) wields his mighty sword, enemies like the evil Skeletor (Alan Oppenheimer) had better take warning. Known as the "most powerful man in the universe," he is everything '80s fans expected from the archetype. The He-Man franchise had it all: the cartoon, the toys, and the fanbase.
The most recent buzz about the popular 1980s series is the upcoming film Masters of the Universe starring Nicholas Galitzine, Idris Elba, and Camila Mendes. It is no wonder that this iconic show was chosen to be revamped. It has been a staple of sci-fi and fantasy lore since its debut and continues to connect with fans.
English (US) ·