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Best Animated Science Fiction TV Series Of All Time. Order Brother Bear Cartoon more. Animation is the ideal art form to portray the most bizarre situations, so it would only make sense that animation and science fiction go hand- in- hand with each other.
Sci- fi and cartoons have had a long, enduring relationship that has always proven popular with the masses and, more times than not, thought- provoking. In a dizzying medium where anything is possible lies a world that contains giant robots, alien bounty hunters, and fantastical monsters that capture audience’s imagination. On this list we’re counting down entries that have made a lasting impression in the realm of animated sci- fi, either through adventure epics, goofball comedies, or sometimes both. We’re excluding superhero shows that touch on sci- fi since there are so many it could make up a list in itself. So with that in mind, here are 1. Best Science Fiction Animated Series.
Gravity Falls. The Disney Channel isn’t exactly known for their comedic sci- fi series but the exception to the rule is the animated gem Gravity Falls. When twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines get sent to their great- uncle Stan’s in Gravity Falls for the summer, they think they’re summer vacation will be a dud. But things change when the pair starts to find all sorts of strange things happening in the town. Gravity Falls has been called the best show on the Disney Channel thanks to its potent mixture of humor and adventure. The voice acting is top- notch, as is the animation, making this sci- fi cartoon one of the reasons to start watching the Disney Channel again. Dexter’s Laboratory. Animator Genndy Tartakovsky cemented his place in the halls of legends with this ’9.
Cartoon Network. Dexter is a boy- genius protégé who has built a super- lab within the recesses of his room. The only problem is his klutzy sister Dee Dee, who often finds her way in causing chaos, mass destruction, and unwanted headaches for Dexter to fix. Despite the frequent interruptions Dexter still finds time to make killer robots, give super powers to monkeys, and battle with his arch- nemesis Mandark. Tartakovsky’s series is a great slapstick cartoon set against a sci- fi backdrop. Its animation style, especially in the early years, is a playground to the imagination and really something to admire.
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There’s loom and gloom when things go boom, but there is also a fresh cartoon for all ages in Dexter’s Lab. Trigun. Trigun is a lesson in superb science fiction storytelling. Taking place on a deserted planet in the distant future, Vash the Stampede is a blood- thirsty, ruthless gunfighter with a gigantic bounty on his head. At least that’s how most people see him. The truth is, Vash is much more heroic and, more or less, a real dork.
Mad scientists and mechanical men, space cowboys and time travelers, man-monsters and man-eating aliens -- clearly this is our kind of crowd. We came up with a list. This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding or removing subheadings. Dr. George Church is a real-life Dr. Frankenstein. The inventor of CRISPR and one of the minds behind the Human Genome Project is no longer content just reading and. Tonight is the two-part finale of Twin Peaks: The Return, the beginning of the end of a promise that began with the words of Laura Palmer over two decades ago: “I.
He is a seasoned gunfighter, but tends to not like violence, and instead prefers spreading messages of peace and hope. Of course, most bounty hunters don’t believe that so they come after him anyway. Trigun starts as a comedy and progresses slowly toward something more refined and dynamic. With each episode we deviate a little more into Vash’s mysterious past and what made the man into the myth. The series is a pure rush of action, comedy and sci- fi making it a top- notch animated series. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Giant cartoon robots with machine guns fighting each other?
Yes please. What could be a better premise to a sci- fi anime than Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. The series has a futuristic Earth being ruled by an evil totalitarian organization. In order to fight back, the numerous rebel colonies across space come together with high- tech Gundam Suits; giant combat robots piloted by humans. Aside from some pacing problems, Gundam Wing is a very solid sci- fi outing. For the time this came out in the 9. The action scenes are stunning and the various characters are well- fleshed out.
Out of all the Gundam series and spinoffs, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing still remains the strongest in the franchise. Invader Zim. You couldn’t tell by watching it now, but back in its heyday, Nickelodeon was famous for pushing the envelope for kid’s television. One of the series that pushed the envelope farther than anything else was the cult sci- fi show Invader Zim. Part of an alien takeover of the entire galaxy, the insecure Zim travels to earth in order to blend in with human society, in preparation for a full- scale invasion. Along with his dimwitted robot named Gir, Zim sets up his questionable base of operations to learn more about humanity. Invader Zim is a unique blend of 1. B- movie mismatched with off- the- wall comedy and spectacular animation.
It’s random and sporadic while at the same time a clever satire on human conditioning and consumerism. It’s a twisted piece of dark animation and one of the most funny and original sci- fi shows that never really got its due. Star Wars Rebels. Set between the events of Episode III and IV, Star Wars Rebels is about a band of ragtag rebel fighters that stand up against the newly formed Galactic Empire. Following the events of the prequels, the evil Empire is now hunting down the last of the Jedi Order to strengthen their control over the galaxy. The brave rebels must come together in order to build up an alliance strong enough to rival the Emperor’s forces. Like its predecessors, Rebels is a perfect balance of light- hearted humor and thrilling adventure.
Being geared at children, the series could have easily taken the material and dumbed it down, but Rebels is an intelligent, as well as dark, reflection of the series. Although it’s only on its second season, the show has promising potential with, hopefully, more good things to come. Reboot. Featuring landmark computer- generated animation, Reboot pushed the sci- fi animated expectations of mainstream audiences to the brink. The series takes place within a computer where evil viruses and programs threaten to destroy the cybernetic metropolis.
This cult horror-scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep, Phantasm) features quite a few outrageous special effects, as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti, but. Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called "the Doctor. Giant cartoon robots with machine guns fighting each other? Yes please. What could be a better premise to a sci-fi anime than Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
The program Guardian Bob is sent from the Net to help battle these threats and soon meets up with friends Dot Matrix and her brother Enzo along the way. Together, they help each other protect their home, Mainframe, from the viruses Megabyte and Hexadecimal. Reboot was released in the early ’9.
Also unique was the animation style which was completely computer generated, a trick that most shows couldn’t even dream of doing at the time. Guardian Bob and Dot are well written and properly fleshed out while the show slowly progressed into darker themes in its later seasons. Reboot is a sci- fi classic pioneer that still sets certain standards for shows today.
Rick and Morty. What started out as a simple Back to the Future parody quickly developed into one of the smartest and most creative sci- fi shows on the air. Rick, a functioning alcoholic scientist, has just reluctantly moved into his estranged daughter’s house where her family lives. Rick quickly forms a strong connection with his dweeby grandson, Morty, and together they travel across time and space taking part in miscellaneous adventures. Rick and Mortyis the best show you’re not watching right now, so if you haven’t seen it yet make sure to check it out.
The series certainly has its dark moments but at its core is a well thought- out sci- fi comedy. Rick, Morty and all the supporting players are believable characters that find themselves in the craziest of situations like fighting intergalactic bounty hunters, or watching interdimensional TV shows (“Ball Fondlers” anyone?). Season 3 just got a target premiere date so make sure to catch up on this brilliant series before it comes out. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. When Mamoru Oshii’s feature length film Ghost in the Shell was released in 1.
It proved so popular that it spawned this spinoff series, which made its debut in 2. Taking place in a distant future, members of a cybernetic law force, called Public Security Sector 9 are tasked with taking down dangerous hackers and terrorists. The series is violent and dark but has a lot to say about human evolution and behavior.
Recent Scifi Films That Didn't Need Big Budgets To Be Amazing. Low- budget scifi movies may have had their heyday during Roger Corman’s rise to B- movie greatness in the 1. Here are our favorites from the past few decades. Another Earth (2. Director Mike Cahill (I Origins) and star Brit Marling (The Sound of My Voice, Netflix’s The OA) co- wrote this tale of guilt, grief, and cosmic second chances. Marling plays a brilliant woman named Rhoda who makes a terrible, tragic mistake: causing a car accident that kills a woman and her unborn child, leaving the woman’s husband, John (William Mapother), physically and mentally devastated.
Rhoda makes another terrible mistake when she first tries to set things right, seeking out John but failing to tell him who she really is. But possible redemption comes from an unlikely place: the “mirror Earth” that looms above—represented by a very simple but effective visual effect—where the people and places are identical to those on our planet, with the key difference being that certain crappy life decisions may never have transpired.
John Dies at the End (2. This cult horror- scifi comedy from Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho- Tep, Phantasm) features quite a few outrageous special effects, as well as a cameo from Paul Giamatti, but it was still made for less than a million bucks. Based on David Wong’s novel, it’s about a pair of buddies who experience increasingly bizarre hallucinations and circumstances (alternate dimensions, aliens, etc.) when they encounter a new street drug that’s nicknamed “Soy Sauce.” Eventually, the fate of the world hangs in the balance—and along the way, there’s also an evil supercomputer, a heroic dog, and a monster that cobbles itself together from a freezer full of meat. Computer Chess (2. Filmed in black- and- white using period- appropriate video cameras, writer- director Andrew Bujalski’s offbeat and intricate study of a computer chess tournament is set in 1. It was actually made in 2.
Authentic nerds (not Hollywood nerds) converge on a bland hotel to determine whose program will achieve chess supremacy, though the backstage dramas and micro- dramas outside the competition provide most of the real interest. Though Computer Chess is mostly an awkward comedy, it ventures into scifi when it begins to suggest that one team’s artificial intelligence software is way, way more self- aware than most anyone realizes or is willing to admit. The American Astronaut (2. Another black- and- white entry, The American Astronaut manages to meld the genres of scifi, Western, and musical. Writer- director Cory Mc. Abee, who once described his work as “Buck Rogers meets Roy Rogers,” also plays the title character—an intergalactic cowboy/rare- goods dealer who becomes entangled in a scheme to deliver a man to the all- female planet of Venus (but it gets way more complicated than that)—and his band, the Billy Nayer Show, provided the tunes.
Unsurprisingly, the end result is something completely unique, enhanced by the film’s use of hand- painted, lo- fi special effects in most cases. Monsters (2. 01. 0)Before Gareth Edwards did Godzilla—and then achieved his lifelong dream of making a Star Wars movie with Rogue One—he worked as a digital effects artist and applied those skills to his first feature, Monsters. As the title suggests, it’s a monster movie, but it’s uniquely set in a world where humans and aliens have been co- existing on Earth for a number of years, and while the tension and fear may not have deflated, the novelty has.
Strangers (real- life couple Scoot Mc. Nairy and Whitney Able) team up to re- enter the US from Mexico, but the trip is complicated by a border that has become exponentially more hostile. Edwards, who also wrote the film, did the cinematography, and did the production design, makes the most of a budget that’s just a tiny fraction of what he’d get for his future blockbusters. Robot & Frank (2.
Lonely, technology- averse, and intermittently forgetful retiree Frank acquires a companion robot from his well- meaning son, and soon realizes his new sidekick would be the perfect partner in crime, literally. Robot & Frank is a poignant study of aging, but it also does an incredible job making a robot character (and it is a real, developed character) believably blend into its otherwise fairly typical indie- film landscape. A winning cast (most prominently Frank Langella as Frank and Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of the robot, though a different actor actually wears the suit) further elevates this inspired effort from first- time director Jake Schreier and first- time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford. 8. Sleep Dealer (2. In Alex Rivera’s thriller, it’s a future in which illegal immigration between Mexico and the US has been completely outlawed (thanks to a border wall..). However, since the US economy would collapse without a steady stream of people willing to work for nothing, would- be prospective citizens toil in grim factories where they’re physically plugged into virtual reality machines that control robots doing labor stateside.
Within this uneasy mix, we meet a man who dreams of hacking into a massive corporation to restore water to his region; a woman who peddles uploaded memories; and a drone pilot who has a crisis of conscience. Sleep Dealer is obviously a politically- minded tale that’s really about globalization, but it also manages to be completely thrilling at the same time. Moon (2. 00. 9)At the very end of a three- year solo stint on the Moon, the man overseeing an automated mining facility (Sam Rockwell)—who has only his AI (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for companionship—realizes he’s not as alone as he once thought. He also starts to suspect that his corporate employers are not as benevolent as he once believed. Director Duncan Jones (Source Code, Warcraft) is working on another film set in the same universe as Moon, called Mute, which will also have scifi elements though it’ll be set on Earth this time; eventually, he hopes to do a third and make it a trilogy. The Signal (2. 01.
College kids on a road trip take a detour to track down their nemesis, a mysterious hacker who lures them to an alien encounter, after which they’re whisked to an apparent government facility that’s experimenting with alien technology. On humans. Including them. Aside from its imaginative plot, which keeps you guessing until the end (and even then leaves you with a great “Huh?” image), it’s production design that evokes 2. A Space Odyssey and supporting turns by Laurence Fishburne and Lin Shaye that make The Signal especially memorable.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2. Following in the footsteps of Gareth Edwards, director Colin Trevorrow made his feature debut with this budgeted- under- a- million indie before taking on Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode IX. An intriguing magazine ad seeking a time travel companion (“this is not a joke”) piques the interest of a trio of Seattle journalists (Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson, and Karan Soni), who track down the man (Mark Duplass) to see if he’s a nutcase or the real deal—or, as it turns out, kinda both. The script (by Derek Connolly) was inspired by a real (but fake) ad that once ran in Backwoods Home Magazine, a fact which helps ground the film’s quirkiness—as do its performances (Plaza is perfect) and its portrayal of time travel as something ordinary people might explore for their own deeply personal reasons.
And yes, there are Star Wars jokes. The One I Love (2. Yep, another one with Mark Duplass. Charlie Mc. Dowell’s debut feature—filmed mostly at co- star Ted Danson’s house—is about Ethan and Sophie (Duplass and Elisabeth Moss), a married couple who try to salvage their relationship by going on a weekend getaway.
Things soon get very, very surreal when it becomes apparent that everything is not what it seems, especially not Ethan and Sophie, who become entangled in their very unconventional therapy session.