Let’s do this for US cartoons too.
Adventure Time – head and shoulders above everything else this year. May be my favourite TV show of 2010 animated or otherwise.
Batman – The Brave & The Bold – Went to the superheroes dying nobly well a little too often this year, but it also made me exclaim that it was better than Batman TAS at various points this year.
Chowder – sadly this drew to a close in 2010, and even with Adventure Time now overshadowing it in my affections, it was still a good show.
Venture Bros – second half of season 4 cemented what the season had been about, namely developing Hank and Dean as characters (and Gary to a lesser a degree). And it had the added bonus of the gags being less hacky than first half. There’s probably one more season in it before it reaches its natural end.
Regular Show – Took a while for me to get into its rhythm, but by the final episode “Ello Guv’nor” I was a firm fan.
Again, I shall write more on these at a later date. Certainly a Chowder series review at the very least is due now that it’s over. Plus there’s the fact that it (and Violence Jack) are the main search hits this site gets so I should play to that audience once in a while.
Honourable Mentions:
Flapjack – another show that went away. A bit hit and miss for me, but the hits like “Lost at Land” were great.
Mad – Uneven mix of parody and toilet humour comes across as a modern, American version of Round the Bend.
Robotomy – the underpromoted member of Cartoon Network’s PG rated shows, this is a lot of fun, even if it feels a little like Superjail-lite.
Archer – if it wasn’t for the cast I’m not sure I’d bother, though I do find it a big improvement on earlier Adam Reed shows.
Ugly Americans – like Robotomy, the involvement of Augenblick Studios give it a Superjail-lite feel on occasion, but the mix of grotesque animation sequences and its warped version of sitcom moralising paid off eventually.
Sym-Bionic Titan – Enjoyed the 70s robot homage to begin with not to mention Brian Posehn as Octus, but my interest waned. Might go back to it later.
Young Justice Pilot – A bit too self-serious coming off Brave and the Bold, but certainly a solid piece of work.
There’s one show I caught that I thought really stunk and that was The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. And I’m not alone as its ratings in the US have tanked. I know Disney in part bought Marvel to have something to sell to young boys, but rushed, cheap looking Film Roman shows aren’t going to cut it in a market with Ben 10, Generator Rex, Batman The Brave and the Bold and soon Young Justice. The only folks who seem to like the show are ageing Marvel zombies whose fandom blinds them to the shoddy animation.