Adventure Time

Archer

1 "The Incredibles"!!!

2

"...ignoring films for the moment ..."

Oh.

Sorry.

3 No problem.  If I did a post on (modern, western) animated films, The Incredibles would be right up at the top.

4 The only one of those I've ever liked is Kim Possible.  Archer is just revolting, Futurama has too much Groening, MLP is too cute, and Zim and Adventuretime too much Flash.

The lynch mob now forms on the left.

Wakfu I've only ever seen one episode of, and that for the smug black rubber duckie.

5 Kim Possible is, of course, a work of pure genius, and no person or duck can be judged too harshly if they recognise that fact.

MLP, Wakfu, and Adventure Time are shows that surpass any reasonable expectations, and are worth giving a chance even if the premise and style turn you off at first.  

In the case of Adventure Time, it needs a greater investment, as the first season is not of the same calibre as the later episodes.  I'm not sure what happened between seasons one and two; either they deliberately re-targeted at an audience twenty years older, or the writers collectively and individually gained twenty IQ points, but something magical occurred.  All the more magical because things more usually go in the opposite direction...

Archer is very...  Well, it's very Archer.  I'm wondering what it says about my taste that I love both Archer and My Little Pony.  Maybe that I don't have any...

6 Oh, Kim Possible. What a delightful little show that was! So many tropes, so many subverted tropes...

So, no love for the Avatar cartoon series? (Not so much with the Legend of Korra follow-up, though. Sigh. All the good writers left after the original series, near as I can tell...)

7 I haven't seen Avatar, put off by excessive fanboyism (and fangirlism for that matter).  Probably unfair; I'll give it a look at some point.

8 I'll put a vote in for Phineas and Ferb. Another one of those that works all right on the base level, but also with enough intelligence that it's enjoyable for adults too.

I'm kind of in the same boat with Avatar, notwithstanding their blatant theft of my nick. My main exposure to it was through people who were really, really into it, and I didn't get the same enjoyment from it.

Also, Megas XLR. That's some good parody. (In a way it's a shame that there isn't more of it, but at the same time, could they have kept it good? Eh, probably not.)

Always wanted to watch more Adventure Time, never really had the opportunity. Maybe that'll change once I'm working from home full-time. ;p

9 P&F might be the best cartoon Disney has ever produced, at least partially because it doesn't fall into all the Disney ruts.  Like the old Bugs Bunny cartoons, there's tons of things for the adults they know are watching, although since it's Disney, it's more wordplay than risque.

10 I like Phineas and Ferb in small doses, but does it ever actually go anywhere?  Maybe it does - I haven't even watched all of season one - but my two problems are that (a) the episodes are largely interchangeable and (b) it is entirely dependent on an idiot plot that makes no sense even in the logic of the Phineas and Ferb universe.

Now, if Candace and Vanessa ever get together and compare notes, that would make it worth watching.  Come to think of it, Candace and Vanessa are the only two interesting characters in the entire show.

11 From a long-term perspective, it's just like a syndicated show:  each episode is stand-alone.  However, there's a lot of background back-references.  You will frequently see the giant baby's head, or the zebra that calls Candace "Kevin" and so on.
I don't think it's meant to be mainlined.  It works pretty well at max one episode a week.  (TBH I haven't even seen a new episode in a while because I don't have cable any more.)
Regarding idiot plots, I think it's supposed to be that way--half the show is lampshades:  they go out of their way to subvert tropes on a regular basis.  It's kind of a spiritual opposite of MLP, which (now) goes out of its way to reference memes (my favorite is the "yo dawg I herd you like x" one) and lately, people are beginning to suspect they're trying to create them, like Dashie's "i'd hit that" face in s4e3.
As far as I can tell, the idiot plots, as I said, are deliberate--they're obviously only there as a framework for whatever they're going to do today, so I assume those are essentially lampshades as well.

12 While that's fine in itself, and I do like P&F on that basis, it's when a show breaks loose from its boundaries that it becomes great.

That's what makes Adventure Time different - it starts out as just another episodic kids' show with crummy artwork, then without you even noticing what they're doing it somehow turns into The Brothers Karamazov.  Albeit The Brothers Karamazov with Korean-speaking unicorn-dragons.  And an undying princess who is literally made of bubblegum.

(That's why I bounced off the opening episodes of season two of MLP.  The first season was all about character development, which is the diametric opposite of the the norm for American children's cartoons.  Then they hit the reset switch and made it....  Just another episodic kids' show with crummy artwork.  Maybe it recovered again afterwards, but that was just lazy.)