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Shows like Street Sharks and Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars! continued the pattern of sentient animals fighting crime. Smaller series struggled to stand out among competitors due to the success of larger shows. Quality children's entertainment from the '90s like The Tick & Pepper Ann remains underrated today.

The '90s brought about numerous animated series with a few dominating pop culture conversations, leaving other shows to go unrecognized. '90s cartoons such as Rugrats and Pokmon still receive acclaim and fanfare decades after their premieres for their innovative animation and storytelling. It's because of these larger shows with massive success that smaller series have fallen under the radar, especially considering the heightened quality needed to stand out among competitors. Many of the kid's shows from the decade had a similar setup that featured a heroic lead, typically endowed with superhuman abilities, fighting various bad guys.

Therefore, unless there...

Prior to the debut of "The Powerpuff Girls" in 1998, show creator Craig McCracken had directed a series of tasteless cartoon shorts starring a character named No-Neck Joe. No-Neck Joe appeared regularly at the celebrated annual Spike & Mike Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, cementing McCracken's underground credentials. The Powerpuff Girls first came into McCracken's repertoire as early as 1992, back when they were called the Whoopass Girls. The juxtaposition between the characters' creepy, ultra-cute, Margaret Keane-like faces and their ultra-violent behavior was the stuff of comedy legend, and McCracken kept the Girls in his back pocket for years.

Throughout the 1990s, McCracken rose in the ranks of the animation world, landing gigs on shows like "2 Stupid Dogs," "Dumb and Dumber," and, most notably, Genndy Tartakovsky's seminal series 1996 "Dexter's Laboratory." McCracken directed many episodes of the show. "Dexter's Laboratory" was one of four new series launched by the Cartoon Network...