Nicktoons

Nicktoons is a franchise of television cartoon shows that are produced and aired by Nickelodeon.

Prior to 1991, Nickelodeon had aired foreign-made animated films since its inception. It first experimented with its own animated programming in 1980, when the channel's first president Geraldine Laybourne commissioned a series with animated elements, Video Comic Book, and produced a fully-animated show titled Video Dream Theatre. The second series was left unaired, and throughout the next decade, animated fare on Nickelodeon comprised mostly of reruns of other companies' cartoons.

The idea for another attempt at original animated shows on the network began in the late 1980s. Starting in 1989, profits from other programs funded "Nicktoons", with the first three cartoons (Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show) premiering on Sunday, August 11, 1991. This format was repeated every Sunday, eventually leading to the production of more Nicktoons at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. A spin-off channel named after Nicktoons was established on May 1, 2002.

In the early 2010s, Nickelodeon Animation Studio began to produce Nicktoons based on pre-existing franchises that had been purchased by Viacom: Winx Club (in 2011) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in 2012). Both shows had unprecedentedly high budgets for Nicktoons, and an extensive team of Nickelodeon veterans grouped to work on Winx Club.

The Nicktoons brand also extends to other media, such as video games featuring the Nicktoon characters (including the Nicktoons Unite! series). Since 2001, the official slogan for the brand has been "[They're] Not just cartoons, they're Nicktoons".

History

Pinwheel, the first Nickelodeon series which began in 1977, was formatted as an hour-long program with two forms of segments: original content with its cast of puppet and human characters, and showcases of foreign-made short films. Many of these films were animated cartoons dating back to the 1950s. These were the first form of animated content on what would become Nickelodeon.^[1]

For its first years, Nickelodeon continued to play foreign-made cartoons in a similar fashion as part of two anthology series called First Row Features and Special Delivery. In 1980, the channel aired its first original series that was not live-action: Video Comic Book. It could best be described as a "motion comic" that consisted of illustrated scenes with animated elements, like speech bubbles and moving backgrounds.^[2]

Nickelodeon's first attempt at a fully-animated show occurred later in 1980, when Geraldine Laybourne produced test pilots for Video Dream Theatre. It holds the title of Nickelodeon's first true cartoon. However, it was left unaired when test audiences did not give the reactions Laybourne wanted.^[3]

Throughout the 1980s, the amount of acquired animated shows on Nickelodeon increased, with reruns of cartoons and anime such as Bananaman, Danger Mouse, The Little Prince, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold.^[4] Blocks dedicated to animated programming such as Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon ran from the mid-1980s well into the late 1990s. When Nick Jr. premiered as a block in January 1988, much of its shows were imported cartoons.

Profits from Nickelodeon's expanding audience at the time helped it fund its own original cartoons: the first three "Nicktoons", Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey discovered all three of these programs after traveling to Los Angeles in 1988. Her goal was to find "three projects that looked completely different" in order to counter the homogeneous, toy-centric cartoons of the 1980s.^[5]

Nickelodeon's animation production studio was originally known as Games Animation, located in Studio City, California. In 1993, Nickelodeon approached Joe Murray to create its first fully original in-house series: Rocko's Modern Life.^[6] In March 1998, the then-new Nickelodeon Animation Studio was opened in Burbank, California.^[7] In September 1999, Nickelodeon opened a digital animation studio in Manhattan, which took over animation of Nick Jr. series such as Blue's Clues.^[8]

Throughout the 1990s, Nickelodeon continued with its "experimental" approach to animation. Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett explained that the network gradually shifted away from creator-driven content during the later years of Herb Scannell's tenure as Nick president. In his opinion, the animation department "grew more and more corporate, and less like you had a personal touch".^[9]

In May 2002, Nicktoons TV, a sister channel named after Nicktoons, was created.

In 2016, Nickelodeon moved its animation facilities to a different building in Burbank that houses both animated and live-action properties.

List of Nicktoons

Image	Title	Premiere date	End date	Seasons	Episodes	Co-productions
	Doug	1991-08-11 August 11, 1991	1994-01-02 January 2, 1994	4[note 1]	52	Jumbo Pictures Ellipse Programmé
	Rugrats	1991-08-11 August 11, 1991	2004-08-01 August 1, 2004	9	172	Klasky-Csupo
	The Ren & Stimpy Show	1991-08-11 August 11, 1991	1996-10-20 October 20, 1996	5	52	Spumco
	Rocko's Modern Life	1993-09-18 September 18, 1993	1996-11-24 November 24, 1996	4	52	Joe Murray Productions
	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	1994-10-30 October 29, 1994	1997-11-16 November 16, 1997	4	52	Klasky-Csupo
	Hey Arnold!	1996-10-07 October 7, 1996	2004-06-08 June 8, 2004	5	100	Snee-Oosh
	The Angry Beavers	1997-04-19 April 19, 1997	2006-08-27 August 27, 2006	4	63	Gunther-Wahl Productions
	CatDog	1998-04-04 April 4, 1998	2005-06-15 June 15, 2005	4	68	Peter Hannan Productions
	The Wild Thornberrys	1998-09-01 September 1, 1998	2004-06-11 June 11, 2004	5	91	Klasky-Csupo
	SpongeBob SquarePants	1999-05-1 May 1, 1999	present	13	280	United Plankton Pictures
	Rocket Power	1999-08-16 August 16, 1999	2004-07-30 July 30, 2004	3	71	Anvision Klasky Csupo
	As Told by Ginger	2000-10-25 October 25, 2000	2006-11-14 November 14, 2006	3	60	Klasky-Csupo
	The Fairly OddParents	2001-03-30 March 30, 2001	2017-07-26 July 26, 2017	10	172	Frederator Studios Billionfold, Inc.
	Invader Zim	2001-03-30 March 30, 2001	2006-08-19 August 19, 2006	2	27	N/A
	ChalkZone	2002-03-22 March 22, 2002	2008-08-23 August 23, 2008	4	40	Frederator Studios
	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	2002-07-20 July 20, 2002	2006-11-25 November 25, 2006	3	64	O Entertainment DNA Productions
	All Grown Up!	2003-04-12 April 12, 2003	2008-08-17 August 17, 2008	5	55	Klasky-Csupo
	My Life as a Teenage Robot	2003-08-01 August 1, 2003	2009-05-02 May 2, 2009	3	40	Frederator Studios
	Danny Phantom	2004-04-03 April 3, 2004	2007-08-24 August 24, 2007	3	53	Billionfold, Inc.
	Avatar: The Last Airbender	2005-02-21 February 21, 2005	2008-07-17 July 19, 2008	3	61	DR Movie JM Animation MOI Animation
	Catscratch	2005-07-09 July 9, 2005	2007-02-10 February 10, 2007	1	20	N/A
	The X's	2005-11-25 November 25, 2005	2006-12-13 December 13, 2006	1	20	N/A
	El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera	2007-02-19 February 19, 2007	2008-09-13 September 13, 2008	1	26	Mexopolis, Inc.
	Tak and the Power of Juju	2007-08-31 August 31, 2007	2009-01-24 January 24, 2009	1	26	THQ
	Back at the Barnyard	2007-09-29 September 29, 2007	2011-11-12 November 12, 2011	2	52	O Entertainment
	The Mighty B!	2008-04-26 April 26, 2008	2011-06-18 June 18, 2011	2	40	Paper Kite Productions Polka Dot Pictures
	Making Fiends [note 2]	2008-10-04 October 4, 2008	2008-11-01 November 1, 2008	1	6	N/A
	Fanboy & Chum Chum	2009-10-12 October 12, 2009	2014-07-12 July 12, 2014	2	52	Frederator Studios
	Planet Sheen	2010-10-02 October 2, 2010	2013-02-15 February 15, 2013	1	26	O Entertainment
	T.U.F.F. Puppy	2010-10-02 October 2, 2010	2015-04-04 April 4, 2015	3	60	Billionfold, Inc.
	Winx Club [note 3]	2011-06-27 June 27, 2011	2016-04-10 April 10, 2016	3[note 4]	78	Rainbow SpA (co-owned by Viacom)
	The Legend of Korra	2012-04-14 April 14, 2012	2014-12-19 December 19, 2014	4	52	Ginormous Madman Productions Studio Mir
	Robot and Monster	2012-08-04 August 4, 2012	2015-02-14 February 14, 2015[10]	1	26	Smasho! Productions Lowbar Productions
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [note 5]	2012-09-28 September 28, 2012	2017-11-12 November 12, 2017	5	124	Lowbar Productions
	Sanjay and Craig	2013-05-25 May 25, 2013	2016-07-29 July 29, 2016	3	60	Forest City Rockers
	Breadwinners	2014-02-17 February 17, 2014	2016-09-12 September 12, 2016	2	40	N/A
	Harvey Beaks	2015-03-28 March 28, 2015	2017-12-29 December 29, 2017	2	52	N/A
	Pig Goat Banana Cricket	2015-07-16 July 16, 2015	2018-08-11 August 11, 2018	2	40	N/A
	The Loud House	2016-05-02 May 2, 2016	present	6	130 [11]	Jam Filled Entertainment
	Bunsen Is a Beast	2017-01-16 January 16, 2017	2018-02-10 February 10, 2018	1	26	Billionfold, Inc.
	Welcome to the Wayne [12]	2017-07-24 July 24, 2017	2019-05-31 May 31, 2019	2	30	Yowza! Animation
	The Adventures of Kid Danger	2018-01-15 January 15, 2018	2018-06-14 June 14, 2018	1	12	Powerhouse Animation Schneider's Bakery
	Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [note 5]	July 20, 2018	August 7, 2020	2	39 [13]	Flying Bark Productions
	Pinky Malinky [note 6]	January 1, 2019	July 17, 2019	3	60	Jam Filled Entertainment
	The Casagrandes	October 14, 2019	present	2	40	Jam Filled Entertainment
	It's Pony	January 18, 2020	present	2	40[14]	Blue-Zoo Animation Studio
	Glitch Techs [note 6]	February 21, 2020	present	2	19	Top Draw Animation

Upcoming Nicktoons

Image	Title	Premiere date	Ref(s)
	Adventures in Wonder Park	October 2020	[13]
	Kamp Koral, SpongeBob's Under Years	2021
	Middlemost Post	2021	[15]
	Star Trek: Prodigy	2021	[16]
	Rugrats (2021 TV series)	2021	[17]
	Man of the House	TBA
	Meet the Voxels	TBA
	Garfield	TBA
	Big Nate	TBA
	Real Pigeons Fight Crime	TBA	[18]
	Phoebe and Her Unicorn	TBA	[19]
	The Patrick Star Show	TBA	[20]

Animation showcases

The following three shows are usually excluded from Nickelodeon's lists of Nicktoons, as they heavily feature pilots that Nickelodeon does not own the rights to. Some shows that were spawned from these showcases were picked up by other networks, such as the KaBlam! segment Angela Anaconda (greenlit by Teletoon and Fox Kids) and the Random! Cartoons pilot "Adventure Time" (greenlit by Cartoon Network).

Image	Title	Premiere date	End date	Seasons	Episodes	Co-productions
	KaBlam!	1996-10-11 October 11, 1996	2000-01-22 January 22, 2000	4	48	Flying Mallet Inc.
	Oh Yeah! Cartoons	1998-07-19 July 19, 1998	2002 2002	3	34	Frederator Studios
	Random! Cartoons [note 2]	2008-12-06 December 6, 2008	2009-12-20 December 20, 2009	1	13	Frederator Studios

DreamWorks co-productions

The following shows were spun off from DreamWorks Animation's film franchises. While they were co-produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Viacom owns half of each show's copyright, Nickelodeon has excluded them from their Nicktoon compilations since 2016, when DreamWorks was purchased by NBCUniversal and stopped licensing their characters to Nick.

Logo	Title	Premiere date	End date	Seasons	Episodes
	The Penguins of Madagascar	2008-11-28 November 28, 2008	2016-01-04 January 4, 2016	3	80
	Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness	2011-09-19 September 19, 2011	2016-06-29 June 29, 2016	3	80
	Monsters vs. Aliens	2013-03-23 March 23, 2013	2014-02-08 February 8, 2014	1	26

Miniseries

The following miniseries were produced by Nick Animation, but they were never green-lit for full seasons.

Logo	Title	Premiere date	End date	Episodes	Co-productions
	Rugrats Pre-School Daze	2008-11-16 November 16, 2008	2008-12-7 December 7, 2008	4	Klasky Csupo
	Middle School Moguls	2008-9-2 September 2, 2019	2008-9-29 September 29, 2019	4	Gengirl Media, Inc.

Acquired shows

Please see Non-original shows broadcast by Nickelodeon for a list of cartoons that have aired on a Nick channel but were not produced by Nickelodeon.

Movies based on Nicktoons

Theatrical films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on
	The Rugrats Movie	1998-11-20 November 20, 1998	Paramount Pictures / Klasky Csupo	Rugrats
	Rugrats in Paris: The Movie	2000-11-17 November 17, 2000
	Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius	December 21, 2001	Paramount Pictures / O Entertainment	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
	Hey Arnold!: The Movie	2002-06-28 June 28, 2002	Paramount Pictures / Snee-Oosh / Nickelodeon Animation Studios	Hey Arnold!
	The Wild Thornberrys Movie	2002-12-20 December 20, 2002	Paramount Pictures / Klasky Csupo	The Wild Thornberrys
	Rugrats Go Wild	2003-06-13 June 13, 2003		Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys
	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	2004-11-19 November 19, 2004	Paramount Pictures / United Plankton Pictures	SpongeBob SquarePants
	Barnyard	August 4, 2006	Paramount Pictures / O Entertainment	Back at the Barnyard
	The Last Airbender	2010-07-01 July 1, 2010	Paramount Pictures / Blinding Edge Pictures	Avatar: The Last Airbender
	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water	2015-02-06 February 6, 2015	Paramount Pictures / Paramount Animation / United Plankton Pictures	SpongeBob SquarePants
	Wonder Park	2019-03-15 March 15, 2019	Paramount Animantion / Ilion Animation Studios	Adventures in Wonder Park

Upcoming theatrical films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on	Source
	The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run	2020-08-14 August 14, 2020	Paramount Pictures / Paramount Animation / United Plankton Pictures	SpongeBob SquarePants	[21][22]

Direct-to-video and made-for-TV films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on
	Jimmy Timmy Power Hour	2004-05-07 May 7, 2004	O Entertainment / DNA Productions / Frederator Studios	Jimmy Neutron and The Fairly OddParents
	Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2: When Nerds Collide!	2006-01-16 January 16, 2006
	Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators!	2006-07-21 July 21, 2006
	Rugrats Tales from the Crib: Snow White	2005-09-17 September 17, 2005	Paramount Home Entertainment / Klasky Csupo	Rugrats
	Rugrats Tales from the Crib: Three Jacks and a Beanstalk	2006-06-05 September 5, 2006
	A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!	2011-07-09 July 9, 2011	Pacific Bay Entertainment / Frederator Studios / Billionfold, Inc.	The Fairly OddParents
	A Fairly Odd Christmas	2012-11-29 November 29, 2012
	A Fairly Odd Summer	2014-08-02 August 2, 2014
	Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past	2015-11-22 November 22, 2015	Nickelodeon Animation Studios	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
	Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie	2017-11-24 November 24, 2017	Snee-Oosh	Hey Arnold!

Television on net films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on
	Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling	August 9, 2019	Joe Murray Productions	Rocko's Modern Life
	Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus	August 16, 2019	Maven Animation Studio	Invader Zim

Upcoming direct-to-video and made-for-TV films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on	Source
	The Loud House: A Very Loud Christmas!	December 2020	N/A	The Loud House	[23]

Upcoming television on net films

Image	Title	Release date	Co-production	Based on	Source
	The Loud House Movie	2021	Jam Filled Entertainment	The Loud House	[24][25]
	Untitled Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie	TBA	Flying Bark Productions	Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	[24]

Trivia

• SpongeBob SquarePants currently holds the record for longest-running Nicktoon, which had previously been held by Rugrats, surpassing that show's run (in terms of number of episodes) when SpongeBob aired its 172nd episode on April 10, 2012. However, with two spin-offs, Rugrats still has the most shows featuring its characters as of 2019.
  • The Rugrats Pre-School Daze miniseries holds the record for shortest-lived Nicktoon (18 days in the U.S. and just 5 in the United Kingdom) and the least amount of episodes (4).
• The Fairly OddParents was the first Nicktoon to ever reach ten seasons, even before SpongeBob SquarePants, which was still in its ninth season, when the first episode of Season 10, "The Big Fairy Share Scare!" premiered.
• The ninth season of SpongeBob SquarePants took almost five years to air all 26 episodes, lasting from July 21, 2012 to February 20, 2017. This is the longest time a single Nicktoon season has lasted on the main Nickelodeon channel.
• Several Nicktoons have never finished airing on the main Nickelodeon network. As an example, two episodes of As Told by Ginger remain unaired in the United States as of 2019.
• In North America, almost all Nicktoons are distributed on home video by Paramount, which has been a subsidiary of Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom since 1994.
  • From August 1993 to October 1996, all Nicktoon videotapes (and all Nickelodeon videotapes in general) were distributed by Sony Wonder.
  • Shout! Factory has held the home video distribution rights to Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, The Angry Beavers, CatDog, The Wild Thornberrys and Danny Phantom since May 2011. Shout! also had the video rights for Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life from then until 2018, at which point their rights reverted to Paramount.
  • After DreamWorks Animation ended all partnerships with Viacom, distribution rights for their three Nicktoon co-productions (The Penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, and Monsters vs. Aliens) transferred to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, who released all of the Legends of Awesomeness and Monsters vs. Aliens DVDs.
• Most Nicktoons are majority-produced in the United States with their final animation processes outsourced to service companies in South Korea. Exceptions include:
  • The Nickelodeon episodes of Doug, co-produced with the French studio Ellipse Programmé (or Ellipsanime).
  • The Nickelodeon episodes of Winx Club, co-produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and their Italian sister company (through Viacom), Rainbow Group. Nick Animation handled script writing, voice recording, animation approval, and some of the music production while coordinating with the Italian team.
• As it is technically a live-action show, Mr. Meaty has not been recognized as an official Nicktoon. It is still a Viacom-owned production.
• When Nickelodeon repackaged the Action League Now! shorts into a half-hour block, the "new" show was occasionally advertised among the full-fledged Nicktoons. The package show is otherwise excluded from all of Nick's Nicktoon lists, and it was not produced by Nick Animation.

Brand logos

August-November 1991

November 1991-1998 (primary)
November 1991-2009 (secondary)

1998-1999

1999-2000

2000-2002

2002-2005

Circular version of the 2002 logo.

Alternate version of the 2002 logo.

Another alternate version of the 2002 logo.

Yet another alternate version of the 2002 logo.

Different version of the 2002 logo.

2005-2009

2009-present

Add a photo to this gallery

See also

• Nickelodeon Movies
• Nicktoons (TV channel)

References

Notes

1. ↑ Only the first four seasons were produced by Nickelodeon.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Premiered exclusively on Nicktoons Network.
3. ↑ Viacom bought the Winx Club franchise before producing new seasons at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Nickelodeon's packaging guide officially calls the show a Nicktoon.
4. ↑ Seasons 5–7 (three seasons in total) were produced at Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Viacom bought the TMNT franchise before producing a new series at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Nickelodeon's packaging guide officially calls the show a Nicktoon.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Produced at Nickelodeon Animation Studios; Distribution rights owned by streaming service Netflix.