A Cartoon for Every Season
Monday, 25 November 2024
As we move into these last colder months in the year, I find myself staying inside more nights, curling up under a warm blanket to watch television with friends. In these watches, I tend toward animation, wanting for the coziness or comfort those provide when the weather is harsh. This list doubles as my cartoon recommendation list of all time, as these are shows I have found myself rewatching very often since I first saw them. Some of them are newer additions, while others I’ve been watching annually for a decade now.
Fall: Over the Garden Wall
Starting off with the most obvious choice on the list, Over the Garden Wall is the perfect seasonal time capsule. This show is absolutely stunning, with rich colors and vibrant character designs atop sprawling, autumnal landscapes. The sense of ambience is captured so perfectly in the visuals and music, and this is complemented by storytelling that deals with themes and motifs of death, place, uncertainty, adolescence, and time. It is whimsical and eerie at the same time, which brings us into the spooky months but retains an air of fantasy that still feels warm. This is the perfect watch for any month in fall, as it can usher you into the season or out of it. I always think it feels very November, for reasons that are obvious once you’ve seen it, and so that is when I suggest to watch it.
Winter: Infinity Train
The format of this show is what makes it so perfect for the winter. Infinity Train has four seasons, each of which follow a different set of characters aboard the train. It doesn’t have the ambience of the other shows on this list and instead is more character-driven, specifically by way of their development. Each of the stories follows a similar format, with a character boarding and leaving the train, growing as a person or people along the way. I like to watch it in winter because it brings up all those feelings of newness, when things might be feeling stagnant and eternal. This show is perfect to watch in installments, cuddling up for a day in with one of the seasons.
Spring: Bee and PuppyCat
The weatherless, island setting makes this a strange choice for spring, I think, but I’ve yet to find a cartoon for the warming months I like better than this. There is something to be said about wanting for comfort in the rain, and that is what Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space is to me. This show is sweet and funny, and just downright cozy. At many points, it prioritizes feelings and ambience over plot, though this element is not discarded. I struggle to describe it another way, so I must compare it to a cozy game. The formulaic episodic format and method of introducing and solving issues mean that the writing and visuals really get to stand out. It’s loose enough with its plot that you can watch it over the course of a few weeks or months, which means it can be a nice treat every once-in-a-while during the busyness of spring.
Summer: Adventure Time
Living so much of my life in California, I am used to extremely long, extremely hot summers. Adventure Time is the perfect watch for a summer that lasts most of the year, and I suppose I’m used to the habit. This show is a classic for a reason, and it is long, which means that it’s great to stretch out over the course of several months. I would probably go as far as to say this is my favorite cartoon of all time, though I struggle to put into words what makes it so amazing. I think it is mainly a matter of watching the show grow up, that you see the world and the characters go on these journeys over the course of ten seasons (more if you watch Distant Lands and Fiona and Cake) and become something entirely new. It presents this fantasy world that allows all sorts of themes to come up: growing up, creation, relationships with other people, identity, and (most of all) change. Now that I’m living somewhere new with different weather patterns, I find myself slowly watching it into winter, and I’m not convinced I’ll finish it before then. Despite this, it reminds me of summer and in that, it reminds me of home.
Honorable Mentions
If you’re still looking for a few things to watch during the year, I want to point out some other animated favorites of mine that deserve a mention. These are all great movies and shows that I love, though don’t rewatch with as much regularity as the ones that made the final list.
For autumn, I’ll break the rules a little (not for the last time) and recommend Paranorman. This is a LAIKA film that follows a young boy who can see ghosts during a zombie uprising. It makes use of these gorgeous character designs and strong aesthetic choices to mimic the feeling of a start-of-fall slasher, but stays firmly rooted in its genre as a family movie. The soundtrack is also absolutely gorgeous, and I would totally give it a listen if you’re looking for something new. It didn’t make the list because it feels so Halloween, but this is actually a huge strength of the movie when it comes to creating a distinct sense.
For spring, I’d love to point out Moomin (1990) and Moominvalley (2019). These are both excellent adaptations of Tove Jansson's Moomin books, and deal with the seasons as a whole as a means of narrative orientation. The traditional beginning of each season will place us in spring, when the Moomins wake up from hibernation and Snufkin returns to Moominvalley, although we see some divergence from this format as Moomintroll grows older. These are slow, sweet shows full of excellent seasonal ambience and beautiful visuals through two very different styles of animation.
For summer, I am once again suggesting a movie, in this case Spirited Away. Of course Studio Ghibli makes these incredible, ambient worlds in most of their films, but this movie has always been my favorite of theirs. It has the characteristic beautiful animation, gorgeous soundtrack, and engaging storyline, but it really takes all of these elements to their extremes.