Cartoon Time Machine

Katie has asked Scarlett to watch a lot of international animated films, but this one from the same team that brought you “Fantastic Planet” is…hmmm. Not “Fantastic Planet.” Tune in as the Ani-Mates discuss “Gandahar,” ask big questions like "what is Christopher Plummer doing here", and try to figure out just what exactly is going on here and why the Amazon subtitles are so very bad.

On this positively cracking episode of Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates discuss the newest Wallace & Gromit film, “Vengeance Most Fowl.” Feathers McGraw is back and out for revenge! Can our plucky claymation heroes save the day once more? Or, more accurately, will that job fall entirely on the long-suffering Gromit? Ah, it feels like coming home… if your home was the British countryside rendered entirely in modeling clay.

It’s time for another Cartoon Clash, where we pit some of our favorite animated characters against each other in a 1v1 tournament to see which one is the ultimate champion. Will Scarlett actually win one of these? Or has Katie come up with another ludicrously OP character to take home the champion’s belt? We don’t actually have a belt, it’s theoretical. Just like Scarlett’s chances of winning.

The Dragon Prince is back for one final (?) season! Does season 7 of the hit Netflix animated series stick the landing? Or will this tale of fantasy, dark magic, dragon politics, and rad lesbian queens go down in flames? Find out on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine!

We’re starting off 2025 right by playing our “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” style game where we click through IMDb until we connect a random animated series with a specific prolific voice actor. This time, we’re hunting for Eric Bauza, frequent Looney Tunes star and general man-about-town of animation.

It’s our last episode of 2024! As is tradition, the Ani-Mates ring in the new year by discussing the next year in animation. What does 2025 have in store for us in the cartoon world? Tune in to find out!

Friend of the podcast Jack is back to talk about the second season of the hit Netflix animated series “Arcane”! They discuss the gays, robot messiahs, and found family with your resurrected wolf man father.

To celebrate the holiday season, the Ani-Mates are tapping into one of the best parts of this time of year: the music! Unfortunately, many classic holiday songs don’t have animated specials to go with them. Katie and Scarlett are here to change that with their pitches to create the next “Rudolph” or “Frosty the Snowman.” Which songs deserve their day in the cartoon spotlight? Find out on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine!

Katie is out this week, so Producer Rachel is here to talk with Scarlett about Moana 2! Does the sequel to the popular 2016 Disney animated film live up to the high expectations set by the original? Or should we tell it to “Get Lost”?

The holiday season is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than by re-gifting a beloved cartoon! In the biz, we call that a “reboot”. But this isn’t just any installment of “Pitch That Reboot.” We’re putting a holiday spin on our pitches by pitching a holiday special for one of our favorite animated series, Gravity Falls! Do these pitches belong on the nice list? Or will they be getting a lump of coal in their stocking?

Happy Thanksgiving! This week on Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates talk about an animated movie that should become a Thanksgiving staple alongside the turkey, stuffing, and that weird thing Americans do where we put marshmallows on potatoes for some reason. That’s right, it’s Wes Anderson’s stop motion classic “Fantastic Mr. Fox”! Join us as we learn about family, forgiveness, and how all crime is justifiable under late-stage capitalism.

It’s our four-year anniversary! Time has flown, but we alway come back to the show that inspired us to make this podcast: Animaniacs! For this anniversary, we’re celebrating the little things. Not the full segments but the little vaudevillian bumpers that padded the runtime and warmed our hearts. Join Katie and Scarlett as they talk about their favorite Animaniacs interstitials. Will this be a good idea or a bad idea? Find out on this special anniversary episode of Cartoon Time Machine!

It’s your turn to roll as we dive back into the Legend of Vox Machina, the animated series based on the Critical Role Dungeons & Dragons actual play campaign. The Ani-Mates have gathered their own D&D party once again to discuss the third season of the show and yup you clocked that runtime correctly! In the time it takes to fight an ancient red dragon, the party will discuss deviations from the actual play, hot demon daddies, and exactly how sad we want to make our main characters. Get your character sheets ready, because it’s gonna be a long nerdy night!

Katie is out this week, which means friend of the show Jack will be joining Scarlett to talk about the new animated film from DreamWorks, “The Wild Robot.” This movie is being hailed as one of the best movies of the year, but does "Lilo & Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon” director Chris Sanders bring the heat? Find out on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine…and then call your mom and tell her you love her.

Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spookiest day of the year, the Ani-Mates are dusting off an old childhood classic that you may remember airing on Cartoon Network back in the early 2000s. No, it wasn’t a fever dream, it’s “Scary Godmother”, and this CGI animated special is very real. Does it hold up to modern scrutiny? Or is the uncanny valley the scariest thing about it? 

Welcome to a Monster Mash of a Cartoon Clash! Katie and Scarlett continue their celebration of the Halloween season by pitting some of their favorite cartoon monsters against each other to see who wins in a Halloween head-to-head fight! And in the meantime, we’ll see how many rhymes for “mash” Katie can come up with.

Spooky season is officially upon us, which means it’s time to start thinking about our costumes! Katie and Scarlett break down all the cartoon-themed costumes they’d love to try out, as well as some that would work for a group or a couple…assuming they could convince others to join in the fun!

Welcome to the timeless tale of the hubris of man, in which someone makes a deal with the devil and receives a terrible curse in return. Of course this is referring to the deal Scarlett made with Katie which led to Katie showing her various surrealist Czech films. The strange film up for discussion today is “Faust”, where puppets and stop motion mix with live action to create just…just the wildest ride.

The Ani-Mates are back with their Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon-style game where they scour IMDb to see how many clicks it takes to connect a random animated series with a prolific voice actor. This week: relative newcomer Max Mittelman!

It’s back to school time! Well…not for Scarlett, but for Katie and a lot of other people! Join the Ani-Mates as they discuss cartoon schools and the highs and lows of the animated education system!

Happy 200th Episode! What better way to celebrate 200 episodes of Cartoon Time Machine than with a little early Christmas present for ourselves? Resident Christmas Carol expert Beth joins the Ani-Mates to discuss the holiday classic Muppets Christmas Carol, objectively the best Christmas Carol adaptation and honorary animated film. ...Let us have this, we made 200 episodes.

Fall is almost here, and that means its time to cozy up with some good food, gather your friends and…go on a dungeon crawl? That’s right, this week the Ani-Mates delve into the first season of the hit anime “Delicious in Dungeon” to see what sorts of monsters are cooking. Oh, and also Scarlett may be wrong about soup.  

Let’s talk about SPORTS! Scarlett knows nothing about sports, so she’s called in a ringer in their friend and sports-enthusiast Dylan, who is here to talk about the various ways the worlds of cartoons and sports have intermingled over the years and how they may continue to interact in the future. 

The Ani-Mates are back with some more Moon Girl Magic! On this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine, Katie and Scarlett talk the first half (?) of Season 2 of the Marvel animated series. They’ll discuss pre-teen love, PTSD, and lesbian desert scientists. 

It may be a Tale as Old as Time, but Beauty and the Beast is also another Disney movie Katie hasn’t seen! Scarlett takes it upon herself to educate her fellow Ani-Mate…and also get on a soapbox. Or two. Or three. Listen, Scarlett has a lot of feelings about this movie, okay? Tune in to Cartoon Time Machine and find out why women will always choose the bear!

This week, the Ani-Mates return to the world of Xadia where, after two pretty disappointing seasons, it’s time to talk about Season Six of the Netflix animated series, The Dragon Prince. Is this season a breath of fresh air? Or has the time come for this show to go up in dragon smoke?

This week on Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates pitch their ideas for a reboot of the beloved PBS series, Arthur, which only recently finished up its historic 25 season run. But like…we can do better, right?

This week the Ani-Mates hop into the time machine to visit 1980s Hungary with Fehérlófia or The Son of the White Mare by Marcell Jankovics. Join the discussion on how animation can be the perfect media for simple stories.

This week, the Ani-Mates are flying the Cartoon Time Machine to a summer picnic, and they’re inviting all their favorite cartoon characters! Who brings the best food? Who remembered to provide plates and utensils? And most importantly, does anyone stay to help clean up after? Find out on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine!

It’s time to head to summer camp as the Ani-Mates discuss the first season of “Kamp Koral”, the SpongeBob “Muppet Babies”-esque spin-off that the original creators definitely wanted to happen!

Summer is finally here and this week, the Ani-Mates beat the heat by talking about Luca, the Pixar film about childhood summers, sea monsters, and Vespas. Does this film represent the best of our childhood memories? Or is it all wet?

Katie is out this week, so honorary Ani-Mate and specialist in all things nerdy Jack returns to share his thoughts on the new animated series “X-Men ’97”. Is this follow-up to the beloved 90s cartoon a worthy successor to what many believe to be one of the greatest superhero cartoons of all time? Is the theme song still an unprecedented bop (spoiler alert: it is)? And will there be plenty of characters to feel bisexually about? I mean…it’s the X-Men, so yes.

This week on Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates talk Inside Out 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2015 Pixar film. Does the new film live up to the high standards set by the first? Or does this emotional roller coaster go off the rails? Find out on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine!

Well, I guess we had to watch The Garfield Movie. Join the Ani-Mates as they welcome the newest Garfield brood…it will make sense in context. Sort of.

This week on Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates discuss the latest season of the Monsters, Inc. spinoff series “Monsters at Work.” How does Season 2 compare to the previous season? What new and returning characters will make an appearance? And will mediocre white men (or purple monsters) continue failing upward?

It’s time for another Cartoon Clash! The Ani-Mates have each set forth six animated challengers to go head-to-head in a 101 battle. Who will be the cartoon champion? Will one of Katie’s ridiculous choices actually go through? And will Scarlett actually say the right name of her pick? Tune in to this week’s episode to find out!

This week, the Ani-Mates play another round of their “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”-inspired game as they click their way through IMDB to see who can find prolific voice actress Jennifer Hale the quickest. 

On this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates return to the world of Bluey to discuss the latest arc that has taken the world by storm, including the series’ first 28-minute special, "The Sign.” They discuss the struggles of moving, casual Australian drinking culture, and when it is and is not appropriate to ship seven-year-olds (it’s never, the correct answer is never).

Everyone loves a crossover, right? From the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour to that time Uncle Grandpa appeared on Steven Universe—remember Uncle Grandpa??—crossovers give our favorite cartoons the chance to interact with a whole new set of worlds and characters. So on this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates pitch their ideas for some more crossovers that we’d love to see happen for our favorite animated shows. 

On this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates discuss Iwaju, the first long-form animated series from Disney Animation Studios and their first co-production with British-African studio Kugali Media. Katie and Scarlett talk Afro-Futurism, diversity in animation, and why robo attack lizards make the best pets.

The Cartoon Time Machine has taken the Ani-Mates to a lot of fascinating animated worlds, so on this episode, Katie and Scarlett discuss which of these cartoon worlds they would most want to live in. And, importantly, which ones wouldn’t kill them instantly.

This week on Cartoon Time Machine, we present another edition of “Katie Watches Disney,” where Scarlett shows Katie a classic Disney film that Katie has somehow missed out on. This week, we’re looking at the Renaissance girl-power classic “Mulan”…or as Katie calls it “G-rated Blue Eye Samurai."

The Cartoon Time Machine becomes a confessional as the Ani-Mates discuss their favorite animated guilty pleasures, the movies and shows that they can’t help loving even if no one else does.

On this week’s episode of Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates once again play a game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” with popular voice actors. How many clicks will it take them to get from any cartoon's IMDB page to find a connection to veteran voice actor and pure perfect human Ashley Johnson? Tune in to find out!

Welcome to this week’s episode of Live-Action Time Machine! Yes, I said Live-Action. It’s always been a podcast to discuss live-action shows. Ignore the title above, that’s a misprint. Look, who are you going to believe, your own memory or a podcast summary? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, this week, the Live-Action Mates are discussing the new Netflix series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender”, an adaptation of the original film made by M. Night Shyamalan. That’s the only other version. We promise.

This week on Cartoon Time Machine, the Ani-Mates discuss the Netflix animated series, “Blue Eye Samurai.” Can this beautifully animated show live up to the hype? 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This year, the Ani-Mates celebrate with Cartoon Saloon’s classic Irish-folklore inspired film, “The Secret of Kells.” Does this film have the Luck of the Irish, like Tom Moore’s other animated films? Or does this first film from the studio need all the beginner’s luck it can get?

It’s Cartoon Clash time once again! The Ani-Mates have each set forth six cartoon challengers to battle each other in a one-on-one tournament to determine which one has the strength to beat all animated adversaries and become the champion! Competitors this time include a robotic war criminal and *checks notes* just…a piece of inanimate wood. Huh. This should be interesting. 

It’s almost Oscars time, which means it’s time for the Ani-Mates to talk about the five feature animated films that are up for Academy Awards this year. Which ones have the best chance of taking home the golden statuette? And which ones really just deserve a participation trophy?

With Oscar season right around the corner, Scarlett has managed to watch all five animated short films nominated for Academy Awards this year. Since they’re not the easiest for everyone to find, hop into the Cartoon Time Machine to hear what they’re all about!