The March Madness Cartoon Bracket

            I love March Madness.  I love filling out my bracket, and I love watching it unfold over the month.  Hell, I even love the selection show.  In the spirit of one of the best times of the year, we are kicking off the Eat @ Shrimpy’s inaugural bracket.  We start right out of the gates with the best American cartoons of all time, chosen by you.  Joining me in the analysis of this bracket is my brother Nik.

            A note about the selection and seeding process.  Cartoons were chosen on a few different criteria.  First, their longevity.  If they were only on the air for a year or two and quickly forgotten, they weren’t generally used, or if they were they were not given a high seed.  Some cartoons were only on for a short period of time but blew the doors off in terms of merchandising opportunities (as well as the fact that many of the single years of cartoons back in the 80’s consisted of at least two to three years worth of cartoons nowadays).  These were not only considered, but were given a higher seed over their weaker brethren. 

            I tried to limit using cartoons that came over from established comic book franchises like Marvel or DC.  You will see The Tick and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in there, but those properties didn’t really blow up until after the cartoons were on the air (and in many cases did so because of the cartoon).  This is also why you don’t see something like Garfield and Friends, as that started out with the comic strip and migrated over to television. 

            The cartoons were categorized in the time period that they premiered, not necessarily in the time period that they were well known for.  For example, Yogi Bear is probably more prominently known from the 1960’s, The Simpsons from the 1990’s, and yet the premiered one year before the turn of that decade, putting them in a different category.

            I tried to cut down on redundancies as well.  This is why you will see Animaniacs, but no Pinky & the Brain, Family Guy, but not American Dad, and so on. 

            Okay.  That was my thought process in terms of picking the “teams” in the tournament.  The regions were broken up chronologically.  Let’s take a look at those.

Okay Nik, before we get into the breakdown of the individual matchups, what’s your general thoughts on the bracket itself?  Do you think the seedings are accurate?  What are your predictions? We’ll pick our projected winner of each region, a big upset and a potential sleeper pick (from the lower seeds) that could come out of nowhere and shock the world. 

Nik:

I have no clue what the seedings are, so I guess that’s fine. I think, overall, it’s fine. Some seem unfair, but when you pair anything up to the really solid ones, it’s just no contest.

Region one - Pre-1960:

Matt:

            A lot of these are the classics that we know and love.  Mickey Mouse is just a general term for any of the Disney cartoons using him during this time period (Steamboat Willie, etc.) as there wasn’t a generalized title for Disney’s stable of characters like there was for their Warner Brothers counterparts. 

You could probably make the case that this will come down to Mickey Mouse vs. Bugs Bunny for the title in this region (and it still might) but there are some heavyweights here that could trip up either of our top two seeds.  Hell, after the first round, I’d say Mickey will have a hard time winning against most any of the lower seeds faced.  Looney Tunes has an easier road (as number one seeds usually do) but there is still a little uncertainty there.  I will still go with Bugs to pull it out in the end though.  You can’t beat the old Looney Tunes cartoons.

Winner:  Looney Tunes (1)

Sleeper:  Rocky and Bullwinkle (10)

Upset:  I see Rocky and Bullwinkle (10) beating out Mickey Mouse (2) in round two. 

Nik:

Winner: Mickey Mouse (2)

Sleeper: Tom & Jerry (5)

Upset: Though they’ll make it close, I see the Mouse trumping the Bunny right near the end.

Region two – 1960’s – 1970’s:

Matt:

            This can pretty much be dubbed the Hanna Barbera bracket as the majority of those characters are from that company during this time period. 

This region is tough because a lot of the cartoons are pretty similar and may wind up cancelling each other out in the end.  I kind of like Scooby Doo to take this region, but if something like the Chipmunks or Fat Albert picks up some steam, I could easily see them winning. 

Winner:  Scooby Doo (2)

Sleeper:  Chipmunks (5)

Upset:  Chipmunks (5) over The Flintstones (1) in round three.

Nik:

I really have to agree with Matt on this one.

Region three - 1980’s:

Matt:

            This was originally going to be a combo region but there were so many good cartoons in the 80’s.  This is really where longevity and merchandising come into play as Transformers beat out The Simpsons by the slimmest of margins solely based on the fact the Robots in Disguise series has an extra five years on Bart and Homer (1984-1989). 

This was the toughest division to pick and to seed.  There are so many good shows here and I can easily see the winner of the whole tournament coming from this region.  This is also the region that seems to be the most divided by gender.  Boys would probably lean more toward He-Man while girls would lean toward Rainbow Brite I would assume.  Conventional wisdom has Transformers and The Simpsons duking it out for the title, but this region is a toss up.  I have a feeling if Duck Tales can make it past The Simpsons in the second round, they could run the table.

Winner:  The Simpsons (2)

Sleeper:  Duck Tales (10)

Upset:  Either Duck Tales (10) over The Simpsons (2) in round two or Real Ghostbusters (11) over Thundercats (6) in round one

Nik:

Winner: The Simpsons (2)

Sleeper: Transformers (1)

Upset: I see these 2 going right to the end. And if either one loses, it’s going to be an upset.

Region four – 1990’s – Current:

Matt:

            This region features a lot more “adult” cartoons than any of the other regions as the people that grew up with all of the cartoons in previous regions started making their own, and something that they wanted to see instead of pandering to kids. 

The only thing that will disappoint me about this region is if Family Guy wins.  Other than that I’d be okay with any outcome.  I would love to see Archer go far, but it’s hard to see it even making it past Animaniacs in the first round.  This region is hard to pick just because there doesn’t seem to be a “best show”, just a lot of really good ones.  I’ll probably have to go with King of the Hill in a narrow victory.

Winner: King of the Hill (2)

Sleeper:  Animaniacs (5)

Upset:  There could be a couple early round surprises here, but I could easily see Animaniacs (5) take down South Park (1) in the third round.

Nik:

Winner: South Park (1)

Sleeper: Archer(12)

Upset: Whenever Futurama (4) loses, I will be upset.

Matt’s Final Four:

Looney Tunes (1)

Scooby Doo (2)

The Simpsons (2)

King of the Hill (2)

Projected Winner:  It’ll be Looney Tunes and The Simpsons in the final with a narrow victory going to Springfield’s first family over our tournament #1 seed.

Nik’s Final Four:

Mickey Mouse (2)

Scooby Doo (2)

The Simpsons (2)

South Park (1)

Projected Winner: I’m going with The Simpsons and South Park being ridiculously close, but Springfield beats the Park in the end.

Nik:’s note: Much to my chagrin, I did not see The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,  Chowder, or Adventure Time on the Modern Day list. If you’re looking for wacky kids’ cartoons with jokes for adults, look no further. I will seriously drop everything to watch them if any of them are on tv.

Also some honorable mentions of equally amazing caliber: Invader Zim (Matt’s note:  I kicked myself when I was doing the bracket breakdown and realized that I missed Zim, off to the Cartoon Bracket NIT for them I guess), Clone High, Pokemon and/or Digimon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Venture Brothers, Robot Chicken (considered a cartoon?)

No joke – check them all out if you haven’t already.

Okay, that’s the initial breakdown.  To vote, just leave the names of the winners in the comments section, email me at shrimpman53@yahoo.com, or find me on facebook.  Voting will be open from Monday through midnight eastern time on Friday.  After that the votes will be tallied and we’ll get you an updated bracket with further analysis the following Monday.  Feel free to print the brackets out, ask around, poll your friends on who they think should win, or just send them here to vote themselves.  Feel free to start a rousing discussion of who should win in the comments as well, those are always fun.  Let’s just keep it civil, no one should be calling anyone else a doody-head.

            We will be back later in the day today with a matchup-by-matchup breakdown and who we think will prevail.  Until then, happy voting!