From shield-wielding warrior princesses to talking horses, hard sci-fi and crude-talking teens – Netflix Original animated series cater for anyone’s tastes…
“Animation is not a genre. Animation is an artform and it can do any genre.”
As director of The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, Brad Bird should know what he’s talking about – and looking at how the medium’s evolved over the last 30 years, it’s impossible to disagree.
As recently as the early ’90s, cartoons were still widely regarded as something for the kids. Since then, however, The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park have paved the way for more adult-oriented animation on TV, while the groundbreaking likes of Pixar, DreamWorks and Laika have pushed the boundaries of what animators can achieve on screen.
These days animation is a broad church taking in everything from comedy for pre-schoolers to sophisticated examinations of the human soul. As with its live-action programming, Netflix’s animated content explores a huge range of styles, genres and themes – and a lot of its shows are absolutely essential viewing.
In this list, TechRadar has brought together 15 of the best Netflix Original animated series you can watch right now – whether you’re into gritty sci-fi, family comedy or sword-wielding warrior princesses, there’s something for you here.
The original She-Ra was a spin-off from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, an ’80s cartoon that was much better at flogging toys than telling stories. Few seriously believed it needed a comeback, until this hit Netflix show proved otherwise. Series creator Noelle Stevenson put the emphasis on reinvention, crafting a fun, intelligent, sophisticated saga that couldn’t be further from the po-faced source material.
With He-Man nowhere to be seen, twin sister Adora takes centre stage, wielding the magic sword that turns her into She-Ra and displaying refreshingly 21st century attitudes to representation. The kind of Saturday morning cartoon you encourage your kids to watch.
With the likes of Black Mirror, a rebooted Twilight Zone and Inside No 9, the anthology series has gone through something of a renaissance in recent years. The genius at the heart of Love, Death + Robots, however, is that by telling its one-off tales via the medium of animation, the show has ensured its only limitations are the imaginations of its writers.
Luckily it has an ingenious plan for navigating that particular obstacle – adapting short stories from some of the finest genre authors on the planet, Peter F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds and John Scalzi among them. Among the best sci-fi currently on TV.
After creating The Simpsons, Matt Groening would have been forgiven for throwing away his pencil and stepping away from animation for good. Thank goodness he didn’t, because then we wouldn’t have been treated to the peerless 31st century adventures of Futurama – or Disenchantment, a deliciously twisted take on epic fantasy.
With plenty of trademark Groening overbites, lots of pop culture references, and some razor-sharp skewering of the modern world, there’s no doubt the new show comes from the same stable as its predecessors. But it’s also home to more grown-up themes, and boasts a more serialized arc plot – perfect for the era of binge TV.
A cartoon about a talking horse who was once the star of his own hit sitcom? BoJack Horseman looked – on paper, at least – like it was going to be the height of silliness when it cantered onto Netflix back in 2014. Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s undefinable show has been defying expectations ever since, evolving from a hilariously acerbic satire on Hollywood – albeit one where animals and humans live alongside one another – into something much more ambitious.
By turns funny, bleak and toe-curlingly awkward (and sometimes even heartwarming), few TV shows have ever delved further into the human (and equine) condition.
