Most of our readers probably have been (or still are) fans of Nickelodeon and the many shows that have come from this kids network. Launched in 1977, it was the first cable channel for kids and continues to be one of the most popular channels for them. The first original animated series debuted in 1991; that's the era where we got our Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Doug and all the other cartoons that pretty much defined childhood in the '90s.
In the 2000s, Nickelodeon was still going strong and brought us even more tv series and cartoons that shaped a generation. We got live action shows like Drake & Josh, and Ned's Declassified, along with new animated shows like The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and Spongebob Squarepants. The 2000s also brought us the sister channel of Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, which featured animations from Nickelodeon's own studios and from outside animation studios. It featured animated series all day, every day, running the more familiar "classics" and debuting new cartoon series.
It was pretty cool to be a Nicktoons fan, but it was also a dark one as many of the worst-rated Nicktoons aired during this time. Now, of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and if some of our viewers genuinely enjoyed any of the Nicktoons on our list, more power to them. What is considered "good" or "bad" is entirely up to the individual, even as we made this list we found quite a few people who disagreed with the low-ratings and bad reviews of quite a few of these Nicktoons series. But in our opinion, these are 25 Nicktoons Shows Fans Pretend Don't Exist.
25 Alvin!!! And The Chipmunks
Watch out cause here they come. It's been a while but... are they back in style? Of course, we're talking about the Nicktoons show Alvin!!! And The Chipmunks, the newest rendition of the anamorphic animated band. The plot is generally the same as with the older Chimpmunks cartoons, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore live with their adopted human father Dave, who has to deal with the wacky antics (often caused by Alvin) and trouble that seems to follow the boys. While nostalgia might have us remembering the old animated series fondly the new CGI makes this one really weird.
24 Back At The Barnyard
Does anyone remember the 2006 Nickelodeon film Barnyard? Probably not, but unfortunately quite a few Nicktoons fans probably remember the cartoon spinoff of that movie, Back at the Barnyard. For those that don't know, Back at the Barnyard is about Otis, a male cow (yes, not a bull or a steer but a male cow, look at the udders), who is the leader of the barnyard. It doesn't follow any of the canon from the original Barnyard movie which is weird since the series seemed to require the viewer to have watched the movie.
23 Breadwinners
A cartoon about two ducks delivering bread is a weird premise, but could lead to something interesting. It is too bad that the Nicktoons show Breadwinners doesn't pull that off. The show is about SwaySway and Buhdeuce who fly around in a rocket-powered van delivering bread to the citizens of Pondgea. It has a pretty low rating of 2.9 out of 10 stars on IMBD with most reviewers finding the humor weak, the animation bad (some even calling it lazy by using stock animation) and the premise of the show unenjoyable and unoriginal.
22 Bunsen Is A Beast
This Nicktoon is the fourth one created by Butch Hartman, the creator of popular Nicktoons like Danny Phantom and The Fairly Oddparents. Bunsen is a Beast is about the adventures of a beast named Bunsen and his human friend Mikey. The premise of the show is that Bunsen has to learn how to navigate life through a normal human middle school and avoid getting in trouble and kicked out of it. On IMBD, it has a rating of 4.8 with Nicktoon fans finding the show bland, generic, and expected better from a show created by Butch Hartman.
21 Butt-Ugly Martians
This Nicktoon didn't even air on television for a full year before it was canceled but fans of Nicktoons still remember this show with horror. Butt Ugly Martians was a CGI created cartoon that premiered in 2001. It was about three aliens from Mars, sent to conqueror the Earth but decided against it as they came to enjoy many things about Earth's culture.
The "butt ugly" animation seems to be the biggest thing that turned fans away. It did span three games and a line of toys from Hasbro though.
20 Fanboy And Chum Chum
Childhood is a magical stage in a lot of people's lives where they're really allowed to let their imaginations run wild. Most of us probably remember playing pretend, imagining ourselves as awesome things like superheroes. That's kind of the premise of Fanboy and Chum Chum, two kids with wildly active imaginations that get into a lot of misadventures.
Though instead of most fans finding the "super-powered" pals charming they found them and the entire show to be annoying. It's so bad it's even got an IMBD rating of 3.2/10 with reviewers displeased with the animation, writing, and characters themselves.
19 Kappa Mikey
Kappa Mikey was a Nicktoon that premiered in 2006. It follows the main character Mikey, a guy from the US who wins the starring role in a Japanese television series. The show is a parody of many anime tropes and its art style is influenced by anime as well. The series was originally pitched to MTV and was turned down and later picked up by Nickelodeon. The series features a lot of cliches and puns, and the show isn't meant to be taken seriously. But either Nicktoons fans didn't get the memo or they still didn't enjoy the art style.
18 Monsters VS Aliens
Monsters vs. Aliens was originally a 2009 movie created by DreamWorks. It features a team of monsters, which include a half man-half cockroach mad scientist, a sentient mass of blue goo, a prehistoric fish-ape hybrid, and a giant woman. In 2013, a Nicktoons show was made of it with a similar plot, with "Team Monster" teaming up with a bizarre group of aliens to protect the planet. The series didn't have the same success as the movie getting canceled after one season because of low ratings and the network wanting to "get back to the more Nickish shows".
17 Monsuno
With the success of animated series from Japan such as Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon etc, there have been quite a few Western animations that take influence from anime series. Monsuno is one of them and is a Nicktoon that premiered in 2012 in both the United States and in Japan.
It features a group of teens who control creatures called Monsuno because they have the DNA of monsters. It ran for three seasons in the United States but never quite took off here despite doing well in other places.
16 My Dad The Rockstar
My Dad the Rockstar is a Nicktoon created by the iconic Gene Simmons co-founder of the hard rock group KISS. The cartoon is literally based on Simmon's book: My Dad the Rockstar: Rebel without a Nose Ring which Simmons was inspired to create for his kids. The Nicktoon follows the fictionalized version of him and his family, with his son Willy Zilla, wanting to live a normal life. While the series didn't do as bad as other ones on this list, it only ran for little over a year with two seasons and then faded into Nickelodeon obscurity.
15 Rugrats: Pre-School Daze
Now a lot of people would argue that the Rugrats shouldn't be on this list since it's one of those iconic 90's Nicktoons and television shows that really shaped Millennials, but, this Rugrats spinoff does not do the original series justice. It stars Angelica and Susie in pre-school which wouldn't be too bad as people love Susie and people love to hate Angelica, but the series flopped with viewers on IMBd finding the episodes boring, the animation terrible and the show just overall bad. And it seems Nickelodeon thought so too because it only aired for four episodes.
14 Pig Goat Banana Cricket
This Nicktoon is pretty much what it says on the tin, it is a cartoon about a pig, a goat, a banana, and cricket who are all friends. The show is made up of a series of interwoven stories about the four of them as they get into and out of trouble. It's got a pretty low review of 3.8 on IMBD with fans hating the animation, finding the character undeveloped, and not finding any of the jokes in the show funny as it was just full of "bathroom humor."
13 Planet Sheen
Planet Sheen is an unfortunate example of a good idea done badly. Jimmy Neutron is a favorite cartoon series among Nicktoons fans and one of the fan favorite characters on the show was Sheen, the hyper-active pal of Jimmy. A spinoff series was created with Sheen as the main character following his adventures on an alien planet.
The show was hated by fans and critics alike for many reasons including none of the other original characters showing up and Sheen's personality made worse. It only made it to one season which was a relief to many Nicktoons fans.
12 Rabbids Invasion
If any of our readers are fans of the Rayman series they just might remember the Rabbids from the Rayman spin-off series "Raving Rabbids." In 2013 the Ubisoft game got its own animated series on Nickelodeon called Rabbids Invasion. Rabbids Invasion featured the wacky gibberish speaking rabbits in segments that had them getting into all sorts of trouble. Fans of Nicktoons didn't really seem to like those kinds of adventures, or the fact that all the Rabbids could seem to do was scream or say nonsensical words from time to time.
11 Ricky Sprocket Showbiz Boy
Ricky Sprocket Showbiz Boy is a mouthful of a title and a Canadian cartoon that was aired on the Nicktoons Network in 2008. Ricky Sprocket is an average everyday kid who has to deal with things like homework, chores and a little sister that constantly tries to get him into trouble.
Oh and he's also the world's biggest child film star. Ricky Sprocket Showbiz Boy has a low rating of 4.4 out of 10 on IMBD with fans not really liking the animation style or the characters' personalities.
10 Rocket Monkeys
Monkeys are a popular animal to include in cartoons as characters. They have some human characteristics and they seem to be one of the more playful wild animals which can make for a pretty funny character and show. Rocket Monkeys is not one of those examples. It features two monkey brothers who are astronauts that often carry out important missions mostly because no one else is available. It has a low rating of 3.3 on IMBd, with reviewers of the show criticizing the jokes, deeming them too gross, and thinking the premise of "monkeys in space" too unoriginal.
9 Sanjay And Craig
Sanjay and Craig is about a 12-year-old boy named Sanjay who has a talking pet snake named Craig. The two are best pals and get into a lot of weird adventures. The co-creator of the series is Jay Howell, who had a hand in creating the character designs for Bob's Burgers, an adult animated series on Fox. Sanjay and Craig is a cartoon that might have been better suited on a channel geared towards an older audience with its overuse of bathroom and "gross-out" humor. It has a rating of 4.1 on IMBD, with reviewers complaining about those two things.
8 Speed Racer: The Next Generation
Speed Racer: The Next Generation shows that some classic television shows don't exactly stand the test of time. This Nicktoons series is about an orphaned teen who wants to follow in the footsteps of the racer he was named after and enrolls into an elite racing academy.
Fans of the original Speed Racer find the animation lacking, and the plot of the series gets quite strange as it goes on. Apparently a car can time-travel for some reason. Plus, the lack of car explosions that were prevalent in the original series just doesn't really capture the spirit of it.
7 Tak And The Power Of JuJu
Tak and the Power of Juju premiered in 2007 on Nickelodeon and was the first fully computer-animated series produced by Nickelodeon animators. It was based on a 2003 game with the same name. In Tak and the Power of Juju, the cartoon follows a boy named Tak, who has the power to communicate with magical beings called Juju and uses them to help him in his everyday life. The show has a low rating of 3.5 on IMBD and was canceled after two seasons in 2009 due to low ratings.
6 The Mighty B
The Mighty B! is a Nicktoon from the creative design of one of the funniest women in comedy, Amy Poehler. Poehler even voices the main character, Bessie Higgenbottom, a Honeybee scout who wants to earn every single Bee Badge available. Unfortunately, quite a few Nicktoons fans find the show underwhelming, considering that Amy Poehler had a hand in creating it.
One of the main problems people had with the show is the gross humor, how annoying they felt Bessie was, the style of animation and the lack of depth to the characters.