My Top 20 Favourite Animated Kids Shows

Just want to start off by saying I hope everyone has been having a good Easter. Since I have been off for two weeks, I have had a lot of spare time of my hands and most if has been used to seeing friends or at work. But one of main things I have noticed over this Easter term is how awful TV is!
I know Easter is not exactly like Christmas where we are informed a month in advance of what our TV schedule will be and everyone has to vote between Chicken Run and the Queen's speech. But I feel there is nothing for the younger kids to watch if they have a day in at home and they become increasingly bored and irritating whilst the parents try to do housework.
This is a common complaint from my younger brother who instantly starts moaning that there is nothing to do when he switches off his Xbox, I started telling him about some of the shows I used to watch when I was his age and it made me think of how much I actually missed watching them shows and how me and other school friends used to reinact scenes and characters of popular shows and collect merchandise.
Flicking through Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and seeing what they had to offer, I was shocked how almost none of the shows that was on nearly 10 years ago was no longer airing. Of course they need to bring in new ideas as trends of how popular shows grow and fade over time as the kid audience never stays the same age. Writers have to keep up on whats the favourite toy, hobbie and slang used among the youth culture in order to create some form of enterainment that gain their attention.
So I decided to dive back into my childhood programmes and created a list of my favourite top 20 animated kid shows of which I enjoyed as a child.
Let me know what your favourites shows were when you were younger and whether you agree with me that entertainment for children is not as wide of range as it used to be.
:)

1. Brave

This I can not wait for! When I heard Pixar was doing a fairy tale I was very excited of how they would approach the idea. Orginally titled The Bear and the Bow, we follow the story of unruly Scottish raven,  Princess Merida, who wishes to pursue her on path in life rather than follow the ancient traditions her Kingdom obliged to. But when she finally plucks up the courage to take control of her own life, disaster is unleashed on the Highlands and only Merida can put things right again and discover the true meaning of what it means to be Brave.
The story sounds and looks fascinating and with a lot of first time elements Pixar has chosen to play with (First Pixar Princess, female protagonist) so there is naturally a lot of high expectations about this film, after last years lukewarm reception to Cars 2. In contrast to the bright, flash kid-friendly sweetness, we have a more darker, maturer approach which should appeal to more than boys above the age of eight. This film reminds me of how the Disney Renaissance told it's life lessons, you start to notice the detail and effort more and some of the characters main goals and relationships with the audience as you get older, something I think the trailer has achieved greatly.
The cast is almost all Scottish to fit in with the theme, which am I pleased about. Interestingly, they have not given much away about the villian to this film, or to be more precise who is the villan?! The trailer suggests it to be the ginormous grizzly bear, but I have a feeling the Wise Woman who has not had her screen debut yet, might temper with the film's fate.
Brave looks packed with magic, archery, laughs, action, beautiful scenery and an adventure that I am sure many people will want to repeat in many years to come.

2. The Dark Knight Rises

Oh how I wish I saw The Dark Knight in the cinemas. The performances was outstanding and some of the best "oh my God without saying it" moments I have seen.
Set eight years on from 2008's events,Batman/ Bruce Wayne still has the finger pointed at him for the death of Two Face/Harvey Dent. Washed-up and unwanted, apart from police and Michael Caine, it's fair to say the movie is going to be about Batman regaining his strength and trust of the people when they need it most (hence the title) when steriod body-builder Bane tries his attempt of taking down Gotham City and is once again under threat of being destroyed.
For fans of the previous two films would be aware of Bale's skeptism of returning to another potryal, but with writer David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan also directing, I personally would feel pretty comfortable of delivering what appears to be an amazing one last performance.
This film is also the bookies favourite of being the highest grossing film of the summer, or being more realistic the year and I have to say I strongly agree with them.
 P.S. I certainly will not be making the same mistake of missing this on the big screen.

3. Les Miserables

I have to admit, I do love a good musica.l But I am being a bit of a hypocrite by saying I have not been to see the second-longest running stage production. I have seen snippets of the 1998 version but I believe a musical adaptation is what fans have been bursting for for years.
Set during the 19th Century over the course of 17 years we follow the lives of the French people's  (er, acting world's finest) personal struggles of the depressive era of France which leads to the infamous French Revolution. The novel is beautfully told by Victor Hugo and with Tom Hooper serving as director, I have a strong gut feeling this will be his next greatest success following 2010's The King Speech.
 It is unknown if the release date will change to January 2013 (right on queue for the award season),  as principal photography only began three weeks ago, but whatever the world of cinemas decision is, this will be an excellent film to end 2012 on a high note.

4. Taken 2

Due to be released this October, this a film I am happy to wait for. The chilling phonecall still gives me thrills when I here it and the thought of another leaves me extactic. Very little has been released about the plot, but we are guarnenteed another round of Liam Neeson badass in another rescue attempt to save himself and his wife in Instabul, for revenge on the events that happened back in 2008.
A trailer is rumoured to be released soon, so for now it is just guess work as to whether the film with have a redundant plot and if the villans will live up to our expectations my prediction is definately.

5. The Hunger Games

We all have to get inpisration to get a story, but for the film's novelist Suzanne Collins, it was flicking between a gameshow and the live footage of the Middle East civil war. A bit of tweeking here and there and The Hunger Games is born. The fan base is pretty big already and is sure to explode in the next four years with plans already underway for the next two novels to be relased on to the big screen.

I know this film has been out for a week but I have not had a chance to go see it yet. But for those I know who already have, talk very enthusiastically and luckily have not given anything away to me apart from the trailer. This is the stand out film for me this year for pre teens to adults, you can tell a lot of effort has been put in to making this a realistic world the attention to detail to the setting and costume designs look impressive. There is a hint of a good moral to be sent out to those who are not familar to the books that balances out soe of the films dark elements of capitalism, war and death.
 I am sure this a film that will be well recieved by the loyal readers who have high expectations.

6. The Dictator

When I heard of Sacha Baron Cohen's new mockumentary, I had high hopes for it to be as good as Borat, Bruno was a let down, I felt it was pushing itself too much to be more controversial and I did not really like the storyline, a bit dull. After three years away, it seems Baron Cohen has reflected back gained some good inspiration. The poster scared the hell out of me as my initial idea of what the characters appearance was going to be like was destroyed.
 Meet Admiral General Aladeen (now say it five times faster) is the leader of the Republic of Wadiya (filmed in Spain) who travels to New York to "risk his life" for the fictional country he unlovingly prides himself on. The opening to the trailer is shown as a very Gaddafi threat tape, warning movie goers to not underestimate this film, as demonstrated at the Academy Awards. Some would argue it's a sensitive subject to touch on especially for Americans after last years events in the Middle East but director Larry Charles has cleverly made the film focus on the side several characters that look great. Something the previous films did not do, helping Aladeen/Cohen expand on his most outrageous journey yet.