It annoys me that the girl counterpart Polly Pocket has had multiple revivals 2 in the past 5 years. Yet we have never seen Mighty Max return which in this day and age would be a nice break from the crap kids have to endure
@@andrewlazouskas555 I'm still waiting for that, Exo-Squad season2, M.A.S.K, Bucky O'Hare, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Biker Mice from Mars, and Silver Hawks.
Way off about Digimon Tamers. Still a sad ending but the digimon weren't sucked into oblivion, they had to leave their friends and return to the digital world or risk being deleted. The movie following the show's finale show they all get reunited at some point
Plus they missed the saddest part of that episode. Henry's father lied to Henry and used Terriermon in order to send the D-Reaper back to the Digital World. Doing that though forced all the digimon partners to be taken back to the Digital World. Well in the original Japanese Dub Henry's father is telling his son how terrible he is over what he has done but Henry shakes his head forgiving him telling him he did what had to be done. Well the English dub goes a hell of a lot darker and sadder. In the English dub Henry's father is pleading with him to forgive him over what he did but Henry silently shakes his head basically ending that Henry does not forgive his father over his actions.
To this day, having never watched the show again since it originally aired, Henry silently shaking his head "no" while tears stream down his face haunts me. I was in middle school when this episode aired and it left me feeling empty for DAYS.
The movie of Locomon is not canon to the Tamers' storyline, their creator said that. But they recently released a CD-Drama of future events in the tamers universe, were they get their Digimon back... in the year 2018, when they are adults.
The Reboot! series was cut off early, and actually had two sequels to the Megabyte Wins sequence. The second sequel, with the terrifyingly subtle virus Daemon, was extremely dark, and Hexadecimal sacrificed herself to save the entire "universe".
I kept wondering about all the other trees in "David the Gnome" were they too once gnomes. I even looked at my backyard trees. I asked my Dad about it. He just laughed. 🐯
Superman's was pretty great, and was followed up in the Justice League cartoon, a lot of people felt resentful against him for what happened in that finale, and even the scientist that helped him trough all of his series turned on him because he was still terrified of that situation.
As a kid who grew up late 90’s early 2000’s, I watched the reruns of Superman: The Animated Series on Toonami around 2000-2002, and only had a few years to wait until Justice League premiered, so it wasn’t too traumatic for me either. And as for Reboot, Toonami never aired the tv movie length episodes that closed out the original run, so I never was left wondering if they lived or died like anyone else who bought those direct to VHS/DVD episodes that sold so poorly they ended on that cliffhanger. My cliffhanger was the younger version of the kid brother inexplicably appearing in front of his older self and his family after they seemingly killed off Megabyte in the final tv season, which came off as more of a weird joke rather than a “to be continued”, anyway.
I watched David the Gnome as a child in kindergarten. I had absolutely NO idea that's how the show ended. I damn near cried and I'm a grown man. Imagine seeing that as a teen or as a child? BRUH...😢😭
I think Nickelodeon refused to air that episode in particular. I never saw it until TLC picked up the show a couple of years later for their kids block (back when the network still focused on being educational).
Yep, that's what happens when a company called Rainmaker buys up Mainframe in 2006 and finally get around to doing what fans want... except they screw it up by not listening to fans and make a live-action re-imagining. Could've simply brought back the original co-creators (who want to continue their show, but they don't own the rights!) and resolve the cliffhanger... but no. Michael Hefferon (Rainmaker's current president, they've had two before him) had to try to make his mark on the world. That's why he forced his company to use the Unreal Engine so they could tout it as the first show made with it. But in reality ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a remake of his failed 2006 show called "MP4ORCE: Beyond Real".
@@ReBootRevival I can't remember, was it Pan "GOOOTHHH GIIIRRLLS" Pizza who pointed out this executives arrogant ego project posing as a reboot, or was it someone who was featured on The Pizza Party Podcast?
@@ReBootRevival Companies that ignore what fans want are arrogant, narcissistic assholes who don't deserve to run anything if they are beyond disrespectful to what customers and true fans want.
why david the gnome is a dark ending? it’s like saying that the thought of us dying is a dark thought. it’s just life and it was done beautifully in the cartoon.
To be fair, they got it right, Tamers' finale is the darkest among Digimon series/seasons, considering the D-Reaper is a Lovecraftian-like entity which has been sleeping for a really long time and that the depression of one of the tamers gave form to many of the D-Reaper's hunters.
@@golfer435 Edgy =/= Dark. Granted, Adventure got dark at some points, for example Puppetmon exploiting Tai and Matt's rivalry, Leomon's sacrifice or the fact that the final enemy from the season is in fact basically the undying, angry souls of extinct Digimon... But the development from Tamers actually got the season to pretty dark places... A special mention to the fact that Ryo's partner is in fact an angry reincarnated god too.
That's not how ReBoot ended. In the end, the user resets the system because it is so corrupt and restores the city but without Megabyte (the virus). Come on man.
I think Max and Reboot where never suppose to be final episodes but rather season finales, but since nether was renewed they became the end of the franchise. Superman would come back in Justice League, and while they never explained what had happened in between the shows, they made sure they showed that there was still a lot of bad blood left from that incident.
Technically that was the end of superman but it was continued in justice league and justice league unlimited. They even mentioned superman being used by dark side in it.
Wow, haven't heard of Mighty Max in ages. XD Was my favorite show as a kid. And as for the Digimon, tell that to season 4 and the rest that came after it........
If David and his happy wife are turned into trees(Cherry Blossoms , mind you) .... did "death" even come for them at all ?? I mean , they might move and talk and all like a living creature would but a Tree is still a living thing that grows and eventually dies in several 100 thousand years later , right ??
They really fucked up the Reboot reboot. The new Wreck-it Ralph movie is the energy they should have thrown into it, but instead, we got that. It's sad. R. I. P Reboot. You were amazing while you lasted!
A lot of the dark series finales we see here weren't intended to be the final episode at all, but rather the show ended up getting cancelled, leaving behind a significant lack of closure for the audience.
I saw all these shows from beginning to end (sorta, I may havve missed some episodes), except for Mighty Max and Digimon Tamers. Those were REAL script writers that did not shy away from the darker side of tales just because they were meant to be "kid-friendly". Honestly, those shows always felt more solid and engaging than the regular "kid-friendly" stuff. Nowdays, they just pussyfoot from writing and making good stories because they are afraid of a little violence. Producers just don't know anymore what a REASONABLE amount of violence is. The producers of these shows (and Gargoyles by DISNEY, if you can Fu***ng believe it!) knew the 'right' amount of violence necessary to give depth to a story, to the point that the deaths that ocurred in those shows were meaningful because of their rarity and (pardon the pun) proper execution. But tell that to all those that would go and call shows like these "extreme". American animation has lost so much indeed. I just hope I can find these shows somewhere around the internet. They are all worth watching again. And again.
Memory lane seeing Mighty Max there. Those toys were great for sneaking into lunchboxes and sneaking a play during class. Not that I would know. Also, was that Tony Jay there in Reboot? May he rest in peace.
Sorry, but no. Reboot was genuinely dark. David The Gnome was beautiful, showing kids that everything ends, and it's okay. Mighty Max got a second chance. Superman and Digimon were open-ended, allowing for further stories. Reboot aside, these aren't even very dark. Look at Batman Beyond for dark yet hopeful, or sat am Sonic for just plain dark.
Exosquad ended with three main Characters dead two brought back by cloning kinda, and a 5 or 6 of major supporting charters dead. Oh, and Aliens were now invading the solar system.
Didn't they restore Mars after it got blow up, only to have it stolen by some advanced alien species? I was looking forward to a unified Human/Neosapien army.
"For all intents and purposes, those Digimon are gone, gone, gone." They were not sucked into oblivion: they were sucked back into the Digital World, from where they originally came. Plus, at the time, the cliffhanger stronly implied that the heroes were indeed going to reunite with their Digimon through a portal to the Digiworld. To me, this ending is very optimistic. Only in the first audio drama did Kotaka stupidly and cruelly decide to shatter most of that hope. However, in the most recent audio drama, they have reunited (although not yet for Renamon, since her voice actress is on a big hiatus... Couldn't they just find an almost identical voice?).
Reboot ended with Guardian rebooting the entire city to get rid of Megabyte. Everyone stored in the cities memory came back after the reboot, since Megabyte wasn't store he was destroyed, a side note Hexadecimal changed sides and helped the city so they stored her in the memory and she was saved.
That's the end to season 3 (though it was the User rebooting and restoring the system). There's a 4th season that ended on a cliffhanger in 2001... still no resolution.
Reboot was kinda fucked up though because every time the human player would win a game, a portion of the city was destroyed. Made me feel weird whenever I won at video games during that time lol. Man, if that happened in real life, I would've killed billions.
Dinosaurs wasn't here for some reason... I know it's a family sitcom but many kids also watched it with no supervision. There are some kids that already understand the adult world.
um problem reboot didn't get a finale in fact it ended on a massive cliffhanger that went nowhere which still pisses me off because come on that show was amazing and awesome but then we got another reboot show called reboot the guardian code which is just awful and really bad.
And yet not only ReBoot didn’t get a popular conclusion but to make things worse it came back with a show that doesn’t continue where it left off.. Oh how it pissed off every ReBoot fan.
“Digimon Tamers was a one season wonder...” Does this dude not understand what Digimon is? Also the Digimon never actually died, they just reset (this is something mentioned again and again throughout all seasons of the show) nothing about it was traumatic to me as a child because I knew that the Digimon were fine.
Mighty Max had some crazy shit in it! I remember in one episode Mighty Max met a girl at school and she liked him too but the mummies kidnapped her and took her to through the portal. **THATS CREEPY**
About Reboot, I remember in the final episode of Reboot, it showed Megabyte holding Enzo kid clone hostage and then it was cancelled I was so mad about it getting cancelled. At some point I want to make a fan fiction stop motion of Reboot and conclude it with Megabyte getting defeated and Enzo clone rescued and Mainframe city restored once again. Other TV shows that also never concluded is Talespin as Baloo never got out of debt, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Back to the Sewers 2009 with Serling the Robot who never went back to his future 2105. It was also demonstrated in Toy Story 2 when Woody's Roundup got cancelled on a cliffhanger.
David the Gnome made me, strangely, ok with death as a child. I thought, "Maybe some day I'll become a tree." This was coupled with the fact that I already believed in Heaven, and didn't see a main character's death as a "bad ending" for them if the story included them having some sort of happy afterlife.
I only remember Mighty Max and reboot from when I was a kid. Reboot was cool all I really remember about that show was that the computer programs were always making sure that the gamer would not win the game because they thought it would be the end of their world. As for Mighty Max I remember it was a really dark show. My favorite episode was when the horde of zombies kept chasing him across the world and he finally got rid of them by teleporting them to the Mariana Trench in the ocean but it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the zombie horde found him again.
I don't know, the campers still had a good laugh about it in the end, in fact, the only finale I'm most upset about is "Things Change" from the original Teen Titans series, it cost those in my family their lives and their reputations
@@Lostwinddragon there's a pattern to it, 6 days after "Things Change" premiered, my father was nearly murdered, 2 months later, my aunt Heather committed suicide, 2 years after that, my grandfather died of a heart attack for years of poor dieting and no exercise because someone shot him, 2 years later, my uncle Andy committed suicide because he was dying of cancer, 2 years after that, my girlfriend, Elena picked the wrong time of year to break my heart, she was to me what Terra was to Beast Boy, 3 years later, I was beaten up by the same guys that tried to kill my father, that same year, my nephew's mother became criminally insane and went so far as to kidnap him, 2 years later, I nearly gave in to cannibalism during hurricane Irma, that same year, my mother was wrongfully arrested for a crime she didn't intend to commit, a year later, my cat died in my sister's arms, that same year, my cousin, Davey and his family have been put in mortal danger, and now I've been poisoned by an unknown bug
usually these lists include Power Rangers Turbo. the villain Divatox blew up the Power Chamber, destroyed their Zords, and destroyed their powers. the Rangers had lost. kinda dark if you ask me, it set up the next season/series perfectly
Hey, remember that time when the Power Rangers tried to save Earth but ended up getting it sucked into a dead sun and destroyed instead so they had to go back in time before the events of the show even began and literally rewrote history in the process so that dinosaurs are alive in the 21st century? Yeah, the Rangers ultimately won at the end, but they horribly fucked up at their first attempt.
I remember a show I used to watch, can't remember the name though, but it was about a kid who was given to monks by his mother after his birth. He grew up with the monks, becoming their friend, and at the beginnibg of the show he starts looking for his mother. In the last episode, him and his friends stop at an altar and decide to pray, the boy wishing to see his mother again. The thing is, she actually died some time before, and so he is allowed to be reunited with her... but it means that he has to die. And it ends like this, with the kid dying so he could be with his mother in heaven. The ending actually shocked me so much that my brain erased it from my memories, and it was my brother who reminded me of that (strangely enough, we both decided at the same time to check old kids show that we used to watch.)
I wonder how many of these were intended as series finales, or were merely season finales that didn't get renewed (and in some cases were forcibly altered into finales).
Everything that came before and after Reboot on this list was unnecessary. No show defined my childhood (ok, maybe Animaniacs) more than Reboot. It introduced kids to internet terms in a cool but informative manner. I'll bet anyone that at least 90% of those in programming for the big companies like Apple and Microsoft are there because they got inspired in part by Reboot.
Some of these show ended on a cliffhanger. Probably because the writers didn't think that the show wasnt going to be picked up for another season. Which was the main reasons these shows ended dark
The recent Digimon movie also had an ending like this. It's a sequel to the original Digimon show where all the characters are adults. It has a heartbreaking ending with a message about growing up and leaving their childhood behind.
Huh, for once I actually know all these shows . I adored Mighty Max - the ending surprised me and I really wished there was more. That is one reboot I would actually like to see.
In a later season of Digimon, one of the girls is clearly suffering from depression, exacerbated by the fact that she's the only one who doesn't have a Digimon partner. She finally gets one and it dies in battle, causing a complete breakdown. It's pretty effed up.
The Reboot ending wasn't supposed to be the true ending. It was cancelled right at the end of that season for some reason and continued in a comic series.
The kids Digimon sent to oblivion? No, just back to the digiworld that they came from. It's still tragic that the adults left out the tamers of the detail of their needed departure.
Yes mighty max could be viewed as sad but I saw it as a happy ending. If he was the only one who remembers what happened he can use his knowledge to fix it so it will have a happier ending.
OH yes, that should be here. "Are we going to move?", "Well....no", "This is only world we got", "It's not like we're going to just...disappear."They couldn't make this ending today. Many people would want it banned on the spot.
you know damn well that blameitonjorge already has Dinosaurs included in his list of children's cartoons with sad endings. do you want new information, or not?
Digimon Tamers was writen in Japan by Chiaki J. Konaka, who used some Lovecraft influences. Never the less, he adapted Shadow Star to anime, one of the most dark and nihilistic manga of the 2000's
You missed the 1987 version of teenage mutant ninja turtles. It ends with a human saying he will spend the rest of his life making sure the turtles don't mutate further and kill each other and that's it. Even though we all know he found a cure, the series ended before it happened so unless you read the comics you have to assume they killed each other until 1 was left.
Ah yes, David the Gnome. I think they only aired the ending once (or very, very rarely because I only ever saw it once) and I wasn't more than 6 o 7. That ending broke me. And my mom, who rarely remembers TV shows remembers that ending! She said it left her sad for the rest of the day. I specifically remember asking, "What happens if lightning strikes that tree? Or a human chops it down to make furniture?" Yes I was that 6 year old :)
Where was Bing? He had Lou Gehrig throughout the series, and died at the end of this CBeebies Show. He went with Coco and Charlie to the End Hills and walked to the top to meet his end, turning into a tree.
A little correction here. In the series Digimon Tamers series finale, the Digimon weren't erased. They were being devolved back to their in training mode and would have been erased if they had stayed in the human world.
Digimon Tamers ending....They did not die. they simple reverted to their Baby 2 stage and got sent back to the digital world, thats why Takato was so happy to see the small portal, it meant that he and the other humans could one day meet their digimon friends again.
I'm not 100% on this but I'm pretty sure this is the reason the creators of reboot probably thought they were going to get another couple Seasons out of the show and that just never happened that's why I reboot ended that way, cuz it really felt like it was leading up to something bigger.
Not sure if Digimon Tamers's finale belongs on this list. There was a follow up movie released soon afterwards that shows that the kids did in fact reunite with their partners. Unfortunately to my knowledge that movie was never released in North America. Now if we're talking the events leading up to the finale involving Juri, that certainly warrants a mention.
All semantics bullcrap, in effective reality, but, the creators insist that last episode of Reboot is not the final-final; it's just on indefinite hiatus. They have been trying off and on for years to get funding and a network to approve more of the show.
Superman continued on into Justice League. Superman did fine and the world forgave him. Digimon Tamers ended on a cliffhanger but any fan of the series watched the Digimon Tamers movie that takes place 6 months after the series and knows they were all together again in the end.
Finally some one acknowledges Mighty Max. I had caught the original run and was surprised by how dark the ending was.
I forgot about Mighty Max
Lmao I just realized they died on David the gnome...I remember that episode.... y'all left off Dinosaurs
One of my favorite childhood shows that no one remembers...😢
Real ones remember Mighty Max and that ending where everybody died.
David the Gnome scarred me slightly as a child, I totally forgot the name of the show until now but that finale is still embedded in my mind.
Mighty Max was one of the BEST shows. Vastly underappreciated.
Rob Paulsen was gleeful when I brought it up to him at a convention years ago.
Facts
Loved that show
I think it's one of those shows that deserves a reboot. In an age where a toy based show about talking ponies has a massive fanbase, why not?
Not to worry, his voice lives on in Rob Paulsen and his later works! Especially Animaniacs 2020!
Clicked for Mighty Max
Hmm u know for might max I never knew the hawk was a guy odd though it was a woman huh then again same for the dark crystal
still waiting for a DVD release of the series
Yes!!! It’s one my favorite cartoon show but seems it’s very underrated but still awesome like gold!!
It annoys me that the girl counterpart Polly Pocket has had multiple revivals 2 in the past 5 years. Yet we have never seen Mighty Max return which in this day and age would be a nice break from the crap kids have to endure
@@andrewlazouskas555 I'm still waiting for that, Exo-Squad season2, M.A.S.K, Bucky O'Hare, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Biker Mice from Mars, and Silver Hawks.
Tim Curry was awesome as skull Master
Tim Curry is Awesome in anything.
Way off about Digimon Tamers. Still a sad ending but the digimon weren't sucked into oblivion, they had to leave their friends and return to the digital world or risk being deleted. The movie following the show's finale show they all get reunited at some point
Plus they missed the saddest part of that episode. Henry's father lied to Henry and used Terriermon in order to send the D-Reaper back to the Digital World. Doing that though forced all the digimon partners to be taken back to the Digital World. Well in the original Japanese Dub Henry's father is telling his son how terrible he is over what he has done but Henry shakes his head forgiving him telling him he did what had to be done. Well the English dub goes a hell of a lot darker and sadder. In the English dub Henry's father is pleading with him to forgive him over what he did but Henry silently shakes his head basically ending that Henry does not forgive his father over his actions.
i think all the other death and destruction in the show itself made up for it. leomon for one thing..
To this day, having never watched the show again since it originally aired, Henry silently shaking his head "no" while tears stream down his face haunts me. I was in middle school when this episode aired and it left me feeling empty for DAYS.
Which digimon movie is it?
The movie of Locomon is not canon to the Tamers' storyline, their creator said that. But they recently released a CD-Drama of future events in the tamers universe, were they get their Digimon back... in the year 2018, when they are adults.
The Reboot! series was cut off early, and actually had two sequels to the Megabyte Wins sequence. The second sequel, with the terrifyingly subtle virus Daemon, was extremely dark, and Hexadecimal sacrificed herself to save the entire "universe".
The characters also cameo in the reboot reboot, showing that they are fine.
I cried so much during the final David the Gnome. Mighty Max was my favorite 90's cartoon.
Yea I really like David the gnome but ending was sad as hell
I always liked cartoons that had a dark underbelly to them! I was a bit old for mighty max by the time it came out sadly
Only jus heard of david the gmome on robot chicken but it being a Nick it cartoon how it looks 80's
It's good to have episodes like that. They help prepare children for loss and death.
I own it on dvd now
I kept wondering about all the other trees in "David the Gnome" were they too once gnomes. I even looked at my backyard trees. I asked my Dad about it. He just laughed. 🐯
Ooof. Not winning “father of the year” in that year, was he?😑
Mighty Max was an absolutely outstanding, well written show. I named my first born son after Max :)
Does anyone remember a cartoon called the Pirates of Dark Water? It was also a very dark series if I recall correctly.
That show was amazing!!!
Mighty Max was the show.
I still watch that shit on TH-cam and I just turned 33
Amen!
indeed, it was a show.
Mighty max was good
Yes I miss Mighty Max and Reboot...dont make toons like this anymore
Superman's was pretty great, and was followed up in the Justice League cartoon, a lot of people felt resentful against him for what happened in that finale, and even the scientist that helped him trough all of his series turned on him because he was still terrified of that situation.
As a kid who grew up late 90’s early 2000’s, I watched the reruns of Superman: The Animated Series on Toonami around 2000-2002, and only had a few years to wait until Justice League premiered, so it wasn’t too traumatic for me either.
And as for Reboot, Toonami never aired the tv movie length episodes that closed out the original run, so I never was left wondering if they lived or died like anyone else who bought those direct to VHS/DVD episodes that sold so poorly they ended on that cliffhanger. My cliffhanger was the younger version of the kid brother inexplicably appearing in front of his older self and his family after they seemingly killed off Megabyte in the final tv season, which came off as more of a weird joke rather than a “to be continued”, anyway.
Did the series get cancelled?
I watched David the Gnome as a child in kindergarten. I had absolutely NO idea that's how the show ended. I damn near cried and I'm a grown man.
Imagine seeing that as a teen or as a child?
BRUH...😢😭
Its the fox’s reaction that gets me. He loses his buddy
I think Nickelodeon refused to air that episode in particular. I never saw it until TLC picked up the show a couple of years later for their kids block (back when the network still focused on being educational).
Yep reboot finale was dark but then the guardian code came out and left us all unsatisfied
mc Pic are you talking about the Netflix show?
Yep, that's what happens when a company called Rainmaker buys up Mainframe in 2006 and finally get around to doing what fans want... except they screw it up by not listening to fans and make a live-action re-imagining. Could've simply brought back the original co-creators (who want to continue their show, but they don't own the rights!) and resolve the cliffhanger... but no. Michael Hefferon (Rainmaker's current president, they've had two before him) had to try to make his mark on the world. That's why he forced his company to use the Unreal Engine so they could tout it as the first show made with it. But in reality ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a remake of his failed 2006 show called "MP4ORCE: Beyond Real".
@@ReBootRevival I can't remember, was it Pan "GOOOTHHH GIIIRRLLS" Pizza who pointed out this executives arrogant ego project posing as a reboot, or was it someone who was featured on The Pizza Party Podcast?
@@ReBootRevival Companies that ignore what fans want are arrogant, narcissistic assholes who don't deserve to run anything if they are beyond disrespectful to what customers and true fans want.
why david the gnome is a dark ending? it’s like saying that the thought of us dying is a dark thought. it’s just life and it was done beautifully in the cartoon.
Reaaaally need to read up a little more on digimon guys.
Yeah. It could get really dark.
digimon is also interesting in a technological aspect if you think about it they are literally living computer programs
To be fair, they got it right, Tamers' finale is the darkest among Digimon series/seasons, considering the D-Reaper is a Lovecraftian-like entity which has been sleeping for a really long time and that the depression of one of the tamers gave form to many of the D-Reaper's hunters.
Yeah, Tamers isn't even close to how dark Adventure got. Just thinking about Vamdemon and his plans for the real world scare me.
@@golfer435 Edgy =/= Dark. Granted, Adventure got dark at some points, for example Puppetmon exploiting Tai and Matt's rivalry, Leomon's sacrifice or the fact that the final enemy from the season is in fact basically the undying, angry souls of extinct Digimon... But the development from Tamers actually got the season to pretty dark places... A special mention to the fact that Ryo's partner is in fact an angry reincarnated god too.
That's not how ReBoot ended. In the end, the user resets the system because it is so corrupt and restores the city but without Megabyte (the virus). Come on man.
Sorry, but what you're talking about was the ending of Season 3. The cliffhanger the video is talking about was the ending of Season 4.
Yea mega byte masquerades as bob tries to marry dot but it never has a proper end
@@TheNoybusiness what really?
I think Max and Reboot where never suppose to be final episodes but rather season finales, but since nether was renewed they became the end of the franchise. Superman would come back in Justice League, and while they never explained what had happened in between the shows, they made sure they showed that there was still a lot of bad blood left from that incident.
Technically that was the end of superman but it was continued in justice league and justice league unlimited. They even mentioned superman being used by dark side in it.
Yup that scientist Professor Hamilton turned on him later on justice league unlimited,with the help of Cadmus cloning super girl
Mighty Max has the darkest Kids' TV finale!!
Even more so than Dinosaurs?
I remember vividly watching David the Gnome before elementary school and just being an inconsolable mess for most of the day when it ended
Heartbreaking and I wasn't a kid
I'm GLAD I didn't see the ended as a kid. I'd probably cry the whole *WEEK!*
Makes you appreciate endings like gravity falls and ducktakes (2017) all the more
Wow, haven't heard of Mighty Max in ages. XD Was my favorite show as a kid. And as for the Digimon, tell that to season 4 and the rest that came after it........
The end of the second season of Courage the Cowardly Dog was also so sad too.
Two more seasons followed after that too
Does anyone remember exosquad or the pirates of Black water
Yo! Lol
Pirates of Dark Water was dope AF! I wish they would've finished it.
yeah, too bad PoDW was cancelled
they only got half of the series finished
It's high adventure with the Pirates of Dark Water
And now I have to go watch that show again...Later😁
Mighty Max is one of the most underrated shows of its time love that show and it's ending wasn't dark he got a chance to fix it all
If David and his happy wife are turned into trees(Cherry Blossoms , mind you) .... did "death" even come for them at all ?? I mean , they might move and talk and all like a living creature would but a Tree is still a living thing that grows and eventually dies in several 100 thousand years later , right ??
They really fucked up the Reboot reboot. The new Wreck-it Ralph movie is the energy they should have thrown into it, but instead, we got that.
It's sad.
R. I. P Reboot. You were amazing while you lasted!
A lot of the dark series finales we see here weren't intended to be the final episode at all, but rather the show ended up getting cancelled, leaving behind a significant lack of closure for the audience.
Where is dinosaurs? Obviously the most sad and depressing finale ever, let alone for kids
"Superman is in a military prison awaiting execution."
...I see. And how will we be doing THAT, exactly? Kryptonite guillotine, perhaps?
I saw all these shows from beginning to end (sorta, I may havve missed some episodes), except for Mighty Max and Digimon Tamers. Those were REAL script writers that did not shy away from the darker side of tales just because they were meant to be "kid-friendly". Honestly, those shows always felt more solid and engaging than the regular "kid-friendly" stuff. Nowdays, they just pussyfoot from writing and making good stories because they are afraid of a little violence.
Producers just don't know anymore what a REASONABLE amount of violence is. The producers of these shows (and Gargoyles by DISNEY, if you can Fu***ng believe it!) knew the 'right' amount of violence necessary to give depth to a story, to the point that the deaths that ocurred in those shows were meaningful because of their rarity and (pardon the pun) proper execution. But tell that to all those that would go and call shows like these "extreme". American animation has lost so much indeed.
I just hope I can find these shows somewhere around the internet. They are all worth watching again. And again.
If I had saw that David the gnome ending as a kid, I know I would've quietly cried and kept it an eternal secret
Memory lane seeing Mighty Max there. Those toys were great for sneaking into lunchboxes and sneaking a play during class. Not that I would know. Also, was that Tony Jay there in Reboot? May he rest in peace.
yup one of tony's best long running villan performances
Sorry, but no. Reboot was genuinely dark. David The Gnome was beautiful, showing kids that everything ends, and it's okay. Mighty Max got a second chance. Superman and Digimon were open-ended, allowing for further stories. Reboot aside, these aren't even very dark. Look at Batman Beyond for dark yet hopeful, or sat am Sonic for just plain dark.
Exosquad ended with three main Characters dead two brought back by cloning kinda, and a 5 or 6 of major supporting charters dead. Oh, and Aliens were now invading the solar system.
I remember this show was so complex for a kids cartoon. I also liked Mech Warrior quite a bit.
most underrated show of all time.
Fun fact on the bottom of the Xosquad toys Robotech was stamped on it
Didn't they restore Mars after it got blow up, only to have it stolen by some advanced alien species? I was looking forward to a unified Human/Neosapien army.
"For all intents and purposes, those Digimon are gone, gone, gone."
They were not sucked into oblivion: they were sucked back into the Digital World, from where they originally came. Plus, at the time, the cliffhanger stronly implied that the heroes were indeed going to reunite with their Digimon through a portal to the Digiworld. To me, this ending is very optimistic. Only in the first audio drama did Kotaka stupidly and cruelly decide to shatter most of that hope.
However, in the most recent audio drama, they have reunited (although not yet for Renamon, since her voice actress is on a big hiatus... Couldn't they just find an almost identical voice?).
The end of David the Gnome (David de Kabouter in the Dutch language) was very sad. Even when Swift the fox started howling of sadness.
Reboot ended with Guardian rebooting the entire city to get rid of Megabyte. Everyone stored in the cities memory came back after the reboot, since Megabyte wasn't store he was destroyed, a side note Hexadecimal changed sides and helped the city so they stored her in the memory and she was saved.
That's the end to season 3 (though it was the User rebooting and restoring the system). There's a 4th season that ended on a cliffhanger in 2001... still no resolution.
I loved Reboot. I miss it.
they brought back the series for 1 more badass season back in the early 2000's on toonami.
Joseph Gillespie I think I saw it. Enzo was grown up and had that chick with the red hair, I think?
no, daemon has green hair and is like some kinda of religious super virus. enzo was grown up, but that happens in like the 3rd season
Reboot was kinda fucked up though because every time the human player would win a game, a portion of the city was destroyed. Made me feel weird whenever I won at video games during that time lol. Man, if that happened in real life, I would've killed billions.
Dinosaurs wasn't here for some reason... I know it's a family sitcom but many kids also watched it with no supervision. There are some kids that already understand the adult world.
David and Lisa holding one another as they turned to trees gets me every time.
um problem reboot didn't get a finale in fact it ended on a massive cliffhanger that went nowhere which still pisses me off because come on that show was amazing and awesome but then we got another reboot show called reboot the guardian code which is just awful and really bad.
And yet not only ReBoot didn’t get a popular conclusion but to make things worse it came back with a show that doesn’t continue where it left off.. Oh how it pissed off every ReBoot fan.
REBOOT AND DIGIMON TAMERS need i say fucking more.
“Digimon Tamers was a one season wonder...”
Does this dude not understand what Digimon is? Also the Digimon never actually died, they just reset (this is something mentioned again and again throughout all seasons of the show) nothing about it was traumatic to me as a child because I knew that the Digimon were fine.
Mighty Max had some crazy shit in it!
I remember in one episode Mighty Max met a girl at school and she liked him too but the mummies kidnapped her and took her to through the portal. **THATS CREEPY**
You didn't mention that Dan Turpin gets killed by Darkseid at the end as revenge from being humiliated by Superman
I'm sickened by the coment about mighty max 'cheap pieces of plastic'... I would give anything to have them back in my life today
You forgot Dinosaurs! That ending was the darkest ever!
About Reboot, I remember in the final episode of Reboot, it showed Megabyte holding Enzo kid clone hostage and then it was cancelled I was so mad about it getting cancelled. At some point I want to make a fan fiction stop motion of Reboot and conclude it with Megabyte getting defeated and Enzo clone rescued and Mainframe city restored once again.
Other TV shows that also never concluded is Talespin as Baloo never got out of debt, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Back to the Sewers 2009 with Serling the Robot who never went back to his future 2105. It was also demonstrated in Toy Story 2 when Woody's Roundup got cancelled on a cliffhanger.
The worst part of it is that the series finale of Reboot ended with a cliffhanger.
David the Gnome made me, strangely, ok with death as a child. I thought, "Maybe some day I'll become a tree." This was coupled with the fact that I already believed in Heaven, and didn't see a main character's death as a "bad ending" for them if the story included them having some sort of happy afterlife.
Agreed. While sad, I feel like it teaches kids that death is a part of life and can be a new beginning.
MIGHTY MAX WAS THE SHIT BACK THEN OMG!
I didn’t realize The guy who did the voice for Megabite, was totally the same guy from soul reaver.
I think he was the voice of virgil in mighty max
He was also sheer kahn from jungle book and tailspin
Amazing vilain AND voice actor.
He was also the voice of Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame
Also the voice of the narrator in The Bard's Tale.
I only remember Mighty Max and reboot from when I was a kid. Reboot was cool all I really remember about that show was that the computer programs were always making sure that the gamer would not win the game because they thought it would be the end of their world. As for Mighty Max I remember it was a really dark show. My favorite episode was when the horde of zombies kept chasing him across the world and he finally got rid of them by teleporting them to the Mariana Trench in the ocean but it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the zombie horde found him again.
Camp lazlo's ending was really dark and kinda disturbing
I don't know, the campers still had a good laugh about it in the end, in fact, the only finale I'm most upset about is "Things Change" from the original Teen Titans series, it cost those in my family their lives and their reputations
@@Lostwinddragon there's a pattern to it, 6 days after "Things Change" premiered, my father was nearly murdered, 2 months later, my aunt Heather committed suicide, 2 years after that, my grandfather died of a heart attack for years of poor dieting and no exercise because someone shot him, 2 years later, my uncle Andy committed suicide because he was dying of cancer, 2 years after that, my girlfriend, Elena picked the wrong time of year to break my heart, she was to me what Terra was to Beast Boy, 3 years later, I was beaten up by the same guys that tried to kill my father, that same year, my nephew's mother became criminally insane and went so far as to kidnap him, 2 years later, I nearly gave in to cannibalism during hurricane Irma, that same year, my mother was wrongfully arrested for a crime she didn't intend to commit, a year later, my cat died in my sister's arms, that same year, my cousin, Davey and his family have been put in mortal danger, and now I've been poisoned by an unknown bug
@@damianprock1650 That's f*cked up
@@RandomPerson-qg7yq exactly
@@damianprock1650 Admittedly that's a horrible chain of events, but I don't think that episode of a show set off this.
usually these lists include Power Rangers Turbo. the villain Divatox blew up the Power Chamber, destroyed their Zords, and destroyed their powers. the Rangers had lost. kinda dark if you ask me, it set up the next season/series perfectly
there are darker ranger finales.
Hey, remember that time when the Power Rangers tried to save Earth but ended up getting it sucked into a dead sun and destroyed instead so they had to go back in time before the events of the show even began and literally rewrote history in the process so that dinosaurs are alive in the 21st century? Yeah, the Rangers ultimately won at the end, but they horribly fucked up at their first attempt.
I remember a show I used to watch, can't remember the name though, but it was about a kid who was given to monks by his mother after his birth. He grew up with the monks, becoming their friend, and at the beginnibg of the show he starts looking for his mother. In the last episode, him and his friends stop at an altar and decide to pray, the boy wishing to see his mother again. The thing is, she actually died some time before, and so he is allowed to be reunited with her... but it means that he has to die. And it ends like this, with the kid dying so he could be with his mother in heaven. The ending actually shocked me so much that my brain erased it from my memories, and it was my brother who reminded me of that (strangely enough, we both decided at the same time to check old kids show that we used to watch.)
I wonder how many of these were intended as series finales, or were merely season finales that didn't get renewed (and in some cases were forcibly altered into finales).
David the Gnome and Littl' Bits deserve a DVD or digital release.
Everything that came before and after Reboot on this list was unnecessary. No show defined my childhood (ok, maybe Animaniacs) more than Reboot. It introduced kids to internet terms in a cool but informative manner. I'll bet anyone that at least 90% of those in programming for the big companies like Apple and Microsoft are there because they got inspired in part by Reboot.
Nothing like waking up to watch mighty max and dark waters those where the days :)
Teen titans was my show growing up
Mine too, glad someone gets it
Some of these show ended on a cliffhanger. Probably because the writers didn't think that the show wasnt going to be picked up for another season. Which was the main reasons these shows ended dark
Pity that Reboot was cancelled on a cliffhanger.
Agreed!
I loved Reboot. Really ahead of it's time.
Me too.
Please don't remind me of the REBoot ending...it only breaks my heart to know that we will never get the ending.
One day we will! Never give up hope.
We need a home release of Mighty Max.
I wish there were more mighty max episodes so much. They just dont make cartoons that dont patronize kids
The recent Digimon movie also had an ending like this. It's a sequel to the original Digimon show where all the characters are adults. It has a heartbreaking ending with a message about growing up and leaving their childhood behind.
1:33 that still have little tears
Huh, for once I actually know all these shows .
I adored Mighty Max - the ending surprised me and I really wished there was more.
That is one reboot I would actually like to see.
In a later season of Digimon, one of the girls is clearly suffering from depression, exacerbated by the fact that she's the only one who doesn't have a Digimon partner. She finally gets one and it dies in battle, causing a complete breakdown. It's pretty effed up.
The Reboot ending wasn't supposed to be the true ending. It was cancelled right at the end of that season for some reason and continued in a comic series.
Well digimon Tamers is going to have a continuation in the storyline of the rest of them but as adults, Mighty Max can continue from that cliffhanger
Mighty Max was such an awesome show! It's a shame cartoons like that, are "too graphic" for kids these days.
The kids Digimon sent to oblivion? No, just back to the digiworld that they came from. It's still tragic that the adults left out the tamers of the detail of their needed departure.
Yes mighty max could be viewed as sad but I saw it as a happy ending. If he was the only one who remembers what happened he can use his knowledge to fix it so it will have a happier ending.
Expected the 90s Dinosaurs Sitcom.
Reboot ended on a cliffhanger
you forgot dinosaurs
OH yes, that should be here. "Are we going to move?", "Well....no", "This is only world we got", "It's not like we're going to just...disappear."They couldn't make this ending today. Many people would want it banned on the spot.
you know damn well that blameitonjorge already has Dinosaurs included in his list of children's cartoons with sad endings. do you want new information, or not?
Ending to show to children - Everyone Dies
Digimon Tamers was writen in Japan by Chiaki J. Konaka, who used some Lovecraft influences. Never the less, he adapted Shadow Star to anime, one of the most dark and nihilistic manga of the 2000's
You missed the 1987 version of teenage mutant ninja turtles. It ends with a human saying he will spend the rest of his life making sure the turtles don't mutate further and kill each other and that's it. Even though we all know he found a cure, the series ended before it happened so unless you read the comics you have to assume they killed each other until 1 was left.
Ah yes, David the Gnome. I think they only aired the ending once (or very, very rarely because I only ever saw it once) and I wasn't more than 6 o 7. That ending broke me. And my mom, who rarely remembers TV shows remembers that ending! She said it left her sad for the rest of the day.
I specifically remember asking, "What happens if lightning strikes that tree? Or a human chops it down to make furniture?" Yes I was that 6 year old :)
Animals Of Farthing Wood was one of the darkest kid's shows I remember. I can't remember if it ended badly though
Dinosaur?
Not the Mama.....
I mean they dont just disappear right
not a kid show
Comedy sitcom not a toon
They die
You guys were also off about Digimon as well.
aka monster tamers. There were a few season after it o series depending on how you look at it.
I love and miss Reboot. Never got a proper ending...
That's why I started the "ReBoot Revival" in 2006. Still fighting to get a resolution and a 5th season twelve years later!
Where was Bing? He had Lou Gehrig throughout the series, and died at the end of this CBeebies Show. He went with Coco and Charlie to the End Hills and walked to the top to meet his end, turning into a tree.
A little correction here. In the series Digimon Tamers series finale, the Digimon weren't erased. They were being devolved back to their in training mode and would have been erased if they had stayed in the human world.
Digimon Tamers ending....They did not die. they simple reverted to their Baby 2 stage and got sent back to the digital world, thats why Takato was so happy to see the small portal, it meant that he and the other humans could one day meet their digimon friends again.
I'm not 100% on this but I'm pretty sure this is the reason the creators of reboot probably thought they were going to get another couple Seasons out of the show and that just never happened that's why I reboot ended that way, cuz it really felt like it was leading up to something bigger.
Not sure if Digimon Tamers's finale belongs on this list. There was a follow up movie released soon afterwards that shows that the kids did in fact reunite with their partners. Unfortunately to my knowledge that movie was never released in North America. Now if we're talking the events leading up to the finale involving Juri, that certainly warrants a mention.
Um, the digimon didn't die the just went back to the digital world, that's why he looked happy after finding a portal.
"Cheap pieces of plastic"? I will not hear my beloved childhood toy besmirched in such a way.
All semantics bullcrap, in effective reality, but, the creators insist that last episode of Reboot is not the final-final; it's just on indefinite hiatus. They have been trying off and on for years to get funding and a network to approve more of the show.
these are the enddings that stay with you points for remembering david that was a sad morning before school
Superman continued on into Justice League. Superman did fine and the world forgave him.
Digimon Tamers ended on a cliffhanger but any fan of the series watched the Digimon Tamers movie that takes place 6 months after the series and knows they were all together again in the end.