I Stumbled Across Tubi And Now I Can Watch All My Favorite Cartoons From Childhood For Free

I'm going to my happy place and it looks like an animated Toys "R" Us ad.

Another streaming service, you say? What do I need that for? I said the exact same thing until I actually wanted — no, needed — to find some of my favorite childhood cartoons.

Tubi / Via giphy.com

As an '80s kid (wait, don't leave), I have very fond memories of 22-minute-long animated toy commercials pretending to be television shows with some sort of lesson tacked on at the end to make them FCC compliant. That, and lots of blue and red lasers that never really seemed to hurt anyone (ah, violence without consequences, what a decade it was).

My search quickly led me to Tubi, a free (but ad-supported) streaming service (owned by Fox) that had exactly what I was looking for. I'm talking about the original Transformers and the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series.

Hasbro / Via giphy.com, Hasbro / Via giphy.com

Why did I "need" this? Maybe it's visual comfort food during an uncomfortable time. Maybe it's taking me back to when life was much less complex. Or maybe it's because everyone wearing face masks these days look exactly like Cobra agents. This is nostalgia in its purest and cheapest form.

So of course, I started digging deeper for what other animated series from my youth were available...

DIC Audiovisuel / Via giphy.com, DiC Audiovisuel / Via giphy.com

Found me some Inspector Gadget, basically a trenchcoat/fedora-wearing detective that's kind of a human Swiss army knife. Great theme song, by the way — a real earworm, that one.

Then there's one about a round, orange cat who really likes to eat. I'm talking about Heathcliff, of course. Who else did you think it was? Unlike that other cartoon kitty, this one was a bit of a neighborhood badass.

But if decades-old animation isn't your thing, don't worry, because there is a ton of weird and random stuff available on Tubi at the moment.

MBS TV / Via invokedsummon.tumblr.com

If you were a Power Rangers kid (I was not), then you might want to check out one of the original Japanese live-action series that inspired it, Kamen Rider. This one's got a guy who looks like a bug and rides a motorcycle. What more can you ask for? Oh, you want more. There's 98 episodes in the first season. That enough?

If you're into horror, Tubi has some scares for you. In fact, it has The Excorcist III, which has one of the best jump scares ever put to film. Even when you know it's coming, it still gets you.

Tubi

There's a really solid mix of classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Phantasm, and Children of the Corn, mixed with some newer hits like Train to Busan and The Conjuring. Also, there's a ton of schlocky, straight-to-streaming titles that can stab that particular itch.

Remember how I said there's a lot of random stuff on Tubi? There is a significant number of Al Pacino, Nicholas Cage, and Samuel L. Jackson films from this past decade that you had no idea existed. Like, when did they have the time to make these?

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Honestly, I couldn't show an image from these films because they would be completely unrecognizable. So that's why you get Con Air. But seriously, you're going to have to dig, but you'll find some movies that you always wanted to watch but slipped through the cracks.

There's really nothing new or amazing, but that's not exactly what you're here for. Ever heard of a film called Child 44?

Tubi

Neither have I! But it's got Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman and this plot: "Set in Cold War–era Russia, an exiled secret police officer hunts a serial killer murdering children, but the trail leads to an internal cover-up." And now it's in my queue. Thanks, Tubi!

Honestly, Tubi knows exactly what it is, and that's why I've been enjoying it. Remember, it's free! All you have to do is suffer through a few commercials (you'll be looking at your phone anyway).

Hasbro / Via giphy.com

Movies, TV shows, comedies, dramas, there's really a little something for everyone. As for me, I'm going to go watch a giant cassette player turn into a robot and spit out cassettes that turn into tiny robots. Is that a mood yet?