Cartoon
From Superdickery
Cartoons are Television shows that are drawings being animated. I don't know all the details in how it works, but it does.
Some cartoons that are worth mentioning
Everything in the DCAU
The Simpsons
The Matt Fleicher Superman cartoons in the 30's and 40's
South Park (Post season 2)
Various anime (Although nowadays, this tends to be a bit of a crapshoot, see below)
The quality of Cartoons today
Quite frankly, most of them suck. They are all either imported from Japan or take on the Japanese style. They also sacrifice good story telling for mindless plots and gimmicks that even a 3-year-old would find stupid. Most of the cartoons that are worth watching today are adult oriented.
This just goes to show you the deterioration of youth today.