1991 in animation

Events

January

• January 10: The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car" first airs, with Dr. Nick Riviera and Lionel Hutz making their debuts.
• January 24: The Simpsons episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" first airs, guest starring Larry King and George Takei.
• January 31: The Simpsons episode "The Way We Was" first airs, being the first flashback episode of the series.

  February

• February 7: The Simpsons episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment" first airs, with Troy McClure making his debut, voiced by Phil Hartman.
• February 14: The Simpsons episode "Principal Charming" first airs, with Groundskeeper Willie, Hans Moleman and Squeaky Voiced Teen making their debuts.
• February 21: The Simpsons episode "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" first airs, with Herb Powell and Mona Simpson making their debuts.

  March

• March 7: The Simpsons episode "Bart's Dog Gets an "F"" first airs, guest starring Tracey Ullman. After the episode, the music video for Deep, Deep Trouble is first broadcast.
• March 20: The animation studio Rough Draft Studios is founded.
• March 26: 63rd Academy Awards:
• * Creature Comforts by Nick Park wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
• March 28: The Simpsons episode "Old Money" first airs, with Professor Frink making his debut.
• March 29: Tiny Toon Adventures concludes it's first season in Syndication with the episode "High Toon".
• March 31: The first episode of Darkwing Duck, broadcast by the Walt Disney Company, airs.

  April

• April 11: The Simpsons episode "Brush with Greatness" first airs, guest starring Ringo Starr.
• April 25: The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Substitute" first airs, guest starring Dustin Hoffman, who is credited as Sam Etic. The episode is further notable for fleshing out Lisa Simpson's character.

  May

• May 1: The Peanuts TV special Snoopy's Reunion premieres on CBS.
• May 2: The Simpsons episode "The War of the Simpsons" first airs, with Snake Jailbird making his debut.
• May 8: The final Garfield TV special Garfield Gets a Life premieres on CBS.
• May 9: The Simpsons episode "Three Men and a Comic Book" first airs, with Comic Book Guy and Radioactive Man making their debuts.

  July

• July 11: The Simpsons concludes its second season on Fox with the episode "Blood Feud".
• July 26: The American film studio Animal Logic is founded.
• Specific date unknown in July: Pee-wee's Playhouse was pulled from its Saturday morning scheduling on CBS due to Paul Reubens' arrest for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater. This program would later air on Adult Swim in 2006 as a "childhood comeback for adults" owing to this issue.

  August

• August 2:
• * Don Bluth's film Rock-a-Doodle premieres in the United Kingdom. This became one of the five lesser Bluth's works and his first lesser film overall. It had some release difficulties after its completion in 1990. It was delayed in the US until April 1992 to avoid competition with Disney's Beauty and the Beast and the first Bluth-less sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
• * The film Rover Dangerfield, which features a dog modeled after and voiced by comedian Rodney Dangerfield, premieres.
• August 11
• * Nickelodeon introduces its new original cartoon brand titled Nicktoons, with the premiere of its first 3 shows: Doug, Rugrats, & The Ren & Stimpy Show.
• ** Rugrats ended up becoming the first longest-running Nicktoon series. The program gained generally positive attention and popularity, as well as becoming an adult interest.
• August 23: After the three-year delay, Felix the Cat: The Movie makes a public marketing, but only as a direct-to-video movie due to financial issues. Following the negative reception in North America, the movie is only available through European markets as of 2011.

  September

• September 3:
• * The first episode of The Legend of Prince Valiant airs, based on the comics series Prince Valiant.
• * The first episode of Little Dracula airs.
• September 7:
• * Hammerman, an animated TV series based on popular rapper M.C. Hammer, premieres, but is cancelled after only one season.
• * The first episode of Rupert airs, an animated TV series based on the British comics character Rupert Bear.
• * The first episode of Taz-Mania airs, starring the Looney Tunes character Tasmanian Devil.
• September 14:
• * Premiere of Back to the Future: The Animated Series, the television adaptation of the 1985 film. It introduces a darker and slightly mature tone for a Saturday-morning cartoon of its time. CBS ended the series after the second season, as it was not as successful as the films of the Back to the Future franchise.
• * Season 4 of Garfield and Friends begins on CBS with the premiere of the following episodes:
• ** "Moo Cow Mutt/Big Bad Buddy Bird/Angel Puss"
• ** "Trial and Error/An Egg-Citing Story/Supermarket Mania"
• * The first episode of ProStars airs and features the animated versions of real-life sports players, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky.
• *The first episode of Super Mario World airs. This third installment of Super Mario Bros. by DIC Entertainment was made under regulations of the Children's Television Act by inserting moral and educational values while eliminating instances that are closer to the 16bit game due to promotional restrictions for children. This attempt was not successful. The third season of Captain N: The Game Master, which paired with the Mario episodes, have suffered some limits as well, but was cancelled after 7 episodes.
• September 16: Season 2 of Tiny Toon Adventures begins in Syndication with the premiere of the episode "Pledge Day".
• September 19: Season 3 of The Simpsons begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "Stark Raving Dad", guest starring Michael Jackson, who is credited as John Jay Smith.
• September 26:
• * The first episode of Spider! airs.
• * The Simpsons episode "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" first airs.
• September 28: The first episode of Mr. Bogus airs, an adaptation of a series of French-Belgian claymation shorts, here done in traditional animation.

  October

• October 2: Nelvana's critically acclaimed adaptation of Hergé's comics series Tintin, The Adventures of Tintin is first broadcast.
• October 3: The Simpsons episode "When Flanders Failed" first airs.
• October 10: The Simpsons episode "Bart the Murderer" first airs, where Fat Tony, Legs and Louie make their debuts.
• October 11: Gertie the Dinosaur is added to the National Film Registry.
• October 17: The Simpsons episode "Homer Defined" first airs, guest starring Magic Johnson and Chick Hearn.
• October 24: The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown" first airs, where Krusty the Clown is revealed to be Jewish; it also guest stars Jackie Mason.
• October 28: The first episode of Once Upon a Time... The Americas airs.
• October 31: The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II" first airs.

  November

• November 7: The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Pony" first airs.
• November 9: Garfield and Friends concludes its fourth season on CBS with the following episodes:
• * "The Pizza Patrol/The Son Also Rises/Rolling Romance"
• * "The Automated, Animated Adventure/It's a Wonderful Wade/Truckin' Odie"
• November 14: The Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder" first airs.
• November 16: The infamous Super Mario World episode "Rock TV" broadcast, gaining much notoriety for its depictions of television addiction.
• November 21: The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's" first airs, guest starring the band Aerosmith.
• November 22:
• * The Walt Disney Company releases Beauty and the Beast.
• * Universal Pictures releases An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, a sequel to An American Tail. It became a cult film in the 2010s.
• November 30:
• * The first episode of Æon Flux airs.
• * The first episode of Liquid Television airs.

  December

• December 5: The Simpsons episode "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" first airs.
• December 7:
• * The first episode of A Bunch of Munsch airs in Canada as a winter special. In the United States, the series premiered on December 17, 1991, an animated TV series based on the children's books by the American–Canadian children's author Robert Munsch. However, the series will later air regularly until the following year.
• * Super Mario World's final episode "Mama Luigi" airs, it was also the final episode of a Super Mario cartoon. While most of the series met negative attention at the time as its originality was grounded by the mandated Children's Television Act, this episode became a legacy following as it was one of the main sources for YTP's in the late 2000s. A remake was released on YouTube in 2017, dedicating the memories of Tony Rosato and Harvey Atkin.
• December 22: Rugrats concluded its first season on Nickelodeon with the premiere of the episodes "Graham Canyon/Stu Maker's Elves".
• December 26: The Simpsons episode "I Married Marge" first airs.