Television series
Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space
- Space opera
- Light-hearted
A 1972 Saturday-morning cartoon that launches the Pussycats into space by accident, where they encounter aliens and cosmic mishaps. It's silly, colorful, and utterly committed to its absurd premise. Made for kids but nostalgic enough to enchant adults who grew up with this particular flavor of 70s cartoon chaos.
If you liked this
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop1969
A girl-led cartoon where the humor comes from the ensemble chemistry rather than plot logic. Colorful, fast, and fundamentally silly in the same way—it knows exactly what it is.
But The Hooded Claw is genuinely menacing, which jars against the camp. If you want consistent tone, look elsewhere.
Jem1985
A band of girls solving problems with music, friendship, and occasionally wild sci-fi elements. It's Josie's spiritual descendant, with better animation and an even wilder premise.
But Jem is deeply weird in ways that don't always work. The hologram technology plot is sometimes confusing, and it can feel uneven in tone.
Schoolhouse Rock!1973
Educational, colorful, absurdist, and genuinely clever. If you like cartoons that treat their young audience with respect while being visibly made on a shoestring budget, this defines the form.
But It's episodic to the point of randomness. Three minutes at a time can feel more satisfying than binging it. Some topics feel very dated.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Heavy Metal1981
Both are cartoons that treat wild sci-fi premises with complete sincerity; Heavy Metal is Josie's fever dream, shot through with acid and ambition.
An animated anthology that takes the Saturday-morning sensibility and cranks it to adult extremes—trippy, obscene, visually stunning. It's what happens when the artists behind Josie grew up and got a real budget.
But Aggressively R-rated in ways that feel gratuitous. The stories are uneven, and the whole thing is more interested in showing off than narrative coherence.
More like this (4)
The Hardy Boys1969
Another Hanna-Barbera adventure cartoon with a strong ensemble cast. It has the same Saturday-morning DNA but leans harder into mystery and globe-trotting.
But Less comedy than Josie, and the animation is even cheaper. Some episodes feel like placeholders.
Young Samson1967
A boy and his dog fight crime and supernatural threats in the most bonkers ways. It has that same cheerful disregard for narrative logic that makes Josie so appealing.
But The tone is all over the place—sometimes sincere, sometimes bathetic. Animation quality is genuinely rough.
Barbarella1968
Both feature a girl band/protagonist accidentally or otherwise trapped in space, navigating alien worlds with cheerful incompetence and style over substance.
A live-action camp sci-fi film that shares Josie's DNA: colorful, silly, sexy in a guileless way, and utterly committed to a bonkers space premise. Jane Fonda is a delight.
But It's camp, which means it can read as tedious rather than fun. Some of the humor has aged poorly, and it's genuinely slow in places.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975
Both films deploy ensemble casts in episodic adventures where the charm comes from committed absurdism and the actors' willingness to be ridiculous without winking at the audience.
Live-action comedy that operates by the same internal logic as Josie: a team of idiots treating absurd situations with documentary seriousness. Infinitely inventive, genuinely funny.
But It's nearly fifty years old and the humor is very British. Some sketches meander. If you don't vibe with Monty Python's style, this won't convert you.
