Time travel never gets old. These stories have endless potential to show characters traveling to critical historical events, meeting past/future versions of themselves, and even stumbling into alternate realities.

So, stop the clock and check out these incredible animated time travel stories.

1. Speed Demon (Powerpuff Girls)

This animated time travel Episode starts out strong with a scene where Miss Keane absentmindedly gives a lecture on quantum physics to her class of kindergarteners. The girls then take their friendly foot race a bit too far and end up going so fast they travel to the future.

With the girls' disappearance, Townsville fell to ruins at the hands on HIM. The horrific visage of a Townsville without the Powerpuff Girls there to protect it has undoubtedly scarred a few kids for life.

2. Father Time! (Fairly Oddparents)

After getting grounded for melting his dad’s prized trophy with his heat vision, Timmy decides the best solution lies in a time-traveling scooter. He goes back in time to sabotage his dad’s chances of winning the race that won him the big trophy and the love of his life.

This episode includes one of the best jokes in the series where it almost reveals Timmy’s parents’ names, only for a noisy truck to obscure them.

3. 2 Scott 2 Future (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off)

This animated time travel episode answers the mystery that had run through the entire series. Scott Pilgrim’s kidnapper? None other than himself from the future.

Scott gets a dark look at the lonely future he could have if he doesn't get his life together. The best moment comes when Older Scott (voiced by Will Forte) sings “Konya wa Hurricane,” the opening theme to the 1987 anime series Bubblegum Crisis.

4. Flashback (Static Shock)

The Static Shock TV series made a tremendous change from the comics by killing off Virgil’s mom years before the series started.

In “Flashback,” Static uses a new hero’s powers to travel back five years to stop his mom from dying in the Dakota riots. No other episode of the series tugs on the heartstrings like this one. It reveals that Virgil gets his heroic heart from his paramedic worker mom, who sacrificed herself to save others.

5. The Once and Future Thing (Justice League Unlimited)

In this two-part story, the time-traveling thief Chronos leads the Justice League in an adventure spanning from the Old West to the future.

Part I sees the members of the Justice League fight alongside DC’s Western heroes, like Jonah Hex and Bat Lash. Part II takes them to Gotham City in Batman Beyond’s time period, allowing them to meet Terry McGinnis, an elderly Static, and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl’s son, Warhawk.

6. How Long is Forever? (Teen Titans)

When a fight against a time-traveling villain throws Starfire decades into the future, she sees a dark future where the Teen Titans have disbanded their team and, worse, their friendship.

A future where Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven have all retreated into lonely, isolated lives saddened audiences immensely. This episode cements Starfire’s role as the heart of the team that keeps them all together.

7. Days Past (Xiaolin Showdown)

The entire run of the show built Grand Master Dashi up as a legend, and Omi finally gets to meet him in this episode. He faces off against the master in a Xiaolin Showdown to get him to create another magical puzzle box to defeat Wuya.

This episode leads to Omi’s clever way of traveling to the future one second at a time: freezing himself in ice for 1500 years. Unfortunately, this technique leads to disaster later on in the series when Omi doesn't quite think through the logistics. 

8. Ned Frischman: Man of Tomorrow (Dave the Barbarian)

Through a series of improbable events, the insignificant nerd Ned Frischman travels back in time to Dave and the gang’s period.

What incredible future technology does he use to rule over Udragoth as a powerful wizard? A simple handheld video game console. Gaming has the power to take over people's lives in the modern age, so of course it would work for the ancient world too. 

9. Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy (Invader Zim)

This time travel episode makes a strong contender for the darkest Invader Zim episode, and that says something. Zim uses time travel to replace objects in Dib’s past in ways that cause mounting injuries.

The final straw comes when Zim replaces the defibrillator paddles of a paramedic trying to revive Dib. Then, the episode takes a brilliant turn as Professor Membrane turns Dib into a deadly cyborg to combat all his “accidents.”

10. Menace of the Madniks! (Batman: The Brave and the Bold)

Blue and Gold fans can rejoice that Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) finally team up in animated form. Booster Gold travels back in time before Ted’s death to hang out with his best friend. The jealous tension over Ted’s affection between Batman and Booster adds much-appreciated comedy to this melancholy tale.

For those craving more temporal adventures, Batman: The Brave and the Bold has no shortage of them. One could choose from the several other appearances of Booster Gold. Or perhaps check out the cold open where Batman saves an alternate universe Abe Lincoln from assassination. 

11. The Time Traveler’s Pig (Gravity Falls)

This episode of Gravity Falls introduces a novel time-travel device in the form of a measuring tape. Dipper tries to use the device to make multiple attempts at undoing his embarrassing moment with Wendy but ultimately decides to live with the shame so Mabel can keep her new pet pig.

This episode holds a significant spot in the series for introducing the time traveler Blendin Blandin and Mabel’s pet pig, Waddles. Blendin returns for even more timestream shenanigans' in “Blendin's Game.” That episode also includes a fun moment where Dipper goes backward and meets a younger Wendy and finally learns how awkward his crush has been on her. 

12. The Savage Time (Justice League)

In this three-part season finale, the Justice League returns to Earth to discover that the immortal Vandal Savage has used time travel to take over the world. The heroes travel back to World War II to stop Vandal from leading the Axis Powers to victory with advanced weaponry. 

In the present day, they meet this new timeline's version of Batman, who runs a resistance militia to fight back against Savage. They then get to meet the World War II heroes of the DC universe including The Blackhawks and Steve Trevor. 

13. Time and Punishment (The Simpsons)

Homer’s attempt at repairing the toaster turns it into a time machine that takes him to the pre-historic era with each toast. Homer tries to follow his dad’s oddly time travel-related wedding day advice, but his inability to stop killing things leads to a number of alternate presents, including one where Ned Flanders rules the world.

This episode effortlessly packs in all-time great lines like “Now to take her for a test toast” and “I wish I wish I hadn't killed that fish.” “Time and Punishment” easily ranks as one of the best “Treehouse of Horror” segments of all time.

14. Ego Trip (Dexter’s Lab)

This special took the saying “If you want something done right, do it yourself” to a whole new level. Dexter teams up with three older versions of himself to prevent a dark future where Mandark controls the world.

Dexter's stages of life run a wide spectrum of personalities. The movie features a weak and cowardly young adult Dexter, a middle-aged musclebound man of action Dexter, and a shrunken elderly Dexter who has obviously lost a few steps. It remains one of the most epic specials a Cartoon Network show has ever had.

15. A Sitch in Time (Kim Possible)

It turns out that without Drakken weighing her down, Shego had everything it took to take over the world. She uses a Time Monkey to split up Kim and Ron and become the supreme dictator of the Earth.

The episode has fun showing the audience the origins of Ron and Kim’s friendship while also giving them hilarious sci-fi resistance versions of the supporting cast. Jim, Tim, Wade, and even Rufus' descendent become huge, hulking 80s action stars in the future.

16. Regular Show: The Movie

A dying future Rigby crash-lands at the park and informs everyone that the galaxy has been taken over by Mordecai and Rigby’s high school science teacher. The fate of the galaxy lies in the hands of Mordecai and Rigby’s friendship, as it all started with a high school betrayal. 

This movie made the bold move of killing off the future versions of Mordecai and Rigby. Thankfully, they patch up their friendship and live a long and happy life as seen in the series finale. Regular Show doesn’t get any more epic than this movie.

17. The Best Christmas Story Never Told (American Dad)

Time travel and Christmas go together all the way back to Dickens. But instead of the standard A Christmas Carol fare, American Dad immediately sets Stan loose in the 1970s. Stan rejects the Ghost of Christmas past's attempt at changing his ways and instead runs off to destroy Jane Fonda's career. Unfortunately for Stan, this leads to a future where Ronald Reagan loses his reelection, and Russia destroys Christmas. 

Even as the show got less political, it still used Stan's conservatism as a great storytelling tool. Scrooge didn’t have to shoot his favorite president to learn his Christmas spirit, but hopefully, the act made the lesson stick for Stan.

18. Roswell That Ends Well (Futurama)

Futurama visits time travel a few times, but they did it best on the first try. The Planet Express crew found themselves in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. At first, the characters (poorly) attempt to fit in with the period to avoid disrupting history. But by the end, they have no qualms about loudly blasting through Roswell Air Base and making a huge mess.

This episode makes itself even more memorable by making Fry into his own grandpa. Don’t think too hard about how that works. However, do think about how this quirk of Fry's biology made him immune to the Brain Spawn.

19. Test of Time (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)

When Billy procrastinates on his homework, Grim gives him a time-traveling remote so he can finish it. But of course, if Billy had the trustworthiness to handle such a device, he wouldn’t have gotten in this mess in the first place. The remote quickly falls into abuse as Billy sees it as nothing more than a toy. 

The episode has the amazing conclusion of Billy becoming the common ancestor of all humanity. The image of Mandy, Irwin, and the rest of Endsville looking and acting just like Billy made for one of the best endings in the show. 

20. Ben 10,000 (Ben 10)

Ben gets magically dragged into the future, where he meets the world-renowned superhero he grows into. Unfortunately, “Ben 10,000” has since become jaded by the responsibilities of heroism and doesn’t even bother naming his aliens anymore. Young Ben reminds him how to have fun with the Omnitrix before returning to his own time.

Time travel would return as a recurring feature to the franchise. Throughout the several different Ben 10 shows, several different versions of Ben's future make appearances. 

21. Alternate Riverdales (Archie’s Weird Mysteries)

The second episode of a three-part time travel story arc sees Archie in a prank war with Reggie and a time war with school delinquent Vinne Wells. Archie must stop Vinnie from using time travel to recreate the world in his own image. Vinnie’s drive for revenge eventually ends with him completely erasing himself from the time stream. And to think, this all started because Archie wouldn’t lend him money for nachos.

Don't just watch this episode, though. Make sure to see the whole saga unfold starting with the preceding episode “Archie's Date With Fate” and the conclusion “Teen Out of Time.”

22. Elsewhere and Elsewhen (The Owl House)

Luz uses a Time Pool to travel back to The Boiling Isles’ past in a search for info that will let her build a new portal door to the human realm. This episode creates far-reaching impacts for the rest of the series, as it reveals that Luz inadvertently had a hand in Emperor Belos’ rise to power.

Before this episode, Luz looked at Phillip as a human comrade on her journey. Following the revelation, the guilt of teaching magic to the future Emperor Belos hung heavy on Luz's head.