Saturday Morning Cartoons: Before IF, there was Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends

This weekend, families everywhere are flocking to IF, a wholly original movie written and directed by John Krasinski about a home for imaginary friends who no longer have children paired with them. But back in 2004, there was a cartoon that premiered on Cartoon Network titled Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends set at a home for imaginary friends who no longer have children paired with them.

It gets even weirder when you realize that in IF, Bea (Cailey Fleming) becomes best friends with an imaginary friend named Blue (voiced by Steve Carrell), and in Foster’s the main character Mac (voiced by Sean Marquette) is best friends with an imaginary friend named… Bloo.

Pretty weird that this is somehow not an issue for the new movie. But legalities aside, the good news is that if you went to see IF and want to scratch that itch for more imaginary friends – and frankly, a better, funnier version of the movie – then Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends is the way to go.

The show was created by Craig McCracken, who also created The Powerpuff Girls, and developed it with Lauren Faust and Mike Moon. Over 79 episodes, the series fully explored the idea of imaginary friends with a mix of earnest, weird, and heartfelt adventures. While Foster’s might not quite have the focus of Powerpuff Girls, the anarchy is part of the appeal… These are creatures that don’t exist, so they’re not beholden to the rules of logic the rest of us are slaves to.

Or, you know, it’s just a funny comedy. That too.

The tricky thing here is that Foster’s is one of the shows that got caught up in the Max streaming purge, so while this is a Cartoon Network series, you can’t stream it on the service. You also can’t stream it currently on Hulu despite what Google tells you – it left there in 2022. However, it is available for purchase on most major platforms, other than 2005’s Christmas Special, “A Lost Claus.”

Regardless, Foster’s is a part of cartoon history, and well worth checking out. Imagine IF certain movies had recognized that fact.