So let’s take our attention away from sitcoms and talk about cartoons. You could argue that openings for cartoons are twice as important. It’s one thing to have to get the attention of an adult that your show is worth watching. Doing it for children is much harder. Which is probably why cartoon openings are usually quick, with lots going on while kickass music plays. People realize that often the best animation for the series is in that opening, which makes sense.
Let’s go through some cartoons and decide not so much if they worked, but how well they worked.
Alvin & The Chipmunks
Yeah kind of a weird one to start off but this opening has always been one of my favorites. That music is great, grabbing you right away. The song explains who they are, and does it in a great way. The franchise had floundered before this little cartoon came along, and that opening theme is what drew me in to learning just who Alvin, Simon and Theodore were.
Fantastic Four
This is generally considered a bad intro. A pop song explaining what the show is worked for some shows, but here it just sounds lame. First we see the logo and it looks more like a bumper you’d see between commercial breaks. The music starts explaining the premise, and it just sounds bad. The topper is that lousy animation, and you have forgettable opening to a lousy show.
He-Man
Ok everyone has to talk about this one so I may as well too. I made it no secret that I was a He-Man kid growing up. I watched it every day, and when most kids wanted their own light sabers I wanted my own sword of power. We all know the opening, it’s basically Prince Adam explaining the backstory (very simply) of how he became He-man, his friends who share that knowledge and the enemies they face. It’s about as simple an opening you can get. Except for one thing. The music is just awesome. The theme for the show was always one of the series strengths and in this intro the music literally carries the whole thing. It makes an opening where a guy stands there talking into something more
I did kind of like the revival’s opening in 2002 which turned this opening on its head. It kinda had the opposite issue, fantastic action scene where we see our characters but the music was just blaaannnd. Check it out
and what about the 1990 revival? Oh my friends, I don’t discuss that idiotic show. Ever.
Muppet Babies
This opening is amazingly good. I mean, it’s Muppet Babies! And yet the intro does everything it has to do. The tune is catchy, good luck getting it out of your head. The characters do the talking, no stupid omniscient narrator. We not only see them all but each character introduces themselves and their personality traits. There’s even a quick cameo by Nanny to establish her. It’s one of my favorite cartoon intro’s ever and I love it.
I’ve seen the Disney Junior reboot intro and the opening is ok. You know how I just said how great it was the characters sing rather than some narrator? Yeah guess what this one does. But the spirit is there.
So in all these years there is one thing I never did. let’s have some fun and go through the Superfriends opening history. First we start with the original:
Ugh. Ok to be fair, I kinda like the way they introduce the heroes with their logos. But why only four? Aside from that this opening is just painful. The music is bad, the narrator sounds horrible, and of course we gotta so Wendy and Marvin who were horrible characters. Hardly any action is shown, and the opening is just dull.
The show would return as the “All-New Superfiends Hour”:
And what an upgrade! The music so much better, triumphant and loud. This is the theme that would pretty much stick, A much better narrator introduced our heroes again but the action is much better this time and we get a lot more of it. It’s basically the same opening as the previous just refined and polished to be more exciting. I love it.
Challenge of the Superfriends:
So this was the year that the Superfriends fought against the Legion of Doom. That was a great concept that still comes up in DC media. The roster of the Superfriends had to be expanded of course. The opening is bigger, but why does it focus more on the villains? I guess they wanted to push the Legion but that makes the show almost feel like it’s the villains show not the heroes. Once the intro moves onto the superfriends it’s much better, smartly showing off the newer members that fans may not have been aware of.
The World’s Greatest Superfriends
Yeah this is the series that took the Superfriends and sucked all the fun out of it. Not by reducing the roster back or returning Zan and Jayna. But by focusing stories on fairy tales and other folklore. And the opening is weaker, almost as if the narrator was saying “yeah, we’ve done this before you know the drill”.
Super Friends
In 1980 the show came back but with a major difference. Rather than a full half hour episode, they presented shorts about eight minutes long featuring the main superfriends teaming up with another DC hero. The opening reflects that, throwing the four new characters into the mix. I did an article discussing these characters before, so will simply say this opening is fine if short on action.
Super Friends:The Legendary Super Powers Show
The funny thing is this cartoon was obviously meant to tie into the “Super Power” toy line at the time. But I guess they were afraid to drop the Super Friends part so they just made this ridiculous s title. The opening is clearly stepping up its game, the music even sounds better. And no foolish narration just action. Thank goodness!
The Super Powers Team:The Galactic Guardians
The title is even lamer, if you’re gonna drop the Super Friends moniker why add the Galactic Guardians nonsense? The opening is ok, better animation for sure by it goes by a little to fast. Except for Superman and Cyborg we hardly see anyone. And yes, Cyborg was popular enough for DC to shove him into the JLA as far back as the last 80’s. Why can’t he just be a Titan? The opening feels like they didn’t care and rushed it as fast as possible. No surprise this was the last Superfriends show.
Maybe I’ll get into the JLA stuff another time. The opening to that first series is, ok.
Ok since I’ve gone on a bit long let’s just do a couple more, and then I’ll come back another time.
Rubik the Amazing Cube
They were able to actually kind of make a Pac-Man show work, but Rubik’s Cube? Yeah this idea was so bad even the opening can’t sell it. Oh it tries, but the song is awful and doesn’t even really explain everything. Except that Rubik is our friend. Yeah nothing creepy about that at all.
Ducktales
Yeah some theme’s work. Others are work so amazingly that you can’t believe it. I was to old for cartoons when this came around buy my sister watched it. And even I knew this catchy as hell theme. It’s memorable, kind of explains what the show is about, and contains visuals they aren’t just recycled clips from the show. It’s a fantastic opening that Disney cartoons would try to copy for a while afterwards.
Finally, is there a perfect opening that does everything right? Here’s one I would nominate:
I was never a fan of the show, to old when it came out, but is there a flaw in this opening? That riff in the start gets our attention. The animation is fantastic. The song is memorable. And we even get some dialogue from our characters. The opening is full of action while also conveying enough backstory to get us invested…and it gives us some insight on who these characters are! Hell it even tells us who the man villain is. Easily one of the best cartoon openings ever made.
That’s all for today my friends. If there is any you want me to go over comment and let me know.
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