The Good Old Days: Cartoon Intros

For those times when I'm feeling nostalgic

As a child I spent an embarrassing amount of time playing video games and watching cartoons.  I barely remember any specific levels or episodes but I remember the opening themes.  Opening themes have gone out of style but the catchy themes still get stuck in my head from time to time.  Here are three of the most memorable:

Ducktales

That is definitely one of the catchiest themes songs from any cartoon show. Even if I have no idea what a “duckblur” is, the upbeat tune is infectious. I’m having trouble recalling any specific episodes from Ducktales  but I will never forget the characters.  Huey, Dewey, and Louie are the identical great nephews of the aptly named Scrooge McDuck, and Launchpad is the stoner pilot.  Speaking of Scrooge, I can’t watch him dive into a pile of money without thinking of this SNL skit:

As a kid I owned a copy of Ducktales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp and watched it about a hundred times.  The plot revolves around the ducks discovering a genie-filled lamp.  Scrooge gets greedy and shit hits the fan but at one point the genie makes ice cream rain from the sky.  Thus, one of my greatest childhood fantasies was born.

X-Men

I LOVED THIS SHOW.  Saturday morning cartoons used to be the highlight of my week and X-Men was the highlight of Saturday morning cartoons.  I think that makes the X-Men series the highlight of my young life.  In no way is that depressing.

Before X-Men: First Class Sebastian Shaw was a maniacal Victorian d-bag.  Before Cyclops died a pansy death in X3 he blew up a fifty-foot robot with his eyes.  Before Hugh Jackman made Wolverine into a live-action badass, Wolverine was an animated badass (I realize that picture isn’t from the animated series but it’s too awesome to ignore).  The movies are pretty great in their own right (not X3) but the animated series will always be my first exposure to the franchise.

Talespin

After I got passed the catchy song I realized I have no idea what the hell Talespin is about.  I definitely watched dozens of episodes in my childhood but all I gleaned from that intro is that the bear from The Jungle Book flies a plane, animals that aren’t bears are usually evil, and the show depicted completely unrealistic ‘sky surfing.’  Thankfully the all-knowing Wikipedia clarified things for me.  Talespin is set in the fictional city of Cape Suzette that is apparently a pun on the pancake dish, Crepe Suzette (I have no idea).  Baloo is a cargo pilot who has to deal with gangs of air pirates and zoot suit wearing apes.  I’m not sure how or why Disney decided to transplant Baloo from the jungles of India to a fictional seaside city but it worked. 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PUT ON SOME PANTS!