Whatever happened to great cartoon themes and soundtracks

[Fulgrim]

Back in the 89's and 90's it was pretty much a requirement that a cartoon had a great theme and sound track. Some such as the DuckTails theme are still popular today. These days a great cartoon soundtrack or theme are few and far between. Even the short lived cartoons in the 80's had great sound tracks.

Two of my favorites

Galaxy Rangers was the shit. It's a shame it's not more well known.

[Clonehunter]

This video has like, everything.

[Avoozl]

Disney cartoons such as Ducktales and Darkwing Duck had some awesome intro themes.

[Looper]

I think people used to put more thought into the cartoons because it was much more difficult to do than with just computers, so the music was more fitting too.

[dew]

Nostalgia Goggles: The Thread.

Clonehunter said:

dy3RTFFhSYs

And this video is the only proof needed. Half of those intros are completely generic or straightout garbage. Also it may have been more difficult to draw the cartoons by hand, but that's why Hanna-Barbera mastered the art of recycling. Go ahead, watch it nowadays and realize how gullible your child mind was.

I won't deny some of the themes were pretty awesome and memorable, but isn't that just how it goes? A few great tunes and series in a sea of mediocrity? And can you honestly say nowadays cartoons are devoid of that, or have you just stopped watching them? I get bits of exposure through my nephew and I'd say it's more or less the same. I almost got hooked on Gumball, complete with the theme and errything. It's funny. This gen even has new cool TNMT with the same theme song, except more hiphopy.

Also I'm disgusted by you plebs not mentioning the best intro.

[Fredrik]

I doubt quality has declined, it's just that 80s synth rock happens to be the most perfect genre for cartoon soundtracks.

[TheEndOfUs]

[geo]

GameTrailers explained this on one of its several new useless video podcasts. Now a days you don't hire the best person to make an intro or a song. You let it be known we're looking for a song and then 100 or a dozen people work FOR FREE to make 100 or a dozen different songs and then only one is bought. So all the rest make nothing. This probably isn't the case for all theme songs or intros. I think working for free affects the quality of the songs.

I always loved this intro

[Ichor]

[vdgg]

[Clonehunter]

TheEndOfUs said:

Ocean Drive

Uh, this isn't even an intro to anything. But it's still cool.

[hex11]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVKh-0Rl-2Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPzcZ1r0PvM

[Du Mhan Yhu]

Centerions (1986)

Spoiler

Better version.

Spoiler

[Philnemba]

Favorite cartoon theme from the 80s

Favorite cartoon theme from the 90s

Damn those were the days when cartoons were badass back then :)

[Gez]

Talking about how cartoon themes from when you were a kid were better than cartoon themes now is all fine and dandy; but you have to be posting cartoon themes from now to make a valid comparison.

PS: vdgg's answer is the classiest.

[durian]

I'm not really getting the supposed contrast - many of themes in the clips are not my cup of tea at all, I guess mega cheesy synth rock was the son du jour. As an aside, seeing so many of them back-to-back, you realise how generic a lot of those old cartoons were, with very similar set ups and characters recurring again and again. Anyway, there are some fine themes in more contemporary kids cartoons:

[Avoozl]

When it comes to generic Fairly cartoons Odd Parents takes the cup imo.

[durian]

I wouldn't know - aware of the theme, not watched the show.

[Maes]

In Italy, they had the habit of re-recording Japanese and Western cartoon intro and ending themes -and pretty much the entire soundtrack. And I don't mean just dubbing them into Italian, entirely new compositions were substituted. It was rare for something to be left intact.

Now, at least most Japanese anime (including very old ones), sounded much better when re-recorded in Italian in this manner -the originals were often underwhelming or melancholic.

Compare e.g. "Daltanious" OP:

Japanese:

Italian:

"Memole" original:

"Memole Dolce Memole" Italian:

"Tiger Man" original:

"Uomo Tigre" Italian:

"Ashita no Joe" Original:

"Rocky Joe" Italian:

Even something as corny as Pokemon had several awesome openings in Italian:

[DoomUK]

Looper said:

I think people used to put more thought into the cartoons because it was much more difficult to do than with just computers

For every implication that computers make everything easy and are the scourge of artistry, the alleged baby jesus kills a kitten.

Animation techniques have changed, but mastering these techniques is as much of an art as ever. Is Doom any less brilliant than backgammon?

[Maes]

Looper said:

I think people used to put more thought into the cartoons because it was much more difficult to do than with just computers, so the music was more fitting too.

I once saw one of these "How it's made" documentaries, and it stated that a single episode of a CGI-animated TV series took 5-6 months to complete -given the number of people involved and the attention to detail that must be paid in a 3D setting, I doubt that an episode of e.g. the Flintstones or even He-Man involved more work.

Besides, computers have been used in traditional animation for a long time -Japanese anime used them at least since the late 70s for colorization, and even Disney used them starting from the 80s.

[Gez]

Old fashioned cartoon creation process:
1. Create storyboards (on paper)
2. Create key frames (on paper and/or computer)
3. Send to Japan (back in the days) or South Korea (nowadays) for people to make all the in-between frames for cheap


Newfangled cartoon creation process:
1. Create storyboard (on paper)
2. Create key frames (in Flash)
3. Make Flash compute all the in-between frames


Though some modern cartoons still use the old-fashioned process, like Gravity Falls.

[Maes]

In old Hanna-Barbera cartoons they obviously didn't bother with intermediate frames at all and only moved essential parts of a character's body ("planar animation"), so a modern cartoon with the same production values won't benefit much from using a computer, other than from logistics/material aspects and some speed increases thanks to instant color fills etc., which however hardly needed 2000/2010s computers to achieve.

Of course, you could use the saved money to refine the animation, and then you need better animation tools and/or extra artists, let alone that in high production values animation, you still need to draw a lot of highly detailed keyframes to guide the tweening, certainly more than on a saturday morning cartoon, so again, the pressure to excel will keep production times pretty much constant.

[Aliotroph?]

The number of people who haven't noticed almost every 80s cartoon is just a toy commercial is scary. Almost every one of them was crap. The first couple seasons of The Real* Ghostbusters had some pretty good writing - then they decided to make it about Slimer.

*"Real" because Filmation owned the trademark to Ghostbusters thanks to this weird show they made in the 70s and then resurrected as a cartoon in the 80s when Ghostbusters came out.

[Clonehunter]

Huh, so that's why it's called "Real?" I always did wonder what the point of that was.

[Looper]

Maes said:

Besides, computers have been used in traditional animation for a long time -Japanese anime used them at least since the late 70s for colorization, and even Disney used them starting from the 80s.

Yes, I'm aware of this. I was talking a bit older ones, not about the 80s.

[Bucket]

All of these pale in comparison to Eek! The Cat.
Speed metal in a kid's cartoon. Yep.

[SandGator]

[wildweasel]

Action, awesome music, and not a single lyric.

[Sandstormer]

Absolutely loved Eek the Cat! I also loved The Tick and Beetlejuice. Cartoons had a certain charm back then that doesn't seem to exist anymore. At least, not from what I've seen while babysitting my baby niece. She seems to love them, though.