10 Great Action/Adventure Cartoon Theme Songs

 There have been a lot of really catchy cartoon theme songs over the decades. Here are ten from American action/adventure cartoons (that call is debatable, but I wanted to exclude strictly comedic ones like The Flintstones, for example) that I think one could make a good case for being among the best. Here they are in chronological order.

Jonny Quest (1964)
Trey: This fast-paced, Space Age jazzy number composed by Hoyt Curtin really says action and speaks strongly of the era when it was recorded. According to Curtin in a 1999 interview, the band used for the sessions was a jazz ensemble with four trumpets, six trombones, five woodwind doublers, and a five-man rhythm section including percussion. It stands among the greatest theme songs of all time, period. 

Jason: I agree completely, but I must confess I can only regard this banger (and everything before 1985 on this list) through an obscuring mist of nostalgia. Coupled with the attractively Alex Toth-designed highlight reel of explosive violence and weird mystery, this complex, hyper-condensed piece of music captured my tiny heart from the first bongo beats. How could any TV cartoon series live up to the high bar set in this opening sequence? When I saw the show, it was many years in syndication, and the contrast with the then-current Saturday morning fare was profound. Even the theme music was more grown up!  

Spider-Man (1967)

Trey: Like the next one on my list, this catchy tune has escaped from the realm of cartoon themes into pop culture in general, being covered many times and even appearing in-universe in Spider-Man films. It was written by lyricist Paul Francis Webster and composer Bob Harris. The music was recorded at RCA Studios, New Yorks, and the vocals at RCA Studios in Toronto (where the cartoon was produced) featuring 12 CBC vocalists (members of the Billy Van Singers, and Laurie Bower Singers groups).

Jason: Here again, I regard this one as immortal and, in any honest evaluation, rank it among my favorite songs of all time by several entirely subjective criteria.  The Ramones version remains my top cover version while the Michael Bublé cover stands unchallenged as my top Michael Bublé song of all time. 

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969)

Trey: This bubble-gum pop earworm was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, and originally performed by Larry Marks. It's probably the most covered theme on this list.

Jason: It's a perfect piece of pop, quintessentially of its era, and ranks up there aesthetically with any "Sugar Sugar" or "Yummy Yummy Yummy" you'd care to name.  

Super-Friends (1973)

Trey: Another one from Hoyt Curtin, this is a more of a rousing, martial piece. The producers must have known they struck gold, because they kept it for 13 years, changes to narration aside. It is certainly eminently recognizable. I like this remix for a Cartoon Network promo by Michael Kohler, "The Time is Now."

Jason: A stately call to arms for the forces of good!  This type of instrumental-only action show theme song, often characterized by blaring brass sections and delivered with Wagnerian exuberance, practically constitutes a genre unto itself and dates back to the Fleischer Studios Superman shorts from the 1940s.

Hong Kong Phooey (1974)

Trey: In the early 70s, America was in the midst of a "kung fu craze," this show and theme rides that wave. It's short of funky, but also recalls the cliched "Oriental riff" and perhaps borrows a bit of inspiration from Schifrin's theme for Enter the Dragon. Scatman Crothers who voices the main character also sings here.

Jason: That this song is diabolically catchy, I cannot deny. It has stuck with me through long decades during which I neither sought out nor otherwise encountered the source material. 

MASK (1985)

Trey: This theme is a pure slice of the 80s and credited to the duo that dominated the era, Shuki Levy and Haim Saban. Levy's got a page devoted to his theme work, here.

Jason: MASK marks the spot on the timeline after which I will no longer be buoyed by any shred of nostalgia, having ascended to the snottiest and most dismissive epoch in my extended adolescence. I don't recall ever having heard this before, but I am immediately struck by the Flashdance-adjacent aesthetic.  

SilverHawks (1986)

Trey: SilverHawks may be a lazy attempt to iterate another hit from the ThunderCats template (see also TigerSharks), but I think it's got a superior theme song to the original. It was composed by Bernard Hoffer who did a lot of work for Rankin-Bass but was nominated for an Emmy for composing the theme used in the PBS News Hour (originally The MacNeil-Lehrer Report).

Jason: The haunting refrain of the title elevates the pop appeal of this theme, while also delivering the first genuine guitar shredding (or is it synthesizer? Or, heaven forfend, keytar?) yet heard in this listing. This is another first listen for me, and the professional craftsmanship is again evident. It's almost like there's a few surefire formulae in this theme song game.

X-Men (1992)

Trey: This iconic instrumental song with a futuristic (in now a very dated way) vibe was credited (as so many 80s and 90s cartoon theme songs were) to Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, but was written by Ron Wasserman who was under contract to Saban at the time. Wasserman says of the composition and recording in a 2022 interview: "I’d learned to play or emulate any instrument so I would have played every part. Just me, a MIDI keyboard, and a computer."

Jason: So iconic I know it, though I don't think I've watched a full episode of this series. While I am enjoying listening through this listing, maybe I'm starting to develop cartoon theme song fatigue at this point. Do I hear a bit of Miami Vice in this ditty, or have I taken leave of my senses?

Teen Titans (2003)

Trey: This was a well-written series with perhaps a deceptively cartoony look. The great power poppish theme song was written and performed by Japanese pop rock duo, Puffy AmiYumi.

Jason: This one I enjoy without resorting to ironic detachment or nostalgia of any kind. There's more than a small debt to Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man," but it's so dang catchy all is forgiven. 

Spidey And His Amazing Friends (2021)

Trey: My daughter loved this show when she was younger, and still revisits it's occasionally. It has a very catchy theme written and performed by Patrick Stump, who Wikipedia tells me is lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Fall Out Boy.

Jason: Stump correctly ascertained that a Spidey theme needs to be propulsive enough to communicate the frantic action that will (presumably) follow. It's as good as any post-Fallout Boy emo tune I can currently recall (don't ask how many). Still, good stuff for the kids. Did your daughter enjoy the theme?

Trey: She did and still does!

Scooby Apocalypse Indeed

The universe has a wicked sense of humor. Just last week, I was saying how I'm trying to avoid having a negative reaction to seeing beloved childhood icons revamped in modern ways. Then this week, DC Announces a Hanna Barbera Revamp that looks like...well, I'll let you judge for yourself. (I've called out all the ways artist Jim Lee has used to reimagine the Scooby gang.)

Sigh. This is apparently art from something called Scooby Apocalypse.
I don't think they could have titled that project any better if they've tried.

I've seen quite a bit of negative commentary on this image from around the web, with the StevieB and Trex from Nerds of the Apocalypse pretty much summing up the general consensus in this exchange:

Now, I understand this version of Scooby isn't really aimed at my generation. (Or StevieB and Trex's for that matter) So, I asked Haigen, my daughter, what she thought.

Haigen: Uh...everyone looks okay, but what's up with Velma?
Jim: I think she's supposed to be a kid now.
Haigen: Huh?
Haigen: Also, what's up with Shaggy's beard. And the tattoo. And the moustache. And the purse.
Jim: Yeah. That's kind of what the internet is saying.
Jim: Would you buy this?
Haigen: Maybe.
Haigen: Daphne looks pretty awesome.
Jim: Yeah, I agree. I think they should have done something like that for Velma.
Haigen: What were they thinking with Shaggy?
Jim: I guess that tattooed guys with man purses want to buy Scooby Doo comics?

I will say the Future Quest images look pretty awesome:

...so I'm not going to write this project off entirely.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this turns out.

- Jim

Scooby Doo: Real Monsters Vs Fake Monsters

Among fans of Scooby Doo, one of the biggest controversies is the presence of real monsters in the show and movies. Here's a nice list of the 180+ appearances of real monsters in the Scooby Doo continuity.

Hands down, the best case against Real Monsters in Scooby Doo is presented by Chris Sims who advances the idea that the Scooby Gang should be viewed as avatars of skeptical/progressive thinking in a world of superstitious authority figures.
 
In addition to that, Chris (and many others) argue that having real monsters in the show subverts original premise of the show in a way that makes it unwatchable. I disagree with that for several reasons.

• For kids originally exposed to the show, the monsters were real. Constantly relying on the gimmick of a person under a mask just caused kids to stopped taking the show seriously.
• There is the perception that the introduction of real monsters into the show is a modern conceit, but that's false as the first real monster was introduced in 1970 in the That's Snow Ghost episode. 
• There are also merits to portraying the gang as  heroes who aren't afraid to confront unknown challenges of possibly supernatural proportions. 
• Also, it could be argued that the world we are seeing plays by different rules than ours. 

 On that last point, Alee Martinez presents the best argument for a Scooby Continuity with a supernatural tinge to it.

• He mentions technology being different in the show (working robots, electric monsters from just car batteries, transparent glider skies, ect...)
• Scooby can talk and understand complex human sentences
• When in monster guise, the villains behave irrationally, as if they are not in possession of their own wits. (Like the Werewolf villain who is befuddled by Scooby and Shaggy pretending to be barbers:

Also, in the The New Scooby Doo Movies, the gang teams up with both Batman and Robin, Josie and the Pussycats, The Addams Family and Jeannie (and her apprentice genie Baboo.) While it could be argued that the Batman and Robin of this world are from the 60's television world (where there was no magic), the presence of Josie and the Pussycats, The Addams Family (somewhat) and Jeannie (definitely) suggest magic exists in this world.

 The biggest surge in real monsters came with the advent of the direct to video animated movies with Scooby Doo and The Goblin King being probably the most fantasy tinged entry in the series. However, more recently there has been an effort by the newer movies to present all monstrous threats as guys in a costume. It appears that the last appearance of a real monster in the universe was Annuki in the excellent Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Yet, in order to remove all real monsters, the movies have had to stretch physics to herculean contortions to explain how the villains are able to do the things they do. (Scooby Doo and  Kiss for example uses dream sequences and super advanced technology to explain its plot.) This avoidance of supernatural elements in the show has gotten so bad that even Blue Falcon has been demoted to just a fictional comic book character.

In a way, it reminds me of the eye rolling lengths that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone to keep explain away Asgardian magical items as quantum powered alien technology.

The opponents of real monsters believe that the creatures ruin the show/movies for them because it perverts the original premise. I would argue it no more ruins the show than having magic work in the Batman universe. The Golden Age Batman universe wasn't filled with magic, but the modern one certainly is. Where is the hate for magic using heroes and villains in the DC Universe or  Batman Adventures? There is none.

At the end of the day, a lot of the hate is just people who feel like their version of a show has been corrupted to something that no longer represents their childhood memories. That's too bad, because they are missing out on a fun element of the show.

- Jim

Scooby Doo Meets Kiss vs Gods and Monsters

This weekend was a very animated themed one for me as I was able to catch up on some cartoon movies/shows I had missed recently. Here's what I saw:

 

 Friday night, I had the good fortune of watching Over The Garden Wall with my friend and sometimes FBU contributor, Trey Causey.

I had never heard of this  10 episode Cartoon Network series (it is fairly new) but I was given the choice of watching it or the new DC direct to video feature Justice League: Gods and Monsters. I don't quite recall what it was that Trey said that convinced me to give Over The Garden Wall (OTGW) a try, but I would describe the series as a beautiful mash up of the old Merrie Melodies cartoons with a Southern Gothic mystery. 

The main story focuses on two boys Wirt and his younger brother Greg who are lost in a mysterious woods. As they try to find a way home, they encounter a number of creepy scenarios, that evoke the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain. The animation is breathtaking and the music perfectly captures the old Merrie Melodies feel. 

Currently the only way to watch the series is on DVD, and while I don't buy many DVDs these days, this is one I could see buying. I just watched it Friday, but I already want to see it again.

Later in the weekend, I decided I also wanted to give Justice League: Gods & Monsters a try, so I rented it from Amazon.

If you missed out on the hubbub of this movie when it came out last July (as I did), here's a quick synopsis from Wikipedia:

In an alternate universe, the Justice League is a brutal force that maintains order on Earth. This universe has its own versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman:

• This universe's version of Superman is Hernan Guerra. He is the son of General Zod who was rocketed to Earth as a child and raised by a family of honorable and hardworking Mexican migrant farmers. Having to go through the troubles that illegal immigrants have in the United States leads him to become short tempered and withdrawn from humanity.

• Batman is Dr. Kirk Langstrom, a scientist who, after graduating college, has inadvertently transformed himself into a form of pseudo-vampire in an attempt to cure his cancer, feeding on criminals to satisfy his hunger after his hunger begins to eat away at his humanity.

• Wonder Woman is Bekka, a New God and the widow of Darkseid's son Orion who fled Apokolips for Earth using a mother box-sword after the New God Highfather killed her husband in a massacre of the Apokolips royal family.

I can say without a doubt, that my Friday choice of Over the Garden Wall, was the best decision. Gods & Monsters wasn't bad as these sort of things go, but the very nature of the movie (introducing 3 new characters complete with the backstories) didn't give the writers Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett a lot of room to build much more than a conventional (and somewhat predictable) plot. I found myself bored in a lot of places which led me to wonder what exactly was the purpose of this movie. This is what, the third? the fourth? animated version of a darker DC Universe, so it's hard not to get a been there/done that vibe from the movie.

The Justice Lords from the Justice League animated series

Overall, this strikes me as a movie for only the most ardent DC Universe fans. It's definitely not something you would spring on someone just getting into comics...or an old school fan who might not enjoy their super-heroics with so much neck-snapping and sword gouging. 

Watching it, I wondered how the DC Direct To Video movies were doing. You may recall I did a post two years ago examining the track record of the DC DTV features wherein I notice a downward trend. Well, here's what the trend looks like now:

At the time of my first analysis, I thought that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox would do as good as Justice League: Doom (I was wrong about that. Only Son of Batman has come close to matching Justice League: Doom.) As it is, the home media sales are continuing to drop off pretty steeply. Part of that could be a lot of people simply watch the movies on home streaming services like Amazon (or Netflix eventually) as I did. It's also possible that comic fans simply don't feel compelled to buy these movies when they first come out as they did years ago.

Whatever the reason, I don't see us getting a Legion of Super-heroes DTV feature anytime soon. :(

Anyway, the last animated movie I saw this weekend was Scooby Doo and Kiss" Rock and Roll Mystery.

Before I go into my review, let me say, I'm a big Scooby Doo fan with a LOT of thoughts about the show. As such, I'm working on big article for a future post. But for today, I'm going to try and restrain myself and just focus on this lone feature.

This is another movie I was on the fence about watching. Yes, I like Scooby Doo. Yes, I was a big Kiss fan back in the day. So, you would think I'd be all over this thing, right? Not so much. Part of me viewed it with the same suspicion I had for the old Scooby Doo Movies. (Yeah, it was cool when Batman and Robin showed up, but the one with Cass Elliot was sort of hard to sit through.)

 As it turns out, this movie sort of encompasses that whole good/bad experience. Parts are funny and play it pretty straight with the whole Scooby Doo formula (which is a good thing in this case.) There are some nice bits with Daphne having a crush on Paul Stanley that totally remind me of the 1970's Scooby Doo movies. And the voice acting is good if not a bit strange. Where else are you going to find Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish) in the same movie as Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob.)

What really brings the movie down is the parts where the movie wants to delve into the Kiss as Superheroes idea that was started with Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park and the old Marvel Magazines. That aspect is okay at first, but the movie builds on it until it overwhelms the story. And what they ultimately do with the idea is sort of disappointing as well.

Overall, of the recent Scooby Doo animated efforts, I still prefer the two season Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated series which came out in 2010.

Anyway, next week is my anniversary, so I will be taking next weekend off with no new post. Have a great week!

- Jim