Look at these intros. Look at them and feel that dopamine rush.
The animation, the theme songs, the action... And especially, the nostalgia. They may not be as good as we remember them, but they sure beat whatever crap young'uns are watching these days! (Or so we'd like to think...)
Don't these intros make you want to watch them again and again in an endless loop?
The Batman one is probably the one of the best opening I have see.
But really while there was tons of junk like Catdog I do think there are a lot of classics that will stand up to the test of time compared to the last decade. I also think that even the older rougher animation is better then the stuff that Cartoon network makes today.
Shows like Steven Universe or even Gravity Falls put me off watching them beacsue of the art stlye. I just can't get into them. I much prefer the more realist stlye like Gargoyles. I even liked the more stylist choices like Doug or Rugrats. But that new blob stlye just looks bad and even good plot lines or an interesting story is not not to draw me in.
D.C. also came out with with a wide expanding universe. They managed to what Marvel did with their live actions movies with their cartoon universe. They also managed to maintain a long on going storylines.
Shows like Steven Universe or even Gravity Falls put me off watching them beacsue of the art stlye. I just can't get into them. I much prefer the more realist stlye like Gargoyles. I even liked the more stylist choices like Doug or Rugrats. But that new blob stlye just looks bad and even good plot lines or an interesting story is not not to draw me in.
Which was incredible art and especially animation for its time, and still holds up pretty well today for a 35 year old cartoon.
Then there was the 2011 reboot:
From what I gather, it was polarizing among fans. No wonder, purists never like any changes, but just from watching the intro (not the episodes themselves) it looks like a decent modernized take for the series, with all the old recognizable elements of the old one, improved graphics and animation, an updated theme song. Sure, they might have gotten some things wrong, maybe the spirit of the series wasn't exactly the same - never watched so I'm just guessing here. It looks maybe a bit edgier and grittier in that image, which might put off some old-time fans, but it was at least a decent shot at a reboot.
Then, we have this abomination, which is exactly what you're talking about:
Early cartons just had a look about them. Perhaps the innocence of youth and exuberance for the future, still unformed and malleable, making simpler and colorful designs so appealing. Perhaps just the look being a product of the times nobody had seen any better in comparison.
(picture of various drink cartons circa 1990s)
More seriously, and being a 90s kid...
I recall the X-Men cartoons theme song being one of the first things I learned to fiddly-fart with on guitar just because it's such a fun progression. I've actually only ever seen maybe a half-dozen episodes of the show, though. But that musical ditty stuck with me.
Also had the first 2-3 episodes of Swat Kats when I was young on Betamax that we picked up at a garage sale. I remember watching the crap out of those with the sister. Because they were about the coolest, most radical thing ever to come out of Hanna Barbera (even if the dad was confused at what had happened to the Flintstones company ).
Similar story with GI Joe. Same garage sale got us the Serpentor/Heroes? season on Beta where Sgt. Slaughter (who, I believe was based on a WWE wrestler?) was introduced and the Joes had to go about the world because Cobra was engineering the perfect leader from the DNA of the great leaders of the past...I think that may well be the first cartoon series I ever really watched and paid attention to on a storyline basis. And I'm sure it's terrible, but I remember thinking it was quite neat when I was a young 'un.
Gargoyles I've heard lots of good about and always meant to check out--because I've heard it's worth watching even as an adult. But first I must make time and find somewhere to get it that doesn't give Mouse money...
One to refer to people that is truly 80s and truly, truly outrageous...
Jem and the Holograms!
Also known as: The reason for my atrocious taste in fashion...But also why I can save money on clothes by getting them at thrift stores. So...I win in the end?
And then another. That one.
The one everyone remembers, and will again if they hear even the first notes of its theme...
DUCKTALES! WOO-HOO!
Personally, of that kind've 'quartet' of shows it made up with Chip'N'Dale Rescue Rangers (never saw, really), Darkwing Duck (which was also wonderful of what handful snippets I recall) I was always most partial to Talespin. But that was purely, purely based on watching it on a number of occasions with the pop and just basically liking it more because he liked it more--enough to actually buy a VHS copy of some of the episodes.
As a kid most of the cartoons I saw were older, like Bugs Bunny, Lolek in Bolek, La Linea, Tijuana Toads, Blue Racer, Tom&Jerry, Gustav
Looking at Wikipedia, the ones made in the 80s were
A Je To (a documentary about DIY trials and tribulations)
And I'm honestly appalled it took us this long to bring up Cowboy Bebop. When John Wick Keanu Reaves and even Quentin Tarantino gives it their personal approval, you know it's good.
On my vacation, so I can't post videos, but two of these cartoons that stayed in my mind, not named here yet, were Batman Beyond (or Batman of the Future) and Highlander TAS. Like damn, both intros were hype as heck, with the former showing how Gotham needed a Batman more than ever while the latter showed characters of all sorta who emphatized how much the protagonist had on his shoulders as the only immortal not bound by the oaths.
