Main title sequences are possibly the most important part of creating a cartoon. It is the one element that viewers will most notice, as it is the one thing that will consistently air day in and day out. We’re gonna post the best ones we can find, be it stuff you’ve seen before and stuff you haven’t. Batman, Inspector Gadget, Thundercats – all these have great openings. But so does stuff like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, C.O.P.S., or Centurions – mildly forgotten cartoons. Of course, the quality of the opening sequence doesn’t necessarily match the quality of the cartoon.
Alright, so this technically isn’t an opening sequence per se – it’s an intro to a segment on Freakazoid. But it also illustrates that last point more beautifully than any other cartoon intro. If you’ve seen it, you know why. If not, let me explain it (but please, watch it first).
The opening is great. It’s 90 seconds of well-choreographed action set to a thundering male chorus. Everything is explained with catchy melody and clear origin. Being Freakazoid, it’s chock full of that wacky nonsensical humor the show was famous for… but it also makes the viewer expect a long, action-packed segment.
And that’s why the joke is so beautiful, because nothing happens in the actual cartoon. It’s just dialogue, it’s badly animated (one character isn’t even lip synced), and the open is actually longer. Yeah, it’s an example of the show’s wackiness but it’s also a brilliant satire of how too many cartoons put all the money into the opening, leaving nothing for the show.
