There was something about European cartoons in the 80s and 90s that set them apart from their British cousins: the length of their introductions.
Where in Britain we generally used a sequence just long enough to show the show’s name and give a little jingle, our European friends packed theirs with jolly tunes and a myriad credits. On the first hearing most of these are a novelty: the tunes were usually upbeat and cheerful and the animated sequences gave you an idea of the overall story or what excitement lay ahead, however on subsequent viewings the novelty wore off and you just wanted to watch the show!
I’ve linked to some prime examples:
Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds is a particularly good example. The tune is irritating, it’s over long and it doesn’t really help explain the story. The lyrics are pretty repetative and the word ‘Muskahound’ is terrible. I remember watching this one about 20 years ago (god I feel old) and even as a 6 year old being frustrated that it wouldn’t just get on with it.
Around the World with Willy Fogg was loosely based on “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne. Along with many of the same irritations as Dogtanian we now also have bad dubbing where the characters mouths aren’t moving at the same time as the speech (OK, so it was dubbed from Spanish, we’ll give them that) and product placement (see that Iberia ad in there?). However… the lyrics tell the story (mostly) and, for some reason, hearing this one again actually made me shiver a little.
By far my favourite, Mysterious Cities of Gold’s into tells the story, has great lyrics and I could listen to it again and again. It is, however, almost long enough to be a pop song!
Compare that with a typical British offering of the time, The Family Ness (which also has an awesome tune) but weighs in at only 37 seconds:
However, the one thing that all these share, no matter what their country of origin, is that they show without doubt that we had far superior cartoons when we were growing up in the 80s to the rubbish kids of today watch and think is great. Pokemon, anyone?
