Every morning before I start work I try to study animation for a bit and do warm up drawings. Today while doing this something reminded me of Dan DeCarlo and Josie and the Pussycats... which got my mind wandering and I looked up a ton of old animated opening sequences I enjoyed as a child. I thought for fun I'd share a few!
Josie and the Pussycats!
Josie and the Pussycats originally aired before I was born, so I actually discovered it through comics when I was about 11 or 12, and then saw the cartoon later on when Cartoon Network picked it up. It wasn't the most amazing show - the plots and animation were very similar to Scooby Doo episodes - but I still tuned in since it was the animated version of my favorite comic.
A little side note - for those who don't know of Dan DeCarlo, he created the Josie and the Pussycats characters, and was a pretty big influence on my drawing style before I was a teenager. I think you can still see a lot of that influence lingering in my drawings today... He also created Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Cheryl Blossom and established the Archie comics house style!
The Muppet Babies!! I think part of why I enjoyed some of these opening sequences as a child is because the theme songs were good to dance to, so I really looked forward to listening to the songs before the cartoon started. This one was a particular favorite of mine. Fun fact, the Muppet Babies cartoon was actually a spin off of the "I'm gonna always love you" sequence in The Muppets take Manhattan.
Bewitched
I don't remember how old I was when I first saw Bewitched, but I remember being really into the style of animation in the opening sequence. I think I've always had a thing for over stylized characters. Samantha's look really reminds me of when Ann Margret appeared on the Flintstones:
A pup named Scooby Doo
Another opener with a super fun song - and the animation is a liiiitttle nicer since it was more current. I remember always enjoying this show because it was a creative approach to classic characters I enjoyed.
Flintstone Kids
Same thing applies to the Flintstone Kids. I actually still have some of my Flintstone kids toys somewhere!
I'm sure there are a ton more I could list but it's time for me to get to work! Do you remember these shows growing up? I know the age of my blog readers kinda varies, so if you didn't grow up with these shows then what were some of your favorites?
