Gail Simone got #BestCartoonThemeSong trending, so here are 10 versions of the DuckTales theme
Aux Features DuckTales
Twitter is often pretty terrible. We feel no need to present evidence of this, though if you want some, this week some bestselling authors decided to dunk on a lone college student for thinking the books of one author are bad. But Twitter can also be pretty great! Cat videos! Mr. Darcy debates! Wikipedia wormholes! Many other things! And here, friends, is one such thing: Comics writer, internet treasure, and bona fide Olicity stan Gail Simone made cartoon theme songs a trending topic.
She didn’t expect it to hit quite so hard:
Lots of wonderful themes get mentioned—did you know the Captain Underpants theme was written by Weird Al Yankovic?—but we’re going to take this as our cue to share several versions of one of the great cartoon themes, the legit jam that marks the beginning of a new installment of DuckTales (a-woo-oo!)
First, the original, sung by Jeff Pescetto:
Here’s the new one, also great, sung by Felicia Barton:
Here’s Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco doing it:
Here’s a relentlessly charming take on the theme that’s also a reminder that the cast for the new DuckTales is bonkers (watch at least until David Tennant goes for that high note):
Here is a tiny baby Darren Criss doing it:
Okay so this is just the original theme, but with actual ducks:
Hell yes:
Metal:
The inevitable a capella entry:
And another one:
And in closing, the Darkwing Duck theme, which also slaps:
40 Comments
Oh, we’re doing this? Because then this theme, for me, is mandatory:But I gotta admit that Grendizer’s theme was probably better:
Where the hell is the perfect remaster and extended version from the end of the Remastered Ducktales game? It’s so good, especially when it takes off into a remix that includes the game music around 3 minutes in.
I was skeptical, but that was legit awesome. And that breakdown at 2:40 is amazing.
The video of the crowd when Capcom first announced the game at PAX East is legit awesome. With its slow beginning and mystery (“what the hell is this? what got testimonials from Cliffy B and Tim Schafer?”), and then the joy when that rhythm kicks in and people realize what it is.
Man, fuck all y’all. No offense, but sweary scottish version here is my go to jam:
I am second to no one in my love of the Ducktales theme song, but there is a special place in my heart for the calypso madness of Talespin
SPIN ITLET’S BEGIN IT BEAR AND GRIN IT WHEN YOU’RE IN ITYOU CAN WIN IT IN A MINUTEWHEN YOU SPIN IT, SPIN IT, SPIN IT! (HA HA HA) SO SPIN IT! TALE SPIN!
To me, there’s no competition.
The harmony on “Donatello does machines.” That’s where it’s at.
Gummy Bears or GTFO… that chorus SLAPS
I got Disney+ the other day. While all the other yambos are watching Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Stage Show: The Series, I’m over here binging Gummi Bears. I totally forgot that the OG voice of Garfield is one of the bears.
I watched the first episode last night. As soon as I heard the voice, I remarked how much I miss Lorenzo Music.
You’re not wrong. I don’t remember much about this show, but the theme song has stuck with me forever. I still think this was part of Disney’s master plan of getting kids like me to sing thing this when they ate the candy. (It worked)
Dammit! It’s Too Late , ‘slaps ‘ is a thing now ….( drop to his knees ans sobs) YOU MANIACS! ! YOU BLEW IT UP!.
I’m sorry, but She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’s theme song fucking slaps:Listen to the entire song. It is metal as hell.
I was ready to be like “Okay, whatever,” but then a couple seconds in it had me like:
For sheer bombast, Gargoyles is my go-to:If I may cheat a little, the music itself is all right, but the full opening credits experience of COPS made it seem like the coolest cartoon in the world to me. At 1:18, the end credits start, and that’s great if only for the implicit acknowledgement that COPS had too many characters:In terms of theme songs that I remember being straight up bops include Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men: The Animated Series, Jem and the Holograms, and Mona the Vampire (a cartoon I never watched but genuinely enjoyed belting out the theme song to before I changed the channel). Oh, and As Told By Ginger was always good for an upbeat Macy Gray moment.
Duck Tales.
Remember when cartoon theme songs were just excuses for some dude to show off his range over sweet guitar riffs?
I want an Uncharted cartoon in the style of James Bond Jr.
Transformers. Period.
When it first aired (in five installments, which I taped off the TV over the course the week, cutting out opening and closing credits and ads in real time because I’m 43) the theme to GI Joe The Movie was the best thing I’d heard since “A View to a Kill”.
I happily sat through almost all of the above versions, but you missed a good one, because why wouldn’t the song sound great with more horns?I see most of the other Disney songs have been mentioned in the comments, but #2 is Animaniacs. I would also accept Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse.
In order to find the best cartoon theme song you’d have to go back, back to the past, Samurai Jack!
Darkwing Duck was pretty damn good too. And Ninja Turtles, Powerpuff Girls. As a kid I learned how to whistle the on to Ed, Edd, and Eddy and I never have regretted learning nor forgotten how.
I love that video of the New DuckTales cast singing the themesong so much. Sometimes I watch it to cheer myself up.
Sorry, but none of these tops the Romanian Ducktales theme:Not even the all-star squad featuring the inimitable Kate Micucci can top MAK MAK.
Gail Simone is exactly right:
A good portion of Twitter lost it’s shit Disney+ added the option to skip the intro for X-Men and I’m seeing no love here.
We can talk about who comes in second place to this.
Going a bit obscure here.
Duck Tales for sure. X-Men could make a strong case for #1 though but I knock it just slightly for having no lyrics.
Being America, you very likely won’t even have heard the best one, yet, because it’s the German dub intro to a Japanese show. 🙂
A true classic!
Imo, the 90s had most of the better cartoons, but the 80s had most of the better theme songs, because that’s when the boom really took place. Disney specializes in songs, so its only natural their themes trumped all their peers (with DuckTakes probably the best of them all), but I loved a lot from the others
The doo-wop stylings of Muppet Babies
The schoolyard snapper to HeathcliffAnd Inspector Gadget’s is brilliant simplicity
And that’s not even getting into the action-oriented ones like Thundercats and GI Joe. If you can get them to sing along to it, you’ve pretty much sold a told a toy. And since that’s what it was all about, often, those themes were better than the shows themselves.
“DuckTales” is an egregious misspelling of “Lupin the Third”
-Defenders of the Earth-Teen Titans-Inspector Gadget
After hearing this( slightly nsfw,) I can never innocently hear the ducktales theme again.
Meanwhile 80s kids in Europe had this I’m 99.9% certain this theme tune is responsible for Daft Punk.
I know I’m almost half a year late. But this list cannot be complete without the…erm, *unique* spoken-word Gandalf version.