Weekly Links: 10-16-0916-10-2009 | 09:40:37 | No Comments

This is part of a regular series of “Weekly Links” postings. On most Fridays I post links to stories and articles that I find interesting. Though I try to keep them mostly animation, music, or entertainment industry related I will also share the occasional link that I find useful or helpful in other ways. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment about any of the links you’ve checked out.

Not a whole lot to report this week.

TV Theme Thursday: Gigantor08-10-2009 | 12:00:21 | No Comments

This is the 11th post in a series on Cartoon Theme Songs. The second Thursday of each month I examine a popular cartoon TV theme song and discuss what about it does and does not work.

230px-Gigantorvol1coverThe theme from the 1966 series Gigantor cracks me up. Just the name “Gigantor the Space Age Robot” is awesome.

There’s a general mix of positives and negatives:

  • Of the whole piece, the opening is the best part, with men singing a deep “Gigaaantoor”. It’s really the only part of the theme that’s memorable, as the rest sort of turns into fluff.
  • The use of all men singers is a good idea for expressing how large and masculine Gigantor is. The extremely deep bass is a nice deep sound, but it’s also a bit comical. I’m not familiar enough with the show to really know if it was meant to be funny or tough.
  • The piece is pretty much all percussion and bass driven, with a little rhythm guitar and a flute that’s playing lines all over the background. The orchestration evokes a tribal setting, which is not really what I associate with a Space Age Robot. Perhaps electronic instruments are a cliché idea, but I still think they’d work.
  • The lyrics are pretty weak. “Bigger than big, taller than tall.” Couldn’t we figure that out just by his name? I’d rather know about what kind’s of enemies he’s battling or if he’s got any personality quirks. Nothing very useful in the lyrics here.
  • The rhythm that opens the theme is very remeniscent of George of the Jungle. I guess it’s the same era, but it’s still a bit suspect.

Overall the Gigantor theme is pretty silly (note: Gigantor theme) but it’s fun. I wouldn’t mark it as the top 10 best TV Themes of all time but it’s certainly not among the worst.

Weekly Links: 10-2-0902-10-2009 | 09:47:28 | No Comments

This is part of a regular series of “Weekly Links” postings. On most Fridays I post links to stories and articles that I find interesting. Though I try to keep them mostly animation, music, or entertainment industry related I will also share the occasional link that I find useful or helpful in other ways. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment about any of the links you’ve checked out.

Wow, October already.. here’s some of the latest from the past week.