Ryan Leach : Music for Animation

This is the 12th post in a series on Cartoon Theme Songs. On the occasional Thursday I examine a popular cartoon TV theme song and discuss what about it does and does not work.

The theme from 1959’s Snagglepuss is kind of surprising. The typical Hanna-Barbera theme follows a group of male and female singers telling a quick story summarizing what their character is all about, with big band punches between lines and a catchy melody on the name of the character.

The theme has no lyrics, which I think is generally a big mistake. While it may not matter much in the moment the theme is written, once the show is off the air there’s little left of the theme to identify it with its show.

To the theme’s credit, the bouncy melody is catchy. It’s also used over and over so there is no avoiding having it drilled into your head. In 25 seconds we hear the motif (which shares the same rhythm as Shave and a Haircut) 8 times.

The orchestration still fits the usual Hanna-Barbera big band set up, using drum set percussion and glockenspiel to add some silly cartooniness to it. Having the melody on low brass also gives it a silly sluggish feel.

I realize this post is a little shorter than most of the other theme articles, but there really isn’t much going on here. I’d rate this theme a medium minus.

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.

A few new tutorials I wrote have been published at Audiotuts:

• Audiotuts: iTunes for Composers
• Audiotuts: An Introduction to Creating Beats Audio Plus

And a bunch of other fun stuff from the past few weeks:

• Storyboards from Where the Wild Things Are
• Dark but awesome: Luxo Jr. gets the chair via @cartoonbrew
• Snowtape: Internet Radio Done Right
• The Art of Kissing, an indie comedy I scored last year, is now available through Video on Demand.
• How to Explain Your Business in Two Sentences
• I love this short animated film Skhizein, take a few minutes to watch!
• Wallace And Gromit: The Complete Collection
• New trailer for Devil’s Racecourse has been posted