share a fond memory

[rhodanum]

Inspired by a lovely post by shirebound, here is the English-language main theme for Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (also known as Les Mondes Engloutis, in the original French), a French animated series (I seem to have a deep and abiding love for these) that aired between 1985 and 1987. We ended up watching it in the 90s and 2000s, due to much cheaper licensing costs.

Watch on YouTube

From what I recall, it's a colorful, zany and quite unique production, while still remaining grounded in very human values and with some highly emotionally-charged moments. Something that's very specific to French animation and bandes-dessinees.

This is the opening for the show, with part of the theme in use:

Watch on YouTube

What are some of the main musical themes for the shows from your childhoods? Feel free to share them with me in the comments.

Comments

[raskolnikov]

this opening is so 80s! I have never heard of this show. I was clearly not as cultured of a child ;P

[rhodanum]

Haha, "so 80s" is the perfect way to describe it! It's one of the reasons I like it so much, makes me feel very nostalgic, given that my childhood was mostly 70s and 80s animated shows.

And I'd say it's less a case of being culture and more the fact that we got whatever was cheaper to license. :D This is the reason I grew up with everything from old anime to Bollywood / Tollywood films and still have an immense amount of love for them.

[raskolnikov]

It's still cultured! I had never even heard of Tollywood until I moved to a heavily SEA populated city (which was 5 years ago, btw).

Here is a song for you from my childhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ9yAV8uQ7g The Muppet Show!

[rhodanum]

I've heard so much about the Muppets, but never actually saw episodes (they were never broadcast here when I was young and by the time they arrived along with the Disney channel, I was already an adult and had other childhood favorites as a consequence).

[stardust_rifle]

If you're asking for the musical theme of my favorite show from childhood...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5chHfK6sCc

[rhodanum]

Aaaaaah, The Clone Wars! This isn't a childhood show for me (it debuted when I was already twenty) but I still love it to bits! Was crushed when it got cancelled, post Disney acquisition and now I can't wait for the new episodes.

[stardust_rifle]

If you're talking about "new episodes", the Netflix-exclusive Season 6 is already up there.

(and it's very good!!! an entire five-centric arc!!!)

Clone Wars was basically the first piece of Star Wars media that I really got into as a young kid. I didn't really care for any of the movies but HOLY SHIT I fell in love with the series from the first episode.

(Mostly because of the variety! Spy missions! Jedi adventures with Force magic and weird planets! Padme being cool and doing politics! Big space dogfights! Stories about tactics! Cool planets!)

(I'm like physically vibrating right now. I really like the Clone Wars!)

[rhodanum]

Oh, I saw Season 6 as soon as it dropped, it was indeed absolutely brilliant!

No, I'm talking about the Season 7 we're getting (that's going to unfortunately be Disney+ exclusive and that I'll end up having to pirate, because D+ isn't arriving to Eastern-Europe until 2021 at the earliest).

And haha, that's the reason I loved the show so much as well. That and the fact that I already had an attachment to the characters from the films, so getting to see them further at work in TCW was just what the doctor ordered.

Did you ever also watch the animated Clone Wars series, the one produced by Genndy Tartakovsky? That was the SW series that aired during my childhood (well, teenagerhood, actually XD) I remember getting up at an ungodly hour each morning, to watch each new episode.

[stardust_rifle]

I haven't. The animation style's kind of...offputting, but hey, that was what I first thought about Clone Wars. I just haven't really had time.

It's kind of the reverse for me, like...I didn't really like Movie!Padme (as a matter of fact I didn't really like Phantom Menace at all) but Clone Wars got me more invested in her, and now she's one of my favorite Star Wars characters.

I did not know about Season 7, and it looks fucking wonderful (More Ashoka? More Ashoka!)

That sucks about D+. You'd think that DISNEY, of all companies, would be able to get a worldwide release, but apparently not!

(It's like they want people to pirate their stuff.)

[rhodanum]

We even got a teaser scene, with Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, for Season 7. I don't know if it'll just be this one season or if they'll also do S8 (the original plan for TCW was for it to have 8 seasons, before Disney cancelled it) but it's being made by Dave Filoni and the rest of the old team, so I've got high hopes.

Yeah, the Disney+ situation is ridiculous. It's launching now, in November, but only in five countries initially, before slowly spreading outward. This is one of the reasons why I predict that, on top of the new season of TCW, The Mandalorian live-action series will end up the most pirated show on the planet, given that it'll only be available on D+ and in just the aforementioned five countries.

[stardust_rifle]

I reiterate. Does. Disney. Want. People. To. Pirate. Their. Shit.

It's going to be GOT all over again. I can hope that this whole thing will show people that individualized streaming services are just going to end up as a net loss for everyone, but it's fucking Disney, they're gonna get enough people to pay for everything and other companies will follow suit.

[rhodanum]

The hilarious irony is that GoT was actually decent, when it comes to distribution (HBO is available in a metric ton of countries, the only thing that slowed down the process was that the episodes had to be subtitled into the local language, so they couldn't be broadcast at the exact same time as the US, but relatively close enough). Most of the people who pirated GoT were those who didn't want to wait out for that small delay or who didn't have HBO in their cable-package.

And yup, Disney will have just enough good exclusive content that a ton of people are going to jump on it and this will make other large-scale content-producers end up with dollar-signs for eyes.

[sonofgodzilla]

This is so instantly familiar and yet i didn't think I saw this as a child, and yet there's this nagging feeling that I've encountered it *somewhere* before.

Also, I adore the idea of a sun beneath the sea.

[rhodanum]

It's very likely that you might've seen one episode somewhere, a long time ago. I remember that it was broadcast on Cartoon Network, in the 90s and then had re-runs on other channels dedicated to animation.

[sonofgodzilla]

I'm sure that must be the case, especially as British TV was filled with this sort of thing when I was younger.