Animated Intros to Live Action Films

[College Confuse]

What's your opinion on animated intro sequences for live action films? I'm referring to movies like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation or The Pink Panther. Do you enjoy them, or do you feel the two mediums are mismatched, and that once the cartoon ends, it feels awkward to cut to live action? And what other films contain cartoon openings? I know there are many others, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

 

[Mr Cute]

Drop Dead Fred kinda did.

 

[vid_a_lou]

I personally love all the Pink Panther openings, even the 2006 one (I'm glad they stayed on the hand-drawn route for it, too). Animated opening sequences are always fun - they're much more inventive than just having credits on the screen.

 

[Reeses Pieces]

Anyone remember Troop Beverly Hills? Wasn't that one animated by John K?

 

[ThInKaBoUtiT]

"Honey I Shrunk the Kids" had a very cool one for the time, with lots of cel shading and computer animation.

The sequel also had one that was much more traditional...

EDIT: Three more are "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead", and the two City Slickers movies.

 

[Suzanne J. C.]

Indeed he did. Say what you will about the man, but that intro is visual fun. It's got the strong poses of Mighty Mouse The New Adventures, only with a bigger budget.

 

[checkers015]

How To Eat Fried Worms is another example.

 

[shhweetP]

Run, Lola, Run had one, and it was pretty trippy (but that was the point of the movie, so... I guess it fit.)

 

[MalikWoW!]

I like animated intros to live-action movies as long as they're done well and fit the movie.

 

[Kunmui]

I too like them. Wasn't Catch Me if You Can's intro animated?

 

[avril_the_vamp]

The first Mannequin had an animated opening credits scene.

Ernest Goes to Jail had a trippy psuedo animated/live action opening, as did Ernest Rides Again.

 

[KittyBo-Bop]

As long as we're listing movies, let me add "Who's that girl" to that list.

 

[What Up!]

Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events had a very silly CGI-animated opening.

And, although this isn't a movie, I Love Lucy had an animated opening.

 

[the goth rock chick]

DePatie-Freleng studio did a bunch of openings for live-action films. Obviously, the Pink Panther titles are their most well-known, but they also did "With Six You Get Eggroll", "Satan Bug" and "Trouble with Angels".

I personally love the idea of animated opening credits. Might as well think up an interesting way to show the names of the people who worked on the film.

The live-action "Dudley Do Right" movie had an animated opening that was done in the style of the original Jay Ward series. I thought it was the only good part of the whole film.

 

[ajlpenguin315]

Grease opening was animated, I believe

 

[fourzerosix]

The first LA Scooby Doo movie originally had an animated opening with the classic character designs, but it was ditched because they just wanted to jump right into the film right off. The animated opening's in the deleted scenes on the DVD.

 

[Soccer chicka!]

Much like Dudley Do-Right, the film adaptation of Rocky and Bullwinkle had an animated Jay Ward-style intro, also the only good part of the movie.

 

[BarterBride]

Often times, the animated openings to live-action movies are the best parts of the film for me.

I remember once as a kid Blackstar and I were at our grandmother's house watching the movie The Private Eyes (1981) starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts; after the cartoon intro, we were both disappointed to find out that the movie itself wasn't animated.

 

[d40]

Savage Steve Holland's 1985 cult One Crazy Summer had an nicely done animated intro.

 

[daki]

I can also think of some live-action TV shows that had animated intros. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Partridge Family come to mind. In fact, the only part of TPF that I ever watched as a kid was the intro with the cartoon partridges.