Original animation openings vs. montage openings

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kizzyX

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Most cartoons usually feature a title credits sequence that features either original animated material or a montage of scenes from the series itself in order to introduce the show. The Disney shows did this a lot for the most part, and sometimes shows that featured original animation suddenly went into montages for their openings in later seasons. Which do you prefer, if any?
 
I prefer openings that feature all-original animation myself. Montage openings just come off as lazy to me. Like clip shows, which I'm also against.
 
Hate them. hate them so much. And some of my favorite shows start off that way. I especially hate dub anime theme songs doing that (though sometimes they keep clips of the real opening in them). It's lazy and cheap to me, agreed. Besides, some of the best animation on these shows is the opening. I especially love the 1980's Japanese animated American show openings (TMNT, Muppet Babies, to name a few).

Funny thing is Disney Afternnon shows. They seem to be a mix of both. Half of them are clips, half of them are actual new animation. It's a weird combination.
 
What I'd like to know is...for all the money Disney put in their shows, why didn't they create original openings for them? Their very first show, The Wuzzles, had an original opening, but pretty much nothing did for more than a decade following that.
 
Definitely prefer fully-animated openings... *plus* actual theme songs, a rarity for live-action television programming nowadays but (fortunately) still ubiquitous in animation.
 
Hands down, original animated openings. Clip montages are more of a fan's thing I mean they fit on YouTube rather than Television.

Also, why can't U.S. Networks use theme songs by actual bands or singers for their animated shows?
 
That's true but the networks could've at least try, I mean the best Animation Opening and Ending theme songs come from various bands and singers in Japan.
 
Because they don't need money from the bands to fund shows, the networks have enough money. Plus western bands don't feel the need to advertise their songs via a TV show.

Anyway, I have no real preference, but I find a mix of original and montage footage works best.. or no opening at all like Heroes/24 does. That leaves more time for the actual show itself.
 
While I don't LOATHE clip show intros, as they can often be fun as well if the clips are just right for certain parts of the song, I generally prefer original intros. Some of my faves when it comes to animation: Rocko, Eek! The Cat, Duckman, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, Super Mario Bros. Super Show, American Dad, The Criric, The Simpsons... I could go on and on.

As for bands doing American theme songs, I am only in support of it if the lyrics actually pertain to the show's premise. If it's generic lyrics about love, courage, etc. (and especially if said song was created before the show debuted and is only a way of plugging that song for the band), don't bother.
 
... I just said why not. The only reason Japanese TV shows do it is because they need the funding from bands to make the TV shows (except for the ones that don't, like Pokemon, which just has VAs from the show sing a lot of the opening/ending songs) Which is why most of the time Japanese theme songs don't have anything to do with the show (like Speedy Boris mentioned) they're just commercials for kids/teens to buy the band's latest album.

America, Europe, pretty much everywhere else has a stable enough television industry where they don't need to sell the opening and ending as billboards to bands.
 
But bringing in bands to do theme songs would be a good marketing stragety. That way, kids and teens would searching for the songs on the Internet or their iPods. That and it would bring a respective band more attention than ever, I mean just ask Puffy AmiYumi.

And the show itself would bring in more people to watch the show.
 
That would benefit the bands, not the TV show, considering I doubt that many people are going to tune into Spongebob Squarepants just because it would have a Black Sabbath song for the opening. Plus, I don't think a lot of bands would like the idea of advertising on children's shows.. and Puffy AmiYumi aren't exactly popular (in America), to be quite honest.

Closest you'll get is instances like Dan Schneider's shows (Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly) and Hannah Montana, where the singers release albums after the shows air... and the rare show like Knights of the Zodiac which used a Bowling for Soup song.
 
One of the things I love about anime are the openings. I wish American cartoons would have openings like those. So I prefer original animation openings.
 
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