Teen Titians Go! and the loss of standards

So over break I was watching my brothers for my parents and they were watching Cartoon Network. Now like any TVR major I can't resist watching TV when one is on, and I recognized a show from my childhood, Teen Titians Go! The only thing was that in the early 2000s it was called Teen Titans and it looked and sounded much different. The old series that ran from 2003 to 2007 had darker color scheme, it was sleek and not completely obtuse. When compared to the rebooted series in 2013 that I saw my brothers watching, I had to wonder why the drastic change? Is it because we as an audience have less of a standard for animation when it comes to a younger audience? This would certainly be the case in the Teen Titans franchise and similar cartoon shows across the board. I cannot say I blame the animators since they are just creating what the producers and studio wants. I will not get into plot structure or the crude humor influencing young minds in the reboot, but as a visual work the new Titians are lacking what they once had, class.

Teen Titans Intro

So as a kid I watched a lot of cartoons. One thing I loved about them were the theme songs. It always got me excited for the show. One title sequence in particular I always though was really cool, the intro to Teen Titans.

So I went back and looked at this sequence again. It impresses me even more now. The use of color is extremely important in the sequence. Each one of the characters has a specific color that is associated with them. The colors get repeated throughout the opening and signal to the audience what characters are being talked about. The thing that I find really cool is how the words Teen Titans are constantly manipulated throughout the open. Every shot is working within the context of one of the letters. The transitions between the shots are matched with the music and are all involving the letters in some way. Making the open one fluid piece that just continually transitions is so cool and must have taken a ton of planning. Not only was Teen Titans a great cartoon, this opening is amazing.