Transformers and GI Joe won't be included here. Transformers because it's obvious and GI Joe because the movie intro was the best version for their series. These are in no particular order. All are from retrojunk.com:

DuckTales
Defenders of the Earth
Gummi Bears
X-Men
The Tick
Challenge of the Superfriends
Batman the Animated Series
Batman Beyond
The Real Ghostbusters
World of David the Gnome

Honorable Mentions:

Sonic the Hedgehog - ABC series
Darkwing Duck
Count Duckula
Hong Kong Phooey

...No Bucky O'Hare...?

Ducktales -- Terrific starting, catchy and memoarable with all the charactors being the way you'd think they'd be

Defenders of the Earth -- First time I saw this. I really liked it.

Gummi Bears -- Brilliant starting and I don't think this type of cartoon exists anymore. I was never a fan of the show but it's the type of show that's needed for kids

X-MEn-- The best starting of the bunch

The Tick -- Hard for me to judge. It's not my type of show

Challenge of the Superfriends -- Thumbs up

Batman TAS -- Classic, gives you an immediate feel of the show

The Real Ghostbusters -- Fun starting to go with at times a brilliant show. An underrated series for great comedy

The World of David the Gnome -- Hmm, I'm not familiar with this

Darkwing Duck is up there too -- If only for the line "Let's get Dangerous"

I always loved the He-Man and "The Mighty Hercules" startings as well. "With the strength of 10 ordinary men, the mighty Hercules" The song was done by a famous musician. There are some episodes on youtube by the way. I don't know why but they have the "wrong" starting theme on there. Edit -- It was Johnny Nash.

Hercules, hero of song and story!
Hercules, winner of ancient glory!
Fighting for the right, fighting with his might;
With the strength of ten, ordinary men!
Hercules, people are safe when near him!
Hercules, only the evil fear him!
Softness in his eyes, iron in his thighs;
Virtue in his heart, fire in every part of
The Mighty Hercules!

Spiderman from the 60s HAS to be mentioned. Everyone knows that song.

Spiderman from the 90s is cool too. Aerosmith? did the intro I believe.

I felt the Spider-Man theme from the 60s was just too corny. That and I hated the cartoon for the most part. The 90s was pretty good though.

I forgot an honorable mention:

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

The X-Men did have a freaking fantastic opener. I also like the one for X-Men: Evolution, Teen Titans, and the original Batman: The Animated Series.

Bucky fucking O'Hare and the greatest intro of all time.

Okay, the ORIGINAL Smurfs intro was pretty good. From 1982. It's not the compressed 10 second version they showed on the syndicated episodes.

Most of the Marvel/Sunbow intros were decent with good animation. Yes, even "Jem". Asisde from Transformers and GI Joe, they did "Inhumanoids", Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines" and a few others I'm forgetting.

The old 70's Filmation cartoons are up there. Stuff like "Zorro", "Tarzan", "Batman & the Super 7" and "Blackstar". They introduced the characters and made the show look intriguing.

"Tiger Sharks" , "Marshall Bravestarr" and "SilverHawks" all had catchy, well-done intros.

I think the best cartoon intro around was the original 2001 "Justice League" opener. When they slowly walk out in silhouette form...always gives me chills. Visually, it has some cheesy CGI, but does a good job of esablishing each character as an "icon". Even Martian Manhunter.

Yeah, I should've had Bravestarr as an honorable mention.

Bravestarr

I remember the horse kicked ass on that show.

Dammit, now I'm gonna have the Gummi Bears theme stuck in my head. Stupid... catchy tune.

I agree with most of the list myself. Cartoons these days lack the pizazz and cheese of classic cartoons from the 80's... or in ES' case, the 1870's. :D

There are some good modern intros. Teen Titans has a very good intro and they play around with it a lot.

Dag-nabbit..I tells ya' sonny... back in my day we had to spray paint hogs and chase em' out of the pen to get any kind of color animation.

Now pass me my pipe and copy of Reader's Digest

I always liked the jingle to the old Donald Duck cartoons. I couldn't find a video of it though.

Boomerang just started playing Looney Tunes again this week so I'm happy. They hadn't been on tv for almost a year.

I raise your Bucky O'Haire starting with the show we should be all personally embarassed for not mentioning.


Thundercats


Everybody else may as well fold. That ain't going to be topped. Not even by stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Speed Racer, Transformers, Gi-Joe, Gatchaman, Sailor Stars, Gundam Wing or Evangelion.


Another personal favourite of mine is the Tiger Mask starting from 1969. This show is beyond awesome as it features a tremendous mix of real life and fantasy.

You can watch all of these startings on youtube.

Chip n dale rescue rangers

Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles

The fact that doug hasn't been mentioned is sad.

Carmen Sandiego

And Finally


PINKY AND THE MOTHER FUCKING BRAIN

YouTube/Retro Junk might be the best sites on the internet.

Some more worth mentioning:

Spider-Man (1967)
C'mon now...that's THE greatest cartoon jingle in history. The frickin' RAMONES covered it. You can't top that. I collect the pot.

Full of cheese, but the "Challenge of the Super-Friends" intro always gets some lub. Where it introduces the villains, the heroes, then shows little mini-matches between them.

I used to dig the MASK intro in 1985, but the goofy song is enough to throw it off any "top 10" list. "MASK crusaders....working overtime! Fighting crime!"

Sorry guys, but this is where it's at:


Super Mario Bros. Super Show

I think the top rated starting for an animated show is debatable to be honest with everyone. However, I almost think it's undebatable that Spiderman is one of the best animated startings ever. Undebatable.

Catchy factor? Seriously, what's better than this? No show ever and that's saying something

Will you remember it? YES, everyone remembers this starting. One of the top shows ever for this. Time has proven this right

Theme music? Can we say best ever? Catchiest ever for sure. Song writers make their own versions of the song and it gets air time on radio. Everyone know the lyrics. If you don't, you shouldn't be allowed watching TV. People will sing it with you if you start sprouting out the lyrics to it. That's saying something.

Visually pleasing starting? YES

Feel Good Factor?? YES!!!!