June 7 / 2025 –

Rating 90s/2000s Cartoon Theme Songs

I turn 25 in about a week. I was appropriately desperate to recapture some of my youth over these past few weeks. And in the process, I dipped back into some old cartoons. As I was flipping between shows (I say flipping like I had channels and a cable package but you know what I actually mean), I started to notice that a lot of modern animated shows have abandoned theme songs entirely. And even those that have them now live on streaming services where the allure of the “skip intro” button is ever present. So let’s take a trip back to the olden days and to the lost art of the cartoon theme song.

How are these organized, you ask? They aren’t. This is just the order that I remembered them in and that’s how that will be.

Danny Phantom – A

I did not remember this being a rap at all. But even if it’s about as long as the other themes on this list, it feels quick. It’s really solid as a theme, it’s fun for a kid to sing along to (I assume, I don’t know). I didn’t really watch this growing up unless Shego was on screen while I was flipping through the channels. Then I was locked in. 

Spongebob Squarepants – A

I know, I know. Controversial. It’s not all that surprising but it’s clear that this one is enduring and iconic well beyond the influence of pretty much everything on this list. No child is singing the Danny Phantom theme in 2025. Granted, Spongebob also happens to have outlasted every other show here. But regardless, it gets points for its enduring legacy alone. As a theme, it’s short, it’s a little annoying but only in its endless repetition. And above all, it has never left my head even though I haven’t seen an episode of this show in a decade.

Scooby Doo (Where Are You) – A+

This is very of its era, but that really sets it apart from everything else on the list. It’s a 60s, The Monkees type theme that’s fitting of the simplistic animation style. It’s also one of the least annoying cartoon themes, in my opinion.

What’s New, Scooby Doo? – A

How do you follow up something as iconic as the original Scooby Doo theme? You get Simple Plan to do it at the height of their career. This show came out the same year that “I’m Just a Kid” did. This was the Scooby Doo I grew up with. Granted, I think a lot of people would find this irritating if they weren’t fans of the pop punk music of the early 2000s. But I think this is sick. 

Rugrats – C

This one is way worse than I remember. It’s definitely got that baby, goo goo ga ga type beat going on. But if I wanted that, I’d go listen to Drake, you know what I mean? A few points for fitting the actual show’s premise, but you can do that without making something this grading to listen to.

Hey Arnold – A

This theme is classic. This is slick. It’s got a nostalgic quality to it, but it’s also just a great little groove. It does all the stuff right. You hear the characters yelling at Arnold’s stupid, idiot antics and you hear a cool little cheap synth line in there too that sounds like a preset from a thrift store Yamaha keyboard. Also, unrelated to the theme song, Hey Arnold is one of the only animated shows to be set in a true urban environment and not the suburbs. That alone makes it cooler than most.

Fairly OddParents – B

I only had to listen to this a few times for the sake of this list. But if I was doing a real Saturday afternoon binge of Fairly OddParents, I’d lose my mind. This would get annoying quick. And it’s not the song’s fault as much as it’s Timmy’s lines in the latter half of the song. I actually didn’t like this much as a kid, and it’s clear why that is.

Doug – B+

This is very simple but it’s cute. I like that it sounds like I made it in Garageband in an afternoon. Didn’t watch much Doug, truth be told. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a theme.

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius – A+

The theme is better than I remember but, holy hell, is this show hideous to look at. This early 3D animation just does not hold up at all. I wonder if they knew at the time that it was ugly or if the creators just thought, “wow, what innovators we are.” No shade to the show itself though. Sheen and Carl are iconic. I love the episode where Sheen witnesses a robbery and has PTSD for the rest of the season.

Phineas and Ferb – B

I think Bowling for Soup was a fine choice, but this one irritates me in a way that the Simple Plan/Scooby Doo theme does not. Maybe it’s because that Simple Plan theme could just be a Simple Plan song. The bridge is just “nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah nah”. You could copy and paste that anywhere. And while Bowling for Soup were by no means trying to take themselves seriously, this is just too much. Just doesn’t really do it for me as an adult.

Rocko’s Modern Life – B+

Good theme. I was unenthused initially but then I thought, “is this the B-52s guy?” And it was. It was the B-52s guy. Honestly, if I was a musician of any renown and animators approached me to do a theme song, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But I’m discovering more and more that a lot of these songs are just by existing famous people, which makes me appreciate the ones that aren’t to a greater degree. I don’t really know what goes on in this show. Is Rocko a dog? I remember a headline from around when the reboot was happening that there would be a “trans storyline”, which I thought was admirable but also maybe a bit misguided. Did they announce that ahead of time in a press release? Like they warned people? Or did Conservative freaks get that info and run with it? I don’t care. Trans rights.

Ed, Edd, n Eddy – B-

I sincerely hated this show as a kid. I just found it so deeply unappealing visually that I couldn’t be bothered to pick this over something cool like Daniel Phantom. The theme is very forgettable, in my opinion. But not even cute like Doug is. Just kind of nothing. Like it doesn’t matter at all.

Kim Possible – A+

This theme is sick as hell. It’s sung by Christina Milian, so continuing the famous people trend but in a good way. One time, I drew a bracket of childhood crushes with a woman I was dating at the time and put Kim Possible on it. Also Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Sky High, among others. But the woman just wouldn’t engage with it at all. She just did not want anything to do with it out of nowhere. Very concerning for me at the time.

Anyway, that’s all. That’s it. I’m hungry.