Cartoon Cartoons

Cartoon Cartoons is a collective name used by Cartoon Network for its fifteen original animated television series that premiered between 1996 and 2003. They were produced by Hanna-Barbera and/or Cartoon Network Studios, with smaller studios such as A.K.A. Cartoon, Kinofilm, Stretch Films, and Curious Pictures focusing on individual projects. The name was first introduced in 1997 and went through various incarnations before being fully phased out by 2008.

1st Logo (July 17, 1997-November 5, 1998)

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Visuals: The 1992-2004 Cartoon Network logo is zooming in on a green swirly background with beaming turquoise circles and a large rotating starburst in the middle. It zooms through the "NETWORK" part of the logo, which changes into the word "CARTOON" letter by letter. The logo then zooms back and the checkerboard explodes leaving only the letters intact. As this happens, the name zooms out slowly. An iris out is seen after the explosion while the background is still moving. It then morphs into an oval as the name gets inflated and the background stops. After a few seconds, the oval closes like an eye.

Trivia:

• The logo's background predates Cartoon Network's Powerhouse era that was in development at the time and would only premiere in the following year.
• The rotating starburst in the background is a reference to Cartoon Network's Starburst era that debuted a month prior and aired concurrently with the network's previous era until they both were succeeded by the Powerhouse era.
• The prototype logo can be briefly seen on the original intro before the checkerboard explodes. Cartoon Cartoon was initially going to use the same logo as the Cartoon Network one with both rows saying "CARTOON" prior to its debut, but ended up having a green oval motif instead of a checkerboard one.

Variants:

• The Variant used in Promos features characters replacing the second "CARTOON".
• There's an early version where the letters get larger as the oval is formed.
• In the closing version, the 1992-2004 Cartoon Network logo is shown zooming out on the same swirly background as the opening.
• For the Cartoon Cartoon Weekend intro, the logo starts as usual, except this time, the logo is much larger and zooms in to show a variety of Cartoon Cartoon characters inside of it. The logo then zooms out and the animation proceeds as normal (starting with the explosion).
  • There's a variant where the word "WEEKEND" in black appears below the Cartoon Cartoon logo after the explosion.
• On a Netflix print of a Dexter's Laboratory episode, this logo appears with "A Time Warner Company" below it.

Technique: Digital 2D animation. This and the next logos were designed by Primal Screen, who were responsible for most of Cartoon Network's on-screen branding during this time.

Audio: A silly cartoony jazz sounder with "Boing!" sounds in the middle, with drums at the end with a male voice-over (which is different each time the intro appears) saying "Cartoon Cartoon!" Composed by Stephen Mank.

Audio Trivia: The last seven notes of the theme (but without the voice over) were later used for the 1999-2018 Cartoon Network Productions endtag.

Audio Variants:

• On the CCW intro, the first part of the theme is rearranged and slightly shortened.
  • For the variant with the full name on the screen, an announcer is heard while the theme song plays.
• At the end of each Cartoon Cartoon, only the last seven notes of the Cartoon Cartoons theme is heard, followed by a combined voice-over of all voice-overs saying "Cartoon Cartoon!".

Availability: The outro is still retained on the Cow and Chicken episode "Meet Lance Sackless" and the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dexter and Computress Get Mandark/The Justice Friends: Pain in the Mouth/Dexter Vs. Santa's Claws" on Boomerang, with it appearing on the latter show's episode as late as 2018.

2nd Logo (November 6, 1998-September 2005)

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Visuals: Same as before, but there are differences. The background is spiraly blue with beaming turquoise circles and rays. After a few seconds, the CN logo zooms in and extrudes its letters when it thrusts forward. It then cuts to the red and yellow ribbons curling to form a cursive "Cartoon", followed by the letters in "CARTOONS" zooming out one by one (the "OO" zooms out together). A character from the upcoming show pops out of the first "O" in "CARTOONS" and says "Cartoon Cartoons!".

Character Variants:

• Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory ) (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh)
• Dee-Dee (Dexter's Laboratory ) (voiced by Yamakawa) (Exclusive to the Japanese Promo)
• Johnny (Johnny Bravo ) (voiced by Jeff Bennett)
• Chicken (Cow and Chicken ) (voiced by Charlie Adler)
• Bubbles (The Powerpuff Girls ), who pops out of both "O"s in "CARTOONS" (voiced by Tara Strong)
• Eddy (Ed, Edd n Eddy ) (voiced by Tony Sampson)
• I.M. Weasel (I Am Weasel ) (voiced by Michael Dorn)
• Mike (Mike, Lu & Og ) (voiced by Nika Futterman)
• Courage (Courage the Cowardly Dog ) (voiced by Marty Grabstein)
• Sheep (Sheep in the Big City ) (voiced by Kevin Seal)
• Otto (Time Squad ) (voiced by Pamela Adlon)
• Grim with his Scythe and Hector Con Carne with Boskov (Grim & Evil ) (voiced by Greg Eagles and Phil LaMarr, respectively)
• Robot Jones (Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? ) (voiced by a Microsoft Word 98 voice)
• Numbuh Five (Codename: Kids Next Door ) (voiced by Cree Summer)

Other Variants:

• On VHS releases, the 1992 Cartoon Network logo stays intact until it thrusts itself forward, with the swirly background still moving. Plus, only Bubbles (from The Powerpuff Girls) can be seen, even when it's not that show.
• A short version exists, which is seen on Latin American airings of the Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken shorts where only the tail end of the intro is shown with the zooming-out of the "CARTOONS" letters and a character of the following short appearing and saying "Cartoon Cartoons!".
  • At the end of the shorts, the logo is at warp-speed, except for the last part with Dexter, Johnny or Chicken saying "Cartoon Cartoons!". Then, a stamp appears and covers the Cartoon Cartoons logo. It quickly leaves as the Cartoon Network logo replaces the Cartoon Cartoons logo and zooms out slowly before the screen fades out.
• A Short Warp-Speed version appears on an Australian Promo for the Eight Cartoon Cartoons, Bubbles (from The Powerpuff Girls) can be seen as well as a Page Turn Transition with the hand of Plucky Duck (from the Main Title of Tiny Toon Adventures )
• Another variant exists, which was used in which no characters pop out at all. Instead, the four "o"s in the logo pop themselves. Also, there is a combined voice-over of all voice-overs saying "Cartoon Cartoons!".
• There's an ending variant where the Cartoon Network logo zooms out in front of the background, similar to the previous logo's closing variant.
• A special KND variant (which only aired on December 7, 2002) where Numbuh Two (voiced by Benjamin Diskin) interrupts the Cartoon Cartoons opening also exists.
• On Cartoon Cartoon Weekend in November 1998, the word "WEEKEND" appears below the Cartoon Cartoons logo.

Trivia: The font for "CARTOONS" was originally introduced along with Cartoon Network's Powerhouse era in March 1998.

Technique: Digital 2D animation from the previous logo. Made by Primal Screen.

Audio: Same as the previous logo; it also includes the characters' dialogue at the end.

Audio Variants:

• A random voice says the name after the theme plays on the character-less version.
• On the Japanese Promo, a Voiceover says: "`Kāto~ūn kāto~ūnzu' wa, subete kāto~ūn nettowāku no orijinaru sakuhindesu. Hōsō wa getsuyōbi kara mokuyōbi no gogo 6-ji 30-bu (Nihon hyōjunji)desu." during the logo formation
• At the end of the Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken shorts, a jackhammer noise is heard at the beginning, followed by the "Cartoon Cartoons!" line. Then, as the stamp appears, it's a whipping noise accompanied by the short version of the Cartoon Cartoons theme with an announcer saying "Made by Cartoon Network" either in Spanish or Portuguese as the shorts aired during commercial breaks from Cartoon Network's Latin American feeds. A SAP recording of this variant is known to exist even though it never aired in the USA.
• When Time Squad, Grim & Evil and Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? aired on the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block, the characters say "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays!". The Time Squad and Robot Jones versions of this variant ran in the CCF block until summer 2002, when they got the special Cartoon Cartoon Fridays bumpers.
• On Sheep In The Big City, Sheep (voiced by Kevin Seal) says "Baa! Baa!" since he doesn't speak.
• In the end of each Cartoon Cartoon, a male voice-over says "Cartoon Cartoons!".
• Sometimes, a whoosh sound ("Sound Ideas, SPACE, WHOOSH - FAST WHOOSH BY, SCI FI 10") can be heard when the CN logo zooms in.

Availability:

• The Powerpuff Girls variant can be seen on VHS releases of said series, as well as Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie.
• The short version of the intro and its outro counterpart only appeared on the Latin American airings of the Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken shorts.
• The character-less variant was first shown before all shows on November 6, 1998 as part of the 1998 Cartoon Cartoons Weekend.
  • It was also shown before Courage and Mike, Lu & Og for a single month in November 1999 until their custom variants debuted the next month, and in Japan as well as on some promos in Latin America and some U.S. promos for the Saturday Morning Block and Cartoon Cartoon Fridays in 1999.

3rd Logo (November 7, 1998-June 13, 2004)

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Visuals: Over a white background, the Powerpuff Girls float on the top right, while a red worm-like object creeps in from the left. Blossom charges towards it and gets stuck, with Buttercup following suit a second later. Bubbles frees them by kicking the space between where they are stuck, and the screen zooms out, revealing the red "worm" to be part of a cursive "Cartoon", except the "n" is not completely formed (which Bubbles easily fixes by punching it). From the bottom, Blossom flies up with the word "CART", and Buttercup does the same with "OONS". They then slam the two segments together as the background changes to the animated one from the previous logo.

Technique: Digital 2D animation from the previous two logos. Again, made by Primal Screen.

Audio: The music from the previous two logos (albeit edited slightly), mixed with squeeze and punch sounds.

Availability

Edit Table

Media Title	Date(s) of Release	Additional Note(s)
The Powerpuff Girls OSCA	November 7, 1998-June 13, 2004	Debut and only appearance

4th Logo (August 20, 1999-September 2005)

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Visuals: On a black background, the Cartoon Network logo zooms out with blue circles coming from the center of the screen. Then, a trail of Cartoon Cartoon characters appears and spins around the logo for a fraction of second. It disappears as the letters that make up the Cartoon Network logo flash by rapidly one-by-one. Colored squares with Cartoon Cartoon characters in them spiral out and four large squares appear one-by-one to fill the four corners of the screen (they may or may not feature characters from the upcoming show), which are then cleared out by the ribbons from the 2nd logo (albeit in two different shades of blue) that emerge from the bottom to curve and spiral until passing the screen to reveal colored squares moving up and down like a soundbar (with characters inside them). The squares then disappear and the Cartoon Cartoons logo (in its singular version) on a dark blue oval and a light blue circle with an "f" and "FRIDAYS" (or a "w" and "WEEKEND") in it merge from the left and right respectively. Blue circles emerge once they merge and a character from the upcoming show pops out of the second "O" in "CARTOON" and says "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays!" or "Cartoon Cartoon Weekend!", depending on the block's logo.

Character Variants:

• Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory)
• Johnny (Johnny Bravo)
• Chicken (Cow and Chicken)
• Bubbles (The Powerpuff Girls), who pops out of both "O"s in "CARTOON"
• Eddy (Ed, Edd n' Eddy)
• Mike (Mike, Lu & Og)
• Courage (Courage the Cowardly Dog)
• Sheep (Sheep in the Big City)
• Otto (Time Squad)
• I.M. Weasel (I Am Weasel)
• Robot Jones (Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?)
• Numbuh Five (Codename: Kids Next Door)

Other Variants:

• On all shows starting with Time Squad in summer 2002, the second "CARTOON" is changed to "CARTOONS". Also, all the shows had characters from Dexter's Laboratory in the four squares.
• An ending variant exists, where the logo starts off similarly, before a trail of Cartoon Cartoon characters appears and spins around the logo before disappearing into the distance, then the logo quickly forms up and three blue circles zoom out.
• On Latin American airings of the block, the name appears as "Cartoon CARTOONS" and the circle has a "C" with the Cartoon Network logo in it. The Cartoon Cartoon characters simply say "Cartoon Cartoons!", just like the 2nd logo.
  • Early on, each character said "Cartoon Cartoon!" as the block had the singular name from 2000 to 2001. However, this logo's version still appeared on the ending variant (used for continuity unlike the original U.S. version) even after the block's plural name was used.

Technique: Digital 2D animation from the previous three logos. Once again, made by Primal Screen.

Audio: A fast-paced techno remix version of the Cartoon Cartoons theme followed by the character's dialogue. Composed by Michael Kohler and Stephen Mank.

Audio Variants:

• On the first airing of Mike, Lu & Og (November 12, 1999), an announcer (voiced by Scott Sanders) says "And now, the premiere of Mike, Lu & Og" when the ribbons appear. The premiere of Courage the Cowardly Dog that same night also got a similar treatment.
• Starting with Sheep in the Big City, the music was slightly remixed, adding snare drums.
• On Sheep in the Big City, Sheep (voiced by Kevin Seal) says "Baa! Baa!" since he doesn't speak. A similar thing also happened with Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? where Robot Jones says nothing, but it was fixed after the block had the logo updated to "Cartoon Cartoons Fridays".
• A short version of the theme can be heard on the ending variant.

Availability: Seen on Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Dexter's Laboratory, Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Mike, Lu & Og, Codename: Kids Next Door (which is no longer available for streaming outside of Fandango at Home, and possibly iTunes as of 2024), The Powerpuff Girls, I Am Weasel, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Sheep in the Big City during Cartoon Cartoon Fridays until May 2003, as well as Cartoon Cartoon Weekend in 1999 and 2000.

5th Logo (September 12, 2005-September 9, 2007)

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Visuals: At various shots of the CN City (likely it supposed to be the City of Townsville from The Powerpuff Girls), 2 translucent yellow and red ribbons fly around the city in various different shots, panning as they twist all around the city. After a series of rapid-fire cuts through the city, it then cuts to just above the city as the ribbons form a outline of the Cartoon Cartoon (singular version) logo in a rapid-fire cut fashion. After the outline is finished, it thrusts forwards with a trail effect before the full logo comes slamming into place so quickly, it shakes violently for a second. The logo then sparkles.

Technique: A combination of CGI and traditional cel animation designed by Animal Logic, who worked on Cartoon Network's "CN City" branding from 2004-2006.

Audio: A remixed version of the Cartoon Cartoons theme with sparkling noises and birds chirping at the end, accompanied by Nikki (voiced by Nicole Vicius) saying "Cartoon Cartoon!". Starting in 2006, Johnny Lancaster says the phrase. Composed by Matt Fletcher for Elias Arts.

Audio Variant: A fully instrumental version of the theme with no SFX and announcer exists on Matt Fletcher's Vimeo account (Fletcher Moules).

Availability

Edit Table

Media Title	Date(s) of Release	Additional Note(s)
The Cartoon Cartoon Show	September 12, 2005-September 9, 2007	Debut and only appearance

Final Note

In 2007, Cartoon Network's fall branding allegedly had no intro of The Cartoon Cartoon Show and cut straight to the cartoons while the block continued to air until June 21, 2008.