The 5 Greatest Movie Studio Intros Of All Time 

Fun fact, John Williams composed the main Star Wars theme in the same key as the 20th Century Fox theme so the transition from production credits to the beginning of the film would be seamless.

I love it that these logo themes are getting some love! I wrote the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment logo theme in 2005. I submitted several very fancy proposed versions, but the studio had other ideas: The four notes of the final version’s melody were literally sung to me over the phone one morning by a Sony exec: “We just want it simple, like ‘duuhh… duh, duh, DUH!’” I wrote it down, tweaked it a little to add some timpani up front, and that’s what you hear today.

The amount of work put into these little intros is insane, like I could literally listen to the Universal one for ages and not get bored of it.

Not exactly a Movie Studio, but the THX theme with the high and the deep tone resolving in the middle to a major chord is pretty awesome.

The Disney one never fails to give me chills. I remember when I was a child and that theme was just a simple melody.

Disney's use of "When You Wish Upon A Star" gets me in the feels every time. That one's probably my favourite

For me, the 20th Century Fox theme will ALWAYS segue into "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..."

"When You Wish Upon a Star" is one of the most nostalgic songs in existence. When I hear it I'm taken back to my childhood, gathered together with my family, watching The Wonderful World of Disney in the living room.

I can't think of any time in my life where I sat down and analyzed the themes of movie studio intros. Leave it to Charles to come up with a video idea that we didn't know we needed and then execute so awesomely.

It makes me really happy that "As Time Goes By" is part of the WB theme, since it's from Casablanca, one of their most iconic films

The Disney theme with the castle ALWAYS hits me in the feels. But the Marvel theme is so badass it’s not even funny

The current version of Universal's theme from Brian Tyler manages to be even more impactful than the original, amazing The best studio theme, hands down

I love the band nerd wonder he exudes in these videos! He gets into this and takes us along for the ride. The Universal theme just says..."strap yourself in, this is going to be epic". He's absolutely spot on about the nostalgia of the Disney theme. The first time I heard it in a theater, tears welled up in my eyes because it reminded me of childhood.

The percussion can not be ignored in Universal’s theme. Dude, so fantastic.

I can’t believe John Williams’s Dreamworks theme wasn’t in this! That one is so nostalgic and magical.

What I love about Disney’s and Universal’s intros is that they are so memorable. In addition, the Anniversary remixes they have are more powerful and puts a smile on my face, which brings a great feeling of nostalgia from how much time has passed.

Actually... I still get chills if I see the THX logo. Even without the sound... :)

I can’t help but remember the old United Artists Intro theme from the 70s or 80s. Started with those few single piano notes and then just exploded into a full orchestral fanfare. Loved that as a kid!

For the Universal Pictures logo from 1997 to 2012, the fanfare was written by Jerry Goldsmith, based around a horn leitmotif loosely adapted from Jimmy McHugh's 1936 logo fanfare. His work on the fanfare would later be re-composed by John Williams for the 20th anniversary of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with a customized fanfare, merging the Universal fanfare and the film's main theme, and the full Universal fanfare, only used in The Scorpion King, and re-arranged by Brian Tyler for the studio's 100th anniversary. On top of the Universal Pictures fanfare, Jerry also composed the scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for other movies like Planet of the Apes, Patton, Poltergeist, Medicine Man, Gremlins, Mulan, and The Mummy! He also composed the music for the iconic Disney attraction Soarin', and the 1976 fanfare for Paramount Pictures which was used mainly for their home video label!

I loved how for the Simpsons Movie, they got Ralph Wiggum to stand in the 0 and do the "Dah dah dah dah" during the 20th Century Fox fanfare and it was chef's kiss 🤣The fanfare dates all the way to 1933 when it was just Twentieth Century Pictures. They didn't become 20th Century Fox until a merger with Fox Studios in 1935 (and of course now the studios is under the Disney umbrella). The fanfare was composed by Alfred Newman who won nine Academy Awards and was nominated 45 times, contributing to the extended Newman family being the most Academy Award-nominated family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories! The 20th Century Fox fanfare is what inspired the Star Wars theme! In the 1970s, the logo and the fanfare was pretty much phased out, however, George Lucas loved the logo and fanfare that he insisted it be used! When John Williams signed onto the Star Wars project, one of his first moves was to compose the Main Title to Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in the same key as the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He has said before that it was truly meant as another extension of the fanfare.

A great surprise was when Brian May created the 20th Century Fox theme on guitar for the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

Love the Disney intro so much! So When You Wish Upon a Star was actually the first Disney song to win an Oscar, earning an Academy Award for Best Song in 1940! It was originally written by Leigh Harline (who did the music) and Ned Washington (who did the lyrics). Harline and Washington delivered the song" to the Pinocchio story crew in Fall 1938, and they knew it was a song that had to be the main song of the film. The intro you showed first debuted in 2006 when the studio's intro was updated with the release of Dead Man's Chest at the behest of then-Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook and studio marketing president Oren Aviv. Designed by Disney animation director Mike Gabriel and producer Baker Bloodworth, the modernized logo was created completely in computer animation by Wētā FX and yU+co. The final rendering of the logo was done by Cameron Smith and Cyrese Parrish. Mark Mancina wrote a new composition and arrangement of When You Wish Upon a Star to accompany the 2006 logo. It was co-arranged and orchestrated by David Metzger. For the centennial anniversary of the company for 2023, a new production logo was introduced at the 2022 D23 Expo. The new castle logo was created by Disney Studios Content and Industrial Light & Magic and the arrangement was composed by Christophe Beck and conducted by Tim Davies.

You should check out the updated version of the Universal theme! It adds a few parts in the background

Great video! Really hope you do a part two. The Dreamworks intro is a good one!

You really smashed this one. Your ability to explain relatively difficult theory in a simple way do articulately is always so impressive, not to mention your edits are speedy and funny so as not to drag. 10/10 on this one 🎉

New line cinema has been a personal favorite of mine

CBS FOX Home Video had the most majestic, goosebump-inducing theme imaginable. It's so good that you don't even care that it's basically a Midi file.

I love the New Line Cinema theme! So much good association. And it feels like it's setting such a warm and inviting tone.

Man, Charles, you are incredibly talented to dig a score out by just listening to it. It reminds me when they lost the score to the tornado scene in the wizard of oz. Some genius recreated it from just listening to it.

It's definitely Universal for me. I think someone said that it's 16 french horns calling out, 16 wagner tubas answering, and then all 32 horns finishes the tune. Just epic!

Regeny Enterprises has a great one. It’s very subtle but still holds that epic and mysterious vibe.

Universal’s theme-specifically during Pitch Perfect-will always be my favorite 😂.

I think orchestration really helps the Universal theme. Epic French horns and tympani just add majesty that are hard to match.

PLEASE cover the Tetris CD-I ost!!!

Most people like music. Some people play music. But this guy UNDERSTANDS the intricacies of music. Take a bow! Incredible!

All these intros are fantastic, but for whatever reason the intro for New Line Cinema always seems to give me chills

Every time I hear these themes it like someone is playing my childhood. I get goosebumps and teary-eyed every time. Music is love. Music is life.

I’m with you on Universal and Disney, but the 20th Century Fox one will always hit me hardest because it’s actually just the opening bars to Star Wars 😁

The 20th Century Fox fanfare is my favorite. Every time I hear it I expect it go completely silent with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." followed by the blaring of trumpets to begin the Star Wars theme. I recently saw the Boston Pops play the entire score of Return of the Jedi in synch with the movie, with the 20th Century Fox fanfare leading in and it sent a chill down my spine.

Some of the best years of my life was working at Universal Studios Hollywood and 20 years later I still get goosebumps when I hear the theme

In terms of sheer epicness, the Marvel Studios intro is my firm favourite, so I'd be very interested to see a breakdown of that in a future video. Am also quite fond of the Disney one. 🙂

The Lucas film intro is just so great , the fact that you can't hear a thing is just amazing.

The reharmonization for Universal’s 100th anniversary going up the major scale is one of the best things to surprise me as a kid in theaters. Gives me chills still.

The nostalgia is strong with this one.

Fun fact: Jerry Goldsmith wrote the Universal theme. He also wrote the Star Trek movie theme. You now can't unhear the similarities. lol Also, I'd love to hear Charles do an analysis of all the Disney intro themes. I personally prefer the early 2000's version.

Alfred Newman's 20th Century Fox fanfare is my favorite, composed in 1933. 20 years later he added the 2nd part of the theme for films presented in Cinemascope (widescreen!). Dude was a total gangster, wrote sooooo many incredible scores. My 2nd favorite is Jerry Goldsmith's Universal Pictures Theme. It is so him, and it is so perfect, & instantly iconic. The Disney into theme is taken from Leigh Harline's music in "When You Wish Upon A Star" from Pinochio (1940). And as a song, it may be the greatest ever written. It's way up there. Rank em how u want this is going to be very near the top. Great video!

As an old git I have to confess that the 20thC Fox has become SO embedded in me by now It's probably my fave. The stringy addition following the brassy fanfare was added originally to allow time for the cinemascope thing to be shown. I used to play Horn in a 1st class amateur orchestra and we used to do a film night every year in the run up to Christmas. There were many memorable experiences, apart from a knackered lip by the end, but the one which I enjoyed the most at the time was commencing the 2nd half after the interval with the 20th C fanfare seguing into Star Wars. An epic moment in film music if ever there was one !

FWIG, the Universal theme starts with a call-and-response between French horns and Wagner tubas as well, so there's a timbre shift in the middle as well, especially when they all play together at the end. Deep brass is always epic.

Loved this, but really wanted to see you break down the disney one a little more! That specific version of When You Wish Upon a Star has some really cool counter lines and harmonies.

Also, Michael's Kamen New Line Cinema Logo is beautil, based on his Highlander score.

I love how you hear music everywhere and are so excited about it. I don't get the technical stuff but I really appreciate how explain things

Hey Charles, I'd love to see you look at the work Bernard Hermann did on the 1958 Hitchcock film 'Vertigo.' He creates such a haunting and dreamlike atomosphere with his score, especially in the Scene D'amour track. It's also really interesting how he keeps the film's spiral motif present in the music.

I love the dreamlike arrangement of DreamWorks.

I loooooove the Disney theme! I completely agree that they nailed the feeling of nostalgia in the celeste/music box at the end! I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the new ending found in the Walt Disney 100 Years of Wonder theme? :) I don't have all the music theory knowledge behind the actual notes, but they added a few more steps before finally resolving!

I love the inner horn line at 10:08. The F sharp to G creates a split-second Lydian sound that resolves.

It's more in the realm of avant garde and audio engineering, but the THX theme sounds very impressive to this day

I would absolutely love to hear you do jazz band versions of these!

One of favorites is the Columbia Pictures theme from the 70's. It's an electronic composition by Suzanne Ciani. It's so satisfying.

This is one of my favorite videos of 2023. I can’t thank you enough for creating this video. I absolutely love these epic and iconic themes and learning the science behind them. ❤

The attention and work put into every detail is impressive.

I just accidentally stumbled upon your channel and I am absolutely loving it... Your content is soooooo cool

9:35 Isn't it actually called a Disney modulation or something similar, since the most common modulation that Disney tunes do is whole step up. Making the intro modulate a whole step is kinda brilliant.

you justtttt got yourself one big hell of a subscriber man. great content. nothing near "boring". will watch all your vidsssss

One can't disregard the visuals accompanying these tunes. The fly-over of the girl and her torch is spectacular!

You forgot TriStar with the flying horse. Love that theme.

I would love to hear more of these. There’s honestly so many more good ones

My jaw dropped at the revelation of the Warner Brothers theme being "As Time Goes By". I'll never be able to hear it the same way again!

your enthousiasm is really of the chards its wonderfull to see you analyse music that way!

These are definitely the most epic-but I also love the New Line Cinema intro!

Why did I burst out into tears when you started playing, "You Must Remember This"?? 😅😅 Beautifully played and an awesome video, my friend 🙏🏾🙏🏾

man i love ur channel ... huge value u add ... lovely

Even better than the videos, which clearly require a lot of effort to create, is the joy with which they are presented. Thank you!!

I’d love you to cover some of the jazz fusion stuff from Cassiopeia, such as their live recording of galactic funk, or fight man, there’s some cool stuff in their music

Do you think you could dissect some of Murray Gold's work? He is best known for Doctor Who series 1-10, and a ton of those songs are worth a look, like A Secret He Will Take To His Grave, Song of Freedom, Doomsday, and a ton more. Definitely worth a look.

I love it when they go the extra mile to adjust the logo/music to match the film! Famously the 20th Century Fox fanfare done Queen style for Bohemian Rhapsody!

Fantastic video! Luv it so much!

I would have loved to see him do the MGM intro because it's just roaring, but knowing his meme videos he could do it.

Charles, could you do a deep dive into the music of Sara Bareilles?? Would love to see you talk about her stuff!

I have always loved the Dave Metzger’s arrangement on Disney’s intro which is phenomenal! Beautiful orchestral arrangement, so nostalgic and astonishing! And the new arrangement by Christophe Beck is just a masterpiece.

It's not a studio theme, but please check out the old HBO theme from the 80s. That one rarely fails to get my imaginary conductor skills going. Thanks for this and the Inception video. Two of best musical instruction/explained videos I've seen in a while.

All of them are great! I also like the Dreamworks Intro by John Williams.

Universal 75th Anniversary is by FAR the greatest. Written by the greatest movie score composer of all time, James Horner.

I know very little about the technical aspects of music but I absolutely loved this video. As a long-time movie fan I want to put in a good word for the old Warner Brothers fanfare which was used for so many years. It was also featured at the start of their many western & detective shows of the late 1950s and early 1960s. I could never forget the opening music and the stentorian announcement: “Produced in Hollywood by Warner Brothers !!” Great stuff.

Great mash-up! Highly appreciated and loved.

The beginning of the Universal theme closely resembles the opening of the Star Trek: Voyager theme, both are written by Jerry Goldsmith

Would love to see an analysis of ‘Aqua Regia’ by Sleep Token sometime! They’ve exploded in popularity this year from their most recent album release. Kind of a genre-bending alt metal band with a ton of jazz influence throughout their discography. Aqua Regia has a ton of great progressions that I think you’d find really interesting.

This video cheered me up. Thanks.

I love your rambunctious enthusiasm for music.

you should definitely check out Thomas Bergersen incredible composer, incredible music i especially like his newer tracks from the Humanity series or Myth, but many older pieces are also great!

Disney's theme kinda had work done already, it's "When you wish upon a star" from Pinnochio and the company noticed how iconic it was and just ran with it.

5:08 In the new theme song of Universal there is the bass with the voice playing F, G and Ab which makes everything more magical.

Always learning something cool on this channel!

I always love when they rework the theme for the specific movie. Pitch Perfect doing an acapella cover, Scott Pilgrim doing an 8-bit cover...

Please review the Colgera theme from Tears of the Kingdom! I think it's the best piece of music in the game!

The Disney one is an orchestral rendition of _When You Wish Upon a Star_ from _Pinocchio_

Lydian is such a beautiful mode. I always get goosebumps.

The Disney Theme makes use of the "When You Wish Upon a Star" music. This will already have nostalgic implications for the millions of people who have seen the original animated Pinocchio.

Ooh, now do all the NFL broadcast themes!

That's amazing! I'm always blown away by the majestic sound of these movie intros... Thanks for breaking this up and explaining what's behind 👏👏🙂🎵💙🎹 AL

Okay, this guy KNOWS musical theory. It's like he's pulling back the curtain and explaining why we feel what we feel. Brilliant.