Do you know that tune that you can’t get out of your head? That one that you hum every other day, but can’t for the life of you remember where you heard it? It’s a tune that you’ve known forever but just can’t put your finger on. There’s a good chance that it’s the opening theme for a show on Spacetoon.
For Middle Eastern kids growing up in the early 2000’s, Spacetoon was an integral part of the day. It was initially launched in 2000 as a part-time segment on the channel Bahrain TV. Its popularity (and a breached contract) turned it into its own channel by 2002. For those few years, at the start of the noughties, Spacetoon was the only thing Middle Eastern kids had.
We can all relate to that gut feeling we got when the channel would go off the air in the later hours of the day to be replaced by a screensaver version of the arcade game “Pong”, or the feeling of sheer excitement as that screensaver went off in the early hours of the morning, and a show came on. However, the one thing we remember the most that is still etched in our memories, despite the passing of years, is the music!
Warning: The next paragraph includes a trip down memory lane. Expect mild nostalgia. Presence of tissues is recommended.
For this article, we asked a number of people who grew up in that era about the first tune that comes to mind when discussing Spacetoon. What we discovered was that no two people agreed on the same answer! Even the Barakabits members all had different answers. However, everyone we asked, did have an answer! Those included: The opening themes to “Dragon Ball Z“, “Batman – The Animated Series“, “Detective Conan“, “Remi, Nobody’s Girl” (Or simply Remi), “Captain Tsubasa” (Captain Majed) and even the themes associated with the “Planets” (show categories) that Spacetoon had!
Spacetoon meant a lot of different things to a lot of us. For me, it gave me childhood memories that, a decade later, I still remember. It helped me forge friendships that have lasted until today. Maybe it meant something else to you? Tell us in the comments! And hopefully, this wild emotional roller-coaster didn’t take too much out of you!
Don’t forget to leave a smile 🙂
