Whether it’s the classic ‘60s bop, the ‘90s heavy metal guitar wails, or the pop-rock goodness of Spectacular Spider-Man, Peter Parker’s animated adventures have always had some pretty banging theme songs. His latest animated show, aimed at younger audiences, is no exception, thanks to Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump… and honestly a theme for a kid’s show shouldn’t go this hard??
Disney revealed Stump’s track for Spidey and His Amazing Friends this week, Disney Junior’s new CG animated Marvel series about, well, Spider-Man and his amazing friends. Alas, no Firestar or Iceman to be found here; instead the friends are fellow webslingers Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales, as well as a few more cutesy takes on Marvel heroes like Kamala Khan, Black Panther, and the Hulk, helping the spiders save the day from villains like Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and the Rhino.
It’s all very twee, and I’m sure the show will be fun for its audience of preschoolers, a market I have long since aged out of. The market I haven’t aged out of, however, is having every Fall Out Boy album burned into my brain and ears as an adolescent with a never-ending emo phase, alongside devouring page after page of Spider-Man comics. So there’s just something very specifically delightful about Stump singing “They’re your friendly neighbourhood spiders/whoa-oh, go webs, go!” as Gwen, Pete, and Miles swing around saving the day.
Neither Stump nor Fall Out Boy are strangers to the pop culture theme space of course, having soundtracked the excellent “Night Begins to Shine” for Teen Titans Go!, or having done the, uh, distinctly less excellent riff on the classic Ghostbusters theme with Missy Elliot for the 2016 reboot of the franchise. Thankfully, this is much more closer in quality to the former than it is the latter, which means in spite of myself, I shall probably check in to watch a Marvel show aimed at five-year-olds when Spidey and His Amazing Friends hits Disney Channel and Disney Junior this winters, if only to bop along and do web-thwip poses like a responsible adult.