Have you ever seen the movie Starship Troopers? I have. Several times. It’s a great little sci-fi romp, based on the 1959 novel of the same name. The premise is that humanity is in a war with the insectoid creatures known as “bugs”, or arachnids; think giant spidery type creatures. The plot follows the exploits of the main character, Johnny Rico and his exploits with the mobile infantry unit known as the Roughnecks…
The movie came out in 1997 and has the almost perfect blend of satire, drama, suspense, and cheesiness to make it the near perfect sci-fi to watch. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you watch it… Tonight! Just not with your kids! It’s a bit PG-18ish.
Several sequels were made, both live action and animated. The first sequel had none of the original cast, and was more of a horror style, lower budget film. The second sequel attempted to get back to the classic satirical feel of the original film. They even had the original main lead back (Casper Van Dien), although it suffered from budgetary constraints, resulting in some off-putting CGI effects, and ultimately wonky writing too.
The Silver Lining
Despite the lackluster sequels, there was one bright-spot side effect from the first film. A CGI animated kids tv series spin-off, appropriately entitled “Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles”. It captured the feel of the original movie, and was a Band of Brothers-esque style of show. It only ran for one season of 36 episodes (released on tv from 1999-2000). I still remember it fondly as a child, catching an episode before school in the mornings. To say the least, it was pretty awesome.
Unfortunately, the episodes weren’t always aired in order, and as a kid, I didn’t get to see very many of the episodes in total. For a long time I had thought they were lost to the tv cemetery forever. But, thanks to the magic of the internet, I was able to find the entire series’ 36 episodes, and I was able to binge watch them all a few years back.
Even though the CGI graphics are dated, it was still almost as awesome as I remembered it to be.
Why I wanted to bring this topic up today, was the theme song. It has a pretty cool original instrumental ditty. But what does this have to do with kids?
The Secret Connection
Now. I have kids. And in times like these, there’s a whole crap ton of YouTube “kid” videos and such out there. One of the channels we have watched a lot of was the CoComelon channel. It’s fairly solid as a child-friendly viewing goes. They have a bunch of animated videos and all have songs playing throughout.
One of the video’s caught my ear one day. The tune seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. Then finally, I had it! I realized they had totally riffed off of the “Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles” theme song. It was only a portion of the song, but it was right there, clear as day.
I don’t know of anyone who’s noticed this, but I thought it was interesting. Comments on YouTube videos for kids are not allowed anymore, so I don’t know if any of the other parents were ever aware of it or commented on this fact either.
But here, I’ll show you it so you too can have a listen for yourself!
The Easter Egg
Here’s the link. But before you compare it to the CoComelon show, just watch the intro in it’s entirety. Enjoy the music, enjoy the suspense, enjoy the graphics! Maybe it’ll get you hooked on wanting to watch the show itself!
Wasn’t that epic!?!?! You know it was! Don’t deny it! I think it was!
Here’s the CoComelon Clip of their “Happy Birthday Song” from 2017. Watch from the start until 2:16.
Did you catch the crossover?
Let’s go back to the Starship Troopers Clip. Listen from 0:18 to 0:40. The jingle repeats twice in that time frame.
Now go back to the CoComelon clip and listen from 0:41 to 0:54.
Do you hear it now? Hehehe. The beat is faster and the key is different, but it’s there!
I’m not sure if this was some sort of intentional Easter egg that was put in, maybe by a Starship Troopers fan who also helped create the CoComelon video. But I thought it was awesome!.
Anyway. That’s all I wanted to share; Starship Troopers, Kids, and Easter Eggs!
Here’s a YouTube link to all the old Roughneck Starship Troopers episodes that someone put up.
Enjoy!
UPDATE (October 2023):
Well, I finally found an official answer to question I had regarding the composing of source of theme song and why it was connected to the Coco Melon show. It’s not because the Coco Melon people were really secret Star Ship Troopers super fans. No, unfortunately. What connects them is that the music itself is quite famous in its own right. And it’s also quite old. The song was written in 1798 by non other than Beethoven. The music is entitled Sonata No. 8 OP. 13 (Pathetique).
Here is a gentleman, Daniel Barenboim, playing this piece of classical music. When you listen to the video, you can here the similarities right away in the first few seconds! Then, at 2:04, you can definitely here the parts that the RoughNecks show used for their main theme, albeit a much slowed down version. It’s grand. It’s grave. I love it!
Have you noticed this classic piece of music used in any other pop culture stuff? Let me know!
