King Leonardo and His Short Subjects
This is one I feel like I saw a bit of in one of the other intros, like maybe this is either a spin-off or was subsumed into another series down the line. Anyway, here it is. There are actually two. Here’s the first.
We start with a lion marching across the screen with a ridiculously long robe with the title in the foreground.
“Here comes Leonardo! Leonardo Lion!
King of Congo Bongo
A hero lion of mine.”
We then see the end of the robe is actually attached to another Leonardo, in a take on the classic “same person holding both ends of the ladder” gag.
Leonardo speaks
“Where Leonardo travels
His subjects all go too.”
“There’s Odie O. Colongey
Who’s loyal and true blue.”
We see Leonardo ascending a balloon, followed by a scholarly looking skunk who gets his tail stuck in the string of the balloon and is literally carried away. We then see a hound and a fox on a piece of wood attached to the balloon which is being carried away also. For some reason, they are chopping away at it.
“I say, there’s a booming hunter.”
“And a wiry, witty fox.”
Says the respective characters.
We then see the string carrying a short of elevator like box thing with a turtle in a straw boater and a lizard wizard (but
not this one)
“There’s Tudor who brings fun to you.”
“Within this magic box.”
I think that’s what he said. Honestly, I hear a “Business magic box” which can’t be right so this is a guess.
Out of the box a cannon is fired, bringing down the balloon and everyone attached to it. King Leonardo lands on his throne in his throne room.
“Look at Leonardo and his enemies”
Enter a gangster rodent and a maneless lion, who say, respectively.
“Iggy with his pistols.”
“Itchy with his fleas.”
“They come into the castle, to overthrow the king
Looks like Leonardo’s had his royal fling.”
Leonardo is thrown out of the castle down to the ground. But there is Odie the skunk, who opens up a canopy and bounces Leo back into the air.
Sings Odie.
“But Odie O Colongey, steps in to change the play.”
“That loyal skunk with skill and spunk comes through to save the day.”
Odie rushes up the stairs and pushes the villains out the window. Killing them maybe? Also, do we know that Leonardo landed safely? Nope. He may be better at murder than life saving.
“You’ll find adventure and thrills
Laughter a minute, too.”
In the woods, a fox rights a sign that says “Detour for the hunter” and hides in a tree. The hunter dog follows the sign off a cliff. Hunter falls and shoots the tree fox is hiding in, which also falls off a cliff.
“You mustn’t miss, excitement like this
Or Hunter may hunt you.”
I don’t like being threatened, children’s cartoon show.
“Let’s watch Leonardo
Loyal subjects, too.
Odie O Cologney
Fox and Hunter, too.”
Well, they just rhymed too with too. Anyway, we see Odie dusting Leonardo when Fox and Hunter fall on the duo.
“Tudor and the wizard
They’re ready, set to go.”
Tudor and the wizard run from a barrage of bullets while the other characters understandably panic. Turns out the barrage is coming from the previously scene villains in a WWI style bi-plane. Everyone runs away.
“So everyone come join the fun on King Leonardo’s show!”
This one is called “The King and Odie” and it starts with Odie polishing the King’s crown (not a euphemism) and then the title comes up.
“It’s the King and Odie Show”
This seems to be the full intro but then we get an introductory interstitial.
We see a parade with a “Congo Bongo” parade. The music is very Latin. I don’t know the actual genre name but its basically whatever Ricky plays in I Love Lucy, I think.
“Congo Bongo Conga
Meet the ruling king
Good King Leonardo
Has that King-ah Swing”
Leonardo is dancing and snapping his fingers while Odie plays the bongos and a large conga line follows behind.
“He and true blue Odie
All his subjects, too.”
We hear a cheer and see confetti float down from the sky.
“Dance the Congo Bongo
Its all good for you.”
We then see the characters conga into the castle.
Did It Make Me Want To Watch It?
Not really. It helps that it looks like a Jay Ward show is. I’m not certain if it is or isn’t, though.
What Did You Find on Wikipedia?
This is, in fact, not a Jay Ward show but is probably mistaken for one due to similar styles. In fact, they were even packaged together in syndication but the creator and studios were different. Notably, Tooter Turtle (not Tudor) is often referenced on classic MST3k. "Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome, time for this one to come home."
Also worth noting that the voice of the Hunter is Kenny Delmar, reprising his Senator Claghorn voice. If this means nothing to you, you are not alone, but that voice was in fact stolen wholesale for the much more famous character Foghorn Leghorn.
Fan Art
Only one.