The Temple of Doom Credits

The Indy films seem to have a very consistent style when it it comes to opening credits, but one film sticks out, Temple of Doom. All of the other films have a style similar to this:



I'll grant you TOD had only one movie before it so there wasn't really a set pattern, but this seems like an extreme change:



Even the credit text is different:




I guess the credits guy for The Next Generation was an Indy fan...



Actually, wait a minute let's check those credits-



I think I just gave myself a headache...

ANYWAY...

This was the first "Indiana Jones and the-" movie, which makes this movie the first appearance of the logo based on the Raiders design. I guess they were so proud of it they put it in the movie?

Another conundrum is that they went for that 'standing in front of the title' look. Now, I like Kate Capshaw (and so does Spielberg obviously ), but it looks like we're watching:


I guess I don't mind it but it seems really strange. So what do you guys think, should consistency have been insured for each Indy film? Or should each film have taken an original design, like the James Bond series?

(apologies if this has been covered I couldn't find a similar thread, unless I'm not looking hard enough.)

Thanks for reading, and here's to my 250th post

I love the Temple titles. I wish they would have continued it for Crusade or at least switched it up. I think that after Temple, they just wanted to make the films closer to Raiders. So that's IMO why the fonts are so close.

i'm guessing they did the temple of doom font that way , because of the dance number , to be a bit sparkly and flashy as the dance number .

It's obvious they adopted the fonts from the Temple poster, originally appeared in Raiders posters, to be more in sync with the 1930s credits.



Apparently, when it was time for Crusade they wanted to sell the new chapter of the franchise as a return to its roots. The same must have happened to Kingdom.

Although they would look great, full of colour and glamour I find it hard to match the logos of Raiders or Crusade with the slow tone of John Williams' score in the opening sequences.

I also think they were really trying to underline the new brand name, which "Indiana Jones" became after Raiders.

I love it. It's right in line with the unremitting pulpiness of that installment. HenryJunior is also correct in observing that there was no pattern set when Temple of Doom came around. It became more of a sore thumb when Last Crusade chose to clone many elements of Raiders (the titles being a minor example).

It may stick out like a sore thumb next to Raiders and Crusade, but Doom's style is what everyone thinks of when they think of Indiana Jones. It's a famous font now, even scroll up to the top of the page, and look at the font for "TheRaider.net"

I love it, and always will. Like someone said, it reflects the pulpiness of Doom. It matches it perfectly.

I've always thought (since it first came out) that opening scene, with the layering, would look really cool in 3D.

HenryJunior said:

Another conundrum is that they went for that 'standing in front of the title' look. Now, I like Kate Capshaw (and so does Spielberg obviously ), but it looks like we're watching:

INDIA vA JONES
AND THE
TEMPLE DOOM​

I guess I don't mind it but it seems really strange.

Click to expand...

I actually LOVE the fact that the title is obscured & never shown in full and can't think of any other movie that does this. It's a bold and ballsy choice because it assumes that the Indy character and the "Raiders" font are so famous that the title doesn't need to be seen properly in order to know what it says.

The alternate version, shown briefly in "The Making of..." TV special, lacks the same punch:

HenryJunior said:

I guess the credits guy for The Next Generation was an Indy fan...

Click to expand...

goodeknight said:

I've always thought (since it first came out) that opening scene, with the layering, would look really cool in 3D.

Click to expand...

Absolutely! Even flat, it has a 3D-ish quality to it.

I wasn't criticizing the logo per say, it's great on posters and promotional material, I immediately associate it with the Indy series.

Stoo, if you didn't understand I meant that the Fonts used on Star Trek: The Next Generation ('87-'94) are strikingly similar to the credits font of TOD (disregarding the main logo).

Oh and I do like the association of pulp with TOD, I'm just a stickler for continuity within the series I suppose.

HenryJunior said:

Stoo, if you didn't understand I meant that the Fonts used on Star Trek: The Next Generation ('87-'94) are strikingly similar to the credits font of TOD (disregarding the main logo).

Click to expand...

HenryJunior, I understood what you were implying but didn't understand why. That font is NOT "strikingly similar" and the style of non-serif, italic typeface was common in the '80s (when the average, Joe Public didn't even know what the word, "font", meant) so the "Next Generation" titles were simply a product of the time. Aside from that point...cool thread, dude!

Speaking of 'typefaces', who else remembers Letraset?

HenryJunior said:

Oh and I do like the association of pulp with TOD, I'm just a stickler for continuity within the series I suppose.

Click to expand...

While I can relate to your "stickler for continuity" point of view, as someone who experienced each film in the theatre upon release and had witnessed the irregular pattern in order, I was hoping that "Skull" would do something different but it didn't. The fact that Indy 4 used another, serifed typeface makes "Temple of Doom" all the more special.

I like your point on the exclusivity to TOD, it's tied with Raiders as my favorite Indy flick, so it's nice it had a little more creative influence. What would have been great is if each movie had a unique style, but I think Lucas likes uniformity in his movies, a great example being Star Wars.

I noticed too that the opening title seems very different from the other films. I love it though. I think it just matches perfectly with the big flashy intro. The other three start off with more of a mysterious tone, but I love how ToD opens with a bang. To me it just fits perfectly, and takes another element of the 30's serials and upgrades it.

Stoo said:

Speaking of 'typefaces', who else remembers Letraset?

Click to expand...

I do.
But only from ad pages in old issues of Swiss designer mag "Graphis", which I received as a gift (they would have been trashed otherwise! ) and which I treasure now.
Ah, the times when there were no computers whatsoever involved in artwork (and movie making for that matter)...

Bye,
ML