Director Tom Ropelewski’s 1990 goofball comedy Madhouse begins on a high note: with an exuberant opening sequence directed by Animator Sally Cruikshank. The film is a story of unwelcome and uncouth houseguests and the chaos and comedy they inspire in the household of Mark (John Larroquette) and Jessie (Kirstie Alley).

In Cruikshank’s animated opening, a magenta, lady-like character emerges from a manhole and visits a bouncing abode full of colourful characters. As Chris Rea croons “Let’s Dance”, a plaid valise erupts in a throng of dancing figures. The titular madhouse appears, bookended by shimmying palm trees and brimming with creatures lost in a deep groove, pulsing in colour. Because this is a Sally Cruikshank sequence, everything is alive. The trees transform into arms and the house looks around, its eyes roving around in the arched transom. Our pink lady – Jessie’s sister Claudia (Alison La Placa) in caricature – approaches the door and knocks. The house lets its pants down, revealing an elephant and a toilet within.

The toilet wears high heels and walks across the screen, streaming toilet paper and bedlam. When cartoon Claudia knocks again, she is forcefully denied, a set of bars and a lock slamming down before her. Naturally, she forces her way in, driving a tank through the doorway. What follows is a set of dancing doors, televisions, mice, and snakes, a cat on the loose, and a revolving door of characters squeezed together in beds and sardine cans.

View 6 images

The dancing, multicolour figures and animals playing instruments recall the “Pink Elephants on Parade” scene in Dumbo (1941) or the heffalumps and woozles of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968).

Peace is restored and the sequence comes to an end when the elephant bumps Claudia off into a pit, flushing her into the ether. The sequence wraps up tidily as Claudia is swallowed by a circle on black, mirroring the first moments.

Madhouse was the last of several title sequences Cruikshank created for comedies in the late ’80s, a period which also included the titles for Mannequin, Ruthless People, and Loverboy. It’s a solid and engaging entry in an era that allowed animated opening sequences to flourish before being swept away in the ebb and flow of film.