Classic Warner Bros. Animation (post-1964)

Logo descriptions by Matt Williams, Benjamin Edge, and Bigrene2
Logo captures by Eric S., Logoboy95 and WileE2005
Editions by Eric S., WileE2005, V of Doom, and Bob Fish
Videos by roygerdodger, mollyzkoubou


Background
: In 1962, when Warner Bros. Animation was nearing the end of its classic run of Looney Tunes, famed WB cartoon director Chuck Jones created his ultimate one-shot cartoon, "Now Hear This", which was done in a very artistic, abstract, and stylized manner. Chuck Jones also designed new, modern opening and closing titles intended for this cartoon only that fit with the cartoon. However, Termite Terrace also wound up using this logo on their other one-shot cartoons afterward, which were also done in a somewhat stylized manner. In 1962, Warner Bros. Animation shut down, and former staff members David H. Depatie and Friz Freleng opened their own animation studio where Termite Terrace was originally housed. Two years later, they began producing Looney Tunes cartoons for WB to continue the series, and made the following opening/closing titles the permanent logos for the classic WB cartoons.After the departure of DePatie-Freleng and Format Films in 1967, Jack Warner decided to reorganize his own animation department, with Bill Hendricks as producer and former Walter Lantz-director Alex Lovy as director. A handful of Speedy and Daffy shorts were made, along with some new characters like Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse. Originally when WB and Seven Arts merged, they basically used the Abstract WB logo and placed a Seven Arts copyright notice on the bottom. Starting with the first Cool Cat cartoon, the following logo was introduced. In 1980, Warner Bros. Animation finally re-opened its doors, originally geared to make TV specials starring the Looney Tunes gang. A few newer theatrical shorts were also made to be released with re-issues of a few classic WB movies. In 1986, Freleng had departed, with Steven S. Greene and Kathleen Helppie-Shipley taking his place. The studio continued making TV specials starring the Looney Tunes gang, sporadically producing new Looney Tunes shorts for theaters such as The Duxorcist (1987), Night of the Living Duck (1988), Box Office Bunny (1990), and Carrotblanca (1995). Many of these shorts, as well as the new footage in the compilation film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (which includes The Duxorcist) was directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. In the early 2000s, the company began to focus less on Looney Tunes and more on action-adventure cartoons, usually starring the Justice League characters, as well as remakes of the Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry franchises. In 2003, as a cross-promotion with the upcoming big-budget feature film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Warner Bros. commissioned their animation studio to make nearly thirty all-new Looney Tunes cartoon shorts for theatrical release with their newer movies. People who worked for various popular animated TV programs worked on the shorts, with contributions from the current WB Animation staff. When Looney Tunes: Back in Action failed in its theatrical release, Warner Bros. decided to not release the six cartoons they have completed, and canceled production on the rest of the shorts.

Note: These were attached at the beginning and end of all theatrical Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts from 1964 to 1969, as well as the shorts produced from 1979-2004.



1st Logo
(1962-1967)
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG Wiki
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiLooney Tunes (1962-1967)Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG Wiki
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG Wiki

Nickname
: “The Abstract WB”

Studio Logo
: Completely different from before. On a black background, several series of lines come from the center of the screen zooming and swirling, 3 purple, one orange, with 2 of the purple ones diagonal, one of the purple ones vertical, and the orange one horizontal. The orange line moves down and up as the purple lines disappear one-by-one and a purple abstract "WB", with the W made up of 2 triangles and the B made up of two semicircles, appears. The orange line turns into the word "PRESENTS" over the abstract WB.

Series Title: 2 lines from the center of the screen swirl around and then slide away to reveal a strange series logo. On the top is "LOONEY TUNES" or "MERRIE MELODIES" in a weird font and on the bottom-right "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" appears in a rectangle in that same font. Below the rectangle is the word "TECHNICOLOR". On 1965-1967 releases, a bannerless WB shield was seen to the right of "TECHNICOLOR." The lines then come back, slide back into each other, wiping away the text, and then "swirl" away into the black background.

Early Opening Variant: For the first four cartoons with this logo, this text is on a white background with no WB shield. The line animation and the studio logo are unaltered, and still appear on a black background.

Closing Logo: The abstract WB appears piece-by-piece, and "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" is wiped onto the screen. When the wiping gets to the "OO" in "CARTOON", the Os turn red and "pop out" of the logo, then pop back into the logo, like two eyes doing a take. They do this action two to three times. "N" is then wiped on and "A VITAPHONE RELEASE" or "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" appears on the bottom left

Early Closing Variant: For the first three cartoons with this logo, the logo/text is on a white background with no Vitaphone/Vitagraph credit. On "Bartholomew Versus the Wheel" (1963), the "OO" bounces up and down six times instead of the usual three. On "Pancho's Hideaway" (1964), it is similar to the early white background variant, but features "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" in white text on a black parallelogram on the bottom left.

FX/SFX
: All the animation in the logos.

Cheesy Factor
: Oh, dear, the shoddy animation was bad enough but...the initial 1963 white background version is migraine-inducing quality. The normal black background version adopted soon after, though still not easy to watch, is only slightly better. The fact that Warner Bros. had shut down its animation department and subcontracted the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts to DePatie-Freling and Format Films (and a badly-run WB animation studio by mid-1967) didn't help as by 1965 DFE was clearly putting more effort into UA's Pink Panther cartoon shorts and Warners' own The Road Runner Show than on the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales cartoons released during this time.

Music/Sounds
: A weird '60s version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", arranged by William Lava. Unlike the pre-1964 logos music no longer differs to each cartoon series, and has become somewhat standardized. The first three shorts using this logo mixed the zooming sound from the 1955-1964 LT theme with the zooming sound from this logo's theme and a cymbal clash was heard when the lines stopped zooming. The end titles originally used Big Ben chiming instead of music, and then a tricycle horn honking for the OO animation. Starting in 1964 with "Pancho's Hideaway" (the first LT short produced by DePatie-Freleng), the 1955 zoom sound and the cymbal clash was dropped from the opening theme, and the end titles began using an abridged version of the opening theme music, with the OO animation synchronized with the theme.

Availability
: Rare, mainly because Looney Tunes are practically no longer on TV. A handful of cartoons with this logo, including the first three using this logo with the original white background variant (with Big Ben closing( can be found on later "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD sets, though. This logo was most commonly seen on the Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner cartoons of the era.

Scare Factor: Medium, mainly due to the choppy animation, strange music, in-your-face animation, and creepy-looking WB.



2nd Logo

(1967-1969)
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG Wiki
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiWarner Bros. Seven Arts Cartoon Specials (1967-1969)Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG Wiki
Classic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiClassic Warner Bros. Cartoons - CLG WikiWarner Bros. (1967)


Nicknames
: “WB-7”, “W7”

Studio Logo
: The same as the previous logo, but the background is now blue and the 3 purple lines are now yellow and the orange one is now pink. The 3 yellow lines now disappear at the same time, as the W7 logo "draws" itself (see the W7 film logo), and the shield appears around it. The horizontal line animation is the same, though “PRESENTS” is now pink as well Copyright info is shown below (beginning in 1969, the copyright info was dropped from this logo).

Series Logo
: Again, same as last time, only the WB shield is dropped, as Warner had retired it by this time due to the merge. The rectangle is now centered and reads "A WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS CARTOON".

Closing Logo: Same as last logo, although the "A WARNER BROS.- CARTOON" line is changed to add in the Seven Arts information and the abstract WB is replaced by the W7 logo, which merely pops on in the beginning of the end title without any forming animation. The OO goes up and down three times fast now.

Variants
:
  • For the first cartoons with this logo, it reuses the colors of the “Abstract WB” logo, with a black background and purple W7 shield.
  • The 1969 short "Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too" had bad film deterioration to it on TV reruns in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the opening/closing logos had a dark-red tint to them as a result.
  • On the 1968 short "Norman Normal" (based off the Paul Stookey song of the same name), the series logo is modified so on the top it has a rectangle reading "A WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS" and underneath the rectangle is "CARTOON SPECIAL" in the LT/MM font. Underneath that is the "TECHNICOLOR" rectangle. The opening to the cartoon's theme music (Paul Stookey's "Norman Normal") plays under this logo instead of having its own music, and at the end, the "Norman Normal" song also plays over the closing animation, which is unchanged.
  • In 1968, 78 Looney Tunes shorts from the 1930s and early 1940s were colorized by a rather crude process via tracing the film cels of the original black-and-white shorts onto animation cels, colorizing them and re-making the original backgrounds. The results were very un-professional and sometimes rather bad. When packaged for TV in 1968-1970, the shorts had a variation of this logo plastered onto the beginning, where it does not have the "TECHNICOLOR" rectangle on the bottom and has the second half of one of the 1935-1943 Looney Tunes opening themes playing under it, which does not fit with the logo at all. The ending has the Seven Arts closing plastered on, with either the ending of the cartoon's theme playing underneath (1935-1937) or the 1937-1943 closing theme, with Porky's "T-th-th-that's all folks!" line heard. The redrawn print of "Porky's Road Race" with these logos use the 1967 opening theme music with the logo and the 1964 closing theme during the end titles.

FX/SFX
: The "lines", the wipe, the OO, the W7 trace.

Cheesy Factor
: Not bad, but the cartoons themselves could have been better. They had choppy animation, bad writing and music, and seemed to resemble Hanna-Barbera or Filmation cartoons than classic WB animation.

Music/Sounds
: A newer variation of the same bizarre music used last time, which is less annoying.

Music/Sound Variants: Here's a listing:
  • October 1967-September 1969: Small amount of instruments and rather cheap-sounding guitar "twangs" during the line animation. The closing music is the same as the 1964 version.
  • June 1968-August 1968: Heavily modified opening theme with guitar, horn and piano combo on the zooming line animation. Closing music is unchanged.
  • March 1969-May 1969: Opening theme sparsely modified, sounding like a hybrid of the October 1967 and June 1968 themes. Closing music is unchanged.

Availability
: Extremely rare/near extinction; was seen on all Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons, as well as some of the final Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales shorts and some one-shots of the era. The "Norman Normal" variant is available, fully restored, on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release. The Looney Tunes cartoon output was coming to a stop by this time, but it is still saved on the shorts using it whenever shown, but it is unknown if the others will be coming to DVD's or shown on TV again.

Scare Factor
: Low.



3rd Logo

(1979-1980)
Warner Bros. (1979)

TBA




4th Logo

(1987-1990)
Warner Bros. (1987)

TBA




5th Logo

(1990-1994)

TBA




6th Logo

(1994-1996)
Warner Bros. (1994)Warner Bros. (1995)

TBA




7th Logo

(2000-2003)
Warner Bros. (2000)Looney Tunes Ending Logo (2000)

TBA




8th Logo

(2003-2004)


Nicknames
: "The Ugly Shield", "The Zooming Bullseye"

Studio Logo
: On a black background, green center zooms up as some red rings zoom out one-by-one and arrange themselves into the famous "bullseye" backdrop. Then a large, metallic, ugly-looking red-and-gold WB shield comes fromLooney Tunes - CLG Wiki the center of the screen, zooms up to a huge size, overshooting its mark and then backs up to its usual spot on the bullseye. Then over it, "WARNER BROS. PICTURES" "wipes" onscreen over the shield in an ugly font, and underneath is "PRESENTS" in the same font.

Series Title
: Above the "bullseye" and on the same background is "LOONEY TUNES" in its trademark font, and underneath the center is "PRODUCED BY LARRY DOYLE." In the center, we see classic clips featuring the character in the cartoon that is about to begin, such as Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig, etc. It then fades to a third card featuring a background with outlines of Daffy, Bugs, Sylvester and Tweety, and the other main cartoon staff appears in front of the background.

Closing Logo: The same concentric circles background as before, but with "LOONEY TUNES" above the center of the rings and "That's all, Folks!" tracing itself on the bottom of the bullseye. Porky Pig appears in the center and stutters, "Bee-ba-da-ba-bee-da, That's all, folks!".

FX/SFX: All the animation in these logos.

Cheesy Factor
: Really choppy animation on the zooming shield and bullseye, a extremely choppy for the text, and rather poor-quality design on Porky from the Sander Schwartz-led Warner Bros. Animation unit. Porky's voice is also pretty bad.

Music/Sounds
: A remixed version of "Merrily We Roll Along." Sometimes the sound effects corresponding with the classic clips shown can be heard (explosions scorching Wile E. Coyote, for example)

Availability
: Only one cartoon featuring this logo (The Whizzard of Ow) was released on DVD in America, on the Looney Tunes: Back in Action DVD release. All the other cartoons using this logo were never released theatrically or shown on TV or released on video in the USA. The rest of the cartoons, however, do show up on a foreign DVD release of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. These cartoons were also seen at one point on TV in Canada.

Scare Factor: Medium, mainly due to the awkward animation and design on the WB shield and studio logo.


VofDoom
VofDoom
Latest page update: made by VofDoom , Monday, 11:47 PM EDT (about this update About This Update VofDoom Edited by VofDoom


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Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
WileE2005 The revisions 1 Oct 15 2008, 11:32 AM EDT by mr3urious
WileE2005
Thread started: Oct 14 2008, 6:59 PM EDT  Watch
Excuse me, but I think that the revisions that m3urious has done with the LT and MM pages makes this all VERY confusing and it would become inconvenient just to switch back and forth from articles, plus the LT and MM pages have stuff duplicated from this, making it look sloppy. I think we should just simply combine all the articles into one again (to save time for the pre-1935 Merrie Melodies logos it would simply state the Studio Logo as "Same as the 1930-1935 Looney Tunes logo" or something like that. After all, the LTs and MMs were both basically the same by 1945, so it doesn't make much difference to the logos anyways, especially in the 1960s. Doesn't anyone believe me?
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BChance77 Made Updates to the Merrie Melodies Logos Page on CLG2 0 Jun 20 2008, 2:13 PM EDT by BChance77
BChance77
Thread started: Jun 20 2008, 2:13 PM EDT  Watch
I have made extensive updates to the Merrie Melodies logos page on the Closing Logo Group 2 website (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClosingLogoGroup2/).

Find it in the "Files" section under sub-folder "Kids and Cartoons".
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Keyword tags: CLG2 Merrie Melodies updates
Kaufmancab51 rw&b 0 Jun 18 2008, 12:35 PM EDT by Kaufmancab51
Kaufmancab51
Thread started: Jun 18 2008, 12:35 PM EDT  Watch
can someone upload the red, white and blue ringed merrie melodies logo?
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