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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 21 2009, 7:35 PM EDT | VofDoom | 14 words added, 12 words deleted |
| Jun 21 2009, 7:32 PM EDT | VofDoom | 6 words added, 3 words deleted, 1 photo added, 1 photo deleted, 3 widgets added, 2 widgets deleted |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
Logo descriptions by Jason Jones, Jeffrey Gray, and James Fabiano
Logo captures by Logoboy95, Eric S., V of Doom, Shadeed A. Kelly, and Bob Fish
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, Logoboy95, and The Twenty Thousand Tonne Bomb (aka, 20000)
Video captures courtesy of phasicblu, monarchofvideos and cruiseshipz
Background: The men named in the company are Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. The pre-1974 is currently owned by Classic Media and the post-1974 library is owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Videocraft International, Limited
1st Logo
(1961-1966)
Logo: This superimposed logo features three TV tube-like shapes. One is at the bottom, and the other two are stacked on the left and right corners of the bottom tube, which, when together, resemble Mickey Mouse's head or a water molecule. The company byline appears as "A VIDEOCRAFT INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION" or "A VIDEOCRAFT PRODUCTION".
Variants: There are a few variants, which will be described later.
FX/SFX: None.
Music/Sounds: Usually the outro of a TV show.
Availability: Not quite uncommon, but not recent either. Can be found on TV shows or specials from the time that used it, such as The New Adventures of Pinocchio, The Tales of the Wizard of Oz, and the 1964 TV Christmas special Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo
(1966-1968)
Nicknames: "Tri-Colored V", "Tri-Colored TV Monitors"
Logo: Over a white background, we see three colorized TV tubes aside each other, as in the infamous "V" design from the 
previous logo. The names of the producers pop up on both tubes:
ARTHUR RANKIN, Jr. (in the blue tube on the left)
Jules Bass (in the green tube on the right)
The third tube (which is red ) on the bottom has "Production" appear in it and "AN" above the logo, revealing the phrase as "AN ARTHUR RANKIN, Jr.-JULES BASS Production." We pan out to reveal the words "VIDEOCRAFT International, Limited" appearing in black underneath the logo.
FX/SFX: The name pop-in, the pan-out.
Cheesy Factor: Pretty simple but effective animation.
Music/Sounds: Three ascending notes (the majority of which are produced by a horn) herald the appearance of the Rankin and Bass credit popping in, followed by a brief flute melody during the pan-out, and then a one-note abrupt end. A piano and drum also seem to be part of the music, and all the while, a set of bongo drums play in the background.
Availability: Extinct on TV, as far as I know. Was last seen on The King Kong Show, and possibly The Cricket from The Hearth special, aired in 1967. Don't expect this on the DVD release of The King Kong Show because the logo wasn't intact there. Very strange, though; on recent showings of The Cricket from the Hearth special (on UNC-TV), this logo was replaced by the 1968 Rankin-Bass logo!
Scare Factor: Minimal; the dramatic music might get to some viewers.
_______________________________________________________________
Rankin-Bass Productions
1st Logo
(1968-1975)
Nicknames: "The Christmas Special Logo", "RB-TV Monitor", "Rankin-Bass on TV"
Logo: The screen is made up to look like a television set, with a blue border surrounding a white square with rounded corners that's supposed to represent a TV monitor. The symbol is a vertical rectangle with two dots along its right side, and the rectangle and top dot are dark shades of blue while the bottom dot is a lighter shade (forming a stylized R-B, you can make out the "r" using the dark shapes, and add that last dot to make a "B"). To the logo's music, the symbol forms one shape at a time on the left side of the "monitor;" the rectangle "slides" in, then the two dots appear. Alongside that appears the words "A Rankin-Bass Production". Sometimes "A Division of Tomorrow Entertainment Inc." will appear below the ID, and sometimes a Videocraft copyright notice appears on the bottom.
Variant: Some early appearances of this logo had the animation occuring without the TV monitor outline and with the ending of the show's theme playing over it. This can usually be seen on Frosty the Snowman.
FX/SFX: Symbols and words appearing.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music/Sounds: The same one fromSame theiras "Videocraft"the ident,1966 bongosVideocraft andInternational all.logo. Sometimes, it is silent.
Availability: The CBS reruns of Frosty the Snowman now has its closing logo intact, since Classic Media bought out the pre-1974 Rankin-Bass material (it originally had the logo replaced with a Golden Books Family Entertainment closing logo). Similarly, cable reruns of some holiday specials (particularly on ABC Family Channel) retained the R-B ID. Strangely enough, on one airing of The Little Drummer Boy, this logo was replaced with the "Blues" logo! The logo can also be found on DVD.
Scare Factor: Minimal; as usual, the dramatic music may unnerve some.
2nd Logo
(1971-1973)
Nickname: "The One Before the Flashing M"
Logo: Just a dark background with the words "Rankin/Bass" in a script font superimposed onto it with a "In Association With" disclaimer.
FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: None.
Music/Sounds: Same as Motown Productions logo.
Availability: Rare; only seen on The Jackson 5ive.
Scare Factor: Medium; the dark background and music, plus the sudden transition into the Motown Productions logo may turn some people off.
3rd Logo
(1975-1987)
Nickname: "The Blues"
Logo: The screen flashes three different shades of blue, with the effect that they're getting sucked inwards, into a rectangle at the left of the screen. Every time they go through a shade, that's the color the rectangle is until all three have been done and the screen is white. Then the circles appear to complete the stylized "R-B," except instead of just appearing they sort of "grow" in their places. To the right of the logo appear the words "A Rankin-Bass Production" as usual. It looks like the first logo without the TV monitor.
Variant: In one special, the background was orange. Another one had the yellow background (though both of these could be from film deterioration).
FX/SFX: The blues getting sucked in, the circles "growing".
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music/Sounds: Same as the first1966 logo.Videocraft International logo. For the later years, it was re-arranged.
Music/Sound Variant: On the 1983 TV special The Coneheads, the jingle was mixed with the drumroll and end chime of the Telepictures logo that followed.
Availability: Still saved on most holiday specials from the period by Rankin-Bass when rerun on ABC Family. A sped-up version appears on Nestor the Christmas Donkey, followed by the 1984 Warner Bros. Television logo. The logo has also often been cut short on ABC Family where it fades out as the music continues and a Warner Bros. logo follows (usually the \\' "Distributed By" logo). A silent version also appears on The Hobbit. The last special with this logo was The Wind in the Willows.
Scare Factor: Low to medium; dramatic cheesy special effects added to the dramatic music may scare some.
_______________________________________________________________
Rankin-Bass Animated Entertainment
1st Logo
(1985-1989)
Nicknames: "'80s RB", "3D-RB"
Logo: We see the classic Rankin-Bass logo, except made completely three-dimensional, with the text in light-blue, in the corporate font of then-current parent company Telepictures. A white line forms under the logo, and that line "springs" into a cursive "Animated Entertainment". Then, the "R-B" zooms up, and the shapes slide apart as they come closer to the screen, revealing a white "from". As the "O" overtakes the screen, we see the animation of the Telepictures or Lorimar-Telepictures animation, which eventually fills the entire screen.
FX/SFX: The "Animated Entertainment" "spring" effect.
Music/Sounds: A bouncy, synthesized oboe theme, which changes to the Telepictures theme or the Lorimar-Telepictures theme when the logo appears.
Availability: Appears on 1980s Rankin-Bass productions, including ThunderCats and SilverHawks.
Scare Factor: None; the logo is clean.
2nd Logo
(2001)
Nickname: "The Flipping 3-D RB"
Logo: Same as last logo, but except the RB logo and "Rankin Bass" flips quite a few times in the start.
FX/SFX: The CGI RB logo flipping. The "Animated Entertainment "spring" effect.
Music/Sounds: None. Just the end title theme playing over the logo.
Availability: Seen on the animated cartoon Santa Baby on TVOne.
Scare Factor: None.
Logo captures by Logoboy95, Eric S., V of Doom, Shadeed A. Kelly, and Bob Fish
Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, Logoboy95, and The Twenty Thousand Tonne Bomb (aka, 20000)
Video captures courtesy of phasicblu, monarchofvideos and cruiseshipz
Background: The men named in the company are Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass. The pre-1974 is currently owned by Classic Media and the post-1974 library is owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
Videocraft International, Limited
1st Logo
(1961-1966)
Logo: This superimposed logo features three TV tube-like shapes. One is at the bottom, and the other two are stacked on the left and right corners of the bottom tube, which, when together, resemble Mickey Mouse's head or a water molecule. The company byline appears as "A VIDEOCRAFT INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION" or "A VIDEOCRAFT PRODUCTION".
Variants: There are a few variants, which will be described later.
FX/SFX: None.
Music/Sounds: Usually the outro of a TV show.
Availability: Not quite uncommon, but not recent either. Can be found on TV shows or specials from the time that used it, such as The New Adventures of Pinocchio, The Tales of the Wizard of Oz, and the 1964 TV Christmas special Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Scare Factor: None.
2nd Logo
(1966-1968)
Nicknames: "Tri-Colored V", "Tri-Colored TV Monitors"
Logo: Over a white background, we see three colorized TV tubes aside each other, as in the infamous "V" design from the
ARTHUR RANKIN, Jr. (in the blue tube on the left)
Jules Bass (in the green tube on the right)
The third tube (which is red ) on the bottom has "Production" appear in it and "AN" above the logo, revealing the phrase as "AN ARTHUR RANKIN, Jr.-JULES BASS Production." We pan out to reveal the words "VIDEOCRAFT International,
FX/SFX: The name pop-in, the pan-out.
Cheesy Factor: Pretty simple but effective animation.
Music/Sounds: Three ascending notes (the majority of which are produced by a horn) herald the appearance of the Rankin and Bass credit popping in, followed by a brief flute melody during the pan-out, and then a one-note abrupt end. A piano and drum also seem to be part of the music, and all the while, a set of bongo drums play in the background.
Availability: Extinct on TV, as far as I know. Was last seen on The King Kong Show, and possibly The Cricket from The Hearth special, aired in 1967. Don't expect this on the DVD release of The King Kong Show because the logo wasn't intact there. Very strange, though; on recent showings of The Cricket from the Hearth special (on UNC-TV), this logo was replaced by the 1968 Rankin-Bass logo!
Scare Factor: Minimal; the dramatic music might get to some viewers.
_______________________________________________________________
Rankin-Bass Productions
1st Logo
(1968-1975)
Nicknames: "The Christmas Special Logo", "RB-TV Monitor", "Rankin-Bass on TV"
Logo: The screen is made up to look like a television set, with a blue border surrounding a white square with rounded corners that's supposed to represent a TV monitor. The symbol is a vertical rectangle with two dots along its right side, and the rectangle and top dot are dark shades of blue while the bottom dot is a lighter shade (forming a stylized R-B, you can make out the "r" using the dark shapes, and add that last dot to make a "B"). To the logo's music, the symbol forms one shape at a time on the left side of the "monitor;" the rectangle "slides" in, then the two dots appear. Alongside that appears the words "A Rankin-Bass Production". Sometimes "A Division of Tomorrow Entertainment Inc." will appear below the ID, and sometimes a Videocraft copyright notice appears on the bottom.
Variant: Some early appearances of this logo had the animation occuring without the TV monitor outline and with the ending of the show's theme playing over it. This can usually be seen on Frosty the Snowman.
FX/SFX: Symbols and words appearing.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music/Sounds: The same one fromSame theiras "Videocraft"the ident,1966 bongosVideocraft andInternational all.logo. Sometimes, it is silent.
Availability: The CBS reruns of Frosty the Snowman now has its closing logo intact, since Classic Media bought out the pre-1974 Rankin-Bass material (it originally had the logo replaced with a Golden Books Family Entertainment closing logo). Similarly, cable reruns of some holiday specials (particularly on ABC Family Channel) retained the R-B ID. Strangely enough, on one airing of The Little Drummer Boy, this logo was replaced with the "Blues" logo! The logo can also be found on DVD.
Scare Factor: Minimal; as usual, the dramatic music may unnerve some.
2nd Logo
(1971-1973)
Nickname: "The One Before the Flashing M"
Logo: Just a dark background with the words "Rankin/Bass" in a script font superimposed onto it with a "In Association With" disclaimer.
FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: None.
Music/Sounds: Same as Motown Productions logo.
Availability: Rare; only seen on The Jackson 5ive.
Scare Factor: Medium; the dark background and music, plus the sudden transition into the Motown Productions logo may turn some people off.
3rd Logo
(1975-1987)
Nickname: "The Blues"
Logo: The screen flashes three different shades of blue, with the effect that they're getting sucked inwards, into a rectangle at the left of the screen. Every time they go through a shade, that's the color the rectangle is until all three have been done and the screen is white. Then the circles appear to complete the stylized "R-B," except instead of just appearing they sort of "grow" in their places. To the right of the logo appear the words "A Rankin-Bass Production" as usual. It looks like the first logo without the TV monitor.
Variant: In one special, the background was orange. Another one had the yellow background (though both of these could be from film deterioration).
FX/SFX: The blues getting sucked in, the circles "growing".
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music/Sounds: Same as the first1966 logo.Videocraft International logo. For the later years, it was re-arranged.
Music/Sound Variant: On the 1983 TV special The Coneheads, the jingle was mixed with the drumroll and end chime of the Telepictures logo that followed.
Availability: Still saved on most holiday specials from the period by Rankin-Bass when rerun on ABC Family. A sped-up version appears on Nestor the Christmas Donkey, followed by the 1984 Warner Bros. Television logo. The logo has also often been cut short on ABC Family where it fades out as the music continues and a Warner Bros. logo follows (usually the \\' "Distributed By" logo). A silent version also appears on The Hobbit. The last special with this logo was The Wind in the Willows.
Scare Factor: Low to medium; dramatic cheesy special effects added to the dramatic music may scare some.
_______________________________________________________________
Rankin-Bass Animated Entertainment
1st Logo
(1985-1989)
Nicknames: "'80s RB", "3D-RB"
Logo: We see the classic Rankin-Bass logo, except made completely three-dimensional, with the text in light-blue, in the corporate font of then-current parent company Telepictures. A white line forms under the logo, and that line "springs" into a cursive "Animated Entertainment". Then, the "R-B" zooms up, and the shapes slide apart as they come closer to the screen, revealing a white "from". As the "O" overtakes the screen, we see the animation of the Telepictures or Lorimar-Telepictures animation, which eventually fills the entire screen.
FX/SFX: The "Animated Entertainment" "spring" effect.
Music/Sounds: A bouncy, synthesized oboe theme, which changes to the Telepictures theme or the Lorimar-Telepictures theme when the logo appears.
Availability: Appears on 1980s Rankin-Bass productions, including ThunderCats and SilverHawks.
Scare Factor: None; the logo is clean.
2nd Logo
(2001)
Nickname: "The Flipping 3-D RB"
Logo: Same as last logo, but except the RB logo and "Rankin Bass" flips quite a few times in the start.
FX/SFX: The CGI RB logo flipping. The "Animated Entertainment "spring" effect.
Music/Sounds: None. Just the end title theme playing over the logo.
Availability: Seen on the animated cartoon Santa Baby on TVOne.
Scare Factor: None.
