TriStar PicturesThis is a featured page

Logo descriptions by Ryan Mead, James Fabiano, Matt Williams, and Juniorfan88
Logo captures by Eric S., Logophile, CuriousGeorge60, and snelfu
Editions by Juniorfan88, Shadeed A. Kelly, Logophile, V of Doom, and kidinbed
Video captures courtesy of Eric S. and ColumbiaPictures58


Background: TriStar Pictures (originally spelled "Tri-Star") was formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, hence the name of the company. In 1987, it became fully part of Columbia Pictures Entertainment after HBO and CBS dropped out of the venture and Columbia bought the rest of their shares. In 1991 under Sony Pictures Entertainment, the hyphen (-) was taken off of the name to refer it to the current CamelCase-style name "TriStar".


1st Logo
(1984-1993)
Tristar 84 fullscreenTristar 1991-1993TriStar Pictures (1991)



Nicknames: "The Early Pegasus", "Wobbly Wings", "Jumping Pegasus", "Pegasus Over Pyramid", "'80s Pegasus", "The Quiet/Loud Music", "Majestic Pegasus"

Logo: On a dark blue background, a white horse gallops towards us. When it gets really close to us three stars coming from the left, right, and bottom of the screen crash into each other, forming a "T". The horse grows a pair of wings and flies over the "T". It zooms out, revealing two more letters: "R", and "I", and below it is the word "STAR". The logo continues to zoom out. A yellow outline of a triangle zooms out, surrounding the logo. There is the word "PICTURES" below the triangle. As this happens, the triangle outline reveals an abstract drawing of a Pegasus "jumping" over the logo. In some movies the triangle and the Pegasus shrinks while the jingle plays.

Variant: On a black background we
see the words "TRI STAR" with a little Pegasus over Pyramid logo in the upper right next to "TRI". This was a logo used on trailers and commercials of TriStar movies from 1991-1993 while the films themselves used the 1984 logo, though TriStar Television did use this for their logo.

Closing Variants:
  • 1984-1991: Scrolling in the end credits would have the same exact logo, minus the purple triangle with the gold outline color. Above the logo has the phrase "A TRI-STAR RELEASE".
  • 1991-1993: The closing variant of the still logo from the movie trailers and the 1991 TriStar Television logo, but minus "TELEVISION" below "STAR" or "PICTURES" below the triangle with the phrase "A TRISTAR RELEASE" minus the hyphen between the TriStar name seen above the logo. Starting in 1992, there is a new version with "RELEASED BY" above the logo and below is a box with the Sony Pictures Entertainment byline.

FX/SFX: The wings growing on the horse, the forming of the "T".


Cheesy Factor: Nowadays, the wings looks sorta like it was drawn by an old early 80's computer, and the Pegasus doesn't look like it jumps over the gate-like "T", but still the logo looks very well done and is ahead of the others by approximately 10 years.

Music/Sounds: An orchestrated piece that starts out mellow, but gets louder and more dramatic as the logo progresses with the Pegasus spreading its wings and as it jumps over the gate-like "T", although on early movie releases, the logo is silent.

Availability: Can be found on approximately 80s to 90s movies, particularly The Muppets Take Manhattan, Birdy, Red Heat, Total Recall, Night of the Creeps, Steel Magnolias, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III, L.A. Story, the first two Look Who's Talking movies, and Sniper, among others. This logo officially ended in 1993.

Scare Factor: Low, due to the sudden loud music.



2nd Logo

(1993- )
TriStar Pictures (1993)TriStar Pictures (1995)TriStar Pictures (1993)

Nicknames: "'90s Pegasus", "CGI Pegasus", "Ultra Majestic Pegasus"

Logo: We see a dark background with dark cumulonimbus clouds, then we see a flash of light that fills the background. A Pegasus spreads its wings out and takes a few steps, while "TRISTAR" in a light shiny gold chiseled bold font slowly fades in above it, on top of the screen with the letters "T" and "S" in a bigger font that the other letters. The Pegasus stops when its wings are fully spread out. There is fog flowing on the bottom of the screen.

Byline: Referred to as "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" starting in December 1995.

Variants:
  • During this logo's early years, on movie trailers and commercials, when the Pegasus is spreading out its wings, The "TRISTAR" text is fully transparent, rather than fading in in the regular version.
  • In 1998, the logo became enhanced by making the clouds a lighter gold color.
  • In 2007, starting with Daddy Day Camp, the logo was given a "enhanced" look, with the SPE byline in gold to match the cloud's color.

Closing Variants:
  • It's the same current print logo that appeared on movie trailers during its early years, and looking similar to the last print logo. The Pegasus is placed inside a box, with a cloud background overlapping the top. Its wings overlap both ends of the box. Below the logo is the phrase "A TRISTAR RELEASE", or "RELEASED BY" above the logo with the SPE byline underneath.
  • One early variant of such featured the boxed Pegasus logo at center, with "TRISTAR PICTURES" (In Bank Gothic MD BT), and the SPE byline below one another. This particular closing variant happened to appear at the end of Cliffhanger, which was the last movie to use the old logo at the beginning; though this may be unsurprising, since both Columbia and TriStar first introduced their new logos for their home video and television divisions a year earlier in 1992.

FX/SFX: The light beam forming the Pegasus.

Music/Sounds: A more majestic remix of the first jingle, composed by Dave Grusin.

Music/Sound Variants:
  • Early movies with this feature this logo with the original 1984 music, such asSleepless in Seattle, Jury Duty, and Magic in the Water.
  • Sometimes, this logo is silent. Other times, there's music from any music soundtrack playing over the logo.
  • In 2007, a rearranged version of the fanfare was introduced.

Availability: Common; seen on all current TriStar releases since Sleepless in Seattle in June 1993. The variant with the Sony Pictures byline first appeared during Jumanji, in December 1995.


Scare Factor: None.


VofDoom
VofDoom
Latest page update: made by VofDoom , Oct 22 2009, 8:56 PM EDT (about this update About This Update VofDoom Edited by VofDoom

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klaskycsupo Ooh 0 Sep 12 2009, 10:22 AM EDT by klaskycsupo
Thread started: Sep 12 2009, 10:22 AM EDT  Watch
I can imagine flying on the Pegasus and falling off onto the giant T then being pulled back until I hit the triangle and the logo exploding afterwards.
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flappytheclown Family Guy Spoof 0 Jun 4 2009, 1:50 PM EDT by flappytheclown
Thread started: Jun 4 2009, 1:50 PM EDT  Watch
The 1st logo was parodied in the Family Guy episode "Petergeist". It features character Joe Swanson in place of pegasus. Same music and everything. The episode itself was a parody of the film "Poltergeist" which used the logo at the start of the film.
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emerilclosinglogos Such a Great Logo 0 Mar 4 2009, 7:43 PM EST by emerilclosinglogos
Thread started: Mar 4 2009, 7:43 PM EST  Watch
Such a shame great logos aren't good anymore.
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