Canal+ Video

Background

This is the home video division of Canal+, a French TV station that also operates in countries like Spain, Poland and Scandinavia and spun-off StudioCanal S.A., one of the biggest feature film-owning libraries.

1st Logo (1985-1995)

Logo: We see a white stripe moving diagonally as the word "CANAL" appears. It then becomes smaller and bigger and reveals itself to be a rainbow-colored circle. Then the "+" fades in with the "VIDEO" below it. The titles then vanish and the ring becomes thinner.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A choir and synth-theme.

Availability: Common.

Editor's Note: This is basically the second Canal+ ident with a video indicator added below.

2nd Logo (1995-2003?)

Nickname: "Flashing Squares"

Logo: A white background fades in and a brighter streak wipes in from both directions. This suddenly cuts to flashing various colors, followed by a Canal+ logo fading in on the same white background. The whole thing changes to black and the Canal+ logo appears from above, with a moving 8-pixel grid below. The whole thing disappears, and the Canal+ logo appears again, with a gray rectangle with "VIDEO" below. At the left of the gray rectangle, there's a blue square that changes colors before it changes to blue again for a few seconds.

Trivia: This is based off the Canal+ feature presentation idents from the time. The streak animation at the beginning of the logo is actually a throwback to the 1st Canal+ ident, although in a more brighter fashion. The animation was also used for the 2nd StudioCanal logo that would be shortly used during the end of the 20th century.

FX/SFX: The animation of the squares, and color transitions--which are a little fast, but nothing all that bad.

Music/Sounds: A single note sung by a soprano opera singer, followed by a percussive theme with a string section. The female notes change with clapping percussion. When the percussions stop (strings continue), a jungle-like crackling sound plays, ending with an echoed, low-pitched beeping sound. The whole music is in sync to the animation of the logo.

Availability: Most likely uncommon. It possibly appears on French VHS/DVDs from PFC Video (a joint-venture between Fox, Pathé and Canal+), but we're not sure. With the recent StudioCanal logo find, we might say that this would appear on releases from Canal+ shows and original works.