Colorization, Inc.

Background

In 1983, Hal Roach Studios patented a process that converted black-and-white programs into color. Colorization, Inc. operated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and specialized in "colorizing" such programs. The firm was responsible for the first-ever colorization, Helpmates, starring Laurel & Hardy, which spawned more tinting of films with the comedy duo. It also created the first computer-colorized feature film, Topper. Colorization, Inc. also color-converted It's a Wonderful Life, Night of The Living Dead, some Otto Preminger films, and many others. Some of the people who worked there went on to form Legend Films, another colorization company.

1st Logo (1983-1989)

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Logo: Against a sky blue/black gradient background, three parallelograms, colored red, green, and blue respectively, slide in from the top, bottom, and top respectively. They zoom out to the right, revealing "Colorization Inc", in white, to its right. They begin glowing in rainbow colors, and there are the following words:

Colorization
Color Processing by

above the logo, and

a subsidiary of
International HRS Industries Inc./Glenex Industries Inc.
&
Hal Roach Studios Inc./Qintex Entertainment Inc.

below it, all in the colors you see here (the second line is supposed to be white). Below all that is some white copyright info. All of this fades out, and the text

Colorization Art Director
Brian Holmes csc

appears.

Variants:

• For TV shows, the animation is slightly sped up, and the following credits

Art Direction
Karen Tzventarny
Michele Macdonald
Aubrey Duffy

appear below instead. The background is a navy blue/black gradient here, and the "TM" trademark symbol is located on the N in "Colorization".

• A very early version has the logo still and on a cream/navy blue gradient background. Here, the text is chyroned in, with "Colorization Inc" staying white, and the credits are arranged differently.
• An earlier version exists where the text above and below wipes in below the logo.
• Later on, when it gone under Qintex's control, the logo resembles its TV counterpart and has the top line and copyright missing.

Technique: Early computer animation.

Audio: There are two versions of the theme:

• Version 1: It begins with three synth horn notes synced to the appearance of the color bars, then a few synth bells, a seven-note synth horn fanfare, four more synth bells, three more synth horn notes, and some more synth bells as the music fades out.
• Version 2: A different fanfare with synthesized horns and a bass drum portion was used.
• The short variant uses only the bass drum section of the latter fanfare.

Availability: The full variant was seen on colorized movies from the '40s, such as Laurel & Hardy movies, Night of the Living Dead and It's a Wonderful Life. The short variant was seen on colorized episodes of McHale's Navy. Made a surprise apperance at the beginning of a recent INSP airing of Angel and the Badman.

2nd Logo (1987)

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Logo: Over a orange cloudy sky background, we see pieces of the glass text "Colorization Inc." in a Futura font, while it begin to change colors to rainbow, and the three parallelograms from the previous logo zooms out, and once it settles, it changes the text to the previous logo's moving color design.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The opening theme of the promo, along with a voiceover.

Availability: Seen only on the 1987 promo reel to showcase the colorization of the studio.