Disney Channel International

ID Descriptions by Exclaim Entertainment and ifyoudarethenpizzait

Europe

1st ID (October 1995-1997)

Nickname: "Circles"

ID: There are many other versions. All of them end with the Disney Channel logo in the center with the text fading in at the bottom.

Variants:

Morning/Night: The US Disney Channel logo flashes to a morning or night setting and glows. These idents were used as sign-on and sign-off idents.
Bubbles: A huge bubble zooms out, which bursts into various smaller bubbles with three forming the logo. Smaller bubbles float from the top to bottom.
Fireworks: A firework explodes and red fireworks form the logo's outline and shine.
Paint Splats: Various paint splats appear, and ends with two small red splats on the top, and a large blue one, which forms the logo.
Snowflake: Two snowflakes ice skate around and form the logo on ice.
Sparklers: Red, purple and blue sparklers move around and then form the logo as they continue to spin.
Trumpet: Various trumpets of all sorts of sizes play and end up with three forming the logo which shines, and after this the top trumpets let go of pixie dust.

FX/SFX: CGI Animation from Lambie-Nairn.

Music/Sounds: It depends on the variant.

Availability: Extinct. These were used in the United Kingdom.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd ID (March 22, 1997-1999)

Nickname: "Red and Blue", Splats

ID: Like the last logo, there were many variants.

Variants:

Ice Cream Conga: Three ice cream cones are doing the conga to conga music, and when they are centered on the screen, they splat themselves against the wall where the logo is formed. An additional Pink ice cream cone congas and scrolls past.
Bouncing Dough Balls: dough balls of red and blue colors are seen bouncing in all directions with sentinent ecstatic whoops, until a rolling pin squishes them flat, forming the logo. Two more bouncing balls bounce normally across the screen
Shadow Balloons (the canonically first Disney Channel UK/France Ident of this era): Didgeredoo mystery music plays as 3 balloon shadows float into place, forming the logo and beginning the 3 jingle sequence(played by squeaky toys) (The disney Channel Text does not form here)
balloons 1997: we pan to a woman holding a yellow balloon floating in the wind and then turn our attention to the balloons forming the logo, (the three jingle sequence used her will be reused and remixed several times during this time.)
Bell: a blue bell can be seen on a haystack with ribbons that turn it into the logo, bells toll in the background (with 3 bells playing the 3 jingle sequence)
Hat balls: its a windy day, and three men are trying not to get blown away, because of the wind patterns, the hat balls form the logo.
Boules: it appears the camera man has attached a 1997 pov camera to a boules ball and bounces it to three more boules balls which formed the logo (another remix of the jingle used by balloons 1997 and umbrellas)
Outer Space: We zoom from a big blue planet in space. Later, two smaller red planets come out of it, forming the logo.
Choir: Two animated people sing, slowly coming together. As they sing the last note, their mouths turn red. Another person comes up from the bottom, their mouth is blue, forming the logo.
Fox: A blue animated fox is sleeping. He is dreaming about red jumping birds. The birds and the fox form the logo.
Apples: A blue and red apple are seen spinning in the grass. They both stop, and the red one splits in half to form the logo.
Beach Umbrellas: We start with an extreme close-up view of the blue umbrella. We zoom out to see two red umbrellas above it. This forms the logo. (the jingle sequence used is a shorter version of the ident above)
Fish Tank 1997: (a cat with blue fur watches as two fish swim in a fishtank, forming the logo)
Constellations: a group of astronomers have fun looking at red and blue stars. They pan to a specific group forming the logo
Crabs: on some rocks there is three crabs that form the logo (the jingle used here is another remix of the balloons 1997, boules and beach umbrellas logo, but instead of the usual tuned woodblocks, the theme is played on steel drums tuned to E)
Kitchen: On a stove, a blue pot with a lid is seen. Behind it, two pans are cooking red food, forming the logo.
Island: the camera moves through the sea until we see two red seashells and a blue one, forming the logo. (This is another remix of the beach themed idents, as instead of woodblocks the theme is played on a stringed instrument tuned to c major)
darts: two red darts manage to make a double bullseye, forming the logo
musical beach chairs: a beach babe appears to be playing musical chairs by herself running counter clockwise returning to the blue chair and fading away forming the logo
Dice/ snake eyes: a person is playing with gambling dice. He rolls a five on the blue but the red dice form the infamous snake eyes, which form the logo
Doorknob: a person is searching to enter his home on a creepy windy night. The door knockers and lion carvings form the logo
Easter eggs: sitting on a bale of hay are three chocolate eggs with a vanilla ice creme center stripe. They get bagged, forming the logo
Eggyolk: an egg rolls around a plate and gets bitten open, forming the logo
plastik eggs: plastic eggs are sitting on a bed of vibrating balls which form the logo.
Hop scotch: in the french countryside, red and blue feeted ghosts play hopscotch, forming the logo
Da Vinci: the logo is formed in the Same way Leonardo Da Vinci writes and paints
Fish: the logo is instantly formed by 2 red fish and one blue fish
Flowers: we see yellow flowers open up into 2 red flowers and one blue flower, forming the logo
Spanish hats: two red baseball caps and one spanish hat go on a rack, forming the logo
icecream splat: a girl eats her icecream and splats it forming the logo

FX/SFX: The various objects in the idents.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant, usually ending with the signature three-note jingle.

Availability: Extinct. First used by Disney Channel France, then adapted by the British channel.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd ID (1999-2003)

Nickname: "Circles II"

ID: There are many other versions.

Variants:

Disco: Seven disco lights move to the rhythm of the music, which then transitions to a disco ball with two disco lights at the top, and the words "Disney Channel". Produced by GEDEON.
Rainy Day: The logo is formed from three raindrops in a glass window and the words "Disney Channel". Produced by GEDEON.
Halloween Rollercoaster: Two pumpkins ride a roller coaster, then they bounce to another pumpkin in the end, with the words "Disney Channel" . Produced by GEDEON.
Chrome Blobs: A few blobs move along a metal surface, until two silver blobs and a blue blob drop on the surface, forming the Disney Channel logo.
Computer: A computer uses many programs then two yellow mini-discs and a blue optical disc display on the disc drive and the words "Disney Channel". A snippet of the 'Video Game' ident also appears here.
Video Game: Two red spheres race in a video-game style, then when the spheres finish the race, the Disney Channel logo appears, which is formed by the spheres and a gold medal.

FX/SFX: It depends on the variant.

Music/Sounds: It depends on the variant, almost always having the Disney Channel jingle at the end.

Availability: Extinct. It's seen outside the United States.

Editor's Note: None.

4th ID (1999-2003)

Nickname: "Circles III", "2D Circles", "Simple Circles", "Playhouse Disney Circles"

ID: There are many other versions.

Variants:

Amoeba: We see two small green circles. Then, the slimy orange-yellow amoeba grabs the two circles, while they play around in the amoeba, turning it into an orange circle. Finally, they jump out and the circles all form the logo. This is set within a chalk-ish white background.
Balloon: The logo is already seen formed, with a large blue circle and orange smaller circles. One of them is stretched, while the other falls off and is shown to be attached to some string, bouncing back and forth. The other circle does the same and finally remove the string, forming back the logo once again. This is set within a dark aqua-blue background.
Birds: An orange circle is seen shaking. Then two yellow circles come out, bouncing and chirping. The large circle then makes an angry sound, causing the two smaller circles to hide inside the orange circle, which they rotate to form the logo. This is set within a green background covered in earthy green leaves.
Bumper Cars: Two multicoloured circles bump into each other, changing the colour of the background. Then, a larger multicolour circle appears, and the smaller ones then follow it. Once the logo is formed, the background turns and stays in a lavender colour.
Car: The logo (represented by two yellow circles and a purple circle) is scribbled onto the screen upside down, and starts moving around like a car. Finally, it goes much faster and then flips upside down. This is set within an orange background.
Dance: Two blue circles and a red circle dance around on the screen and when the music stops, the blue circles attach to the red one. After two times, the blue circles start moving until they form the logo. This is set within an orange "scribble-like" background.
Frogs: Three green circles are seen. Then, eyes appear on all of them. The top ones start eating unseen flies with their tongue, angering the bottom one. Then, the bottom one hears an unseen airplane, and manages to eat that instead, turning large and purple, forming the logo in the process as the eyes disappear. This is set within a bright yellow background.
Figure Skating: Two blue circles move around while white scribbly lines draw over them. Then a purple circle comes from the bottom, which is also scribbled on. After this, they disappear, and the scribbles form the logo. This is set within a dark-blue sky background.
Jumping: A small purple scribble jumps close to the screen. The left circle then jumps to the right, and then the right circle jumps closer, and so forth. Then, a large dark blue circle slams down, causing the screen to shake and the purple circles to form the logo. This is set on a light-blue background.
Marching Band: We start off on a purple background as a green circle with a large black outline zooms into the beat of the music. Then, inside the green background are red, orange, and yellow circles with the same black outline, once again zooming into the camera, timed to the beat of the music. Then, we head into the red background, as a blue circle once again with the black outline beats itself to the tune. Two smaller yellow circles then appear, forming the logo.
Music Ensemble: We see a large orange circle in-between two yellow circles. The one on the left plays a flute sound, while the right plays a drum sound. The orange circle then disforms, and the yellow circles attempt to shape it back to normal. Then, all the circles stretch largely and back to form the logo. This is set within a purple background.
Paint: A big red circle is painted on. Then, a yellow and a blue circle move around a big red circle, and when the yellow and blue circles pass each other, they turn green and form the logo. This is set on a white background.
Outer Space #2: Two blue scribble circles float around like planets, one of them having a bit of white on it, which then sneezes. Then, a yellow scribble circle representing a sun slowly floats from the right, and rings start to come out of it. With this, the blue circles go onto the top to form the logo. This is set within a dark-blue background.
Spiral:
Squeeze: Two blue circles play with each other until one of them gets squished by a large purple circle, giving it the appearance of a snail. The other blue circle attempts to push the purple circle and starts to pant, and instead hits the other blue circle, sending them all flying and forming the logo on a yellowish-green background.

FX/SFX: 2D animation produced by Estructura7.

Music/Sounds: It depends on the variant, almost always having the Disney Channel jingle at the end.

Availability: Used on Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney internationally throughout the time period. A flash remake of the "Birds" ident was also used as an intro on the Playhouse Disney UK website for a time between 2002-2003.