Hanna-Barbera Poland

Credits

Descriptions by
Logophile

Captures by
indycar

Video captures courtesy of
Nintendo8PL and Wiza1988

Background

Hanna-Barbera Poland was a Polish branch of Hanna-Barbera Productions that dealt with the promotion and distribution of animated films from the studio in the country. The company is most well known for releasing VHS tapes with Polish music distributor P.P. Polskie Nagrania (later self-distributing them) which mostly consisted of numbered compilation releases featuring various Hanna-Barbera shows on one tape.

Hanna-Barbera Poland also owned a studio that outsourced animation for several of the company's cartoons as part of the partnership. The studio animated the "Joseph and his Brothers" episode of the Direct-to-Video series The Great Adventure Stories from the Bible, as well as the final season of The Smurfs, and the second season of The Flintstone Kids.

In 1993, the company was separated and was re-incorporated as Curtis Art Productions, but continued to release Hanna-Barbera VHS releases under license from Turner Home Entertainment.

1st Logo (13 June 1987-1993)

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Visuals: On a blue background, a 3D cube slowly zooms in into the center of the screen, rotating as it does this. The background of the cube is black with a half yellow, half black lemon-like shape. On the yellow side is a black "H" and on the black side is a "B" with the straight part yellow and the rounded parts red. One side of the cube has a yellow background with the colored sides of the lemon shape switched and the "H" is yellow. After a bit, the cube freezes and it cuts to a copyright screen on the same blue background with the following white text:

© HANNA BARBERA PRODUCTIONS
INC. Hollywood USA

After a bit, once again on the same blue background, two squares with white borders flip towards the screen from the top-left and top-right sides, respectively. The left square has the "HB" in the half black lemon-half yellow background with "POLAND" in white in the bottom left near the "H" with a white border. The right square has a black background with a white circle with a red musical note inside the circle. When the two logos meet, the following white words fade in below:

HANNA-BARBERA POLAND
P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA

Then it cuts to another screen with the H-B Poland square and below is the following text:

dystrybucja przez
HANNA-BARBERA POLAND we współdziałaniu z
WORLDVISION ENTERPRISES, USA

After a moment, it cuts to a square in the background (similar to an album sleeve). The square is lime green with a colored music scale (color order from top to bottom: white, yellow, red and blue) with a record in the middle and three music notes (in order: red, yellow and blue). The red note is at the bottom-left of the scale, the yellow one is in the middle of the record and the blue one is on the top-right of the record. Below that is:

sprzedaż i wynajem
P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA

Variants: There are several variants of this logo that exist:

• On Early-Mid 1989 releases, an extra screen for a promotion company called Unifilm was added: On a light blue background, there is a yellow strip going diagonally with black borders with "UNIFILM" in black in the middle of it. Two red circles are on the left and right respectively. A red circle is above with "uF". Below the line is white Polish language. This screen appears between the "Distributed by HANNA-BARBERA POLAND" screen and the "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" screen.
  • On releases from September 1989 to August 1990, another Unifilm logo replaced the one above. It features a yellow background and with the strip in a lighter tone of yellow which used the normal music and the first music variant described below.
• On late-1990 releases, the Unifilm and Worldvision parts are removed, so the main screen with the flipping logos cuts rights to the "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" screen after they flip.
• On Early-Mid 1991 releases, the copyright and flipping animation sequences are removed entirely and just goes straight to the "Distributed by" screen sans the Worldvision info. This variant also lacks the UNIFILM and Polskie Nagrania logos at the end.
  • On tapes from late 1991 to early 1992, the same variant is used, although the copyright sequence is re-added.
  • Another variant seen on Late-1991 tapes has the copyright screen after the "Distributed by" screen, and following the screen, a poster for "OSKAREK '91" opens up and appears. This screen has a pair of twinkling sounds, one for the opening and the other after it opens.
  • On some tapes from 1992 to 1993, this variant is used sans the Oskarek screen.
• The last VHS tapes with this logo from 1993 feature the rotating cube animation, which then cuts to a completely different logo: on a green background, there is a black swirl (connected to a parrot's head) in a white circle. Below it is "Hanna-Barbera Poland" in the signature H-B font. Unlike the other variant, this stays on-screen throughout the music's length. This either uses the first music or the second music.
• On rare occasions, it features just the Hanna-Barbera Poland Logo with no flipping animation leaving it entirely still. This uses the second music either it's slightly short or normal.
• At the end of some VHS's, it shows the Unifilm Screen (either the Early-Mid 1989, [alternately and in rare cases, it's just the Unifilm Screen and the P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA is seen for a split second as it gets cut off with the bottom part slightly revealing the previous screen] or Late-1990 Design) and the P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA.
• On other occasions, it's just the text "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA". This resurfaced on one video, on which it contains the Hanna-Barbera Poland Logo with no animation and the Unifilm/P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA Combo with the second theme.
• A variant exists where the "Distributed by" screen gets cut off, only playing one small portion of the second theme.

Technique: CGI.

Audio:

• 1987-1991, 1993: At the first part where the cube revolves, a gong is heard. Then at the copyright screen, a repeated six-note synth tune plays. This was heard in the Charter Entertainment logo (including a synth strum at the end). This is a piece of stock music called "Music - Billboard #2" from the Sound Ideas Series 1000 sound library.
• 1990-1993: A soft xylophone theme plays throughout the entire logo. It replaces the above theme on some 1990-1991 tapes.

Audio Variants:

• Sometimes, the gong sound is missing and the synth tune plays immediately.
• A rare and extended version of the second music exists; it either can just have a short trim of it (at least the second and fourth versions of the Unifilm/P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA Combo currently have it) or the full theme.
• Some other occasions have the logo silent for a few seconds and the synthesized music plays before cutting from the cube.

Availability: Seen on Hanna-Barbera home video releases in Poland at the time (and presumably also on Polish television with a narrator being heard during each program). These include Polish VHSes of Yogi Bear, Magilla Gorilla, and the ABC Afterschool Special "Cyrano". Many of the variants can be found on the Polish website CDA, which contains several videos of Hanna-Barbera Poland VHS tapes.

2nd Logo (1988-1992)

Visuals: On a black background is the "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" screen from before, but entirely in white and without the square. 3 lines are behind the P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA logo. "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" is above.

Technique: Still digital graphic.

Audio: Same as the 1st Logo.

Availability: Unknown. ^[Examples?]

Legacy: This logo nearly remained lost for several years with no footage found, until it was resurfaced.

3rd Logo (1989?-1993)

Visuals: On a lightmblue/blue background are the words "AGENCJA ARTYSTYCZNA" and below it is a square with a orange circle representing an orange. On it is "Orange" in a custom font. Below it is "PRZEDSTAWIA FILM LICENCJONOWANY PRZEZ", with "Hanna-Barbera Poland" in the font as the cursive "script" font first introduced in 1987 in green below in a dark blue rectangle.

Technique: Appears to be filmed in live-action, although it is still.

Audio: None.

Availability: Unknown. ^[Examples?]

Legacy: Like the previous logo, this logo nearly remained lost for several years with no footage found, until it was resurfaced.

Hanna-Barbera Poland

Curtis Art Productions ►