ImageMovers

Credits

Descriptions by
Logoboy95 and EnormousRat

Captures by
Logoboy95, EnormousRat and SubparMario63

Video captures courtesy of
The AVTB Archives and 4R Geo

Background

ImageMovers was founded as "South Side Amusement Company" in 1984 by Robert Zemeckis. It was rebranded to its current name in 1997. Until 2000, ImageMovers did not use a logo. In 2007, ImageMovers and Disney announced a joint-venture to produce motion-capture animated features named ImageMovers Digital. They only released two films in that time (A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms), neither of which were successful at the box office (especially the latter), until Disney announced the studio's closure in January 2011. In August of that same year, ImageMovers signed a 2-year deal with Universal Pictures.

ImageMovers

Logo (July 21, 2000-)

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Visuals: On a black background, a light shines through the lower-middle-left of the screen. It later dies down, revealing a train that bears a resemblance to the Reading Streamlined Crusader that moves forward, with the text "IMAGEMOVERS" slowly swinging in and stretching underneath the train. When the train gets fully to the screen, the screen flashes, and the text appears fully underneath the train in a gold-silver color, as the train becomes a still image and has the back trains on it turning into filmstrips. The logo slowly zooms out when it is completed.

Variants:

• There is also an early version where the train and text are more brown and silver looking, and the flash is faster, and not as bright.
• On some films, the logo is still.
• On The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, the logo cuts off early.
• Sometimes, the logo is brighter.
• On 4:3 and widescreen prints of the end of The Polar Express and many films from 2006 onward, the logo zooms out to a much farther distance than usual.
• On Flight, the music and sound effects are slightly off-sync with the logo, making the first major impact of the music take place as soon as the train reaches the screen, as opposed to qhen the flash dies down.

Print Logo Variants:

• At the end of The Polar Express, the logo is smaller and tinted in gold (like the preceding closing credits).
• At the end of The Walk, the print logo scrolls up with the rest of the credits.
• At the end of The Witches (2020) and Pinocchio (2022), it's still.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A dramatic fanfare with some train sounds, composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.

Audio Trivia: The score for this logo appears as the first track of Varese Sarabande's Deluxe Edition reissue of the What Lies Beneath soundtrack, entitled "ImageMovers Logo".

Audio Variants:

• The still version is silent.
• On The Walk, the closing theme plays underneath.

Availability: The regular version can be seen on Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Monster House, and Flight. Sometimes, like on Last Holiday and Real Steel, this logo isn't shown.

ImageMovers Digital

Logo (November 6, 2009-March 11, 2011)

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  Closing variant with copyright stamp.
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  Mars Needs Moms variant

Visuals: On a black background, a red sphere quickly zooms in to the center of the screen, with a building reflected in it. Then two steel pillars come in from beyond, as the sphere passes in-between them. More pillars come in from various angles, pass over and arranging themselves like a staircase as shadows form on them, as the first four steps form "IM", and the polygon block below forms the letter "D". The sphere hovers above "D". The name "IMAGEMOVERSDIGITAL" (in the same font as the regular ImageMovers logo, albeit with rounded edges) fades in.

Alternate Descriptive Video Description: A red sphere zooms to the center of the screen. Six rectangular beams pass around it. A wider view reveals the beams arranged in a hovering staircase, that forms the letters "IMD". The sphere floats above the first step. Words appear, ImageMovers Digital.

Trivia: The building reflected in the sphere is that of IMD's headquarters at Hamilton Landing in Novato, California.

Variants:

• At the end of movies, a small copyright stamp (© IMD) can be seen on the bottom-right. Also it is still.
• On Mars Needs Moms, the sphere is replaced by Mars.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the movie or none.

Availability: Only seen on A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms.