MCA/Universal Home Video: Difference between revisions

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Background

In 1990, MCA Home Video was renamed into MCA/Universal Home Video, to capitalize the Universal Studios name and to coincide with Universal's 75th Anniversary. The company absorbed the assets of SGE Home Video in 1991 in order to release titles from Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment there. It also distributed family titles, including The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth, and popularized the direct-to-video children's market. In December 1996, it renamed itself as "Universal Studios Home Video" when MCA was reincorporated as Universal Studios.

Contents

1st Logo (May 24, 1990-May 5, 1998)	2nd Logo (1990-1998)

1st Logo (May 24, 1990-May 5, 1998)

Color
B&W

Visuals: On a black background, we see the following text all centered:

MCΛ

UNIVERSAL

H O M E --------- V I D E O

with "MCA" in its similar corporate font from before and has a white gradient texture on it and "UNIVERSAL" in its similar font as the movie logo from 1990-1997, but has a gradient texture on it. The text shines and soon afterwards, a globe (showing only the Americas) fades in the center. Then a starfield background fades in behind everything else, then the text shines again.

Variants:

On some GoodTimes Home Video releases (i.e. Car Wash), the MCA/Universal logo plays normally. The background, however, has moving stars from the 1983 MCA Home Video logo in the background (as opposed to the regular version where the background stays static). At the end, the words "UNDER LICENSE TO" pops up, peeking above the globe as the logo fades out and the words straighten out at the center of the screen. The GoodTimes Home Video logo would follow.
Some MCA/Universal releases have a GoodTimes byline at the bottom.
On The Making of E.T., the logo is sped-up.
A black-and-white version appears on some releases of black-and-white films (most notably To Kill a Mockingbird).
A longer version appears on the original 1990 VHS of Back to the Future Part II.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None. However, on The Making of E.T., the opening theme plays over the logo.

Availability:

This can be seen on almost all of the releases from MCA/Universal during the era.
This made its first appearance on Back to the Future Part II, and also appears on a reprint of the original release.
The logo continued to be used well into 1998 on some VHS releases, despite the 1996 Universal print logo appearing on their packaging. Some of the last releases using this logo include Liar Liar, The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island, Hercules & Xena: The Animated Movie, The Chipmunk Adventure, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper: Spooky and Poil Meet the Monsters/Dead of the Class, A Christmas Peril/Three Ghosts and a Baby, Leave It to Beaver (1997), and the Extended Edition VHS of Steven Spielberg's 1941; with the final known release with this logo being the 1998 VHS of To Kill a Mockingbird.
This also makes a surprise appearance on the Canadian Cineplex Odeon VHS of Beyond the Law (1993) and the Canadian Alliance Releasing Home Video VHS releases of Lauderdale (1989), Hellgate, Made in L.A., Playroom (1990), Quest for Love (1988), and The Emissary, among possible others.
The black and white variant can be found on the 1991 VHS of To Kill a Mockingbird.
- It also appears before the Paramount logo on Starz Encore Westerns' current prints of The Virginian (1929).
This makes surprise appearances at the end of The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy documentary on the 2002 DVD release of Back to the Future Part III (which was part of the Back to the Future: The Complete Trilogy DVD set from 2002) and the beginning of The Making of Jurassic Park documentary on the 2000 Collector's Edition DVD of Jurassic Park. Both of these were likely sourced from LaserDisc masters (especially since the latter even has the LaserDisc warning screen intact).
- It was later intact on the Peacock prints of The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth, and more recently on an airing of Foreign Student on Screenpix (as well as on The Roku Channel's streaming print). ** It also shows up at the start of a Netflix print of Deep Red a recent airing of Boss of Lonely Valley on Starz Encore Westerns, and a TCM airing of Secret of the Blue Moon.
On a later VHS reprint of Fletch, the MCA/Universal logo and even the Universal Pictures logo in the film was replaced with the 1997 logo.

2nd Logo (1990-1998)

Normal
Commercial Bumper

Visuals: On a space background, we see the rotating globe in the 1930's style rotating. Coming from behind is an airplane passing over the globe, as usual, which flies through the screen, as the propeller becomes rainbow. Suddenly, rainbow filmstrips are seen falling over the logo before the nebula sky forming from filmstrips. Over the globe, while it changes into its 1990s style and in color, we see these words coming from the left and right sides of the screen (respectively) in their same corporate fonts:

MCΛ
UNIVERSAL

A few seconds later, as "MCA" and "UNIVERSAL" go into their positions in front of the globe, a red orange/yellow gradient fire flies through the screen, forming the words "HOME VIDEO" underneath, with a line above it and the globe stops rotating afterwards. When the logo forms, either the "(R)" symbol or the "TM" symbol fades in on the bottom right of the screen.

Variants: There are three variations of this logo:

There is a version where the both the line and "HOME VIDEO" fade in as the comet flies through. That was seen on a demo tape for Bird on a Wire.
There is a short version in which the airplane and filmstrips parts of the logo are cut out and begins with the words zooming and rotating in.
There is a still version of the logo without music.

Technique: CGI animation using the Softimage software.

Audio: The opening portion of the theme from Back to the Future composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri.

Audio Variant: On promotional VHS releases, a voiceover advertising upcoming releases is heard.

Availability:

It was seen primarily on home video trailers and promotional VHS tapes at the time, as early as a demo tape for Bird on a Wire.
The still version appeared on some trailers for The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth videos, especially the promotional trailers for demo VHS tapes of the show and on the In-School Lesson video of it.
It was also seen on the trailer for The Shadow.
The short version appears on the 1995 release of The Little Rascals.

◄	MCA Home Video

MCA

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

►

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
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-'''Logo:''' On a black background, we see the following text all centered:
+'''Visuals:''' On a black background, we see the following text all centered:
 <center>{{Huge|MCΛ<br>
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 {{YouTube|id=P5P7BseOV1I|id2=vMBH51bo2iI|id3=LRkoa3QnaVw|id4=nalvhEzQRrE}}
-'''Logo:''' On a space background, we see the rotating globe in the 1930's style rotating. Coming from behind is an airplane passing over the globe, as usual, which flies through the screen, as the propeller becomes {{color|red|r}}{{color|orange|a}}{{color|yellow|i}}{{color|limegreen|n}}{{color|dodgerblue|b}}{{color|darkorchid|o}}{{color|hotpink|w}}. Suddenly, {{color|red|r}}{{color|orange|a}}{{color|yellow|i}}{{color|limegreen|n}}{{color|dodgerblue|b}}{{color|darkorchid|o}}{{color|hotpink|w}} filmstrips are seen falling over the logo before the nebula sky forming from filmstrips. Over the globe, while it changes into its 1990s style and in color, we see these words coming from the left and right sides of the screen (respectively) in their same corporate fonts:
+'''Visuals:''' On a space background, we see the rotating globe in the 1930's style rotating. Coming from behind is an airplane passing over the globe, as usual, which flies through the screen, as the propeller becomes {{color|red|r}}{{color|orange|a}}{{color|yellow|i}}{{color|limegreen|n}}{{color|dodgerblue|b}}{{color|darkorchid|o}}{{color|hotpink|w}}. Suddenly, {{color|red|r}}{{color|orange|a}}{{color|yellow|i}}{{color|limegreen|n}}{{color|dodgerblue|b}}{{color|darkorchid|o}}{{color|hotpink|w}} filmstrips are seen falling over the logo before the nebula sky forming from filmstrips. Over the globe, while it changes into its 1990s style and in color, we see these words coming from the left and right sides of the screen (respectively) in their same corporate fonts:
 <center>