Mill Creek Entertainment

Background

Mill Creek Entertainment is an American home video company founded in 2002 by Ian Warfield, Robert Zakheim and Scott Moss in Minnetonka, Minnesota. They distribute budget DVD/Blu-rays from companies such as BabyFirstTV, The Carsey-Werner Company, DHX Media (now WildBrain), Genesis International, Mulberry Square Productions, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sonar Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, among others.

1st Logo (2002-2011)

2002 logo

Nicknames: "The Waterwheel", "Filmstrip Wheel", "Boring Waterwheel", Clipart Waterwheel"

Logo: On a stylized background with hills, grass, and a barn nearby, we see an orange brown waterwheel that makes filmstrips. A water wave appears below, with "MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT" on it.

FX/SFX: The waterwheel moving. Cheap animation of noticeable similarities to the animation style of the Dollar Entertainment logo, indicating they could have been made at the same design studio.

Music/Sounds: Some outdoor sounds. A few seconds later, a rooster crows.

Availability: Common. Seen on Mill Creek DVDs from 2002 to 2011.

Editor's Note: Some may see this as a boring logo.

2nd Logo (2011-2017)

2011 logo

Nickname: "Static Wheel"

Logo: A sky blue square flashes and zooms in quickly, simulating a TV being turned on. A series of static particles appear and then turn blue and white as they roll around and combine together. They then form a newer Mill Creek Entertainment logo, with a redesigned wheel, looking more like a gear, and the company name below in a different font. The logo slowly zooms in before it disappears in a TV switch-off effects.

FX/SFX: The particles moving around and forming the logo. Plenty of effort this time, with some pretty good animation to boot.

Music/Sounds: A switch-on sound, an ascending droning noise, then a synth note and a switch-off sound.

Availability: Common. Seen on all Mill Creek releases from 2011-17 such as re-releases of That's '70s Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun. Strangely, on some DVDs, the packaging may have this logo, but the previous logo appears instead.

Editor's Note: This is a nice logo with neat animation.

3rd Logo (2017- )

Nickname: "Where's the Wheel?"

Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: A 5-note synth-violin tune with the first 3 notes sustained and the 4th and 5th note's sustainment slightly extended.

Availability: Current. Seen on all Mill Creek releases since 2017 starting with Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (2003).

Editor's Note: None.