Paramount Parks

Background

Paramount Parks was a division of Paramount Pictures created in 1993 following Paramount Communications acquisition of KECO Entertainment the year prior. The parks in their lineup included Paramount Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Paramount's Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina, Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, California, Paramount's Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, Paramount's Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, and in later years, Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy, California. In 2005, following the split of Viacom, the newly-formed CBS Corporation took Paramount Parks. Not wanting to continue in the theme park industry, CBS would sell the parks to Cedar Fair in January 2006. The following year, all parks would remove the Paramount branding from their names and rides were renamed to have no Paramount names (ex. Face/Off at Kings Island was renamed to Invertigo and The Italian Job: Stunt Track at Canada's Wonderland, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island would become Backlot Stunt Coaster)

1st Logo (1993-early 2000's)

Visuals: The logo begins on the same mountain scenery from the 1986 Paramount logo. Then, a roller coaster train comes in and encircles the mountain. When it reaches its position, the typical "Paramount" script fades in, and the coaster train wipes out, transforming into the more iconic star formation. Underneath is text saying "Paramount Parks" in the same font as the Paramount logo.

Variants:

On a promo from 1993 advertising the parks rebranding, a parody of the MPA green band logo appears at the beginning which has text reading: THE FOLLOWING PREVIEW HAS BEEN
RATED "T" FOR TOTALLY THRILLING
BY PARAMOUNT PARKS in the same Helvetica font as said screen. Underneath is the Paramount Parks print logo and next to the text is a T in a border.
- At the end of the same promo, after the regular animation, everything but the mountain fades out and becomes blurred as text scrolling up showing the parks at the time.
Usually in ads, the Paramount Parks text is replaced with the name of the park in a bold serif font. The "'s" suffix is also added to the "Paramount" script.
Sometimes at the end, the logo will either zoom out or have everything but the mountain fade out as a promo ticket/coupon would be advertised.
There is a variant in 1994 where the Paramount text and stars are still there, when the usual coaster train comes over an invisible hill and wipe in the name of the park.

Technique: Live-action model work for the mountain by Apogee Inc. with the remainder of the logo being CGI.

Audio: Just the music at the end of the commercial with an announcer (Jim Cummings) saying "Paramount's (Park Name), where the magic of the movies meets the thrills of a lifetime."

Audio Variants:

On the promo at the beginning, the logo is accompanied by Paramount on Parade with a deep announcer saying "The following preview has been rated T." He then pauses as screams and laughs can be heard when the coaster train appears on screen. When the Paramount text is appears, the announcer then continues saying "for totally thrilling."
- At the end of the same promo, another announcer (Jim Cummings), says "Paramount Parks, the only place where thrills are Paramount!" with laughter at the end. It is then accompanied by techno theme when the park list scrolls.

Availability: Usually seen at the end of ads promoting the parks.

2nd Logo (1993-late 90's)

Visuals: On a partly cloudy environment, steel coaster track appears from thin air that expands towards the sun as a coaster train is seen riding on it. As it goes through, the iconic Paramount stars encircle the train as the track begins to fade out. The stars then do their normal arc as a flash happens, revealing the Paramount print logo with the parks name underneath.

Variants:

Two extended opening exist used for Kings Island:
- One begins with a POV of a coaster going up the lift hill. When it reaches the peak the camera pans slightly up and then goes down the drop as the track turns into a filmstrip which after a while, the camera pans into one of them to show more coaster footage.
- Another begins with the 1986 Paramount Pictures logo (with the Paramount Communications byline), which then fades into the same filmstrip going through a corkscrew, which then fades into footage of other Paramount movies.
Sometimes, it is shortened to when the Paramount logo flashes in.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Just the promo music.

Audio Variants: On the second extended variant, the music is the end theme of The Untouchables by Ennio Morricone.

3rd Logo (2002-2006)

Note: In the first video, the logo appears at 15:38

Visuals: On the mountain scenery of the 2002 Paramount Pictures logo, the stars encircle the mountain as usual but in a different arc with the stars being in a largest in the front and smallest in the back of the arc and shines. Then the text "Paramount Parks" in the usual Paramount font zooms out. Under the text is a star which once the text zooms out, an arc is drawn underneath. Once formed fully, text saying "Now Playing" wipes in below.

Variants:

Like before, most ads replace the text with the parks name.
Some ads have the "Now Playing" text in a different font or in all caps.
In some ads, the logo is in letterbox and there's no "Now Playing" text below.
On 2004 ads, the actual 2002 Paramount logo appears before the logo.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The audio from the end of the commercial.