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*Strangely enough, on one airing of ''The Little Drummer Boy'', this logo was replaced with the 1975 "Blues" logo. |
*Strangely enough, on one airing of ''The Little Drummer Boy'', this logo was replaced with the 1975 "Blues" logo. |
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*The variant with the "Tomorrow Entertainment" byline was seen on ''Festival of Family Classics'', ''Kid Power'', ''The Red Baron'', ''Mad Mad Mad Monsters'', ''The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes'' and early '70s prints of ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. For the latter, it was probably last seen in the 2000s on the Canadian channel YTV. |
*The variant with the "Tomorrow Entertainment" byline was seen on ''Festival of Family Classics'', ''Kid Power'', ''The Red Baron'', ''Mad Mad Mad Monsters'', ''The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes'' and early '70s prints of ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. For the latter, it was probably last seen in the 2000s on the Canadian channel YTV. |
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*It was plastered by the 1984 WBTV shield on the 2000 DVD of ''The Year Without a Santa Claus'', but on the 2007 "Deluxe Edition" DVD, the logo is intact, while older FOX/ABC Family (now Freeform) airings plastered this logo with the 1990 WBTD and 1994 [[Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable & Network Features|WBTV Domestic Pay TV]] logos due to split screen credits. |
*It was plastered by the 1984 WBTV shield on the 2000 DVD release of ''The Year Without a Santa Claus'', but on the 2007 "Deluxe Edition" DVD release, the logo is intact, while older FOX/ABC Family (now Freeform) airings plastered this logo with the 1990 WBTD and 1994 [[Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable & Network Features|WBTV Domestic Pay TV]] logos due to split screen credits. |
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'''Legacy:''' A beloved and nostalgic logo by many, particularly during the Christmas season. |
'''Legacy:''' A beloved and nostalgic logo by many, particularly during the Christmas season. |
Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment was formed in September 1960 by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass as Videocraft International; it was renamed to Rankin/Bass in 1968. In 1971, the company was acquired by Tomorrow Entertainment and distributed by Viacom Enterprises, while Broadway Video acquired the rights to the pre-1974 library in 1988. It was later acquired by Telepictures on January 24, 1983 and then became a subsidiary of Lorimar-Telepictures. The studio closed in 1987 as a result of TV show failures like The Comic Strip, and its partnership was officially dissolved in 2001 after the production of the studio's last Christmas special Santa, Baby!.
The pre-1974 library is currently owned by NBCUniversal on behalf of DreamWorks Animation through their DreamWorks Classics label, while the post-1974 library is owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. except for The Jackson 5ive, which is distributed by CBS Media Ventures. Rankin/Bass's theatrical film library is currently split amongst different companies. StudioCanal owns The Wacky World of Mother Goose and Mad Monster Party since both movies were released by Embassy Pictures, The Last Unicorn is currently owned by ITV Studios (released by ITC) and Universal Pictures owns Willy McBean and his Magic Machine via DreamWorks Animation and King Kong Returns.
Logo: On a blue background, a large white tube sits flat, resembling a TV screen. A blue rectangle then appears like a door shutting and 2 circles appear separately on top of each other, one blue and the other light blue. The text "A ranKin bass PRODUCTION", each word stacked, appears next to the shapes. The logo itself is supposed to represent an abstract "RB", with the "R" formed up with the darker colored parts and the "B" made up of all the shapes.
Bylines:
Variants:
Technique: Traditional animation by Toei Animation.
Music/Sounds: Same as the 1966 Videocraft International logo. Sometimes, it is silent. Recent prints of Frosty the Snowman have it either with the film's closing theme or silence, while original prints, FHE releases, Spanish-dubbed prints, and the mono track on the 2018 print have the music.
Music/Sounds Variants:
Availability: Common, especially around the Christmas season.
Legacy: A beloved and nostalgic logo by many, particularly during the Christmas season.
Logo: Superimposed over the middle of the Motown Productions logo's animation are the words "Rankin/Bass" in a script font superimposed onto it with the text "IN ASSOCIATION WITH". The logo then fades out and the Motown logo animates as usual.
Technique: None.
Music/Sounds: Same as the 1971 Motown Productions logo.
Availability: Only seen on The Jackson 5ive, which is retained on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the show.
Logo: The screen flashes three different shades of blue, with the effect that they're getting sucked inwards, into a rectangle at the left edge of the screen. Every time they go through a shade, that's what the color of the rectangle is, until all three have been done and the screen is white. Then the circles appear to complete the stylized "RB", except instead of just appearing, layers of the circles zoom in until they fill the outline - they sort of "grow" in their places. To the right of the logo appear the words "A ranKin bass PRODUCTION" as usual, with "ranKin bass" wiping in with the circles before the rest appear. It looks a bit like the first logo without the TV monitor.
Variants:
Technique: Cel animation from Topcraft, now Studio Ghibli.
Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo, but in a slightly lower tone.
Music/Sound Variants:
Availability: Uncommon.
Legacy: Another memorable logo during the Christmas season, though it isn't as notable as the 1st logo. Some have been rattled by this logo due to its music and fast-paced animation.
Logo: On a black background, the 1975 logo plays, without the "A" and "PRODUCTION" above and below the now-white "ranKin bass" words, respectively. The word "animated" in a script-like font flashes and appears. The words "entertainment from" then slides in. The logo then cuts to a sped-up version of the 1980 Telepictures "Linecoaster" logo.
Technique: Traditional animation, which is again from Topcraft.
Music/Sounds: A jazzy drum break is heard, followed by an abridged version of Cheetara's leitmotif (a triumphant horn fanfare, with a funk flair to it). When the 1980 Telepictures "Linecoaster" logo appears, an abridged version of the drum roll and a ding from the said logo is heard.
Music/Sounds Variant: On the PAL DVD print of S4EP5 of ThunderCats titled "Return to Thundera: Part 5", this had the music from the next logo with the 1986 Lorimar-Telepictures "Crashing Comets" logo in a high pitch (likely due to NTSC to PAL conversion), and also due to a reverse plastering error as well.
Availability:
Logo: We see the classic Rankin/Bass logo, except made completely three-dimensional, with the text in royal blue and in the corporate font of then-current parent company Telepictures. A white line forms under the logo, and that line "springs" into a cursive "Animated Entertainment". Then, the "RB" zooms up, and the shapes slide apart as they come closer to the screen, revealing a white "from". As the "O" overtakes the screen, we see the animation of either Telepictures (1985-86) or Lorimar-Telepictures (1986-89), which eventually fills the entire screen.
Variants:
Technique: Simple cel animation, possibly combined with computer animation for the zooming. This is animated by Pacific Animation Corporation (now Walt Disney Animation (Japan) Inc.).
Music/Sounds: A bouncy, synthesized oboe theme (composed by Bernard Hoffer), with a "spring" sound effect when the line morphs into the "Animated Entertainment" theme. On the first season of ThunderCats, the music segues into a custom fanfare for the 1980 Telepictures logo (also by Hoffer) and from 1986 onward, it segues into the end of the 1986 Lorimar-Telepictures "Crashing Comets" theme when the logo appears.
Music/Sounds Variants:
Availability: Appears on 1980s Rankin/Bass productions, including ThunderCats and SilverHawks. It also appeared on some '80s prints of older R-B specials, typically plastering the older logos.
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The Walt Disney Company |
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Bertelsmann | |||||
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Amazon | |||||
Comcast |
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Sony Group Corporation | |||||
Warner Bros. Discovery |
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Paramount Global | |||||
Hearst Communications | |||||
Lionsgate | |||||
Hasbro | |||||
The Jim Henson Company | |||||
Corus Entertainment | |||||
WildBrain |
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Mattel | |||||
Splash Entertainment | |||||
9 Story Media Group | |||||
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Banijay Group | |||||
Sega Sammy Holdings | |||||
Studio Ghibli | |||||
Toho | |||||
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