Simitar Entertainment

Background

Simitar Entertainment, Inc. was a Minnesota-based company founded in 1980 that released content on VHS, DVD, CD and CD-ROM. It was founded by Mickey Elfenbien and Philip Kives, who were the CEO and founder of K-Tel, respectively. They bought out Pickwick Records and began releasing music. Eventually, they became one of the leading names in budget VHS. They also released many tapes of sports footage, and spun off Simitar Motorsports Video for this purpose. They also had a short-lived Japanese animation distributor known as Ani-Magine Anime, started by John Litton. In 1997, they became the first independent film producer to release their films on DVD. Simitar Entertainment was torpedoed by a lawsuit filed by Titan Sports (former owner of WWF, now known as WWE); they sued them over a 1999 knock-off compilation entitled Slammin' Wrestling Hits, which contained covers of WWF entrance themes produced without their consent. Simitar lost the case, and the resulting debts forced them into bankruptcy, ultimately shutting down in 2000. Their film library ended up being sold to Brentwood Communications (later BCI Eclipse).

1st Logo (1984-1986)

Nicknames: "The Spinning Scimitar"

Logo: On a space background, we see a black and blue scimitar (a sword with a curved blade) with a swirly-styled red "S" on the front spinning up to the center of the screen. The scimitar shines and the letters "IMITAR" slide from behind the "S" to the right to spell the word "SIMITAR". The text "ENTERTAINMENT INC." fades in below the scimitar, which shines again.

FX/SFX: The scimitar shining, the spinning, and the animation.

Music/Sounds: A few droning beeps that descend in pitch.

Music/Sounds Variant: On most releases, it's silent.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen on specialty videos from Simitar Entertainment from the '80s, among others. Some 1986 releases used this with the next logo below.

Editor's Note: Though the animation was standard for the '80s, it looks very primitive today. This was also the only logo of theirs which did not make use of the "S" logo.

2nd Logo (1985-1990)

Nicknames: "Simitar S", "Giant S", "Silver S"

Logo: On a black background, a white line moves from left to right upwards many times to draw a lined square, shining the RGB colors as it moves. When it finishes drawing the square, the line takes a right curve up to draw the outline of a very ugly, boxy "S". Suddenly, the logo flashes, fills in with a bluish silver gradient and the lined square turns silver, and in the lower left of the box a ray of light sweeps across, leaving a black trail with "Simitar Entertainment Inc." written in white. Then the logo shines and flashes again.

Variant: A filmed version exists.

FX/SFX: The lines moving, the "S" forming, the flashing. 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A synth bass repeating the same note 129 times throughout, accompanied by a loud synthesized crash when the logo flashes, a loud synthesized choir that sings 5 ascending notes, another loud synthesized crash for the second flash, and finally 2 loud whoosh sounds.

Music/Sounds Variant: On some tapes, it's silent.

Availability: Rare. Seen on special interest videos released by Simitar in the 1980s, such as Vitsie and Baseball tapes. Some early releases that used this logo also used the previous logo above.

Editor's Note: Very much a product of its time, this was the first logo by Simitar to use their "S" logo, which would be used until the company shut down. The logo is also notorious among the logo community due to its creepy content, though some people don't find it scary and love the music.

3rd Logo (1990-2000)

Nicknames: "Simitar S II", "Golden S", "Golden Bars", "Cheapeytar"

Logo: On a shady blue background, we see two separate sets of gold bars at opposite angles merging into each others’ spaces in the center of the screen. From off-screen bottom, 3 stacked lines swoop up and rotate 90 degrees to reveal the familiar "S", now in gold CGI, and plasters itself onto the bars. Underneath, the 9th bar drops down and causes the gold text "Simitar" to rotate forward.

Variant: In rare instances, the end of the logo may be used in promos. This can be seen on some products featuring Simitar trailers on Amazon.

FX/SFX: The gold bars merging, the S swooping, and "Simitar" appearing. Better, more attractive CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 2nd logo.

Availability: Rare. Seen on '90s Simitar Entertainment videos, and some DVDs like Dumb Luck in Vegas. It was also spotted on a tape of It's a Wonderful Life as well as a Christopher Crocodile VHS. This was also seen on the semi-obscure movie The Christmas Light.

Editor's Note: This logo contains an animation error as one of the gold bars protrudes from the right side of the screen before the rest of them do. Depending on the aspect ratio of your television, it may or may not be visible.

4th Logo (DVD) (1997-2000)

Nicknames: "Simitar S III", "Golden S II", "Golden Bars II", "Gold S On DVD", "Flying DVD"

Logo: On a shady denim blue-textured background with some light near the upper-left, we see a faded square in the center with a shadow drop behind it. A DVD flies around with a dust trailing effect, and parts of the Simitar logo (very much like what you see in the 3rd logo, but slightly re-textured) fly into place in the center. The word "Simitar", now in Futura font, flies around and settles underneath it, and the silver DVD logo (with a CGI DVD and a simple font for "DVD") flies into place under that. The disc seen earlier is part of this. Then the logo starts to "melt" away before it fades out.

FX/SFX: The flying parts, the dust-trailing effect, the "melting" effect.

Music/Sounds: A short variant of the 2nd logo's music, which starts off at the synth crash and the first synth choir note.

Availability: Rare. Can be seen on most Simitar DVDs, including The Killing Man, Firehouse, Mob War, Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe, Search and Destroy (1988), Hyperspace, Cybernator, Cartel, Red Scorpion, The Naked Truth, Werewolf, Dead End, Ninja Academy, Bloodstone, and Glitch!, among others. This can sometimes be found on Simitar-related Amazon Video Shorts (which is used mainly for trailers and promos of films, TV shows, etc), in tandem with the 3rd logo.

Editor's Note: A lot of logo fans criticize this logo for its animation and effects. This logo was used only on DVDs, with the 3rd used in tandem.