Sunbow Entertainment

Credits

Descriptions by
Logoarto (originally Nicholas Aczel and Adam P.)

Captures by
Logoarto

Editions by
BaldiBasicsFan, Henrynguye5, TrademarkMagic04, Michael Kenchington and Blue2000

Video captures courtesy of
English1stud's Sanctum, GDelva2003, NinJutsuDude1997, ClosingLogosHD, LogicSmash, and Broken Saw

Background

Sunbow Entertainment (formerly known as Sunbow Productions until 1995) was an American production company and animation studio formed in 1980 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising. Their first production was The Great Space Coaster, but were most famous for their cartoons based on Hasbro's toylines in the 80's, like The Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, as well as their own original shows in the 90's, like The Tick. In 1998, Sony Wonder bought up Sunbow Entertainment, but was later sold to TV-Loonland in 2000, which folded Sunbow Entertainment in 2004. In 2008, Hasbro, Inc. acquired its properties (i.e. G.I. Joe and Transformers) from TV-Loonland. and then the company went dormant and folded into TV-Loonland, themselves filed for bankruptcy in December of that year, and, 2 years later, the rest of TV Loonland's catalog was sold to m4e (made for entertainment) AG in Germany.

1st Logo (January 5, 1981-1984)

Visuals: Fading in to a medium/dark blue background (depending on film quality), a strange dark object emerges from the top right corner and zooms into the middle, leaving a chyron trail as it does. As it stops zooming, the dark shadows on the object disappear, revealing itself to be the Sunbow Productions logo. It consists of an orange circle with a yellow gradient on the edges, and surrounding it is the text "SUNBOW PRODUCTIONS" in the same colors, but with the pattern reversed, in a font similar to that of the Jeopardy! logo. The text is arranged in a circle pattern, which are supposedly made to resemble "sunrays".

Technique: Scanimate effects.

Audio: A high-pitched synth "whoosh" effect, followed by a synth keyboard-type chime that has a "wow"-like pitch and a echo effect. All this was performed by Don Dannemann, Tommy Goodman, and Norris O'Neill.

Availability:

• Appears on the first three seasons of The Great Space Coaster, which are released on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video.
• Four episodes were also available on Vimeo's On-Demand service for a short time.

2nd Logo (September 12, 1983-February 11, 1995)

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Visuals: On a shady blue background, 4 small dots (2 are white, one is orange, and one is a dark shade of pink), come in from all sides to merge in the middle, causing a small flash of light to appear and a off-center orange circle to grow. As it reaches its maximum size, 2 6-pointed lights appear and rotate in opposite directions of each other briefly, and the circle shrinks a bit, fading to the same logo from before, but with a saturated color scheme and black outlines. 2 pings then appear, on on top of the "W", and another on the bottom of the last "S".

Variants:

• On co-productions with Marvel Productions, they have a unique logo together:
  • Early Variant: On a dark blue background, a stylized "MP" (larger version of the first Marvel Productions logo, but colored blue and white) quickly zooms backwards, placing itself on the bottom half of the screen. When the "MP" is in place, a flash of light reveals the words "MARVEL PRODUCTIONS LTD." in a rounded white font, along with the byline "A CADENCE COMPANY" underneath in a smaller font. At the same time, a spark forms an orange ball of light on the top half of the screen, which fades to reveal the 1984 Sunbow logo. When both logos are in place, a very bright sparkle shines on the edge of the "P" in the Marvel Productions logo.
  • Later Variant: Zooming out from an orange planet, there is a detailed space background with a nebula, as well as a white and orange light. The orange light reaches behind the planet and causes the planet to burst into light, turning it into the Sunbow logo, while the screen zooms out from some silver bars that close up to form the Marvel Productions logo, this time in silver. The lights on the Sunbow logo die down, and the Marvel logo rotates straight upwards as the trail for the text recedes. Both logo shine, a simple wipe on the "MP" and a circular wipe on the Sunbow text, as stars flash in the background. The television counterpart is the short version and only features the logos shining.
• Short versions of the logo exist, usually starting with the huge orange ball or the finished logo shining.

Technique: Most likely cel animation.

Audio: A short, somber piano/bass/synth tune with a few sparking sounds at the beginning and two synth dings at the end when the logo shines. On later productions, the fanfare is remixed to be fully synthesized, with a whoosh as the dots converge. The end theme may also finish over it.

Audio Variants:

• The Sunbow/Marvel movie variant uses a bombastic synth fanfare with a chorus and explosion, as well as lightsaber-esque sounds for the shining.
• Originally, the sparkling wasn't present.

Availability: Depending on the variants of this logo, but it's much easier to find than the previous logo.

• Standard Variant:
  • The version with the end theme appears on the 1992 episodes of Conan the Adventurer while the version with the jingle is used on 1993 episodes of said show both on Tubi TV, Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, My Little Pony Tales (the early '90s reboot), Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Warriors, a few CBS Schoolbreak Specials like A Matter of Conscience, the one-shot DTV feature Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles (a spin-off of G.I. Joe), and the first season of The Tick.
• Earlier Music Variant:
  • It appears on the final two seasons of The Great Space Coaster, international prints of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (the 1989 series), and the 1984 CBS Special The Secret World of the Very Young, respectively.
• Early Marvel Combo Variant:
  • This combo appears on G.I. Joe, The Transformers, and Jem and the Holograms, as well as the 1980s incarnation of My Little Pony, and both of the shows that were bundled with it, Moon Dreamers and Potato Head Kids.
  • It also appears on Inhumanoids as well.
  • The bylineless version appears on these Series 3 The Transformers episodes: "Nightmare Planet", "Ghost in the Machine", and all episodes from "The Big Broadcast of 2006" onwards, including all of Series 4 ("The Return of Optimus Prime" and "Rebirth")
• Later Marvel Combo Variant:
  • The longer variant appears on My Little Pony: The Movie, The Transformers: The Movie, and G.I. Joe: The Movie, respectively.
  • The shorter variant appears on series 3 episodes of The Transformers (with the exception of the two mentioned above) up until "Carnage in C-Minor" and on later G.I. Joe episodes.

3rd Logo (August 12, 1995-June 26, 1998)

Visuals: On a black background, the faint edges of some letters can be seen as a yellow circle, representing the sun, rises up. Eventually, the entire logo brightens up to reveal the Didot text "SUNB W", with the sun being an O to form "SUNBOW". Below the sun, "ENTERTAINMENT" can be seen in a Helvetica font. All the text is in blue.

Variants:

• A sped-up version of the logo exists.
• A still version also exists.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A dramatic six-note woodwind fanfare with a "trill" at the end. Carole Heller is the composer.

Audio Variants:

• The short version has the last three notes and the trill.
• The end theme may also play over it.

Availability:

• It appears on the second and third seasons of The Tick, Littlest Pet Shop (the 1995 version), Salty's Lighthouse, G.I. Joe: Extreme, Mission: Genesis (a.k.a. Deepwater Black in some markets), and The Mask: The Animated Series.

4th Logo (Mid 90s-1999?)

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  The nearly-finished logo.
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  The finished logo.

Visuals: A spinning globe of the Earth zooms out to reveal a space background with a shining light in the top left corner. The Earth veers into center right as several gold and white bars slide in from the left and right side of the screen, which fold up to form the Sunbow text, with "SUNB W" going up one-by-one and "ENTERTAINMENT" going up in one piece. Lastly, the logo fades to a 2D version on a white background, with black text (still in 3D) and a white/yellow gradient sun.

Technique: CGI done in-house.

Audio: A rock theme with a few whooshes added.

Availability: Unknown. Possibly, it might appear on Korean VHS releases of its programs.

Legacy: Quite an oddity, given that no known show from Sunbow used this logo. This was discovered in 2016 on a compilation video that mostly showcases South Korea. When discovered, most people find the logo actually okay for its time, but it is unknown why this wasn't used more widely.

5th Logo (January 16, 1999-2004)

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Visuals: On a blue background, the dark blue text "SUNB W" can be seen, as a yellow circle rises up from the bottom. As it settles into position, the entire logo brightens up, turning the background turquoise, and the circle gaining lines via a wipe effect, making it similar to Sony Wonder's sun at the time. "ENTERTAINMENT" fades in below the text, spaced out to fit the length of it, and the byline as well. The sun also gains a shadow.

Bylines:

• 1999-2000?: "A Division of Sony Wonder"
• 2000?-2004: "A TV-Loonland Company"

Variant:

• With the TV-Loonland byline, the logo became still and the background is also white.
  • On Series 2 of The Cramp Twins, the logo appears in-credit.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: The sound of a rooster crowing on The Brothers Flub.

Audio Variant: Otherwise, the ending theme of the show.

Availability:

• The Sony Wonder byline variant appears on The Brothers Flub.
  • However, it does not appear on Fat Dog Mandoza or Generation O! though, as they both just use in-credit notices.
• The TV-Loonland byline variant appears on Series 1 of The Cramp Twins (in-credit on Series 2) and the TV special Donner.