Vértice Cine

Background

Based in Barcelona, Spain, Vértice Cine was established as Manga Films in 1993 as a distributor for Japanese anime (mostly from Toei Animation) and Asiatic action and horror films. Its success took it to diversify its catalog in the late 1990s, starting to distribute independent American films and many British film and TV shows (sometimes under the name of its subsidiary Sherlock Media, which closed somewhere in 2002), and even entering in the production world. In 2009, they merged with distributor Notro Films, changed its corporate name to the current one, and became part of the Vértice360 group. Later, in 2013, they changed their on-screen name to Vertice360, while still keeping the Vértice Cine name. Nowadays, Vértice Cine is one of the most powerful Spanish-based independent media distributors: for instance, it currently holds the rights of the entire RKO library in Spain as well as a major part of the Hammer Productions library. Their website is here.

Manga Films

1st Logo (1993-2000)

Logo: On a dark blue background, we see a fireball crossing the screen diagonally from left to right. Then "MANGA" (in silver and in 3D) flips and zooms out to the center of the screen, letter by letter. Then a huge burst of fire engulfs the screen and turns the logo red. A outline of the logo zooms out and turns the logo 2D, as a light streak forms the word "F I L M S" in white. In 1995, the URL of the company's website (www.mangafilms.es) fades in below.

Technique: The fireball, the letters turning from 3D to 2D.

Music/Sounds: A rising synth sound and a calmer ascending series of pings, followed by a Japanese folk theme with powerful percussion when the fire bursts, and synths that end with a little "ping".

Availability: Extremely rare. It appears on Manga Films tapes from the era, like its Dragon Ball GT release. On later VHS releases (for example on a Monty Python's Flying Circus VHS from 2000), it was substituted by the next logo. The still version (with no website) is preserved on the Spanish DVD releases of Torrente (1998).

2nd Logo (2000-2009)

Logo: On a black background, some red glowing lines start zooming out while twisting. As they make their way, they reveal themselves as three rectangles that keep twisting and finally merging together with a quick flash. Then a streak of identical rectangles is formed and we zoom through it at a very high speed; while in the background, some vertical and horizontal hyperspace-like lines appear. At the end of the streak, we reach a web-like structure formed by moving lines which are formed by 0's, 1's, and the word "films" (all in red). In the web, four stars are formed (distributed in a way that resembles part of the Great Bear constellation) and merge together as a set of silver cubes enters the scene and starts orbiting the new star, which glows, rotates and moves down until disappearing. The cubes then go out of orbit and start falling until crashing—perfectly aligned and leaving trails of light—into some kind of floor. The floor zooms out as white trails form letters in a down-to-up pattern, leaving the words "manga films" (in red) with twelve small squares below (the leftmost square is white while the next one is slightly darker than the previous square, the rightmost square being dark gray) as a white, glowing rectangle surrounds the now-finished logo.

Variant: On Sherlock Media releases, after the logo's animation ends, the background turns black as the rectangle begins to spin, as a streak of identical triangles just like at the start of the logo is formed again, as we again zoom through them at a very high speed, entering a background of grey vertical and horizontal lines, similar to the ones before. A group of silver cubes just like the one's in the "manga films" logo appear, already aligned, and travel through the background until hitting the same floor as in the "manga films" logo. The text "sherlock" fades in above the squares in white, as the text "MEDIA", in bigger, also white letters fades in below, glowing.

Technique: CGI animation that features glowing lines, weird moves and angles, and flashes.

Music/Sounds: Some "whoosh" sounds, followed by a dramatic fanfare with synths and strings.

Music/Sounds Variant: In the Sherlock Media version, the fanfare goes on, along with more whoosh sounds.

Availability: Fairly common.

Vértice Cine

1st Logo (2009-2013)

Logo: We open on what looks like a red glowing light coming out of a lens over a black background. An orange circle with the words "vertice" and "cine" inside and a smaller orange circle on its left suddenly appears, looking blurry. As it clears, we see other shots of the red light behind the circle, which fades away once it's clear, leaving the finished logo over a black background.

Technique: Live action footage of the glowing light.

Music/Sounds: A collection of buzzing and beeping sounds.

Availability: Also seen on home media and theatrical releases of the company during that era.

2nd Logo (2013-2019)

Logo: On the left centre of a black background, an orange square is divided into two parts, which then separate. Other gray, red and blue squares appear, surrounding the orange squares and forming a cube. While this is happening, the gray text "vertice" slides in the centre of the screen and the gray vertical number "360" fades in on its right.

Variants:

On some trailers and promotional material, the logo is still and the text is orange instead of gray.
On Spanish prints of Winchester, the logo, now in red and with “Vertice” written in the same font as the film's credits, zooms slowly over a black background as flourishes are drawn in the top and bottom of it, emulating the movie's title card.

Technique: Simple Flash animation.

Music/Sounds: Four piano notes and some projector noises.

Availability: Common. It's seen on the Spanish home media and theatrical releases of films like Early Man or Robinson Crusoe (2016); since the year this ident debuted, it was also seen on all Spanish DVD and Blu-ray releases of the films Vertice owns, including titles from the Manga Films era. The last theatrical release from the company to use this logo was Antes de la Quema, though it would still be seen at the start of DVDs and Blu-Rays for the distributor's 2019 releases before completely switching to the next logo later that year.

3rd Logo (2019- )

Logo: The logo begins just like the second logo, but the “vertice360” text (now in CGI) emerges from the floor as it is revealed the logo's animation is happening on a black room. Once the logo's animation finishes, a reflection appears on the floor.

Variants:

On trailers, the logo is still.
On Spanish prints of Astérix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, the logo is already formed. The cauldron containing the magic potion from the movie suddenly falls from from above, and magic potion pours from it, touching the logo, which begins to jump and shine (just like the characters in the movie do when they drink said potion) and then turns into bronze, as the light dims.
On Spanish prints of Hellboy (2019), the logo, now entirely in red, rises from a black background filled with red smoke and particles. Fire comes out of the logo and fills the whole screen. It then dissolves to smoke, revealing that the logo is now golden with a red border, similar to the movie’s title card.
On Spanish prints of Angel Has Fallen, we open on a sniper gun’s target, made out of silver, over a black background trying to focus on the logo, which is zooming out. After the logo stops zooming out and the target gets the full view of it, the sniper gun shoots, revealing a metal version of the logo with the American flag ripping and flying away, on a black, misty background, resembling the movie's title card.
On Spanish prints of Rambo: Last Blood, we see a broken knife being slowly pulled out of a fire, as the logo is revealed to be printed on its blade.
On Spanish prints of Judy, we open on a shot of Dorothy's ruby slippers clicking, making dust of various colors filling up the screen. Once the dust dissipates, the logo, made out of red glitter, appears.

Technique: A mix of Flash and CGI animation, probably done by Onirikal Studio.

Music/Sounds: Same as the second logo.

Availability: Current. The logo techincally debuted in the Spanish release of Astérix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, but in that film, the logo was already formed, followed by the variant described above. The following relases then either used the second logo or the variants described above. A still version of the logo then appeared on the Spanish trailers for Untouchable and Judy, and the full logo finally debuted on the Spanish releases of Untouchable and Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. It also began being used on DVD and Blu-ray releases in late 2019.