DiC
Entertainment
Complied by Jason
Jones, James Fabiano, Matt Williams, Kris Starring, Dan DeCosta
and Nicholas Aczel
"Inspector
Gadget" custom logo
(1983)
Logo: Inspector Gadget passes a green DiC logo on a blue
background while on his skates. Halfway through, his Gadget
mallet comes out (presumably involuntarily) and hits the space
above the "I," dotting it. Gadget exits out of control.
FX: Just DiC quality animation
Music: A trumpet outro from the end notes of the Inspector
Gadget theme song.
Availability: Extinct, when this show is now rerun, it is
replaced by the Incredible World of DiC logo.
Scare Factor: Low, depends on what you think of the music
and the DiC logo’s look.
"The Littles"
custom logo
(1983)
Logo: The character Dinky runs past the green DiC logo on
an orange background and places a green button onto the space
above the "i", dotting the letter.
FX: Just DiC quality animation
Music: The outro of The Littles' theme song.
Availability: Extinct, when this show is now rerun, it is
replaced by the Incredible World of DiC logo.
Scare Factor: Low, depends on your opinion of the music
and the look of the DiC logo.
1st Standard Logo
(1984-1987)
Nickname: "The Vortex"
Logo: Background is a vortex of blue boxes, which purple
colors streak down as a green stylized "DiC" comes up,
seemingly sideways, then turning forward as it comes closer. When
it is all the way up, the logo shines and sparkles.
FX: The blue vortex with purple streaking down it, the
zooming logo.
Cheesy Factor: Early computer animation
Music: An ascending 8-note synthesized theme
Go, Gadget: On the 2nd season of the show (1984-85), a new
variant of this logo with an orange “DiC” was
introduced with a very different 6-note keyboard tune. The
“orange” logo was used intermittently with the
“green” one on 1985-87 DiC shows, but often used the
8-note music instead.
Availability: Unfortunately, none of the shows that had
this logo (Inspector Gadget, Zoobilee Zoo, Heathcliff and the
Catillac Cats to name a few) are currently being rerun on TV, so
it’s pretty much gone outside of tapes. But if the shows are
rerun in the future, expect the Incredible World of DiC to
plaster it.
Scare Factor: Minimal, the music may scare some but the
logo is probably more ugly than scary. However, it would get much
worse with the follow-up…
2nd Logo
(1987-2001, 2003-)
Nicknames: "Kid In Bed"
Logo: We see a boy sleeping in bed (a dog is on the bed,
too) with a window above. The camera pans through the bedroom to
a "spiked" star outside the window. The spiked star
morphs into a ball, and the silver, 3-D word "DIC"
zooms in and rotates 90º below to face us. The ball is the dot
in the “I” in “DIC.” Then, a kid will say the
company's name (pronounced "DEEK") and in some cases is
silent. In a rare variation, a light, whispery choir will sing
"DIC" instead of the usual kid voiceover.
FX: The pan from bed to star, the chroma key used to place
the CGI animations in the window. Actually pretty high-tech for
it's time.
Cheesy Factor: The camera’s pan is very choppy. The
1987-1990 version of this logo had a low-budget starfield that
was mostly empty. This version also had this cheesy glow effect
on the star/ball. In 1990, the logo got an update with a spiffier
starfield. However, the camera's pan remained choppy in
throughout logo’s long run.
Music: Had three sets of music, some spooky fading synth
music, a dreamy tune, and another unrelated dreamy tune.
Variations: This logo had many different variations
throughout it's long run:
1987-1990: the
fading synth music, simple starfield, voiceover.
1987-1990 variation 1: fading synth music, same
starfield, voiceover, sped-up
1987-1990 variation 2: fading synth music, same
starfield, sped up, but there is a video freeze and
"PRESENTS" appears letter by letter at the bottom. This
was a bumper seen on early DIC Video releases.
1987-1990 variation 3: the fading synth music,
same starfield, choir singing “DIC.” This variation is
extremely rare.
1990-1999: the dreamy music, spiffier starfield,
new voiceover kid.
1990-1999 variation 1: the dreamy music, same
starfield, voiceover, sped-up.
1990-1999 variation 2: the same as above, except
there is a byline that says “In Association with RETITALIA
s.p.a. and TELECINCO”. This was seen around 1991-1994.
1999-2001: Different dreamy tune, sped-up, the
1990 starfield, and a different kid saying the name.
2003-present: Instead of the regular DIC logo,
has the "Incredible World Of DiC" globe zoom up outside
the window, with light rays shining behind it. When the globe
stops, the light rays flash. The logo also has a different
starfield that appears to be a cheap rotating 2D image. The music
and voiceover is the same as the 1999 version.
Availability: Shows
that would sport the 1987-1990 version aren’t currently
being shown on TV, but should be replaced with the Incredible
World of DiC when they’re rerun in the future. The rare
variation with the choir singing “DIC” was occasionally
featured on post-1987 episodes of The Real Ghostbusters.
Some shows with the 1990-1999 version, such as Captain Planet,
are now being reran on cable, though usually late at night. The
RETITALIA/TELECINCO version was seen on Sonic The Hedgehog,
and infamously, Hammerman, M.C. Hammer’s 1991-1992
cartoon show. The 1999 version is not current, but it is still
prevalent on the Disney Channel, Toon Disney, and the Cartoon
Network. Also, many shows with the “Kid In Bed” logo
can be found on video. The new 2003 variation can be seen at the
end of 1960s Speed Racer reruns on the Speed Channel.
Scare Factor: Nightmare for the fading synth music, High
to Median for the two dreamy music variations. The darkness of
the logo, the spiked star, and sudden appearance of
“DIC” weren’t easy to look at either.
3rd Logo
(2001-)
Nickname: "The Incredible World of DiC"
Logo: On a colorful background filled with stars and other
assorted patterns, a purple globe pops up, zooming to fill the
screen and backs up. On the upper-half of the globe, some
sparkles fly across and write the words
The
Incredible World
of
and on the lower-half, the word
DiC
(in the same-font as the “Kid in Bed” logo) zooms out
to the logo; also like the previous logo, a kid is often heard
saying the company name.
FX: Just DiC quality animation.
Music: A light techno-pop tune with bells.
Availability: Common, appears on the current
(good-to-mediocre) DiC-produced shows, such as Sabrina: The
Animated Series and Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! on Toon
Disney, and a variant with no voiceover appears on Liberty’s
Kids on PBS. Also plasters older DiC logos when they are rerun on
local stations (that have an Incredible World of DiC Saturday
Morning block).
Scare Factor: None, the logo is mostly cute but great for
children; but it will be annoying to people who like the older
DiC logos.