Rankin-Bass Productions
Compiled by Jason Jones, Jeffrey Gray and James Fabiano
The men named in the company are Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass
VIDEOCRAFT
INTERNATIONAL, LTD.
1st Logo
(1961-1966)
Logo: This superimposed logo features three tv tube-like shapes. One is at the bottom, and the other two are stacked on the left and right corners of the bottom tube. The company byline appears as "A Videocraft International Production"
FX: None, it's a superimposed logo
Music: Usually the outro of a TV show.
Availability: Near Extinction, but can be found on the TV Christmas special "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer".
Scare Factor: Low
2nd Logo
(1966-1968?)
Nickname: "Tri-Colored V"
Logo: Over a white background, we see two colorized TV tubes aside each other. The names of the producers pop up on both tubes:
Arthur Rankin, Jr. (in the
red tube on the left)
Jules Bass (in the blue tube
on the right)
The logo pans outward to reveal the third tube (which is green) on the bottom, revealing the infamous "V" design from the previous logo. The phrase appears as "An Arthur Rankin, Jr.-Jules Bass Production." The words "Videocraft International Limited" appear in black underneath the logo.
FX: The name pop-in; the pan-out
Cheesy Factor: Pretty simple but effective animation.
Music: Three ascending notes (the majority of which are produced by a horn) herald the appearance of the Rankin and Bass credit popping in, followed by a brief flute melody during the pan-out, and then a one-note abrupt end. A piano and drum also seem to be part of the music, and all the while, a set of bongo drums play in the background.
Availability: Extinct, as far as I know. Seen on "The King Kong Show", and possibly "The Cricket from The Hearth" special, aired in 1967.
Scare Factor: Minimal. The dramatic music might get to some viewers.
Rankin-Bass
1st Logo
(1968-1975)
Nickname: "The Christmas Special Logo"
Logo: The screen is made up to look like a television set, with a blue border surrounding a white square with rounded corners that's supposed to represent a TV monitor. The symbol is a vertical rectangle with two dots along its right side, and the rectangle and top dot are dark shades of blue while the bottom dot is a lighter shade (forming a stylized R-B, you can make out the "r" using the dark shapes, and add that last dot to make a "B") To the logo's music, the symbol forms one shape at a time on the left side of the "monitor;" the rectangle "slides" in, then the two dots appear. Alongside that appears the words "A Rankin-Bass Production." Sometimes "A Division of Tomorrow Entertainment Inc." will appear below the ID.
FX: Symbols and words appearing.
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music: The same one from their "Videocraft" ident. Bongos and all.
Availability: Based on this past Christmas, we may be seeing the end of this one on network TV. The CBS reruns of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" both received new closing logos for Golden Books. However, cable reruns of some holiday specials (particularly on ABC/FOX Family Channel) retained the R-B ID.
Scare Factor: Minimal. As usual, the dramatic music may unnerve some.
2nd Logo
(1975-1982)
Nickname: "The Blues"
Logo: The screen flashes three different shades of blue, with the effect that they're getting sucked inwards, into a rectangle at the left of the screen. Every time they go through a shade, that's the color the rectangle is until all three have been done and the screen is white. Then the circles appear to complete the stylized "R-B," except instead of just appearing they sort of "grow" in their places. To the right of the logo appear the words "A Rankin-Bass Production" as usual. It looks like the first logo without the TV monitor.
FX: The blues getting sucked in, the circles "growing."
Cheesy Factor: Simple animation.
Music: Same as the first logo
Availability: May still appear on some holiday special reruns on ABC Family Channel, but we won't know until this Christmas.
Scare Factor: Dramatic cheesy special effects added to the dramatic music may scare some.
3rd Logo
(1983-1989)
Nickname: "80's RB"
Logo: We see the
classic Rankin-Bass logo, except made completely
three-dimensional, with the text in light-blue, 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 "R-B"
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 the Telepictures or
Lorimar-Telepictures animation, which eventually fills the entire
screen.
FX: The "Animated Entertainment" "spring" effect.
Music: An synthesized flute theme, which changes to the Telepictures theme or the Lorimar-Telepictures theme when the logo appears.
Availability: Appears on 1980s Rankin-Bass productions, including "Thundercats" and "Silverhawks".
Scare Factor: None, the logo is clean.