Warner Bros. Pictures

Compiled by Jason Jones and Matt Williams

1st Logo
(1923-1929)

Nickname: "Brain Shield"

Logo: On a black background, a large, bizarrely shaped shield is scene, with a very wide top. The top part of the shield shows a picture of the Warner studio, the bottom having a squashed, stylized "WB". "A WARNER BROTHERS" is above the shield (with "WARNER BROTHERS" in an arc around the shield, ala the first Columbia logo), with "PRODUCTION" below.

SFX: None, it's a still logo

Music: None, as far as we know

Availability: Is extinct as the only evidence of this logo recently was seen on a Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Trailer on 1998 Warner videos. Although, it has appeared at the start of the film "The Jazz Singer"

Scare Factor: Minimal

2nd Logo
(1929-1936)

Logo: The words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC." appear, and below that "& THE VITAPHONE CORP." appears in a much smaller font, with the "VITAPHONE" using "electric" style letters. Below that is a very small WB shield (using the stylized WB seen in logo 1), and in script, "Present". Behind it there is the drawing of a flag, "waving" so it looks like it is in 3 sections. On the first one, "WARNER BROS." Appears, followed by the electric-letter "VITAPHONE" logo and on section 3, "PICTURES".

SFX: None, this is a superimposed logo.

Music: None

Availability: Very rare.

Scare Factor: Not scary

3rd Logo
(1936)

Nickname: "Zooming Shield"

Logo: Over a cloud setting, a superimposed WB Shield design zooms up to the screen. The words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC. Presents" appear over the shield.

SFX: The shield zoom-in. Could it be that this is what inspired the Looney Tunes "Bullseye" bumpers? It's a possibility.

Music: None

Availability: Extremely rare.

Scare Factor: Not scary

4th Logo
(Late 1930s-Mid 1940s)

Nickname: "WB Shield"

Logo: Inside a shield, a more realistic version of the stylized "WB" as seen in logo 3 appears. Over the shield is a banner that reads "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC." Below the logo is the word "Presents" in script. For color releases, this logo was sepia-toned.

Variant: For a number of releases, "JACK L. WARNER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER" was seen below the Warner Bros. Pictures banner

SFX: None, like most Warner logos this is a static logo.

Music: Usually the beginning of the movie's theme, or a majestic horn sounder.

Availability: Seen on Warner releases of the period.

Scare Factor: Nothing scary.

5th Logo
(Mid 1940s-1967)

Nickname: "The Classic Shield"

Logo: Same as before, only the design has been cleaned up a bit. The border of the shield, banner, text, and "WB" are now gold, and the inside of the shield is now blue. The banner phrase is now changed to "WARNER BROS. PICTURES" and is now gold. "Presents" usually appears below this logo. This logo was usually superimposed onto the titles of Warner features of this period.

SFX: None, it's a still logo

Music: Again, usually the beginning of the movie's theme music.

Availability: Seen on many Warner movies on AMC and TCM.

Scare Factor: Nothing scary, as usual.

6th Logo
(1967-1970)

Nickname: "WB-7" or "W7"

Logo: A superimposed stylized-shield, with a combination of a W and a 7, representing Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. The W7 is traced on-screen, ala the NBC Snake. Below the shield, "WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS" is seen.

SFX: The "trace"; sometimes done over the backdrop of a specific movie

Music: None

Availability: Can be seen on Warner Bros. films of the period.

Scare Factor: Minimum, The logo looks weird, but nothing is scary.

7th Logo
(1970-1972)

Nicknames: "Shield Stretch", "The Kinney Shield"

Logo: Over a blue screen is an abstract shield (like those seen on WB 60s movie posters) in a golden color with a dark brownish color inside. A simple lettering of the WB appears at the upper part and a rectangle of the same colors appear at the lower part of the shield, reading "A Kinney Company". The word "Presents" appears underneath the logo.

Variations:

  • At the end of the film, we'd see the byline "Distributed by WARNER BROS." on top of a superimposed rendition of the company logo, reading "A Kinney Leisure Service".
  • Other byline variants include "A Kinney Services Company" and "A Kinney National Company".
  • Some films had a 2-dimensional version of the shield, appearing in white over a black BG. Others had the regular version super'ed over the opening credits

SFX: None, it's a still logo

Music: Again, the opening of the movie's theme.

Availability: As we all know, Warner was incredibly shoddy with logo preservation until recently. AMC and TCM showings of Warner movies MAY include this logo, but expect one of the more recent WB shield logos, most likely the Warner Communications and Time Warner (not Time Warner Entertainment) variations.

Scare Factor: Nothing scary, this logo is actually neat to see.

8th Logo
(Spring 1972)

Nickname: (see 2nd logo)

Logo: The standard WB shield logo, without the banner. It is on a blue background with "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" underneath.

SFX: Still nothing, though that would change in a few short months

Music: Silence or the beginning of the movie's theme

Availability: This was on only a few movies to begin with (notably "Deliverance" and "The Candidate") and has usually been updated with the 1984 shield logo and its later variations.

Scare Factor: Nothing scary.

9th Logo
(September 1972-1984)

Nicknames: The Big "W", (\\')

Logo: On a black background, a red abstract W consisting of 2 slanted elongated circles and a shorter elongated circle zooms in towards us. Around halfway through, the words "WARNER BROS" (in white Handel Gothic font) appear below it. The red logo overtakes the screen and a smaller white W zooms in. It stops at the middle of the screen and black square field, whose corners have been rounded and softened, fades in around the logo. "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" in the same font used for "WARNER BROS" fades in below. Most of the time, "PRESENTS" fades in below after that.

Variations:

  • On 1975's "Let's Do It Again", this logo has the smaller white \\' fading in when the logo is nearly there (not when the red has overtaken the screen), and no "PRESENTS" underneath the Warner Communications disclaimer.
  • On "Superman", a white \\' zoomed in on a black background and stops in the middle. The words "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS." fade in below.
  • The closing "Distributed by Warner Bros." logo has colors inside out, with the "W" in black and the field in white
  • An early version of this logo had different font in the text as well.
  • Sometimes at the end of a movie, the word "PRESENTATION" appears below the Warner Communications byline, making the phrase "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY PRESENTATION".

SFX/Cheesy Factor: Zooming in of the W

Music: Usually silent, which is a shame because music would have gone good with this logo.

Availability: Sadly, extremely rare, Warner Bros.' editing bug in the late 80s and early 90s meant that Warner Communications and Time Warner shield logos were seen over this logo. However, a few movies on Encore contain this logo (Oh, God! is one) after the 1993 WB logo.

Scare Factor: None, this was a favorite of many

10th Logo
(1984-1998)

Nickname: "The Shield"

Logo: Over a set of clouds, the WB shield appears (including the banner reading "Warner Bros. Pictures"), with the name of the owner at the bottom. Referred to as "A Warner Communications Company" (1984-1990), "A Time Warner Company" (1990-1992) and "A Time Warner Entertainment Company" (1992-)

Variant: For some of their earlier films, and for films that had this logo plastered on over older logos, the word "PRESENTS" faded in a couple of seconds afterward, like on \\' films

SFX: None, this is a still logo, except for the "Presents" fading in.

Music: In most cases, silent, or the beginning of the movie's theme is used. For some of their first features, a loud and majestic horn sounder (a classic WB fanfare) is heard.

Availability: This logo is very easy to spot and has been plastered onto older releases of films. WB has eased up on this, however, and hopefully the older logos will be seen more.

Scare Factor: None, you'll just be annoyed by how many times you've seen it :)

11th Logo
(1998-)

Nickname: "CGI Shield"

Logo: A picture of the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank is seen with a gold tint. The picture "waves" for a bit and then rotates, revealing that it is the WB shield, redone in CGI and reflecting the studio. The logo rotates towards us and zooms out to its usual position, with the company byline fading in underneath.

Variations:

  • For this logo's first year, when the logo is zooming out, "75" and "YEARS" appear from behind the shield and move away to surround it. "Entertaining The World" fades in underneath followed by the Time Warner Entertainment disclaimer in white.
  • Pre-2001 movies had the "A Time Warner Entertainment Company" byline. In March of 2001, the byline became known as "An AOL Time Warner Company". The end logo was ID'ed as "Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures" with the company URL underneath the byline and "Distributed by" over the Shield.

SFX: Just VERY good CGI.

Music: The original 75th Anniversary version of this logo used a wind-blowing chime fanfare. Starting in 1999, the music is now a 7-note piano tune that builds into a powerful, moving fanfare-- one of the best logo musical scores ever. The 1999 fanfare is based on the theme from Casablanca, "As Time Goes By".

Availability: You'll find this on most WB films from 1998 onward. It's not plastered on too many films, as it's normally found on the most recent releases. In most cases, the logo has music, especially post-2001 when the AOL Time Warner byline version was released.

Scare Factor: None