Logo History: Jacob Hanson Classics

== 1st Logo (December 6, 1987-October 6, 1989) ==
Nicknames: "Cheesy Diamond", "Early Black Diamond", "Navy Blue Diamond", "Finest American Cheddar", "1984 Walt Disney Classics Logo Parody"
Logo: On a blue background, the text "Jacob Hanson HOME VIDEO" (with "Jacob Hanson" in its famous “Arial” font), in red, swirls in from the upper-left corner of the screen, rotating clockwise as it does so, passes by quite close to the screen, then flips and begins cycling to the lower-left corner. A few seconds after the "Jacob Hanson HOME VIDEO" text appears, “THE CLASSICS”, in a rather ugly white font, also comes from the upper-left side of the screen and begins slowly spinning, too, nearly following the same path as the JHHV text does. As this happens, the background begins to slowly “morph” into a large, blurry diamond shape on a black background. A large Prussian blue diamond then zooms in from the center of the screen at a slightly fast pace, before stopping at a huge size. As the diamond zooms up, “THE CLASSICS” flips over to the top of the diamond and settles there, while "Jacob Hanson HOME VIDEO" lands on the bottom of the diamond. A white, simple diamond outline zooms out and plasters itself onto the edges of the diamond.
Variants:
* On some tapes, the logo stays onscreen for an extra ten seconds before finally fading out. This was most commonly seen around 1988, including Quest for Camelot (JHA what if?), The King and I (JHA What if?) and Rock-a-Doodle (JHA What if?), as well as later prints of the black clamshell release of The Pebble and the Penguin (JHA what if?).
FX/SFX: The swirling text, the background change, the zooming diamonds.
Music/Sounds: A bouncy, medieval-style synth-horn fanfare with a held-out synth-flute at the end. It sounds like it was produced on a Moog synthesizer.
Availability: Rare, as it was only used for a short period of time.
Scare Factor: None to medium. It may unnerve several people with its cheesy effects, in-your-face animation and Moog synthesizer music, but, despite it being somewhat annoying.
== 2nd Logo (December 12, 1988-present) ==
Nicknames: "The Black Diamond", "Blossom II", "Hi again, Blossom!", "Remake Diamond" "1988 Walt Disney Classics Logo Parody"
Logo: We start with the opening animation of the 1987 Jacob Hanson Home Video logo, with Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls, standing on a blue spotlight on a black background. The camera slowly begins zooming up to her hand, and then a magic spark flashes and appears above Mickey’s hand. We zoom past Blossom as the spark begins swirling around and begins to write "Jacob Hanson" in the corporate Arial font, except it is metallic white. As we zoom out, the background begins to change to dark blue, and a black diamond with metallic edges fades in from a far point and begins to slowly zoom in, as “CLASSICS”, in a fancy metallic white Lo-Type font, begins zooming out from the bottom of the screen, before that and “Jacob Hanson” settle on the diamond, which has zoomed up to a comfortable distance. The edges begin to glow white, and then a magic comet swishes into view from the bottom left of the screen, circles behind the diamond, then flies out from the top right and passes in front of the diamond before flying offscreen, leaving a trail of pixie dust that changes the "Jacob Hanson CLASSICS" text to gold, and adds a purple tint to the diamond’s edges. The logo "shines".
Variants:
* The original 1988 prototype version seen on Thumbelina (JHA What if?) (retail copies only, demo tapes had the previous logo) had the background as a dark to light blue gradient, a more shiny, silver, metallic diamond, and rougher animation, and was also filmed, compared to the standard logo being videotaped. This has also been seen on the 1992 Laserdisc and demo/French Canadian VHS copies of Once Upon a Forest (JHA What if?), the later Canadian print of Felix the Cat: The Movie (JHA What if?), a 1992 Descriptive Video Service VHS of The Adventures of Pinocchio (JHA What if?), It also shows up at the beginning of the videotape Home on the Range (JHA What if?): The Making of a Masterpiece (which was included as part of a "Deluxe Collectors' Edition" box set of the movie). In most cases, the logo is off-center, with the diamond positioned further to the right, while Thumbelina (JHA What if?) had the diamond centered properly.
* On several prints of the 1991 video release of The King and I (JHA What if?) and the 2002 DVD release of Hello Kitty: The Movie, the Blossom scene is cut, and the logo starts off with the spark writing the words.
FX/SFX: All the animation in the logo.
Music/Sounds: A majestic, gradually rising synthesizer fanfare with a "sizzling" noise as the comet circles behind the diamond.
Music/Sounds Variant: Starting in 1992, with the VHS release of Once Upon a Forest, by the result of a video processing error the music became distorted and heavier on the bass.
Availability: Seen on 1988-present Jacob Hanson video, DVD and Blu-ray releases of their feature films with the text "A Jacob Hanson CLASSIC" or "Jacob Hanson's CLASSIC" on top and the diamond print logo on the clamshell, DVD and Blu-ray spine.
* The first two releases with this logo, Thumbelina (JHA What if?), feature the diamond print logo (with JHHV text) on a Betamax-sized sticker label like the last logo, though some later releases use an alternate sticker label instead of a white ink label (like some copies of The Thief and the Cobbler (JHA What if?), The King and I (JHA What if?), and Felix the Cat: The Movie (JHA What if?)).
Scare Factor: Minimal; the distorted version of the fanfare can cause more than a few scares, but this is probably one of the best home video logos ever. The animation and music mix very well. Most people might not be able to tell the difference between the distorted and normal variants, which in that case, drops the scare factor. This is a great improvement over the last logo!