Cinar's Logo History

1st Logo (May 2, 1987-January 21, 1995)

Nicknames: "Interlocked Blue Bars", "Cheesy CGI Cinar", "CIAAR"

Logo: On a computerized dark blue background vaguely looking like stone or rock, a blue line draws in, revealing many bright blue 3D bars interlocking with each other. The bars rotate up and zoom-out, revealing the text:

CINAR

glittering with stars. The word "CINAR" is thick and full of segmented lines, with the letter "I" dotted red and the letters "N", "A", and "R" connected together.

Variants

Sometimes, "A" and "PRODUCTION" (or "PRESENTATION") are shown above and below the logo, respectively.

On the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark (1992-93), the Cinar logo is in-credit on a black background, bypassing this logo.

A 2D still of this logo with "A" above and "PRODUCTION" below was seen on David the Gnome, The Adventures of the Little Koala, and Are You Afraid of the Dark (1993-94 season, before the 2nd logo was introduced).

An animated variant of the "PRODUCTION" variant exists, where "CINAR" turns upward, the text wipes in and the background is a black-grey gradient.

The logo may be shorter so that it starts fading into the zoom-out. This is used for programming, and the background is not rocky. This variant is also remarkably faster.

On A Bunch of Munsch, the logo animation starts at the zooming and is transitioned out from the ending sequence in the credits (which shows Robert Munsch pushing down the end credits' background with a surprised look on his face, followed by him flashing away into the background and a fade to this logo). Also, there's a copyright stamp on the logo itself.

FX/SFX The bars interlocking, and the glittering stars.

Music/Sounds A synth note and a whoosh, then a bang, and finally a 7-note trumpet-like theme that sounds like it came from a Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Genesis game, though this theme is rarely heard.

Music/Sounds Variants

On most shows, the ending theme plays over it.

The animated "PRODUCTION" variant used a soothing synth-piano theme that's similar to the 1985 song "Hurts to Be in Love" by Gino Vannelli, the 1990 song "Butterfly on a Wheel" by The Mission, and the 1984 Cannon Films logo.

Availability: Very rare.

Last seen in the U.S. when Boomerang reran Young Robin Hood. It can be seen on Cinar shows of the period on VHS releases by Golden Books Video, such as specials 2-6 of Madeline (Cinar was not involved in the first special, which was produced by DIC Entertainment).

The musical variant can be found on the Just for Kids video release of John the Fearless and was found on reruns of Maya the Bee on YTV during the 1990s.

The variant from A Bunch of Munsch is preserved on VHS tapes of the series from both Golden Book Video and Sony Wonder.

The still version is seen intact on pre-season 5 episodes (the Amazon Instant print has this replaced by the next logo) on DVD (from Nickelodeon) of Are You Afraid of The Dark, followed by the Nickelodeon logo, while the animated "PRODUCTION" variant was seen on the U.S./Canadian release of The Adventures of David the Gnome, which is intact on the U.S. DVD release.

Editor's Note: This logo is a product of its time for utilizing early computer graphics, although this is saved by the coolness of the animation (kinda resembling the Marvel Productions "CGI Spidey" logo).

2nd Logo (October 28, 1992-December 26, 2003)

Nicknames: "Space", "Cinar in Space", "CGI Cinar", "1992: A Cinar Odyssey"

Logo: On a space background, a long white flash zooms out from the bottom of the screen and comes to the middle, forming a redesigned Cinar logo that flashes once. Most of the differences are subtle, but the most obvious is that the letters "N", "A", and "R" are separate. The logo flashes and the disclaimer "CINAR is a registered trademark of CINAR Corporation" appears below.

Variants:

The logo may or may not have a registered trademark "®" symbol on the upper right of the "R".

Sometimes, the logo is bylineless. This occurs mostly in the musical variant.

Most of the time, the byline is used in different forms, like on Caillou and Arthur.

Sometimes, the byline would say: "CINAR is a registered trademark of CINAR Films Inc.". This was used until about 1998 on some productions, though a few like Emily of New Moon continued to use this until at least 2000.

On French dubs of their shows, the byline can sometimes be in French and thus reading either "CINAR est une marque déposée de Corporation CINAR", "CINAR est une marque de commerce enregistrée de CINAR Films Inc." or "CINAR est une marque de commerce de Les Films CINAR Inc."

On extremely rare occasions, the trademark "TM" symbol is seen in place of the registered trademark "®" symbol.

A still version of this logo exists on Are You Afraid of the Dark, Wimzie's House, and Zoboomafoo, and some episodes of Emily of New Moon.

On The Baskervilles, the logo is above the Alphanim logo against a black background, with the CiTV URL on the bottom right.

Another still version with "A" above and "PRODUCTION" below was seen on the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

A filmed version exists where the red dot on the "I" fades in and the rest proceeds normally, except it has a different flash.

A shorter version of the filmed variant exists.

A version with an URL under it exists.

An in-credit variant appears on some shows such as Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings.

Some shows/movies such as Mona the Vampire would have the logo shortened to just the flash.

The color of the dot may vary from light red to orange, depending on the quality.

On seasons 3 and 4 of Emily of New Moon, an URL of the show's website is also seen below the byline and Cinar's URL.

On the 1997 show Lassie, the copyright for Lassie II Productions is seen above the byline and URL.

FX/SFX: The flashes. Great CGI.

Music/Sounds: A whoosh with a calm synth tune, which is rarely heard. It most commonly used the ending theme of the show. On some shows, like Night Hood, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Zoboomafoo, it is silent.

Availability: This was very common years ago, but is now scarce, due to plastering with Cookie Jar and WildBrain.

Survives on pre-2004 Arthur episodes on both DVD and VHS, and pre-Cookie Jar DVD and VHS releases (from both Sony Wonder and PBS Home Video) of Caillou, but This TV and other current prints of Cinar shows plaster it with the Cookie Jar logo.

Re-airings of The Busy World of Richard Scarry on This TV kept the Paramount Television logo but replaced "A CINAR Presentation" in the in-credit logo with "A COOKIE JAR Presentation" (though it was retained on some older DVDs and VHS releases of the show). Many Cinar logos that contained an in-credits logo would also be changed to Cookie Jar as well.

The longer version can be seen on the BWE Video VHS of The Whole of the Moon, the Avalanche Home Entertainment VHS of Sally Marshall is Not an Alien, and the obscure New Zealand film called Bonjour Timothy. It can also be found on the 2000 series The Upstairs Downstairs Bears, but Smile of A Child's airings of the said show cut all of the show's logos out.

The logo is currently intact on Are You Afraid of the Dark and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo reruns on NickSplat, and 2000-2002 episodes of Caillou on the PBS Kids Video App.

In Canada, this is also intact on pre-2000 episodes of Caillou on Treehouse. Don't expect this logo to be used on the English dub of Miffy as that used an in-credit notice.

The logo's music variant on home video releases can be found on Canadian Sony Wonder VHS prints of Caillou, but for DVDs with this variant, it appears on Zoboomafoo DVD releases.

The logo is also kept on UnisTV, and TeleNiños airings of Mona The Vampire and on post-1st season episodes of said show on CBC in Canada. BBC Kids prints also kept it intact.

It was also recently spotted on After School Cartoons reruns of Ripley's Believe It or Not: The Animated Series on Pluto TV.

It's also preserved on Time-Life's DVD of The Adventures of Paddington Bear.

Editor's Note: It's a nice update that improves on the last logo's faults. It's also fondly remembered by many.