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 World 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).