DNA Productions

Background
DNA Productions was an animation company founded in 1987 by John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn. Its most successful project was the film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and its animated spin-off show for Nickelodeon. DNA closed down in 2006, following the box office disappointment of The Ant Bully. Many of its employees went to work for Reel FX Creative Studios, while others went to O Entertainment to work at its recently formed animation division, Omation. The company is not to be confused with the British film company DNA Films.

1st Logo (1992-1994)
Logo: On a white background, three people (Keith Alcorn on the left, an unknown person in the middle, and John A. Davis on the right) are seen with quirky expressions on their faces; they look somewhat distorted (likely mirrored). The pictures are all in boxes and in grayscale. Copyright information is seen below.

Variants:
 * In 1993, the picture was changed to three people (John A. Davis on the left, Keith Alcorn in the middle, and an unknown person on the right; it could be Paul Claerhout, who voiced the 9th logo) with vivid expressions while the photo is distorted.
 * There are "Presents" variants.
 * On the Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss Show VHS tape from Expanded Entertainment, the people are replaced with an animated credits sequence, which goes like this: Lil' Puss Puss constantly hiccuping and Nanna trying to shush him throughout the credits. Puss Puss then tries to hold the hiccups in, expanding his head until it explodes, with blood covering Nana in the process as she too begins hiccuping. Copyright information appears above.
 * On the Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss short "The Honeymoonies", the people are replaced with a static image of Puss Puss holding up Nana's disembodied head and presenting it with his other hand as he smiles. Copyright information is seen below.
 * A rare filmed version of the "Down Beat Dowager" variant exists. It can be seen on the Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation Volume One VHS.

Trivia: The same splattering sound effect heard on the VHS variant is used in the 2nd Cartoon Network Productions logo on some Space Ghost Coast to Coast episodes.

Technique: 2D animation, which may just be the text wobbling for the normal variant, or the full logo for the VHS variant.

Music/Sounds: The end theme of the short, performed by The Oral Fixations.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On the Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss short "Off the Record", the vocals are backmasked. When the music ends and fades out, it then fades back in and ends with a broken glass sound effect.
 * The VHS variant uses a fiddle version of the theme composed by Paul Claerhout (used in the shorts as background music), which is accompanied by various sound effects that correspond to the actions displayed on screen.
 * On the short "The Honeymoonies", the audio is very slightly higher-pitched.
 * On the short "Down Beat Dowager", a rock song is played instead, which is a hard rock rendition of the ending theme, also performed by The Oral Fixations.

Availability: Rare, seen on Nanna and Lil' Puss Puss which has not aired since the 2000s. The only way to see these shorts is online.

2nd Logo (June 7, 1994)


Logo: We see a road with cacti spread about it on the sides. The camera zooms into a drive-in theater, with large signs depicting "The Demo: Now Showing On Screen 1". Once it fully zooms into a screen, we see an animated pegasus flying in the air as normal. Helix the Cat (who looks rough) flies by using his tails as a propeller and the pegasus looks at him for a moment. Helix motions toward the audience in a pose that seems like he's going to whisper to them as he flies offscreen. Suddenly, the pegasus is in shock and it crashes into a giant rock formation, with the big letters "DNA" carved into it. The camera slowly pans out. The text "Times New Roman" in a white Times New Roman font is seen at the bottom left of the screen throughout the entire logo.

Technique: A combination of CGI and traditional animation.

Music/Sounds: The sound of wind blowing as we zoom down the road, followed by an excerpt from Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto #1" which plays throughout the animation of the pegasus flying. This becomes distorted once the pegasus flies into the giant rock. A final, triumphant chord (which almost sounds like the beginning note of the USSR/Russian anthem) plays as the rock structure is revealed.

Availability: Extremely rare. Alongside the 3rd-6th logos and the prototype variant of the 7th, it appears as a bumper on the same Nana and Lil' Puss Puss VHS that houses the VHS variant of the 1st logo.

3rd Logo (June 7, 1994)
Logo: On a background that looks like a multicolored light's rays and an abstract, multi-sided, pointy shape, we see a pencil sketch turn from a "D" into an "N" and finally into an "A".

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A fast, dramatic piano piece.

Availability: See 2nd logo.

4th Logo (June 7, 1994)
Logo: Just three pieces of paper being crumpled over and over, each saying the letters "D", "N", and "A".

Technique: Possibly stop-motion.

Music/Sounds: A gurgling sound, spitting, and a burp.

Availability: See 2nd logo.

5th Logo (June 7, 1994)


Logo: On a brick background with a lens flare, a -colored spotlight is centered on the multicolored text "DNA?", which spins around.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A quirky, fast-paced woodwind theme.

Availability: See 2nd logo.

6th Logo (June 7, 1994)


Logo: Three weird shapes place themselves by shape on a textured floor and morph into the word "DNA" by letter. The letters are also textured.

Technique: Again, it's in CGI.

Music/Sounds: Two people shout "Yay! Boo! Yay!" alternating between letters as each letter appears. These sound effects also appear on the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Sequel", and in the 1993 educational computer game Thinkin' Things.

Availability: See 2nd logo.

7th Logo (June 7, 1994; September 7, 1998-October 22, 1999)
Logo: Inside a - circle on a very dark red background, we see a purple cat (nicknamed Helix) with two tails looking like DNA and a big human-like nose, wearing a white lab coat with a purple bowtie on it, from the back. In a circle around the circle containing the creature, we see the text "DNA PRODUCTIONS INC." in a cartoony font. He then turns his head to look at us, and jumps to face us while holding his arms out. The text shines.

Variant: A prototype version of the logo featured a black background,, puffy text, and a rougher version of Helix having an even more unfriendly appearance. He simply raises his finger in the air and adorns a Cheshire Cat grin. Helix is also contained within a solid, circle.

Technique: Fluid digital ink-and-paint animation. For the prototype, a mix of cel animation with computer graphics.

Music/Sounds:


 * The best way to describe the noises heard is two series of echoing, bouncy, high-pitched, distorted "guitar notes", followed by an echoing beat, and a loud, echoing "SPROING" sound as Helix finishes his jump.
 * The prototype had a stock high-pitched "phone-voice" sound, which is actually the sped-up soundclip of the female voice saying "Uh-huh, you wish to see me, señor? We wish to see the señorita's tourist and his daughter. I do not think a common door name will...".

Availability: Same as the 2nd logo for the prototype. The final variant can be seen on the 1998 Jimmy Neutron pilot "Runaway Rocketboy", which can be found on the Confusion Fusion DVD. It was also seen on the video series Jingaroo. It doesn't appear on Olive, the Other Reindeer.

8th Logo (March 28, 1995)


Logo: On a black background, we zoom out to see a atom with moving circles in 3 colors:, and yellow. There is the text "DNA Productions".

Technique: Typical CGI from the time period.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Only seen on Elroy's Toy.

9th Logo (July 20, 2002-November 25, 2006)
Logo: On a tropical background complete with a beach and a sunset, we see the black, lowercase text "d n a productions" with "d n a" bigger and spaced and "productions" underneath, near the top of the screen, and 2 double helix coconut trees twisting behind a bush. A small house can be seen at the bottom left of the screen. We then see a chimpanzee, named Paul, pop up from behind the trees and in front of the bush with his back turned to us. He then turns around, revealing that he has three eyes in the process, and he waves at us while saying "Hi, I'm Paul!" in (apparently) a southern accent.

Variants: There are six variants of the normal logo. They can be seen on certain episodes of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and the following are listed below:


 * Double Your Pleasure: Two Pauls appear and say "Hi, we're Paul!". Seen on the half-hour special "The Junkman Cometh".
 * Bi-Lingual Paul: Paul is wearing a (barely visible) hat and a mustache, when he turns around, he says "¡Hola, soy Pablo!", which means "Hi, I'm Pablo!" in Spanish. The mustache falls off at the last second. Seen on "The Mighty Wheezers"/"Billion Dollar Boy" and the CGI Nanna and Lil' Puss Puss theme song music video.
 * Backwards Masking Paul: The logo is played in reverse, making Paul sounding like he's saying "Oh, my eye!" (he's actually saying "Hi, I'm Paul!" backwards). Seen on "Foul Bull"/"The Science Fair Affair".
 * When reversed, Paul's line appears to be a different take.
 * Paul Blooper #1: Paul forgets his lines, and says "So what do you want me to say now?" Seen on the hour-long special "Attack of the Twonkies".
 * Paul Blooper #2: Paul forgets his lines again, and says "Hi, I'm... line?". Seen on the half-hour special "My Big Fat Spy Wedding".
 * Coffee Break Paul: Paul is missing. A man off-screen says softly, "Paul?". Seen on the half-hour special "Men at Work".

Technique: All CGI made in the same style as The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, as done by O Entertainment (the logo before this one) using Alias Wavefront Maya.

Music/Sounds: A happy tropical xylophone sounder, which is "Mexican Jumping Bean", from the Sound Ideas library. Tropical birds and insects can be heard in the background, but only on the original variant. Paul's voice is an innocent, high-pitched male voice, provided by Paul Claerhout, one of the DNA's first three employees.

Music/Sounds Trivia: "Mexican Jumping Bean" was first used in the 1994 Macintosh game Ants Afire, and it is also the default "operation finished" sound in the burning program Imgburn and DVD Decryptor (developed by the same team).

Music/Sounds Variant: On some dubs of Jimmy Neutron, Paul's voice would be dubbed.

Availability: Uncommon. This appeared on all episodes of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (though it does not appear on early prints of some early episodes of the said show) and The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour trilogy. It also appeared on the early Nickelodeon airings of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, using the logo combo from the show itself; current airings on Nickelodeon have the variants replaced by the normal version. This logo doesn't appear on the 2006 film The Ant Bully, as that film used an in-credit notice instead.

Legacy: This is considered a funny logo and quite nostalgic to Jimmy Neutron fans. It is also one of the most "memed" logos on the wiki.