The Baby Einstein Company

Background
The Baby Einstein Company is an early children's entertainment company founded on January 31, 1996 by Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in Alpharetta, Georgia to expose children to classical music, poetry, and art. The company was originally named I Think I Can Productions before changing its name to Aigner-Clark Productions in October 1998, likely due to her two-video deal with the I Think I Can English School, a Japanese school that teaches English, expiring, making her lose the rights to said name. A few months later, the company changed to its current name. From 2000 to 2001, the company's videos were distributed by Artisan Entertainment under the Family Home Entertainment label before Aigner-Clark sold the company to The Walt Disney Company on November 7, 2001. Twelve years later, on October 14, 2013, Kids II, Inc. acquired the brand from Disney.

1st Logo (November 23, 1999-November 23, 2010)
Logo: Same as the I Think I Can Productions logo, except the text now reads

The Baby Einstein Company Presents

The colors of the text vary depending on the tape.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The opening of the show. Availability: Common. Seen on most Baby Einstein tapes beginning with Baby Shakespeare: World of Poetry and ending with the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits.

2nd Logo (August 15, 2000-November 21, 2007)
Logo: On a white background, we see a colorful caterpillar made up of several spheres. It has a yellow sphere for a head, with red antennas, beady black eyes and pink cheeks, made up of purple and blue balls for the body, with a smaller yellow ball connecting them in between, tiny red and yellow balls for the tail, and four lavender toy wheels. It enters from the far left of the screen in the distance, and slowly inches towards the screen (it glances at the viewer midway through). Once the caterpillar reaches the center of the screen, it comes to a halt, and looks at the viewer, blinking twice and opening it's mouth. On the first blink, the company's logo appears on the ground. The camera pulls up to a bird's eye view and zooms out, with the caterpillar continuing to look at the viewer as this happens, revealing the logo, consisting of the words "baby einstein" in a multicolored, sloppy handwritten font and a crude drawing of a boy's head with spiky hair and glasses next to the word "baby", and when the camera settles in place, the words "Arial" fly down to the bottom left corner of the screen.

Variants:
 * Starting in the mid-2000s, the text "Great minds start little." does not appear. While some versions remove the text from the animation, others versions will simply freeze the logo before the text appears.
 * An in-credit still version appears on Little Einsteins, placed on top of a blue square with copyright info in white text underneath.
 * On the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits or 2007 Baby Einstein videos, this logo is shown, but with the Baby Einstein logo from the next one.
 * On 2000-2003 DVD versions of some Baby Einstein videos, this logo is shown, before it fades to black and the Digital Board Book logo fades in.

Trivia:
 * This logo was based on a scene from Baby Einstein: Language Nursery featuring a toy caterpillar.
 * The caterpillar in this logo would eventually be given the name Cal, after Baby Einstein was brought by Kids II.
 * The boy's head in this logo is said to have been the basis for the design of Leo from Little Einsteins, which Baby Einstein helped produce.

Technique: CGI by Stephen Rozmiarek. None for the in-credit version.

Music/Sounds: A calm, soothing woodwind/chime theme, with sounds of nature (ex. birds chirping and wind) in the background, and two cartoon blinking noises for the caterpillar. The music rises to a crescendo when the logo zooms out, ending with three notes. When the logo's music ends, we hear Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over saying: "For more information on our developmental products for babies, and toddlers, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * Sometimes, there is no voice over.
 * The in-credit versions have the show's ending theme.
 * On the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits, there are different birds singing sounds in the logo.
 * Since 2008, Julie Aigner-Clark now reads: "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental products, and for tips on how to create moments of discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show." or "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental and entertainment products, and for tips on how to create moments of discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."

Availability: Seen on most Baby Einstein videos starting with Baby Van Gogh and ending with Lullaby Time, which has the next logo instead. Also appears on a Baby Einstein promotional video from 2002. This also appeared on post-2007 prints of these Baby Einstein videos with the next logo. However, this logo doesn't appear on post-2007 prints of these videos, that has the next logo instead. This also appeared on the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits or 2007 Baby Einstein videos, but with the new Baby Einstein logo instead.

3rd Logo (November 21, 2007-November 23, 2010)
Logo: Same as the previous logo, but it has been re-animated and the Baby Einstein logo is now in a box that includes the Disney logo.

Later Variant: Since 2013, the logo is seen without the Disney logo, after Disney sold Baby Einstein to Kids II, Inc.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo, but Julie Aigner-Clark now reads: "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental products, and for tips on how to create moments of discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show." or "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental and entertainment products, and for tips on how to create moments of discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show." Sometimes, Julie-Aigner Clark reads it from the previous logo.

Music/Sounds Variant: As with the previous logo, there is no voice over sometimes.

Availability: Seen on most Baby Einstein videos starting with "Lullaby Time" to "World Music", as well as the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits. The Baby Einstein Discovery Kits or 2007 Baby Einstein videos has the previous logo, but with the new Baby Einstein logo instead.