DHX Cookie Jar

Background
Founded in 1976, CINAR (pronounced "seh-NAR") was originally a film distribution company that distributed international/foreign films from the 1970s to the early 1980s from offices in New York City. The company was owned by the married couple Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Weinberg (née Charest).

In 1984, things were changing for CINAR as the couple moved the company to Montreal, Quebec, and began to focus on children's TV programming. Between 1985 and 2004, CINAR produced a number of successful shows such as Arthur, Caillou, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Adventures of David the Gnome, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Zoboomafoo, among others.

Things fell apart for the company in 2000, when the founders invested $100,000,000 into Bahamian banks without any approval from the board, causing heavy chaos, including a major drop in its stock value and costly lawsuits. When this scandal was happening, Weinberg and Charest's popularity dropped heavily, and as a result, the founders decided to resign.

In March 2004, the company was bought out by Michael Hirsh after he left Nelvana Limited (owned by Corus Entertainment), and renamed and rebranded it as Cookie Jar Entertainment. On April 14, 2004, Charest died after complications from plastic surgery.

On August 20, 2012, DHX Media (now known as WildBrain) announced that it would acquire Cookie Jar for $111 million, and it was completed on October 22 of the same year, with Cookie Jar Entertainment, Inc. rebranding as "DHX Cookie Jar, Inc." The last two shows to feature the Cookie Jar name on screen were Ella the Elephant and the sixth series of Johnny Test, and since then the company has remained an in-name-only company of DHX Media/WildBrain.

1st Logo (May 2, 1987-1996)
Nicknames: "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, Adventures of the Little Koala, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1993-94 season, before the 2nd logo was introduced).
 * On Ivanhoë - Chevalier du roi, the logo is still on a white box, next to the France Animation one.
 * 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: Primitive CGI animation.

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 Sony Wonder/Classic Media DVD releases of the Madeline specials retain this logo, but all other reissues plaster it with Cookie Jar's logo.
 * 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.
 * The logo made a surprise appearance on Ivanhoe (1996).

2nd Logo (October 28, 1992-June 23, 2004)
Nicknames: "CINAR in Space", "CGI CINAR"

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: Great CGI for the time, which held up somewhat well through the 2000s.

Music/Sounds: A whoosh with a calm synth tune (it may have debuted in the mid or late-'90s) 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 in its own time, but is now rare, due to plastering with Cookie Jar and (as of recently) 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 either the Cookie Jar logo. On Cartoonito US prints of Cailliou, both logos were plastered with WildBrain's.
 * 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.
 * In America, the logo was left intact on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo when they aired on NickRewind, and 2000-2002 episodes of Caillou on the PBS Kids Video App. It was also retained on Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll when it last aired on PBS Kids on February 20, 2022, along with the 1993 WGBH logo. This is mainly due to the audio being a custom cover by The Backstreet Boys, and plastering the logos would probably get in the way and mess everything up.
 * In Canada, this is also intact on pre-2000 episodes of Caillou on Treehouse, but is plastered with Cookie Jar's logo on post-2000 episodes on said channel and every episode on Family Jr. currently. 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 short version also appeared on Mona the Vampire, in addition to the "CINAR PRESENTS" in-credit opening logo. Once again, post-2004 releases (eg, ThisTV airings) of the series plaster it with Cookie Jar, but Knowledge Network/BBC Kids airings
 * It can also be found on the series The Upstairs Downstairs Bears, but Smile of A Child's airings of the said show cut all of the show's logos out.
 * 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.
 * It made its final appearances on Creepschool and Potatoes & Dragons (the former of which was the last show to use this logo).

3rd Logo (1999-2001)
Logo: We zoom to a dimly-illuminated filmstrip laid on a brown ground, and then the CINAR logo jumps onto the ground. We slowly zoom onto the logo as the same byline from the previous logo appears below.

FX/SFX: CGI animation, albeit cheaper compared to the last logo.

Music/Sounds: Bouncing sounds are heard over the sound of an airplane landing while the logo jumps when it's finished, we hear some babies and animals laughing and cheering, heard over a honk and a harp.

Availability: Ultra rare. The only known release to use this was the Canadian Sony Wonder DVD release of Caillou: Volume 2 after the Sony Wonder logo, and may have been seen on the late '90s shows before it was plastered by the previous logo, or a Cookie Jar logo. It might be seen on VHS promos as well.

Legacy: Considering its obscurity, it only became widely known about in 2015.

4th Logo (2000, November 18, 2002-October 7, 2003)
Nickname: "CINAR in the Sky"

Logo: On a sunny sky, we see the CINAR logo, in white, zooming out on a blue/green gradient oval, with the same copyright stamp and URL from the previous logo fading in.

Variants:
 * Like the 2nd logo, a French version of the byline was used.
 * On the final season of Mona the Vampire, the logo is superimposed over an image of a dark sky and a town underneath, with a bat flying over the logo.
 * On CBBC UK airings of the final season of the aforementioned show, the Mona the Vampire variant of this logo is still, and the "www.cinar.com" URL website is absent, leaving only the CINAR logo, and the same byline.
 * On Zoboomafoo: Playtime, Zobooland, and Zoboomafoo: Leapin' Lizards, the print logo is on a white background.
 * On the Warner Home Video and Sony Wonder DVD's of Caillou's Holiday Movie, this logo appears, but without the byline.

FX/SFX: Simple CGI.

Music/Sounds:
 * On Caillou's Holiday Movie, a whoosh followed by Caillou laughing is heard.
 * On Mona the Vampire, the closing theme of the show, or silence as seen on the show's French dub.

Availability: Ultra rare. After Michael Hirsh acquired CINAR because of their 2000 scandal (as well as debts and losing worth) in March 2004, CINAR went kaput.
 * When though the print logo was introduced in 2000, it only appeared on Zoboomafoo games.
 * The original variant is only seen on the Sony Wonder and Warner Home Video releases of Caillou's Holiday Movie. Like with the above, re-releases and re-airings of the special plaster this logo with Cookie Jar's (while keeping Caillou's laughter from the logo).
 * The only actual show this logo was seen on was the final season of Mona the Vampire. The logo was preserved on the Canadian-English channel BBC Kids (until the channel ceased operations on December 31, 2018) and on Knowledge Network, but otherwise, it was plastered with Cookie Jar when This TV aired the series.
 * This logo never appeared on any other CINAR show in-production at the time, like Arthur, Caillou (save for the original 2003 release of Caillou's Holiday Movie), or even Zoboomafoo, which all continued to use the second logo.

Legacy: It's considered by many to be a disappointing end to an otherwise solid lineup from the company due to its simpler CGI.

(October 11, 2004-December 25, 2014)
Cookie Jar Toons:

Nicknames: "The Exploding Jar", "The Jar of Annoyance", "The Jar of Plastering"

Logo: On a black background, we see the stacked text "COOKIE JAR" in a custom font, resting on a rounded yellow line and a lid on top with a byline reading "Cookie Jar is a trademark of Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc.". Suddenly, the lid flies off and two bright lights emerge out of the jar. The lid then falls back down, tilted.

Variants:
 * A prototype version has the jar swinging up and down and then laughing can be heard. The "COOKIE JAR" text is in a slightly different font. It uses the 2003 CINAR logo music, and ironically, the audio fits this logo way better than the aforementioned logo. It was seen on an unofficial Greek dub of Caillou's Holiday Movie and certain early prints of Arthur (shortened), while Postcards from Buster uses a still without copyright info.
 * There are two regular versions of the logo:
 * One that animates traditionally but fast-paced. There's an extended version of this, with the jar shakes first before it explodes, introduced in 2004.
 * One another has the logo CG-animated but slower, with the Comic Sans byline font, introduced in 2008.
 * A French variant of the byline exists, reading "Cookie Jar est une marque de commerce de Divertissement Cookie Jar inc." and can be found on French dubs of shows like Caillou.
 * On Gerald McBoing-Boing, the logo is superimposed over the credits.
 * On season 9 and 2006 DVDs of Arthur, the logo simply swings and zooms in.
 * Sometimes, the logo is still.
 * There may also be a "www.thecookiejarcompany.com" URL below, for the 2004 regular version.
 * This logo would sometimes be seen with the word "TOONS" below for their block on This TV.
 * There's also a variant featuring the Cookie Jar Toons logo in a red, blue and yellow-striped background. Used for the start of the block.
 * On the Johnny Test game for NDS, the logo is on a white circle and is still.
 * In 2009 on CBS' KEWLopolis, the logo played in warp speed.
 * Starting with Deadtime Stories, the byline reads "COOKIE JAR is a trademark of DHX Cookie Jar Inc." with "A DHX Media Company" under it.
 * Later in the last season of Johnny Test, the byline was moved up to the logo.
 * One of the latest variants removes the DHX Cookie Jar byline (leaving just the "A DHX Media Company" byline) and the DHX Media logo is seen with blue cartoon-y clouds on the bottom.
 * On early seasons of Arthur on Amazon Prime, the "www.thecookiejarcompany.com" URL is blacked out. This becomes obvious when the lights burst from the jar.
 * On Kung Fu Dino Posse, the byline reads "Cookie Jar™ Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc." under it.
 * When this logo first plastered the Cinar logo on Caillou, a rare early variant was seen where a still version of the prototype logo is seen superimposed over the credits.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Adams Morioka.

FX/SFX: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: Either the end theme of the show, none at all, or a "pop" sound followed by a playful dance-pop tune and a child giggling (sometimes extended).

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * There are kids that are saying "Cookie Jar!" cheerfully that's merged with the standard jingle. This was introduced in 2008.
 * There is also a sound of a lid popping up and then clinging when the lid closes (also merged with the standard jingle).
 * On the commercial break bumpers of This TV's Cookie Jar Toons block, the announcer (either it's male or female) says "Don't go away, Cookie Jar Toons will be right back.", "We'll be right back with more Cookie Jar Toons.", "Welcome back to Cookie Jar Toons." or "And now, back to Cookie Jar Toons.".
 * On Polish airings of Sonic Underground, it uses the 1999 DIC logo's music, with the kid saying "Deek!" and all! This is probably because the TV station forgot to update the audio track. Other airings have the correct audio described above.
 * On a 2010 episode of Johnny Test on the show's official YouTube channel, due to some audio channels being removed, only one of the kids' voices is heard.
 * On current prints of Caillou's Holiday Movie, the 2003-2004 CINAR variant audio from said movie can be heard over the original music. There was another variant from the said movie where the whoosh was replaced by the regular jingle and there was still Caillou's laughter.
 * On a Serbian-dubbed print of the original Inspector Gadget series, this logo had the music from the Inspector Gadget custom variant of the 2nd DIC logo. This is possibly due to a bad plaster job.
 * On Madeline: The Complete Collection, some episodes of The New Adventures of Madeline to be specific, the 1999 DIC logo's music could briefly be heard.
 * On the Russian-dubbed print of one episode of Inspector Gadget, it plays over the credits theme, plastering the DIC logo, but afterwards, the 1996 Saban logo music is heard on the black BG without animation. This was likely due to "dubbers" having forgotten to edit the audio. This can be seen also on other prints, like a (for example, episode 104) DHX Kids Russia print.
 * On WildBrain's YouTube prints of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episodes "Mario of the Apes" and "Crocodile Mario", the 2008 Cookie Jar and the 1990 warp-speed DIC themes are both playing at the same time. Other prints of those episodes only have the 2008 Cookie Jar theme.
 * On a Greek print of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episodes "Lovesick Sonic" and "Blank Headed Eagle", the 1990 DIC theme played over this logo.
 * Current prints of The Busy World of Richard Scarry replace the CINAR variant with the horizontal "COOKIE JAR" text on both the English and French versions.
 * On some current prints of shows, especially in future cases, the WildBrain theme is used, due to sloppy editing.

Availability: No longer current, but it is still ultra common. The reason for this is due to the company plastering any CINAR or DIC logos on any show they owned, especially the 2008 post-DiC folding logo. In fact, it might be one of the most common children's entertainment company logos to ever be seen.
 * It appears on every show by CINAR after its rebrand, such as seasons 9-15 of Arthur (also on current prints of the first eight seasons), Caillou (2004-13), The Doodlebops and its obscure spin-off series Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show, Johnny Test beginning with its third season, the 2005 version of Gerald McBoing-Boing, and others.
 * It also plasters over any DIC and CINAR logo used on shows produced from said companies, especially on modern DVD prints from companies like Mill Creek Entertainment.
 * The 2009 version even plasters the original 2004 version at times, as seen on Cookie Jar TV prints of The Doodlebops.
 * Some shows will go as far to replace their opening credit logos as well, as with The Busy World of Richard Scarry, which kept the Paramount logo but replaced the "A CINAR Presentation" on the in-credit logo with "A COOKIE JAR Presentation". Mona the Vampire would do the same, although sometimes there is no text at all.
 * NCircle's DVD releases of Cookie Jar's archive programming have the jingle version followed by the NCircle logo, while This TV broadcasts of their archive programs (many of which had not been seen in the U.S. beforehand) under the title This is For Kids or (for E/I shows) Cookie Jar Toons had this logo plastered over any CINAR/DIC logos, with the exception of some episodes of Inspector Gadget (which uses the 2001-2002 Fox Family/Fox Kids international prints with the 2nd "Kid in Bed", the Saban International logo and the Fox Kids logo), at least until 2013, when the block was dropped.
 * The clouds variant is rare and was only used on the second half of the final season of Johnny Test and Ella the Elephant.
 * Current prints of Caillou on Cartoonito plaster this and the second CINAR logo with the WildBrain logo.
 * Prints of Inspector Gadget currently streamed on The Roku Channel use the 2008 variant of the logo, plastering the DIC logo.
 * Original prints of Noonbory and the Super 7 had the end theme play over the logo, but WildBrain reprints instead use the logo's jingle. This is likely due to WildBrain chopping up the footage and cutting out certain scenes, including part of the credits music.

Legacy: Some people may find this annoying due to its omnipresence, others who grew up with it consider it a favorite.