Simitar Entertainment

Background
Simitar Entertainment, Inc. was a Minnesota-based company founded in 1985 that released content on VHS, DVD, CD and CD-ROM. It was founded by Mickey Elfenbien and Philip Kives, who were the CEO and founder of K-Tel, respectively. They bought out Pickwick Records and began releasing music. Eventually, they became one of the leading names in budget VHS. They also released many tapes of sports footage, and spun off Simitar Motorsports Video for this purpose. They also had a short-lived Japanese animation distributor known as Ani-Magine Anime, started by John Litton. In 1997, they became the first independent film producer to release their films on DVD. Simitar Entertainment would eventually go bankrupt and shut down in 2000 after losing a lawsuit filed by Titan Sports (former owner of WWF, now known as WWE) over a 1999 knock-off compilation entitled Slammin' Wrestling Hits, which contained covers of WWF entrance themes produced without their consent. Simitar's film library ended up being sold to Brentwood Communications (later BCI Eclipse).

1st Logo (1985-1986)


Logo: On a space background, we see a black and blue scimitar (a sword with a curved blade) with a swirly-styled red "S" on the front spinning up to the center of the screen. The scimitar shines and the letters "IMITAR" slide from behind the "S" to the right to spell the word "SIMITAR". The text "ENTERTAINMENT INC." fades in below the scimitar, which shines again.

Trivia: This was the only logo of theirs which did not make use of the "Big S" logo, which was used in the next 3 logos.

Technique: Standard 80s animation.

Music/Sounds: A few droning beeps that descend in pitch.

Music/Sounds Variant: On most releases, it's silent.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen on specialty videos from Simitar Entertainment from the '80s, among others. Some 1986 releases used this with the next logo below.

Legacy: This logo is a bit infamous for its creepy jingle and the animation of the sword.

2nd Logo (1985-1990)
Logo: On a black background, a white line moves from left to right upwards many times to draw a lined square, shining the RGB colors as it moves. When it finishes drawing the square, the line takes a right curve up to draw the outline of a boxy "S". Suddenly, the logo flashes, fills in with a bluish silver gradient and the lined square turns silver, and in the lower left of the box a ray of light sweeps across, leaving a black trail with "Simitar Entertainment Inc." written in white. Then the logo shines and flashes again.

Variant: A filmed version exists.

Trivia: This was the first logo by Simitar to use their "S" logo, which would be used until the company shut down.

Technique: Pretty good 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A synth bass repeating the same note 129 times throughout, accompanied by a loud synthesized crash when the logo flashes, a loud synthesized choir that sings 5 ascending notes, another loud synthesized crash for the second flash, and finally 2 loud whoosh sounds.

Music/Sounds Variant: On some tapes, it's silent.

Availability: Rare. Seen on special interest videos released by Simitar in the 1980s, such as Vitsie and Baseball tapes. Some early releases that used this logo also used the previous logo above.

Legacy: On one hand, this logo has been a favorite and loved by many, particularly thanks to its 80's bombastic synth-music that synced well to the smooth 2D animation that still holds up well into the 90's. Many people considered this to be "awesome", "great" or even "badass". But on the other hand, this logo is also pretty infamous due to the jingle is too loud and creepy to some people.

3rd Logo (1990-2000)


Logo: On a shady blue background, we see two separate sets of gold bars at opposite angles merging into each others’ spaces in the center of the screen. From off-screen bottom, 3 stacked lines swoop up and rotate 90 degrees to reveal the familiar "S", now in gold CGI, and plasters itself onto the bars. Underneath, the 9th bar drops down and causes the gold text "Simitar" to rotate forward.

Variant: In rare instances, the end of the logo may be used in promos. This can be seen on some products featuring Simitar trailers on Amazon.

Trivia: See it or not, this logo contains an animation error as one of the gold bars protrudes from the right side of the screen before the rest of them do. Depending on the aspect ratio of your television, it may or may not be visible.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 2nd logo.

Availability: Rare. Seen on '90s Simitar Entertainment videos, and some DVDs like Dumb Luck in Vegas. It was also spotted on a tape of It's a Wonderful Life as well as a Christopher Crocodile VHS. This was also seen on the movie The Christmas Light.

Legacy: This logo wasn't as well received as the previous logo due to the animation error, and the lesser animation. But the CGI and the use of the previous logo's theme has gotten some praise.

4th Logo (DVD) (1997-2000)


Logo: On a shady denim blue-textured background with some light near the upper-left, we see a faded square in the center with a shadow drop behind it. A DVD flies around with a dust trailing effect, and parts of the Simitar logo (very much like what you see in the 3rd logo, but slightly re-textured) fly into place in the center. The word "Simitar", now in Futura font, flies around and settles underneath it, and the silver DVD logo (with a CGI DVD and a simple font for "DVD") flies into place under that. The disc seen earlier is part of this. Then the logo starts to "ripple" away before it fades out.

Technique: Pretty cheap CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A short variant of the 2nd logo's music, which starts off at the synth crash and the first synth choir note.

Availability: Rare. Can be seen on most Simitar DVDs, including The Killing Man, Firehouse, Mob War, Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe, Search and Destroy (1988), Hyperspace, Cybernator, Cartel, Red Scorpion, The Naked Truth, Werewolf, Dead End, Ninja Academy, Bloodstone, and Glitch!, among others. This can sometimes be found on Simitar-related Amazon Video Shorts (which is used mainly for trailers and promos of films, TV shows, etc), in tandem with the 3rd logo.

Legacy: This logo has been heavily criticized for its cheap and stiff animation and shoddy appearance. This logo was used only on DVDs, with the 3rd used in tandem.