Flying Rhinoceros

Background
Flying Rhinoceros was a Portland-based animation studio founded in 1994 by Ray Nelson, Jr. after he left Will Vinton Studios (now Laika), also in Portland. It produced children's entertainment products for the religious-owned Tommy Nelson, Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt and other companies, but is best known for creating Flying Rhino Junior High for the Canadian Nelvana. Many other employees from Vinton began showing up at the studio, including Barry Bruce (who died in 2021 from cancer) and Douglas Kelly, the latter of whom was involved in the production of books published by Nelson. In 1998, the studio released Flying Rhinoceros Amazing Brain Online Optimization Machine (FRABOOM), an edutainment website which was described as an online children's museum with a similar format to those like educational rivals StarFall and ABCmouse. Ranjy Thomas served as an executive producer for the studio since 2003 and replaced Nelson as CEO in 2009. A few years later, Flying Rhinoceros ended its contract with Tommy Nelson and absorbed all of its operations into FRABOOM, which remained active while continuing to use the Flying Rhinoceros name, until 2016 when it was shut down. In 2018, Nelson published a website for a new studio titled "Really Big Creative", but it's unknown if he, or the studio, is still active or not, though he does continue to sell books.

1st Logo (2004-2006)


Logo: On a gradient blue background, we see a drawing of a grey rhinoceros wearing brown pilot gear and a pink scarf riding a yellow bi-plane. He is smirking and giving a thumbs up. The whole drawing is enclosed in a blue triangle with a red, v-shaped banner underneath, which reads "FLYING RHINOCEROS" in Arbitary Bold, with the "R" in a different font and placed in the middle of the banner. Above the logo is a red/orange/yellow banner reading "Entertainment." The logo zooms in slowly.

Trivia:


 * The logo was designed by Ray Nelson in 1994.
 * The rhino in this logo was actually sculpted by Ben Adams, an employee at the studio, for their headquarters at the Northwest Overton area in Portland. It was revealed at the studio's grand opening in 1999, but was removed when the studio relocated in 2012.
 * The logo made a cameo appearance in the Flying Rhino Junior High episode "Inverted and Unglued", where it appears on a stamp towards the end of the episode. The logo also appears frequently on several episodes, where it is shown as a statue in the school's main hall.
 * The logo looks like a bootleg Superman symbol. Ironically, the studio also made Horned Avenger, which resembles a ripoff of Batman. This has never been confirmed by Nelson or anybody else.

Variants:


 * There is an early variant on books released before 1998. Here, the rhinoceros is shaded and more detailed.
 * On episodes of BoomToons, the logo is still on a black background, with "A Flying Rhinoceros Production" underneath it.
 * The colors of the logo vary, depending on what book it is. The normal color scheme was introduced with a 1996 reprint of Connie and Bonnie's Birthday Blast-Off, first released in 1994. Plus, the wordmark in the top banner varies as well, but often says "EDUCATION."
 * An animated version was used on their website (flyingrhino.com/newui). Here, the scarf is flapping and the plane's fan is spinning. It can be found on the Wayback Machine, but because Flash was discontinued in 2020, it's now extinct, unless we use an emulator such as Ruffle.
 * A prototype logo was used before 1996. It features a white circle with the rhino's head sticking out of it. He is now scowling. Underneath is the company name in cursive, and "P R O D U C T I O N S" in an Impact-like font.

Technique: Just the logo zooming in. For the website variant, it's Flash animation

Music/Sounds: The sound of a jet, followed by a 9-note xylophone tune, likely stock music as it is also used in the funding credits for PBS's Arthur.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Horned Avenger: The Battle Against Von Boredom, as well as On the Farm with Farmer Bob DVDs. They're no longer in stores, so we can only find them on Amazon.

2nd Logo (2006-2016)


Note: Logo starts at 0:27.

Logo: On a white background, a black stick figure is standing on a grey hill. A smaller stick figure, presumably a child, runs up to it and is held up. The camera zooms out, revealing the hill to be a rhinoceros similar to the one from the previous logo, but he's undressed and no plane is shown. To the right of him is a light blue rectangle reading "flying rhinoceros" in black, with a "Connecting Parents and Kids" slogan in white underneath. The rhinoceros bops its head a bit.

Trivia: The rhinoceros was created to promote the release of FRABOOM in 1998. The kid running and the father standing and hugging the kid is actually based on the concept of the "Father and Son" design for Nick Jr.

Variants:


 * In 2013, a new logo was introduced on their website (www.flyingrhino.com). Here, the rhinoceros is white and no slogan or rectangle are used.
 * There is also a variant similar to the 2013 variant exclusive to FRABOOM-related material, where the rhino is an outline and the text "FRABOOM Network" replaces the text.

Technique: Flash animation done in-house.

Music/Sounds: A violin tune, accompanied by the child giggling, followed by a xylophone/trumpet tune when the camera zooms out.

Availability: Rare. The rhinoceros first appeared on FRABOOM in 1998, but the logo was not used until the release of Horned Avenger: Brainfreeze Drawing a Blank in 2006. It later appeared on Gigi: God's Little Princess DVDs. It doesn't plaster the previous logo on some versions of their websites, books nor box art, though.