Associated Artists Productions Cartoons

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum

Note: This page is about Associated Artists Productions used on cartoon re-releases. For the description for live-action re-releases, click here.

1st Logo (1956-1958)

Visuals: The initials "a.a.p." appear in lowercase, with the "p" having a very long stem and the stems for all the letters are in a different color than the rest of the logo. There's also a light on the letters, but only on the B&W version. Alongside the "p's" stem are the words "ASSOCIATED ARTISTS PRODUCTIONS INC.", and below all that is the word "Presents", written in cursive.

Closing Title: At the end of a short, the logo appears with the following message above it: "This picture has been presented by". Also, the full name of the company appears horizontally under the initials, with a space where the "p's" stem is. Again, there's a light on the letters on the B&W version.

Technique: This is a hand-drawn graphic.

Audio: The beginning or end of the music in whatever short has the logo.

Availability: At one point, they could still be seen on the colorized Fleischer Popeye shorts when aired on Boomerang, but newer airings post-2023 just use the B&W restorations from the Warner Archive DVD releases. Can still be spotted occasionally when a Fleischer redrawn pops up on TCM, airing instead of the B&W version.

2nd Logo (1956-1958)


Visuals:

  • Popeye The Sailor Man: On a blue bumpy background is a yellow and 3D version of the "a.a.p." logo from before. The camera backs away a bit, and then the words "associated artists productions" and "presents" appear (with "presents" in script), along with Popeye's head, Olive Oyl and Popeye. Some copyright info for King Features Syndicate is shown at the bottom left.
  • Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies: The same logo, but instead of Popeye's head, Olive Oyl and Popeye, are Porky's head, Daffy's head, Elmer and Bugs. The copyright is for Warner Bros. instead of King Features Syndicate, of course.

Closing Title: Exclusive to Popeye cartoons, the closing title is the same as the first, except for the specific background and color of the text from this variation plus the placement of the company's name is different (it appears on two lines at the left of the "p's" stem).

Variants:

  • On the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Daffy Duck and Egghead", a blue-tinted version of the logo is used.
  • A black-and-white variant of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies version exists, seen on AAP's prints of the 1931-33 black-and-white Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.

Technique: Live-action camera and fading effects.

Audio:

  • Popeye The Sailor Man: One of the 1943-1948 Popeye intro themes (Longer cut of "The Sailor's Hornpipe" followed by "Popeye the Sailor Man" version common for this era). The ending logo uses the closing cue to the 1948 Popeye cartoon "Olive Oyl for President" (note they usually cut the "wah-wah" ending heard on said short)
  • Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies: Warner Bros. cartoons use the first half of the Merrie Melodies "Merrily We Roll Along" theme over the whole logo, that being the 1941-1945 rendition. They also keep the original opening credits and logos, unlike with the Popeye cartoons.

Audio Variants:

  • On an old print of the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Super Rabbit", the logo is silent.
  • On the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Tweetie Pie", the cartoon's complete original opening music and cartoon title music played over the AAP logo and reissue titles.
  • A few shorts spliced the 1937 Merrie Melodies music: the original '37 music plays for about one second, then cuts to the 1941 Merrie Melodies music. On 1937 cartoons such as "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" and "Streamlined Greta Green", the original music then resumes where it had been spliced. This weird edit also occurred on 1934's "Pop Goes Your Heart" for reasons unknown.
  • On Popeye cartoons filmed in Cinecolor and Polacolor, the cartoons' original Paramount music cues are intact.
  • On some public domain cartoons, the Popeye theme may be dubbed over to avoid copyright issues over "Popeye the Sailor Man." As an example, there's a variant that plays a loop of "The Sailor's Hornpipe" to do this.

Availability: Restoration of Popeye and WB cartoons mean less sightings of this logo, although it's still not hard to find.

  • Could be easily spotted on many 1980s and 1990s VHS releases of public domain Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons.
  • Tooncast (in Latin America) also keeps the WB version of this logo on two pre-1948 Daffy Duck cartoons, surprisingly, whenever they rerun Looney Tunes shorts.
  • It also appeared when TCM aired the two-reel Popeye "movies".
  • It also made another surprise appearance before the Looney Tunes short "Meatless Flyday" during the April Fools' 2023 Looney Tunes marathon on Cartoon Network.
  • The Looney Tunes variant of this logo has also appeared on MeTV on the short "I Taw a Putty Tat", as it was the Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals VHS copy from MGM/UA Home Video, as well as on several Censored Eleven prints released unofficially on Blu-ray by well-intentioned bootleg outfit Thunderbean Animation.
  • The Popeye variant of this logo can also be seen on several Famous Studios Popeye shorts on the Boomerang streaming app.
    • Also, it's spotted on TCM airings of them on Saturday mornings, plus on MeTV on Toon In With Me and Saturday Morning Cartoons.
  • The Popeye closing variant also appears at the end of the RSVP VHS release of Popeye Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves.

Legacy: The Warner Bros. variant is well-known amongst animation historians and fans of Looney Tunes for its presence on the "Censored Eleven" cartoons.

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