Atkinson Film-Arts

Background

Atkinson-Film-Arts was originally formed in 1974 as Atkinson Film-Arts and was founded by Vic Atkinson and Jonathan Finkelstein. The company had its success with The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, as well as various children's classics, the four specials, as well as the first season episodes of The Raccoons and Christmas specials of the period. It acquired Crawley Films in 1982, along with its Graphic Films subsidiary for $1. It was later renamed to Crawleys Animation in 1987.

1st Logo (April 22, 1983-October 23, 1987)

Logo: On a light-streaked navy blue background (looking somewhat identical to the purple-colored background for the Britt Allcroft logo), we see 2 blue shapes made up of fancy doily-like curving lines, zooming out together, and don't appear to be in focus. Then the text "aTKInson FILm-arTs" appears between the 2 shapes, which come into focus.

Variant: An early still in-credit logo previously appeared on early-1980s TV specials onward, including the first 2 Care Bears specials, For Better or for Worse: The Bestest Present and Babar and Father Christmas.

Technique: Computer animation.

Music/Sounds: 5 synth tinks, then 4 synth flute notes and a synth choir sounder. On the first 5-part Teddy Ruxpin miniseries, there is no music.

Music/Sounds Variant: On the The World of Teddy Ruxpin VHS from 1986, the logo is silent, until you hear a bit of the very beginning of the LBS Communications logo. The LBS logo was mistakenly plastered by the Hi-Tops Video logo.

Availability: Rare. The animated version was only seen on The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin; while the still one appeared on a few TV specials during the 1980s. It is intact on uploads of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin to the official The Jim Henson Company YouTube channel. The Racoons series and specials used only in-credit notices for "animation production".

2nd Logo (1985-1987)

Logo: On a blue screen background, we see a boy and a girl in front of a TV set which is flashing. The camera zooms in on the TV screen in a Viacom V of Doom fashion as the kids slide to the left and right side of the screen. When the camera zooms up on the TV, we see a green background with a vortex of spiraling books (In order, yellow, blue, red, sky blue, tan, navy blue, tangerine, green, purple, and orange. There are also another red book and another yellow book, but are out of place of the spiral pattern, but it might've been intentional.) fading into the background, with a flash appearing with rainbow strips, making the whole screen flash once again with a book flying towards the screen and the Atkinson Film-Arts logo appears on the book in an angled view along with "CARTOON CLASSICS." The logo ends with the book opening and turning the pages beginning the show.

Technique: Cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A 12-note synth tune plays as the camera zooms in on the TV. The sound of a spiraling vortex plays with a fading in synth making the flash. A dreamy synth tune appears and echoes out as the book opens and its pages turn.

Availability: Rare. This is seen on their "Cartoon Classics" line of animated specials, and thus can be seen on The Nightingale, The Velveteen Rabbit, and The Tin Soldier on VHS.

Atkinson Film-Arts

Crawleys Animation

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