Children's Circle

Background

Children's Circle was a subsidiary of Weston Woods Studios which was created to release its children's films onto VHS in the 80s. When Scholastic acquired Weston Woods in 1996, Children's Circle came with it.

Logo (1983-1993?)

Visuals: On a white background are two red "C"'s. Inside of them is a sad face (on the left) and a happy face (on the right). Below is the text saying:

CC Studios

presents
Children's Circle™ Home Video

Copyright © Weston Woods, [release year of one of the stories on the tape, for example 1958 or 1963]

Variants:

• Some tapes only have "Children's Circle" below the logo.
• The opening shows a white-red caravan with the logo design onto it, the caravan travels to different places throughout the logo, including Central Park and the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York. Between all of that happening, over five cartoons are spotted in the video. Later on, it shows footage of two children standing on rocks, with a boy pouring a watering can on a girl's umbrella. A sad face is seen and moves onto a happy face. Three more cartoons appear after that, then the faces re-appear with the sad face changing into a happy face.
  • Some tapes have the opening end after the happy face appears the first time.
  • The featured cartoons in the intro include:
    • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
    • Morris's Disappearing Bag by Rosemary Wells
    • A Story, A Story by Gail E. Haley
    • Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
    • The Trip by Ezra Jack Keats
    • The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer
• The closing shows the same caravan as before, but starts off in a forest. Later on, four children are seen sitting on a statue of Hans Christian Andersen and they are waving at the caravan go past them. The next scene shows the same footage from the opening with the caravan going past a building. Like before, a sad face is seen and moves onto a happy face. The caravan soon goes past a farm and houses until it disappears after it goes through a forest (possibly the same one at the beginning of the closing). The main logo fades in which is exactly the same except below the logo design, it reads out:

Children's Circle™ Home Video
a CC Studios presentation

Children's Circle and the CC logo are trademarks of
CC Studios Inc, Weston CT. All rights reserved.

Technique: None for the main logo. The opening and closing use live-action and camera-controlled animation.

Audio: The main logo is silent, however for the opening it plays the song "Caravan", written by Benjamin & Freya Goldstein and performed by Christopher Wells. The closing uses an instrumental version of the song.

Availability: Seen on all Children's Circle tapes, all of which are out of print and hard to find; check your local library to see if they have any Children's Circle titles.