Disney Educational Productions

Background

Disney Educational Productions (formerly Walt Disney Educational Media Company until 1987) was established in 1969 as a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company to produce educational media. It produced educational series such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, as well as educational shorts, many involving Disney characters.

Walt Disney Educational Media Company

Contents

1st Logo (Late 1970s-Mid 1980s)	2nd Logo (1984?-August 2, 1987)

Contents

1st Logo (1988-2002?)	2nd Logo (2008-2017?)

Walt Disney Educational Media Company

1st Logo (Late 1970s-Mid 1980s)

Visuals: The WDEMC logo of the time is either presented over a randomized background or superimposed over the opening credits. The logo features a yellow Mickey head on the top, but styled like a radar globe and is wearing a graduation cap. Below that is the company name in yellow, styled like this:

WALT DiSNEY
EDUCATIONAL
MEDIA COMPANY
Presents

Trivia: The globe Mickey resembles the 1971-1996 Walt Disney World logo.

Variant: The logo may be featured in different colors, or in-credit.

Technique: A still, superimposed graphic.

Audio: None or the opening theme. On educational re-issues of the Goofy shorts, the horn stinger, composed by George Bruns from the Buena Vista Pictures Distribution logo is heard.

Availability: Unknown.^[Examples?]

2nd Logo (1984?-August 2, 1987)

Visuals: An animated version of the previous logo. On a black background, the Mickey head from the previous logo, tilted upwards, zooms out to the top of the screen. It tilts downwards, and "WALT DiSNEY" in black with a blue glow and in its usual corporate font writes itself onscreen. As this happens, the Mickey head glows and turns metallic. After the writing, "EDUCATIONAL MEDIA COMPANY Presents" (written exactly like the previous logo but in a different font) wipes onto the screen via 'sparkle' effect. The remainder of the logo has the entire logo shining.

Closing Variant: After the ending credits of the film, the Mickey head fades in the black background with the text "THE END" under it.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Audio: A twinkling theme when the logo forms. When the company name writes itself, an 8-note rising horn fanfare plays throughout. This ends with twinkling sounds and a majestic sounder.

Audio Variant: Sometimes, it's the opening theme of the film.

Availability: It was used during WDEMC's last period before its rebranding as Disney Educational Productions. Its last known appearance was in Goofy's Hygiene Game.

Disney Educational Productions

1st Logo (1988-2002?)

Visuals: Over a black background, Mickey Mouse, wearing a graduation cap and holding a book, fades in via 'glitter' effect on the left hand side of the screen. Mickey then opens the book, and throws out sparkling dust that forms the white-pink text "DiSNEY" in the corporate Disney font. The words "Educational Productions" in a sans-serif typeface fade in underneath a second later as a copyright notice fades in underneath Mickey. The text shines, and Mickey blinks a couple of times before turning completely static.

Trivia: It should be worth noting that the buttons on Mickey's pants are gold, whereas they are usually white.

Variants:

Sometimes, the copyright notice doesn't appear.
Starting in the mid-1990s, the standard variant (described above) was retired and replaced with an alternate version that just shows the text in the center of the screen. Only "DiSNEY" shines here.
- On DEP-distributed VHS tapes of Bill Nye the Science Guy, the logo now has a silver/purple color scheme, "Educational Productions" is in a different serif font, and "Distributed by" is seen above the logo.
  - A variant without the "Distributed by" text and with much simpler looking text appears on The Way Cool Game of Science DVDs.
A shorter version, which cuts out Mickey appearing, can be seen on DEP-distributed VHS tapes of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Sometimes, the copyright date may be expanded upon.

Technique: Camera-controlled motion graphics combined with hand-drawn animation.

Audio: The opening theme of the film in most cases.

Audio Variant(s):

Some films have their own versions of the music:
- A synth orchestral pad, followed by a mellow flute-based theme accompanied by twinkling sound effects when Mickey throws the sparkling dust, used on Fitness Fun with Goofy.
- On Disney's Animated Alphabet, an upbeat pop-based synth theme was used.
- A quirky Teletubbies or The Magic School Bus-esque theme, used on Bill Nye the Science Guy tapes and Recycle Rex. This is by far the most common theme.
- A synth-pop theme a la Frankie Goes to Hollywood with synth bells as Mickey throws out the sparkling dust, which continues after the logo fades out, used on the Language Arts Through Imagination videos How Does It Feel to Be an Elephant? and How Does Sound Sound?.
- A soothing flute theme with a harp glissando as Mickey throws out the sparkling dust and a synth "ding", used on the Goofy Field Trips shorts.
- A synth tune with a marching band flair, used on the Mickey Field Trips shorts.
- A spooky theme, used on Mickey's Safety Club - Halloween Surprises.
- Another synth theme with magical sparkles as Mickey fades in and throws the dust, used on Mickey's Safety Club - Playground Fun.
The later variant uses a calming synth tune.
The logo may be silent.
Mickey laughs on some films.

Availability:

Appears on VHS, Betamax and VCDs from the company, especially Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Its first known appearance was on the 1988 short Do Dragons Dream?.
It appeared on the Goofy short, Tennis Racquet on the UK DVD of Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Goofy (2002; although it was released in 2009 in said country). This is mostly due to Disney using the latest re-issues of those shorts, including ones re-issued for educational use.
The closing variant can be seen at the beginning of Recycle Rex (1993).
It's unknown whether or not it appeared on the classroom edition of The Color of Friendship (2000) on DVD.

2nd Logo (2008-2017?)

Visuals: On a gradient black/blue background, the word "DISNEY" (in the 2006 script) zooms out, followed by the words "EDUCATIONAL" and "PRODUCTIONS". Then a star draws "Building thinkers every day" before stopping and leaving a translucent trail below "EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIONS".

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A majestic synth sounder with twinkling sounds.

Availability: Seen on recent DVDs of that time such as the Science of Disney Imagineering series.