Hanna-Barbera Poland

Background

Hanna-Barbera Poland was a Polish branch of Hanna-Barbera Productions that dealt with the promotion and distribution of animated films from the studio in the country. The company is most well known for releasing VHS tapes with Polish music distributor P.P. Polskie Nagrania (later self-distributing them) which mostly consisted of numbered compilation releases featuring various Hanna-Barbera shows on one tape.

Hanna Barbera Poland also owned a studio that outsourced animation for several of the company's cartoons as part of the partnership. The studio animated the "Joseph and his Brothers" episode of the Direct-to-Video series The Great Adventure Stories from the Bible, as well as the final season of The Smurfs, and the second season of The Flintstone Kids.

In 1993, the company was separated and was re-incorporated as Curtis Art Productions, but continued to release Hanna-Barbera VHS releases under license from Turner Entertainment Co.

(1988-1993)

Logo: On a blue background, a 3D cube slowly zooms in into the center of the screen, rotating as it does this. The background of the cube is black with a half yellow, half black lemon-like shape. On the yellow side is a black "H" and on the black side is a "B" with the straight part yellow and the rounded parts red. One side of the cube has a yellow background with the colored sides of the lemon shape switched and the "B" is yellow. After a bit, the cube freezes and it cuts to a copyright screen on the same blue background with the following white text:

© HANNA BARBERA PRODUCTIONS
INC. Hollywood USA

After a bit, once again on the same blue background, two squares with white borders flip towards the screen from the top-left and top-right sides, respectively. The left square has the "HB" in the half black lemon-half yellow background with "POLAND" in white in the bottom left near the "H" with a white border. The right square has a black background with a white circle with a red musical note inside the circle. When the two logos meet, the following white words fade in below:

HANNA-BARBERA POLAND
P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA

Then it cuts to another screen with the H-B Poland square and below is the following text:

dystrybucja przez
HANNA-BARBERA POLAND

we współdziałaniu z
WORLDVISION ENTERPRISES, USA

This roughly translates to "distributed by HANNA-BARBERA POLAND in cooperation with WORLDVISION ENTERPRISES, USA".

Then after a moment, it cuts to a square in the background (similar to an album sleeve). The square is lime green with a colored music scale (color order from top to bottom: white, yellow, red and blue) with a record in the middle and three music notes (in order: red, yellow and blue). The red note is at the bottom-left of the scale, the yellow is in the middle of the record and the blue is on the top-right of the record. And below that is:

sprzedaż i wynajem
P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA

This roughly translates to "sale and rental: P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA".

Variants: There are several variants used of this logo.

On Early-Mid 1989 releases, an extra screen for a promotion company called Unifilm was added: On a light blue background, we see a yellow strip going diagonally with black borders with "UNIFILM" in black in the middle of it. Two red circles are on the left and right respectively. A red circle is above with "uF". Below the line is white Polish language. This screen appears between the "Distributed by HANNA-BARBERA POLAND" screen and the "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" screen.
- On late-1989-Mid-1990 releases, another Unifilm logo replaced the one above. It features a yellow background and with the strip in a lighter tone of yellow which used the normal music and the first music variant described below.
On late-1990 releases, the Unifilm and Worldvision parts are removed, so the main screen with the flipping logos cuts rights to the "P.P. POLSKIE NAGRANIA" screen after they flip.
On Early-Mid 1991 releases, the copyright and flipping animation sequences are removed entirely and just goes straight to the "Distributed by" screen sans the Worldvision info. This variant also lacks the UNIFILM and Polskie Nagrania logos at the end.
- On Late-1991-Early 1992 tapes, the same variant is used although the copyright sequence is re-added.
- Another variant seen on Late-1991 tapes has the copyright screen after the "Distributed by" screen, and following the screen, a poster for "OSKAREK '91" opens up and appears. This screen has a pair of twinkling sounds, one for the opening and the other after it opens.
- On Late-1992-Early-1993 tapes, this variant is used sans the Oskarek screen.
The last VHS tapes with this logo from 1993 features the rotating cube animation, it cuts to a completely different logo. On a green background, there is a black swirl in a white circle, with a parrot head on the end. Below it is "Hanna-Barbera Poland" in the signature H-B font. Unlike the other variant, this stays on screen through out the music's length.
Two versions exist which just have one screen: One with the H-B Poland and Polskie Nagrania logos with no flipping animation, and one with just the Polskie Nagrania logo. These versions use the first music variant.

Music/Sounds: At the first part where the cube revolves, a gong is heard. Then at the copyright screen, a repeated six-note synth tune plays. Interestingly, this was heard in the Charter Entertainment logo (including a synth strum at the end). This is actually a piece of stock music called "Music - Billboard #2" from the Sound Ideas Series 1000 sound library.

Music/Sound Variants:

Some versions have a soft xylophone theme that plays through out all of the animation.
Sometimes the gong sound is missing and the synth tune plays immediately.
Some other occasions, have the logo silent for a few seconds and the synthesized music plays before cutting from the cube.
During each program, a narrator can be heard.

Availability: Seen on Hanna-Barbera home video releases in Poland at the time and presumably also on Polish television, so it is possible you may run into it (especially if you live in Poland).

Editor's Note: This logo is a favorite of many, especially of those in Poland.