Jim Henson Pictures

Background

Jim Henson Pictures was a motion picture unit formed on July 21, 1995 as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company. It was run by Jim Henson's children Brian (the company's founder) and Lisa Henson and Martin G. Baker. Under their original deal, the Jim Henson Company undertook to produce around twelve films for Columbia Pictures, which would finance and distribute them, over a five year period. They had many ideas, including plans to do several Muppet movies. Ultimately, only four films were made under the Jim Henson Pictures banner: Buddy, Muppets from Space, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and Good Boy! (the latter of which was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), none of which were successful at the box office. The joint venture was dissolved in 2004 when The Muppets franchise was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.

1st Logo (1997)

Logo: Against a sunset sky background, we see a silhouette of Kermit the Frog sitting on a large crane with a motion picture camera. Under it is "Jim Henson" in its corporate font with "PICTURES" in spaced-out letters under it.

Variants:

There is a variant with "Jim Henson" in white.
On one trailer for Buddy, Kermit and the movie camera are placed inside a box on a black background, with the company's name outside and under it and "PICTURES" in gold. The sky is bluer and looks different, and the movie camera also takes on a different appearance.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the trailer.

Availability: Extremely rare. Only appears on trailers for Buddy.

2nd Logo (May 27, 1997-October 1, 1999)

Logo: We zoom out of a motion picture camera lens with lasers flying about. The camera is being operated by a laughing Kermit the Frog (performed by Steve Whitmire) seated on a large crane extended way up into a sunset sky and rocky land. As the crane moves away from us while Kermit and the crane go into a slight silhouette, a laser writes the text "Jim Henson" (in its familiar font) as the word "PICTURES" in bright metallic letters spaced to fit the width of "Jim Henson", zooms and turns to settle below. When the logo is formed, the crane suddenly takes a hard drop, notably startling Kermit. "Sorry!" is heard from Animal (voiced by Frank Oz) off screen, followed by Kermit whispering "Hmmm. Sheesh.".

Variants:

There is a version without the crane-drop gag.
On 4:3 versions of Muppets from Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, the camera's field of view is rendered in wide angle lens. On some trailers containing either the shortened or the still logo, the logo's view is so wide that a round, dark area can be seen above the background.
The closing variant features the print logo. Kermit and the movie camera are put inside a circular outline and are above the "Jim Henson" wordmark. Underneath the "PICTURES" text is copyright information.
- A different version of the closing variant appeared at the end of Buddy. Here, Kermit and the motion picture camera are placed next to the text. The copyright info doesn't appear in this version.

Technique: A mix of CGI effects, animatronics and Muppet performances by Imaginary Forces. Scrolling or fading effects for closing variant.

Music/Sounds: A majestic, synthesized orchestral movie score with sounds for the lasers flying around. There are frogs croaking and crickets chirping at the end. Kermit's laugh is also heard when he appears. The theme was composed by Hans Zimmer.

Music/Sounds Trivia: If you have a stereophonic audio system, you can hear Animal's "Sorry" coming from your left speaker.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, the crane-drop gag omits Animal's "Sorry" sound effect.
On Buddy, there is no music, just the sound effects.
Post-2013 reprints of The Great Muppet Caper have the music but not the sound effects, but on the alternate language tracks, French and Spanish, the music and sound effects are kept intact.
For the closing variant, the ending theme of the movie.

Availability: Uncommon.

This logo first appeared on a TV spot of Buddy.
To date, the version with the crane-drop gag has only been seen on two films: Muppets from Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (the latter of which doesn't have "Sorry").
The closing variant also appeared at the end of Buddy, Muppets from Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, respectively.
Current DVD, Blu-ray and streaming prints as well as TV reruns of The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, other Jim Henson classics, and Buddy (the first film with this logo) have the logo without the crane drop gag.
- However, the 1990s VHS releases of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper contain the Laser Kermit logo.
The company also produced Good Boy!, although the logo itself never appeared on said film, as that film used an in-credit notice instead, likely due to the film being released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which at the time was not yet associated with Sony.