Just Entertainment

Credits

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Background

Just Group PLC was a British holding company that focused on incorporating creation and development of character concepts, ownership of intellectual property rights, and international licensing and distribution of character and corporate brand merchandise. The company is most well known for the infamous CGI animated cartoon Butt-Ugly Martians.

In March 2000, the company acquired the British distributor Abbey Home Entertainment; within the purchase, Just heavily expanded, with AHE's home video division rebranding as Just Entertainment, using the brand for mainstream children's content, and the Tempo Pre-School label being retained for pre-school content.

The failure of their properties and poor management led the company to enter administration in January 2002. Anne and Ian Miles re-acquired the ex-Abbey assets including the home video unit within this time from Just, and formed a new company called Abbey Home Media.

1st Logo (4 November 2000-2002)

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Visuals: On a black background, a glowing and sparkling red line writes out the word "just" in a script font, and the camera pans across the text before zooming out. When the text is fully written, it stops glowing, and a light draws in a white line underneath the text. "Entertainment" then flips in letter-by-letter below the line, before releasing a strange gas, kind of resembling a nebula, which explodes behind the text, causing the logo to fade out.

Variants:

• A version exists where everything is normal, except "Entertainment" is revealed by the explosion playing backwards.
• On the Butt-Ugly Martians TV special, the logo is seen in the bottom right corner with the Digital Content Development Corporation Limited logo on the bottom left and the Dan Krech Pictures logo seen in the top middle, all arranged on a black background. The logo starts off where "Entertainment" flips in, but doesn't fade out at the explosion. The logos then stay still for several seconds before cutting to the Alliance Atlantis logo.
• On early episodes of Butt-Ugly Martians, the logo is also seen in the bottom right corner with the DCDC logo on the bottom left and the Mike Young Productions logo seen in the top middle, all arranged in a triangle formation on a dark blue marble background. The logo starts and ends at the same points as the previous variant. The logos then stay still for several seconds before cutting to black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A dreamy synth sounder, accompanied by an ascending synth sound and an orchestral hit when the white line appears, and an explosion sound.

Audio Variants:

• On the alternate version, a more sudden orchestral hit is heard, and none of the other sound effects beyond the dreamy sounder play.
• On Butt-Ugly Martians, the dreamy sounder still plays, but it starts with a whoosh and is overlapped by what sounds like droplets on wood. This music variant would also later be used for the Mike Young Productions logo in 2001.

Availability:

• Such releases that feature this logo include the Butt-Ugly Martians releases "Special Edition" and "Meet Gorgon", the TV special Lost in the Snow, the Redwall releases "Captain Snow" and "Sparra's Kingdom", the 2001 UK VHS releases of Redwall: Captain Snow and Lost In The Snow, and the 2001 UK VHS re-release of Christopher's Christmas Mission, and the 2002 UK VHS re-releases of Action Man: Explosive Situation and Action Man: Space Wars, among others.
• It does not appear on the 2001 DVD release of Butt-Ugly Martians: The Martians Have Landed!, as it goes right from the warning straight into the show's intro instead.
  • The 2004 release (that uses a different master) uses the Abbey Home Media logo.
• It also appeared on The Boy Who Dreamed Christmas.
• The Butt-Ugly Martians variant appeared on earlier episodes of said show.

2nd Logo (2001-2003)

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Visuals: On a blue sky with orange clouds, we rotate over a set of golden spools with a filmstrip that has the same "just" script from before on it. The spools then start rolling before going under to a strange blue light and even more clouds surrounding the area. The camera then pans over the area, revealing the "just" script, along with a gold underline and "ENTERTAINMENT" under it, all at a slight angle. The camera then zooms past the spools and into the logo, which compresses a bit as the background brightens behind it for a second. The clouds continue moving a bit.

Variants:

• On Butt-Ugly Martians, the logo is seen in the same configuration as before, but with the new logo starting at the reveal, and the DCDC logo being replaced with a newer one as well.
• On Lost in the Snow, the logo is still and appears with the 1996 Honeycomb Animation and the 1999 Carlton logos with the Carlton star background, and the URL reading "itv.com/citv" which also appears below as well.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A four-note heavenly chime tune (accompanied by two bass notes), with the sound of a camera rolling and a heavenly choir at the end.

Audio Variant: The Butt-Ugly Martians variant has the same music as before.

Availability:

• Appears on some UK VHS releases from the time-period until 2003.
• It appears on the Butt-Ugly Martians releases "Brothers from Another Planet" and "Mike in Space", and Pocket Dragon Adventures: Follow the Leader, respectively.
• The Butt-Ugly Martians variant appears on later episodes of the series.
• It also appears on the 2002 movie Lost in the Snow.

3rd Logo (November 2001)

Visuals: The logo starts on a white background. Then, the screen zooms out to reveal a spotlight illuminating a director's chair. The tail end of the first logo plays here, sans the explosion.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None.

Availability: Only known to appear on the promotional VHS tape Starhill Ponies: Surfin' Sea Horses.