MPL Communications

Background

MPL Communications is the umbrella company for the business interests of former Beatles bassist Paul McCartney. Established in February 1969 as Adegrove Limited, the company handles McCartney's post-Beatles work, as well as a wide range of other music material. Interestingly, the acronym "MPL" stands for McCartney Productions Limited.

(1983-)

Nickname: "Planet Juggler", "The Paul McCartney Logo"

Logo: On a white background, we see three planets, one resembling Saturn (the rest being ordinary planets) bounce about and we see a hand clutch one of the planets. The camera zooms down as we see a man (possibly Paul McCartney) juggling the planets. He then juggles the planets into the correct position and the man and planets fade into silhouettes, which causes one of the rounded planets to turn into a crescent moon. The white background fades into a snowglobe on a black background and "mpl" in a tubular font fades in the snowglobe, in front of the juggler's legs.

Trivia: This logo was animated at Shootsey Studios in London and directed by Len Lewis, based on a hand drawn animatic by Ravi Swami. The logo was initially made in CGI to map out its appearance. The juggler is hand drawn, but the planets and the movement of the camera was mapped out as 3D models, then drawn on animation cels to perfectly match what was generated.

FX/SFX: The three planets bouncing about, the hand clutching one of the planets, the camera zooming down, the man juggling the planets, the man and planets fading into silhouettes, the snowglobe and "mpl" fading in. Very nice animation; see Trivia above.

Music/Sounds: Some creepy synthesized music, a held note when the logo animation becomes the print logo and three drumbeats at the end. After it, the music ends with the note morphing into some Turkish-like guitar music.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen on films produced by Paul McCartney, such as Paul McCartney: Put It There from 1989 and the 2007 DVD release of The McCartney Years.

Editor's Note: The bizarre music and animation could startle some, however it is a very nice logo all around, with a memorable soundtrack and very high quality animation for its time.