Mainframe Entertainment

Background

Mainframe Entertainment is a Canadian computer animation and design company founded in 1991, with headquarters in Vancouver and Los Angeles. They are best known for producing the first ever half-hour CGI animated TV series ReBoot, the acclaimed Transformers spin-off Beast Wars, as well as the music video for Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing". Since 2001, they have also produced most of the animated Barbie film series for Mattel.

In September 2003, Digital Production Solutions (DPS), a division of IDT Corporation, acquired a majority stake in Mainframe Entertainment, which made the studio a subsidiary of IDT Entertainment (later Starz Distribution). On July 31, 2006, RNK Capital Limited Partnership, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rainmaker Income Fund, acquired 62% of Mainframe from Starz with Rainmaker acquiring 38%. A month later, RNK and Rainmaker announced a merger, with RNK acquiring Rainmaker's 38% share in Mainframe, and by February 2007, the studio was renamed to Rainmaker Entertainment.

1st Logo (September 16, 1996-January 24, 1998)

Visuals: On a black background, with a gold ball of light at the top-right corner, there is a brown board and a silver plate (which are tilted on their sides) turning clockwise to face forward. Just as it begins to turn, the light ball swoops down from the top-right corner, carving the board with a cursive black "M", while the word "MAINFRAME" softly lands letter-by-letter on the board, followed by a silver line and the small words "ENTERTAINMENT INC. ©" below it appearing and slightly pushing out of the board. The result reads "MAINFRAME ENTERTAINMENT INC. ©", with "MAIN" and "FRAME" forming a 90 degree angle right with each other, and "ENTERTAINMENT INC. ©" below the silver line. The light ball swoops to the left, causing the logo to shine slowly.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo is still.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: An intense synth percussion tune accompanied by whooshes (composed by Robert "Bob" Buckley) or the closing theme of the show. On some occasions, the music was slowed down, but the whooshes were left intact at normal speed. Fox Kids reruns of Beast Wars instead had part of the closing theme playing over this logo and the following Alliance and Claster logos before the compressed credits.

Availability: Seen on the first season of Beast Wars and season 3 of ReBoot on Teletoon Retro and on DVD.

2nd Logo (October 26, 1997-March 12, 2007)

Visuals: On a space background that slowly pans to the left, there are the words "MAINFRAME ENTERTAINMENT INC.". The text is set in Bank Gothic, albeit in a stylized, 3D treatment.

Bylines:

2003-2006: "AN IDT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY"

Variants:

An opening variant exists where the text "A MAINFRAME ENTERTAINMENT INC. PRODUCTION" is seen in the background. This variant appears at the beginning of Mainframe's movies from the time.
Sometimes, the website address (www.mainframe.ca) is seen below the text.
A longer version also exists. The sequence starts off with a white screen fading in, which quickly fades to the logo, with a translucent shadow of the name zooming out.
A medium-length variant also exists where the sequence starts off with the name's shadow zooming out as the screen fades to the logo.
Sometimes, the background is just plain black. This variant can be found on the second season of Beast Wars.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None or the opening/closing theme.

Availability:

Seen on the two Scary Godmother TV movies, War Planets/Shadow Raiders, Weird-Oh's, the fourth and final season of ReBoot, the third and final season of Max Steel, Action Man, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, Hot Wheels World Race, the last two seasons of Beast Wars and all of the sequel series Beast Machines, Heavy Gear: The Animated Series, the second season of Zixx, Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever and Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage.
Also seen at the end of Casper's Haunted Christmas.
This does not show up on any of their Barbie movies, as those simply use in-credit notices.

Mainframe Entertainment

Rainmaker Entertainment

►