Nick Jr. (Home Video Openings)

Background

This page describes the opening Nickelodeon used on VHS releases of Nick Jr. properties. Prior to the Blue's Clues VHS release Blue's Safari and on DVDs before 2004, Nick Jr. (on both Sony Wonder and Paramount releases) simply used their television bumpers as a de-facto home video logo, like what Nickelodeon did in that time frame.

Nick Jr. Kids (2000-2004)

Visuals:

Opening Variant: Over a video of a cloudy sky is the Nickelodeon logo shaped like a banana, which then has the "skin" peeled away on the left and right sides. We then iris-in to a live-action video showing two sock monkeys, one orange with "NICK" on it and one blue with "JR." on it, sitting on a bed in a bedroom. The camera moves to the right to show two girls next to a puppet show theater box, one (Caucasian) in some sort of fairy/bug costume playing a toy accordion, while the other (African-American) is dressed like a princess and playing a recorder. The two laugh, and then we cut to a series of the following clips: Little Bill dancing under a spotlight with musical notes in the air, then there is a girl with pink, heart-shaped sunglasses riding a bike-shaped swing. After that, the screen cuts to an African-American boy making chocolate chip cookies with his mom and stirring cookie dough in a mixing bowl, which cuts to Little Bear watching his mom mix cookie dough in a bowl. We then see kids playing with a sprinkler in their lawn, and a Latina girl hugging her dog. The screen then cuts to Blue jumping at the screen and we cut back to the same girl in the princess outfit laughing. Then, a clip of Steve from Blue's Clues asking "Are you ready?" plays, leading to a boy and the sunglasses girl, and then the girl with her dog, responding "Ready!" This is followed by Little Bear asking "Are you sure?", followed by clips of all the kids saying "Yeah!" A boy on a swing asks "When's it gonna start?", followed by a clip of Little Bill saying "Right now!" We then see the children running away from the playground, lawn, and kitchen into the living room of the house, interspersed with clips of Little Bill running to the screen, Blue hopping to the right, and Little Bear getting out of his seat. Once everybody is in the living room, a CRT TV is turned on, showing the Nick Jr. "Hippos" bumper, which makes everyone laugh uproariously. It ends with the camera zooming into the TV and showing the remainder of the bumper.

Closing Variant: It starts with Face (voiced by Chris Phillips) zooming in and saying, "(deep voice) See you later, (normally) on Nick Jr.! Brr-brr-brrrrr!" The logo zooms out to see he's on the TV from before, which turns off after he laughs. We then see clips of the children in the house saying bye to the camera, alongside more clips of Nick Jr. shows. The sock monkeys from the opening variant make an appearance again, as a kid pulls them on a toy wagon into a homemade teepee.

Trivia:

This bumper was modeled after the opening and closing bumpers Nick Jr. used between 1998 and 2001. By 2002, the block's bumper style changed, but these still appeared on video releases until 2004.
The general format, as well as the clips and footage featured in this bumper, were later re-used for the opening sequence to the defunct Nick Jr. on CBS block.
On the closing variant, there is a jump cut during Face's screen time due to the "Right here..." part of being edited out; this also results in Face making an "er" sound before saying "On Nick Jr."

Variants:

Later releases replace the Little Bear clips with those of Dora the Explorer; a clip of Dora and Boots eating ice cream is shown during the baking scene, she says "You wanna play?" during the "Are you ready?" sequence, and is shown spinning with Boots during the living room scene. In the closing variant, Dora and Boots giggling is shown during the kids living the house scene. This variant first appeared on the DVD release of Blue's Big Musical Movie.
Some releases replace the "Hippos" bumper on the TV with a clip of Face spinning his eyes and doing his famous "Brr-brr-brrrrr!!!", giggling afterward.

Technique: Live-action combined with digital ink and paint animation.

Audio: A peppy acoustic/folk tune is heard throughout the bumper, alongside the clips of the shows and kids. The opening variant ends with the Nick Jr. jingle: "Nick Jr. is just for me!" The closing variant just has the last part of it: "Just for me!"

Availability:

Can be seen on any Nick Jr. VHS release from the period, namely tapes of Blue's Clues, Little Bill, Dora the Explorer, and Oswald. This can also be seen on the DVD release of Blue's Big Musical Movie; surprisingly, it's preserved on the 2013 reprint of that disc alongside the 1995 Paramount Home Video logo. Also appears on Little Bear tapes by Reader's Digest before 2003.
The Dora opening and closing variants were primarily used on Dora the Explorer tapes (though a few such as Wish Upon a Star used the Little Bear clips instead) and 2002-2004 tapes of other Nick Jr. shows.
The closing variant is generally seen after the closing credits on these tapes (this also occurs on the Little Bear tapes Friendship Tales and Fishing Tales). Little Bill tapes, Dora Saves the Prince, Move to the Music, Meet Diego, Swing Into Action!, Dora's Backpack Adventure, Lost City of Toys, Christmas!, Blue's Safari, Stop Look and Listen!, Little Bear tapes, Playtime with Periwinkle, Magenta Comes Over and To the Rescue! have it precede the credits. In some rare cases like on later Blue's Clues tapes, it also precedes the Nick Jr. Productions logo.

Trampoline (2002-2003)

See the Nick Jr. page for a full description.

Frogs (January 27, 2004-January 15, 2008)

Visuals: On a green background with a dark forest green-colored lake, there is an orange frog and a smaller blue frog on a lilypad (the two lilypads in the back have flowers). The orange frog croaks three times. Then the blue frog loudly croaks, startling the orange frog, and then the two smile at each other. "NICK" and "JR." fade onto their bodies. The frogs then shrink and zoom down to the bottom right corner of the screen.

Trivia:

This is basically a shortened version of the Nick Jr. "Frogs" bumper from 2003, starting when the frogs get into their positions on the screen.
The reason why the frogs shrink is that this, alongside other Nick Jr. bumpers from the time, were used as segues into the live-action/puppet interstitial series Play Along, which aired from 2003 to 2004. It is unknown why the shrinking wasn't trimmed from the logo.

Technique: 2D Flash animation.

Audio: The frogs making noises, then a short synth pad note as "NICK JR." appears (which was the channel's "theme" between September 1, 2003 and October 8, 2004).

Availability:

Can be seen at the start of almost all Nick Jr. DVDs from the period starting with Dora's Pirate Adventure, as well as later Nick Jr. VHS releases, which were often issued as late as 2006, two years before the end of VHS as an entertainment format.
Beginning in 2008, the Nickelodeon "Fish" logo appeared at the start of Nick Jr. DVDs instead.