Descriptions by BoyOnTheMoon, TechBlitz, and BeastarsFan2000
Captures by Thegeet, Agustinortiz2000, and TechBlitz
Editions by Tjdrum2000
Video captures courtesy of Maxine's Random Junk, Broken Saw, Ryan The Movie Fan, and Austin Alexander
Background
Paramount Animation is the feature animation division of American film studio Paramount Pictures. It was founded in 2011 after the box office success of Nickelodeon Movies' CGI film Rango and in the wake of the studio's split with DreamWorks Animation in 2012. Its first film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, was released in 2015, with its latest release being The Tiger's Apprentice. Upcoming films from the division include Transformers One, The Smurf Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, Aang: The Last Airbender and many others.
Note: Until 2019, only the 2011 Paramount Pictures logo appeared on its films. In 2019, Paramount Animation unveiled an onscreen logo, which debuted with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Visuals: A rock (which is skipped across a valley's lake and thrown by a young girl named Star Skipper, who bears a striking resemblance to June from Wonder Park, wearing a yellow shirt and purple pants and standing on some rocks next to the lake) transforms into a golden star. As the camera tracks the star to reveal a wider landscape, the star flies through the forest and up the hills. In the background is a colorful version of the Paramountain in an orange morning environment surrounded by clouds. The other 21 stars, also in gold, appear and encircle the mountain as the "Paramount" script, in blue, zooms out and takes its position. The final star thrown by the girl swoops by, forming the word "Animation" in a handwritten script font on the bottom as the star takes its place.
Alternate Descriptive Video Transcription: A girl skips a stone across a blue lake in front of a pyramid like mountain with a snow covered peak. The stone becomes a star and it zooms up the wooded slope of a mountain. It turns into a row of stars which form an arch over the mountain: Paramount Animation.
Trivia:
The logo and Star Skipper were designed by Christopher Zibach, who worked on DreamWorks Animation's Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie as a lead visual development artist and art director. According to president Mireille Soria, the studio chose Star Skipper as their mascot because she "captured the magic" of the division. Zibach's work can be seen here.
This is very loosely based on the unused logo (the animation and concept of which were done by Paul Hartle).
Byline(s):
September 19, 2019; November 7, 2023-: Bylineless.
November 14, 2019: "A VIaCOM COMPANY" in a blue color, set in the 2006 Viacom font.
January 29, 2020-December 15, 2021: "A ViacomCBS Company" in a white color, set in Gotham Bold.
November 26, 2021: "A ViacomCBS Company" set in ViacomCBS Raisonné.
Variants:
An open-matte 4:3 version exists.
A faster, abridged version also exists, which is seen on international Netflix prints of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Starting in 2020, the background's shading is different, grass was added next to the tree on the right, the star now leaves a sparkling trail as it flies through the forest and up the hills to the mountain, the word "Animation" is in a lighter blue color, and it also has a more noticeable shine effect. This means that the original version that was published in the Variety article may have been a prototype.
A blue ViacomCBS byline can be seen on the home page of Paramount Animation's official website. It can also still be seen on the website as of late 2023, despite ViacomCBS being renamed as Paramount Global in February of 2022 (although it was briefly removed on August 2nd, 2023 before getting added back two days later).
Audio: Birds chirping and nature sounds, followed by water sounds, and some whooshes. Sparkling sounds are heard when the stone transforms into a star and when "Animation" appears. The 2011 Paramount Pictures fanfare by Michael Giacchino plays throughout.
Audio Variants:
The ViacomCBS variant features different nature sounds. Wind is also audible and more sparkling and whoosh sounds are heard as the star flies through the forest. Then as the other 21 stars encircle the mountain, whooshes are heard. Also, the fanfare's last note has a longer echo. This can be heard on ATK PLN's Vimeo account and Rumble (2021), respectively.
Some future releases may instead use the opening theme of the movie or silence.
On international Netflix prints of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, the 2011 fanfare is out of sync.
Availability:
It first appeared in an article published by Variety.
The Viacom byline was only seen on the first trailer for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
The ViacomCBS byline debuted on the Super Bowl trailer for the aforementioned film, and technically made its theatrical debut on said film.
The ViacomCBS byline in the ViacomCBS Raisonné typeface was only seen on the second trailer for Rumble.
This logo also does not appear on The Loud House Movie, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie and The Casagrandes Movie, as they were all distributed by Netflix instead (though the former was originally intended to be released by Paramount Animation before it was removed from their release schedule).
Surprisingly, despite the studio producing the film, and its print logo appearing on the marketing, this does not appear on the theatrical release of Under the Boardwalk (under the Nickelodeon Movies imprint). Instead, the 2008 Nickelodeon Movies logo appears at the beginning and end of the film. The logo does appear on the digital release of the film.
The bylineless version was seen on ATK PLN's website, and it later made its film debut on the digital release of Under the Boardwalk.
Legacy: It's seen as a fantastic logo that pays homage to the old Paramount Cartoons logo.
Unused Logo
Logo (2018)
Visuals: A violet petal lying in a grassy meadow glows, and a star appears from it and soars into the sky. The camera tracks the star to reveal a wider grassy landscape and a nighttime sky with the Paramount mountain in the background. Other stars appear and circle the mountain.
Technique: CGI animation by Paul Hartle.
Audio: Unknown, as all that is available are style frames.
Availability: Can only be seen in the form of style frames on Paul Hartle's website here.