Terrytoons

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

Terrytoons was an American animation studio based in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release, with their main distributor being 20th Century Fox. It was founded in 1929 by Paul Terry, Frank Moser, and Joseph Coffman after a depature from the Van Beuren Corporation, and operated out of the "K" Building in downtown New Rochelle. The studio was best known for making cartoons with their stars, Gandy Goose, Mighty Mouse, and Heckle and Jeckle. Terrytoons was sold to CBS in 1955 after Paul Terry retired from the studio, and later began making cartoons for television in 1957.

After Paul Terry died on October 25, 1971, the studio ceased operations in 1973 by the FCC, after which CBS acquired the entire Terrytoons library. The rights to the theatrical shorts now belong to Paramount Animation, while CBS Media Ventures owns the studio's TV productions.



1st Logo (1929-1930)

Visuals: A custom opening title for a specified cartoon. At the top of the screen is "AUDIO-CINEMA Incorporated presents" and below it the words "PAUL TERRY-TOONS" over a music sheet, with the episode's title, credits, copyright and Bray-Hurd disclaimer.

Closing Title: Over a black background is the episode's title above "The End" in script. Below it is "An AUDIO-CINEMA Incorporated PAUL TERRY-TOON".

Variant: On UK releases, The Audio-Cinema name was replaced with "THE GAUMONT-BRITISH PICTURE CORPORATION LTD. presents Paul Terry-Toons", but just the episode's title and credits.

Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Most of the Audio-Cinema Terrytoons were reissued by CBS, with only a few original titles surviving. It should be preserved on some cartoons of the period however. [Examples?]

2nd Logo (1930-1932)

Visuals: On a gray background is the logo for Audio-Cinema Incorporated above a black marquee with the "Paul Terry-Toons" logo and the episode's title. Below the marquee is the Educational Pictures logo and the copyright disclaimer between the production code number and the MPPDA logo.

Closing Title: Over a black background is the "Paul Terry-Toon" logo and "THE END". Below "THE END" is the Educational Pictures logo and "An AUDIO-CINEMA INCORPORATED Presentation" between the code number and the MPPDA logo.

Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the cartoon.

'Availability:® It can be seen on cartoons from the era such as Salt Water Taffy.

3rd Logo (Late 1931-1938)

Visuals: On a gray background are the titles "E. W. Hammons Presents". Below is a treble clef and music staff containing the words "PAUL TERRY-TOONS" hyphenated diagonally into two lines. Below is a black square with a white outline with the title of the respective cartoon on it and below the Educational Pictures logo. On the left of the screen is the production number with a mouse character staying on it. On the right of the screen is the MPPDA logo with Farmer al Falfa staying on it. On the bottom of the screen is the copyright stamp. From circa 1934/35, the byline "DISTRIBUTED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION" was seen below the Educational Pictures logo.

Closing Title: Nearly the same logo but with the following changes: the copyright stamp is gone, instead of the cartoon title are the white words "THE END" and the production number and the MPPDA logo are bigger and instead of Farmer al Falfa, a mouse girl character stays on the MPPDA logo. Below the Educational Pictures logo is "An E. W. Hammons Presentation" in script.

Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.

Audio: The theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Unknown. [Examples?]

4th Logo (August 26, 1938-July 1956, October 29, 1966-March 11, 1967)

Visuals: Similar to the previous logo, but now on a customized background (later fixed to blue), the treble clef appears on the middle of the screen with "TERRY-TOON" written with red letters and "A" above it. Below are the words "DISTRIBUTED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION". Below is the copyright stamp.

Closing Title: On the same background, the treble clef is smaller and put on the top of the screen. Below are the big red words "THE END". Later, the 20th Century-Fox disclaimer above was added on the bottom of the screen.

Variants:

  • On color cartoons, below the clef were added the words "in TECHNICOLOR" (later changed to "Color by TECHNICOLOR" in 1947) and the Twentieth Century-Fox disclaimer became smaller as the copyright stamp.
  • Starting in the 1950s, "Color by TECHNICOLOR" was dropped as it got its own title card.
  • Starting in 1951, cartoons from series like Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse and Gandy Goose had their own series end title. On the same background are the words "PAUL TERRY's [series name]" with the character(s) from the respective series surrounding the title. Below is a smaller treble clef, "THE END" and on the bottom of the screen is the 20th Century-Fox disclaimer.
  • On Cinemascope cartoons, the logo is yellow and below the clef is "in CINEMASCOPE" in the same color.
  • The Heckle and Jeckle cartoon Pill Peddlers (1952) has an end title gag. After the elevator is exposed, Heckle and Jeckle gets in the iris-out and realize that they are at the end of the picture. Then, the bulldog breaks the title, kicks Heckle and Jeckle on the heads and gets them on the fight. As the cartoon ends, the bulldog winks his eye and reforms the end title.
  • On two cartoons, Nonsense Newsreel and Phoney News Flashes, the whole logo, along with the titles are surrounded over a newspaper.
  • The cartoon Nonsense Newsreel had a man who walks over "THE END" on a white sign.
  • On The Mighty Mouse & The Mighty Heroes, the word "A" and "Production" appear above and below the logo.

Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.

Audio: The theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Can be seen on many Terrytoons cartoons. [Examples?]

  • Some of them are available with original titles but most of them are available with reissue titles.

5th Logo (December 10, 1955-September 2, 1967)


Visuals: There is an animated "dressing-room" door closing, with a yellow flashing star on the door above the face(s) of the star character(s) (i.e. Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse or Deputy Dawg) and below the words "A TERRYTOON CARTOON PRODUCTION" in white letters.

Variant: On The Deputy Dawg Show, the words read "A TERRYTOONS FILM PRESENTATION" instead of "A TERRYTOON CARTOON PRODUCTION".

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A short, Dixieland-ish fanfare composed by Philip Scheib.

Availability: It was seen on Mighty Mouse Playhouse, The Heckle and Jeckle Cartoon Show and The Deputy Dawg Show, all of them on CBS. The Mighty Mouse variant was also seen on The Terrytoons Show. The logo, however, is removed on Iranian prints of The Deputy Dawg Show.

6th Logo (January 1, 1957-1963)


Visuals: On a white background, squares with abstract smiling cartoony faces (no pupils are in the eyes) in several colors appear in a checkerboard pattern. Once the checkerboard is complete, the square faces merge into each other a la Desilu, and they form a chartreuse face, with pupils in the eyes. There are squiggles on top of the face, which could possibly be hair. The squiggles then "morph" into "terrytoons" written in a cursive font. "PRESENTS" then appears in possibly blue or navy blue in a goof, old fashioned bold font.

Closing Variant: The closing variant starts as a chartreuse background. A hole appears and grows into the smiling mouth. The background zooms out to reveal the face. This time, "terrytoons" is written in cursive instead of just squiggles. "terrytoons" morphs into a cursive "the end". Some CinemaScope prints have the words "DISTRIBUTED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION" below the logo.

Variants:

  • An variant of the closing variant has "THE END" inside of the smile, designed to resemble a smile, and the "terrytoons" morphing animation plays as normal.
  • A variation of the logo was used on Mighty Mouse Playhouse. The logo is on a sky background and "CARTOONS BY" is seen above the face.
  • On The Juggler of Our Lady, a drawn version of the logo appears next to the "TERRYTOONS presents" text. The end of the cartoon featured a red version of the logo on a black background.
  • On a workprint of Sweet Tooth Sam, underneath the logo is the text:
PRODUCTION (written on a piece of paper)
CAMERA NO. 6 (with 6 also written on a piece of paper).

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: The opening and closing themes of the cartoon, which are always synced to the animation (with a few exceptions).

Availability: Seen on most Gene Deitch/CinemaScope-produced Terrytoons cartoons. The logo is often replaced by the reissue titles so that the logo is not common anymore. It premiered on Topsy TV.

7th Logo (1960-1971)


Visuals: On a customized background are the titles "A TERRYTOONS® CARTOON" and below "color by De LUXE". On the left is the certification number and on the right an I.A.T.S.E and the Screen Cartoonists Guild logo.

Variants:

  • On Cinemascope cartoons, the words just read "TERRYTOONS presents".
  • Later Terrytoon shorts have the CBS Films/Enterprises byline below.
  • The end of every Terrytoon short in syndication and for theatrical reissues had a space background and the "THE END" text in bottom.

Closing Variant: The same image, but the words "TERRYTOONS the end" are seen and below is the copyright stamp.

Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.

Audio: The opening and closing themes of the cartoon.

Audio Variants: On syndicated prints and theatrical reissues of Terrytoons shorts, the logo had 3 different themes:

  • The closing theme of Duckwood.
  • A jazz horn fanfare.
  • On the end of the Mighty Heroes cartoons, a Superman-like fanfare.

Availability: Can be seen on most Gene Deitch-produced cartoons. Most only show the title of the cartoon without the credits and the logo. However, two Heckle and Jeckle cartoons, Mint Men (1960) and Sappy New Year (1961), and the Mighty Mouse cartoon The Mysterious Package (1961) have been shown with the original titles on USA Network. The closing logo was seen on theatrical reissues of various Terrytoons shorts.

Terrytoons
Paramount Animation (theatrical releases)
CBS Eye Animation Productions (television production)
Fox Animation Studios
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