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.
Visuals: A custom opening title for a specified cartoon. At the top of the screen, there 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, there 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?]
Visuals: On a gray background, there 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, there is the "Paul Terry-Toon" logo and "THE END". Below "THE END", there 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.
Visuals: On a gray background, there 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, there 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, there 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?]
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:
Technique: A painting filmed by a cameraman.
Audio: The theme of the cartoon.
Availability: Can be seen on many Terrytoons cartoons. [Examples?]
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.
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:
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.
Visuals: On a customized background, there are the titles "A TERRYTOONS® CARTOON" and below "color by De LUXE". On the left, there is the certification number and on the right, an I.A.T.S.E and the Screen Cartoonists Guild logo.
Variants:
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:
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.
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