Traveller's Tales

Credits

Descriptions by
EnormousRat, Yoshidude987 and Nin10do

Captures by
CuriousGeorge60, Logoboy95, Muzzarino, EnormousRat and GETENT

Editions by
CuriousGeorge60, EnormousRat, Muzzarino, Shadeed A. Kelly and AlmightyKingPrawn

Video captures courtesy of
EnormousRat and volfartr

Background

Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer that was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and was established a year later. In 2005, it has established its own publishing division, "TT Games". In 2007, it was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and has been a development division since. Traveller's Tales' first game was Leander (known as Legend of Galahad for Sega Genesis) and was known for games such as Puggsy, Mickey Mania, and Rascal. It is currently known for the Lego games and video games based on animated movies such as the first two Toy Story films, A Bug's Life, and Finding Nemo.

1st Logo (November 1991)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a brown desk outlined in the shape of a shield that is containing sheet music, an old flute, a candle wax, a bottle of ink and its tip, a scroll, a paint set, and an old journal having the Traveller's Tales symbol (which shows two stylized "T"s facing each other) on it. The words "TRAVELLERS TALES" are above on the shield.

Technique: A still, computerized graphic.

Audio: The opening theme of the game.

Availability: Can be found on Leander for Amiga.

2nd Logo (23 March 1993-1995)

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Visuals: Over a black background, there are two stylized "T"'s spinning and slowly zooming away from us. Suddenly, a meteor appears in the background and flies straight at the screen and blows up, thus turning the screen orange. The orange screen fades out and the "T"'s are in flames, with "Travellers" at the top and "Tales" at the bottom.

Variants:

• On the American and European releases of Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, a copyright stamp is at the top of the screen and the words "DEVELOPED BY" are at the bottom. A second later, one of the ghosts from the Mickey Mouse short "Lonesome Ghosts" (who also play roles as enemies) appears and zaps the words "DEVELOPED BY", which turns them into a grayish, stone crested version of the Traveller's Tales "TT" logo, with what would be Puggsy's ship wedged inside. The ghost then rolls up like a blind and disappears. The words "TRAVELLERS TALES" use the same font as the previous logo.
  • On the SNES version, the logo is already there and is shifted to the right with the words "DEVELOPED BY" next to it. Above it is the Skeleton enemy, who drops down at first, then spins its head with its foot causing it to come off and fly away. A second later, its body explodes into pieces.
• There is a still version in which the "TT" is golden and is inside of a border decorated with a purple marble-like texture. Plus, "TRAVELLERS" and the "TT" are underlined and "TALES" is in spaced-out letters. "A" is above the logo, while "PRODUCTION" is below.

Technique: CGI. Sprite-based animations on the Mickey Mania variants.

Audio: A loud "BANG" sound when the meteor explodes, followed by the sound of fire.

Audio Variants:

• The American and European release of Mickey Mania variant has a 16-bit sparkling noise when the ghost appears and a 16-bit warping noise when it disappears.
  • The SNES version has the exploding effect when the Skeleton explodes into pieces; both sound effects were also used in the game.
• The still version has silence or the opening theme of the game.

Availability:

• This logo can be found on Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse and Puggsy for Sega Genesis.
• The standard variant is seen on Puggsy for Sega CD as well.

3rd Logo (31 March 1995-22 April 2005)

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  A comparison between the original design of the raccoon (left) and the 2001 redesign (right)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a CGI raccoon with big eyes, long, stripy ears, a jovial look on his face, a lion-like tail, and a farmer's outfit with bracelets on his wrists and ankles. He is resting on the tip of the edge of a cliff, holding a red handkerchief with white polka-dots in one hand. His other hand is on a gravestone with a left arrow and the initials "TT" on it. The raccoon nods his head while the logo rotates. A gold-orange moon appears rising behind him and the cliff. The words "Traveller's Tales", in a Medieval-style font with a gold outline, later fade in.

Trivia:

• The still logo was designed by Rodney Matthews, who also designed the original version of the 1996 Bizarre Creations logo.
• The raccoon that appears in the logo was supposed to be the protagonist of Haven: The Call of the King, but had to be changed to a human character, due to the raccoon looking similar to Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank (even though the Haven raccoon was developed first, according to a demo of the game from 2001).
• The raccoon also appears as the mascot of the YouTube channel GameHut, which is run by Traveller's Tales' founder, Jon Burton. The original artist, Rodney Matthews, was brought back to make a new design of the raccoon.

Variants:

• There is a still artwork version of the logo that exists on a white background or a black background.
• There is a still version with the logo in an isometric view floating on water and swaying on it.
• On the Japanese release of Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, a copyright stamp is at the top of the screen and the words "DEVELOPED BY" are at the bottom. A second later, one of the ghosts from the Mickey Mouse short "Lonesome Ghosts" (who also play roles as enemies) appears and zaps the words "DEVELOPED BY", which turns them into a wordmark of the logo. The ghost then rolls up like a blind and disappears.
• On a demo for the PS1 version of the A Bug's Life video game, the raccoon (with a slightly different appearance and is also motionless) and the cliff rotate from the right while zooming in. The text fades in and the moon rises shortly afterwards.
• On the PS1 and PC versions of the A Bug's Life video game, the camera pans from an exotic valley with some rocks, flowers and a bridge and reaches a cliff, where the raccoon is. He gives us a friendly look as we see the moon behind him. The text then appears next to him and the logo ends with a zooming iris effect.
• Starting from the European releases of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command video game in early 2001, the raccoon was drastically redesigned, as he has a different, canine-like face with slightly smaller eyes and a less curvy snout, slightly bigger ears that are flopped down, a lankier body, an uninterested look on his face, and pink pads on his feet. The logo also rotates slightly slower.
• On Muppet RaceMania, the studio's website URL "www.t-tales.com" appears at the bottom of the screen midway through the logo and fades out after the logo forms.
• On Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the logo (with the 2001 version of the raccoon) takes place on the opening space background, with the moon part of the background and the cliff (the initials and the arrow on the gravestone are now facing the opposite direction) floating past it. The URL also appears when the raccoon is on screen.
• On Haven: The Call of the King, the logo (with the 2001 version of the raccoon, as well as the URL underneath it) takes place in outer space like in the Wrath of Cortex variant, except the moon is replaced with the planet Earth. Shortly after, the camera zooms past the raccoon's head and the game's title screen appears.
• On the home console versions of the Finding Nemo video game, the print logo rises up from a body of water and floats on it. The website URL appears below the logo shortly afterwards.
• On Crash: Twinsanity, the 2001 version of the raccoon (with his ears now perked up) appears on a white background. The cliff and raccoon move to the right to leave room for the Traveller's Tales text to fade, but spread out and having "O X F O R D S T U D I O" under it. Above it appears a silhouette of Oxford's skyline.

Technique: 3D animation.

Audio: A cheerful-sounding camp-like theme with a faint choir, composed by Aaron Szpakowski.

Audio Variants:

• The Japanese release of Mickey Mania variant has a 16-bit sparkling noise when the ghost appears and a 16-bit warping noise when it disappears.
• The A Bug's Life demo variant is silent.
• The A Bug's Life variant has birds chirping followed by a whimsical musical composition.
• The Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex variant has Dr. Cortex (voiced by Clancy Brown) saying "Developed by Traveller's Tales".
• The Finding Nemo variant has sounds of the ocean with waves crashing.
• On other games, it's silence or the opening theme of the game.

Availability:

• The still version can be found on Toy Story for Genesis and SNES, Mickey's Wild Adventure for PS and Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis and Saturn. It made its last appearance on the PS2, Xbox and PC versions of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (the GameCube version uses the next logo). It is also retained on the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection in Europe) port of Sonic 3D Blast, despite the compilation being released after the next logo was introduced.
• The still water version was used in Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue and A Bug's Life for N64, Rascal for PS, and Sonic R for Saturn and PC (although in a rare case of video game logo plastering, the last one is replaced by the current logo on the port included in Sonic Gems Collection for GameCube and PS2, despite the rest of the port being left untouched).
• The animated version is seen on many PS and PS2 games including Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Toy Story: Racer.

4th Logo (25 October 2005-)

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Visuals: In a white space, an orange "T" looks around, but then jumps in a startled fashion as a light blue "t" leaps into view. It stops by the "T" as it gets a rub on its "head". "Traveller's" and "tales" appear on the top and bottom of the screen respectively, both spaced out to fit each other. The "t" then leans to the side of the "T".

Variants:

• On the copyright screens for Lego games starting with the GameCube version of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, as well as Nintendo DS games, the logo is still on a black background. The name is replaced with "GAMES".
• On Transformers: The Game, two cars, both in a similar size and color to the "T"'s race along the ground before transforming into the letters.
• On Bionicle Heroes, after the Piraka break through the Eidos logo, they look over to see the "T"'s shaking in fear, with the smaller one hiding behind the large one, only to be crushed by Avak's foot. All of them then look at his markings, and then decide to stamp it into the screen, showing the still variant's logo as a sinister laugh is heard. If you skip the opening logos, it cuts straight to the stomp.
• On a CBC Kids cartoon called What's Your News?, it's the same as the still variant, but "games" is replaced by "animation".
• At the end of the credits of console Lego games, a variant of the logo is used. The logo starts off with two LEGO minifigure construction workers looking at blueprints, while a forklift and some gold blocks are in the background. The logo then goes into a timelapse of them building the "TT" logo up, though it does stop once for a break where some of them also play with a ball. When the timelapse finishes, one of the men leans on the "t", causing it to lean, and they run away rather quickly as the logo fades to its normal self, name included.
• On Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for DS, the logo appears as a sketch on a piece of parchment.
• On the trailer for Lego Harry Potter, it is gray-blue and placed over the thundering background.
• On the Sonic Gems Collection port of Sonic R, the logo is still on a white background. The black background version is also found in the credits.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The sounds of jumping letters and various squeaks.

Audio Variants:

• The sounds of running cars and metal conversion for the Transformers variant.
• On the Lego variant, we hear the construction workers building. At the end, after the one worker pushes the lowercase "t", we hear a timpani roll. At the end of the roll, just faintly, a sound like Legos falling apart can be heard. On Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, little sounds and grunts are added to the characters' actions.

Availability:

• The still variant is seen on every Lego game from the GameCube version of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game onwards.
• The Lego variant appears after the end of the credits of most Lego games starting with Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.
• The normal variant only appears on Super Monkey Ball Adventure, the PlayStation Portable games F1 Grand Prix and World Rally Championship, and the two The Chronicles of Narnia adaptation games they developed.
• Also appears on the 2005 Nintendo GameCube/PlayStation 2 port of Sonic R included in Sonic Gems Collection, plastering the previous logo.

Legacy: Opinions of this logo have been mixed, with some praising the simplicity of the logo and its variants on the many LEGO games they've developed, and others criticizing it for not being as creative as its predecessors.