Disney Interactive Studios

Background
In 1984, Disney entered into a joint venture with Sierra On-Line, forming a company named Walt Disney Personal Computer Software. This partnership developed games for IBM, Atari, Commodore and Apple computers based on Disney characters. In 1988, Disney ended the partnership and entered the video games market on its own with the establishment of Walt Disney Computer Software, which would be renamed Disney Interactive in 1995.

During the first years, this subsidiary of the company was involved mainly in game development, but it gradually changed its model and became merely a publisher of games based on Disney properties. In 2003, Disney Interactive was renamed to Buena Vista Games, with the Disney Interactive name being used as a publishing label. In 2007, Buena Vista Games was renamed to Disney Interactive Studios.

In May 2016, Disney ceased development on console games and shut down their last studio active, Avalanche Software. However, the company still develops mobile games and Avalanche was later re-opened by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. For console games, Disney licenses their properties to other publishers, including WBIE, Gameloft and Square Enix.

(1984-1986)
Logo: On a black background, the text "W ALT Di SNEY " is seen in the standard corporate font, as well as a trademark symbol to the right of it. Below it is the outline of a laptop-like shape, with the screen displaying the Mickey Mouse symbol with a grid pattern over it, and the text "PERSONAL COMPUTER SOFTWARE" covering the bottom portion. Below the logo is the Sierra logo.

Variants:
 * Depending on the game (and also the platform), the logos will have different colors.
 * The Amiga version of Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood had this in a black box on a white background, with a box below it containing text reading "Walt Disney Computer Software and Sierra On-Line, Inc. Present".
 * Some games feature "AND" below the Walt Disney Personal Computer Software logo and "PRESENT" below the Sierra logo.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. It appeared on Donald Duck's Playground, Mickey's Space Adventure, Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood and The Black Cauldron.

1st Logo (September 7, 1988-1990)
Logo: On a black background, a pixel art recreation of Sleeping Beauty Castle from Disneyland is seen, with fireworks being set off around the castle (which animate by disappearing and reappearing in a unset fashion) After a short while, all the fireworks appear onscreen and "Di SNEY " in its corporate font appears overlapping the castle.

Variants: While the base logo concept is the same, all 3 platforms it appeared on had wildly different appearances and even animation orders.
 * DOS: The art is higher quality than the other versions, but the entire logo is colored in a mix of black, white,, and . The fireworks also appear in 2 groups, 3 on the left and 2 on the right, and the "Di SNEY" text appears after the music stops.
 * Commodore 64: The details are blocky and simplified greatly, but the color palette is of a higher count. 4 fireworks, 2 on each side of the screen, blink in a random fashion before the "Di SNEY" fades in just before the music ends.
 * Apple II: Similar to the Commodore 64 version, but the color palette is highly saturated, a 5th firework burst is added to the left (similar to the DOS version), and the "Di SNEY " text is now in . The animation also starts after the music finishes, resulting in just having the castle being shown for 12 seconds, and the images wipe in.

Technique: Sprite-based animation.

Music/Sounds: An 8-bit rendition of the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South.

Availability: Rare. It was only seen on Matterhorn Screamer! and The Chase on Tom Sawyer's Island.

2nd Logo (1990-1995)
Logo: On a black background, the "faux-3D" text is seen in the following arrangement:

_Di SNEY _ S O F T W A R E

"Di SNEY" is in its corporate script font, and a underline with a 4-pointed star is seen between the text.

Variants:
 * Sometimes, "PRESENTS" is shown below the logo.
 * Several games tend to lack the star on the underline. This tend to appear on their PC titles, which also used to feature developer credits.
 * 2 animated variants of this logo exist:
 * The first variant has sparkles running through the logo at the beginning.
 * The second variant has Tinker Bell from the 1953 movie Peter Pan fly in from the left and waves her hand to form the Disney Software logo. She exits out of the screen, leaving a trail of pixie dust to dissolve. We also hear an elephant trumpeting when the Disney Software logo appears.
 * A third version has the logo zoom in. This only appeared on the DOS version of **The Rocketeer**.
 * On Game Boy games, this logo is in black and white.
 * On Beauty and the Beast, the logo is black on a white background.
 * On Aladdin for Game Boy and Genesis and The Lion King for SNES and Genesis, the Virgin Interactive logo is seen below the Disney Software logo, with "A" and "CO-PRODUCTION" above and below respectively, and "AND" sandwiched in the middle between the Disney Software logo and the Virgin Interactive logo, forming the message "A Disney SOFTWARE and Virgin INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT Co-Production". (For example, the custom variant that was seen on Aladdin for Game Boy and Genesis features the Genie flying from left to right past the Disney Software and Virgin Interactive logos; sometimes it has copyright info below.)
 * On The Jungle Book for Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System, the logo reads just "W ALT Di SNEY". The logo shines, then freezes.
 * On early prints of Disney's Activity Center: Aladdin, the logo is rendered in a higher quality and is placed on a smoky background.

Technique: Sprite-based animation.

Music/Sounds: The opening of the game's theme or silent.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on a majority on their games during the time frame.
 * Some games, like their series of Mickey Mouse educational titles, omit this logo.
 * The first animated version can be seen on Aladdin for DOS and Amiga.
 * The second animated version is only seen on The Jungle Book for the SNES.

1st Logo (Still variants) (December 8, 1995-November 9, 2005; March 4, 2016)
Logo: On a black or white background, the Disney logo, with "INTER" and "ACTIVE" stacked below it, is seen. Below it is a square with the Disney "D", with the "i" dot on top cut out of it.

Variants:
 * For Game Boy games, this logo is in black and white.
 * This logo is also usually superimposed onto the intro of the game.
 * On The Jungle Book: Rhythm 'n' Groove Party and Donald Duck Advance, copyright info is shown below.
 * For Nintendo 64 games and the GBA version of Monsters, Inc., the logo is in 3-D.
 * There is an animated version in which the entire logo fades in one-by-one on a white background. This can be seen on My Disney Kitchen, Winnie the Pooh: Preschool and Winnie the Pooh: Kindergarten.
 * On Kingdom Hearts, everything is in one straight line instead of the normal up and down version, the "Di" logo is on the left and the words "Disney Interactive" are on the right.
 * On Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the logo is carved onto a stone background and is underwater.
 * On Disney Princess: Fashion Boutique, the logo is seen in a mirror.
 * On Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical Ballroom, the logo is a mosaic.
 * On British VHS tapes, the logo is on a white rectangle. It also has John Sachs saying either "Coming soon from Disney Interactive" or "Available now from Disney Interactive".
 * There is a "Coming Soon" Version that exists. It's translated in multiple different languages.
 * There is an "Out Now" version that exists in the 1996 Australian VHS of Disney-Pixar's Toy Story (1995). The word "Serif" shines from left to right above the logo.

Technique: None. In the animated version, a fading effect.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the game, or none.

Availability: Common. First seen on Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow for Sega Genesis and the SNES.
 * It can be found on Toy Story for Sega Genesis, SNES and PC, some CD-ROM games like Disney's Magic Artist, Disney's The Lion King Activity Center, and many others. It also appears on Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games as well.
 * It was also seen on PlayStation games like Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Mix and The Jungle Book: Rhythm 'n' Groove Party. Some of the last games to use this were The Incredibles and the US version of The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer both for all platforms and Chicken Little for Game Boy Advance.
 * Also seen on Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical Ballroom, Disney's Animated Storybook: Pocahontas, Mulan's Story Studio, and Disney Princess: Fashion Boutique.
 * Despite the game's box showing the Buena Vista Games logo, the Disney Interactive logo shows up on the US version of Kim Possible: Kimmunicator for Nintendo DS. This marks the final regular appearance of the logo, and is replaced by the Buena Vista Games logo in the European release.
 * The British trailer variant appears on many British Disney retail VHS tapes from 1996-2000, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), Pocahontas (1995), Toy Story (1995) and Hercules (1997).
 * This logo made an surprise appearance in the movie credits of Zootopia.

2nd Logo (1996-February 8, 2005)
Logo: On a black background, a glowing white ball of light appears and flashes, revealing a rectangle shone by two stars. The light moves around as the rectangle rotates upwards, revealing the text "Di SNEY INTERACTIVE" above it (with "Di SNEY " in its corporate font, and "INTERACTIVE" being split into two parts, with "INTER" on top of "ACTIVE"). The light sketches the "D" from "Di SNEY " into the rectangle at a slanted angle, which is revealed to be a box, and then shoots up, covering the background in sparkles, and adding the dot from the "i" in "Di SNEY " above, making it a stylized "Di". The box with the "Di" glows for a second.

Variants:
 * Beginning in 1998 or 1999, the logo now opens with a swirl of sparkles on a purple background. The rest of the animation continues as normal on the background at about double-speed, and the company name is now in a shade of instead of bluish-.
 * On Disney's Villains' Revenge and the Toy Story 2 CD-ROM Sampler, a longer version of the purple background variant appears. Just before the usual animation starts on the purple background, we see clouds and sparkles flying and moving and showing clips of Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Beauty and the Beast.
 * There is an earlier version where the logo is already formed on a black background, and the spark appears to draw the "Di" in the box, before the background flashes to a purple/white shade color.
 * On Hercules, the logo is shortened.
 * On Disney's Animated Storybook: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the logo is slowed down.
 * Some games feature the logo shrunken down and fitted with a themed border depending on the game, possibly to reduce lag at certain points. Here's the following variants so far:
 * On Toy Story Activity Center, the logo plays normally at the end of a dark blue tunnel, which has the clouds from Andy's room walls imprinted on them. Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story has a similar variant, though the tunnel is purple, and instead of the clouds, there are five dots outlining each angle of the logo.
 * On Toy Story 2 Activity Center, the logo plays on a TV.
 * On Ariel's Story Studio, the logo is in one of the bubbles and has the opening theme of the game playing.
 * On the first edition PC game of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the logo simply flashes in on a black background.
 * On Tarzan for PS1, the logo zooms in after it's finished.
 * On Tarzan Activity Center, the logo is made out of wood.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A lab-like ambient drone is heard throughout, while a rocketship sound is heard as the rectangle appears, some whooshes and wind as the spark flies, and some haunting bells near the end after it's completed.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * The purple background variant still has the ambient drone, but now has different sound effects, mainly whistles and chimes as the swirls appear, and less haunting chimes after the logo is completed.
 * Sampler CDs that use the early variant just have two loud zaps.
 * Some games use the opening theme, like Tarzan and Hercules.
 * On The Haunted Mansion (2003) video game, the purple background variant of the music is double-pitched and is warp-speed.
 * The WWTBAM? variation uses a 3-note synth tune, then a long fade-out that transitions into the Celador logo.
 * On the GameCube version of PK: Out of the Shadows, the 2001 logo's music is used.
 * A whimsical synthesized theme is heard on Disney's Arcade Frenzy and some titles in the Disney Hotshots series.
 * On Toy Story Activity Center, a shortened and reorchestrated version of the fanfare from the Pixar-exclusive version of the Walt Disney Pictures logo with additional sound effects is used.

Availability: Quite common overall.
 * The early variant is pretty rare on games, and usually appears on sampler CDs like Disney's 1996-97 Software Sampler. However, it can be easily found on trailers for games on Disney tapes from the '90s, such as the 1996 VHS of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
 * The original black variant appears on some Disney PC games released during this time period, normally as part of the games' opening.
 * The version with music appears on the PS1 versions of A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Disney's Dinosaur, and Toy Story Racer, the last of which is the final appearance of the original music variant (other versions of these games use the still logo (for A Bug's Life on N64) or the purple version of this logo).
 * The purple background version is very common, and appears on many Disney video games released during this time period, used in tandem with the 1st and 5th logos. It was even seen on Finding Nemo.
 * The last game to use this logo was Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure.

Legacy: The logo is often presented at a low framerate (approximately 15 frames a second), probably because it initially appeared on computer games. As a result, when it appeared on later titles for consoles like the PlayStation (or later PC games), it often stuck out like a sore thumb between more smoothly-animated logo sequences.

3rd Logo (Atlantis series variant) (May 1-November 14, 2001)
Logo: In a -toned water cave, an earthquake starts and some stones fall down. A light appears. Then a rock emerges from the water, with the Disney Interactive logo carved on it (in yellow instead of ).

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: Earthquake humming, splashes of water, followed by a soft musical tune.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Atlantis: Search for the Journal, and Atlantis: Trial by Fire.

4th Logo (November 23, 2001-March 27, 2003)
Logo: On a black background, a white rectangle, representing paper flies in and scrunches up a bit before it returns back to its normal shape, and the Disney Interactive logo is drawn in with a blue sketch look to it. A laser line then scans over it, turning it into a flat greyscale version of the print logo, and sketch lines appear over the "Di" box before they expand to fit the outline of it. The camera is also seen panning around through the entire logo before it finally stops at a slight upwards angle, as the sketches start to extrude from the box as wireframe borders, along with the paper as well. A spark then runs over the logo, turning the entire thing to 3D as the text then extrudes out, and sparkles fly out from the edge of the box.

Variant: On Monsters, Inc. for PlayStation 2, the logo is slightly center-stretched.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A long whoosh, and a loud synth note, which sounds similar to the THX Deep Note.

Availability: It's much rarer than the first and third logos.
 * First appeared on Pooh's Party Game: In Search of the Treasure/Party Time with Winnie the Pooh for the PlayStation.
 * Appears on three Monsters, Inc. titles - the North American-exclusive Monsters, Inc. for the PlayStation 2, Scream Team/Scare Island for the PlayStation, Windows and PlayStation 2 (PAL only) and Wreck Room Arcade for Windows.
 * Also appears on three Lilo and Stitch titles - Trouble in Paradise for the PlayStation and Windows, Hawaiian Adventure for Windows, and Stitch: Experiment 626 for the PlayStation 2.
 * Also shows up on the GameCube port of Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers/Quack Attack, the European-exclusive Peter Pan: Return to Never Land for the PlayStation 2, and PAL-region release of Tarzan: Freeride for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube (the US version, Tarzan Untamed uses the third logo).
 * Appears on a few Windows titles as well, such as Disney's The Jungle Book - 1st Grade, Disney Trivia Challenge and Disney Princess: Magical Dress-Up.

Buena Vista Games
Not to be confused with Buena Vista Interactive.

(November 11, 2005-December 14, 2006)
Logo: On a black background, a blur fades and zooms in, revealing itself to be a rounded box with the letters "bvg" inside it. The words "BUENA VISTA GAMES" is shown below, and 2 white lines run down the sides. The logo zooms in slightly as clouds move all about within the box. Then the logo turns dark and zooms out, leaving its shadow for a second. For the later years, the logo is slightly re-colored.

Variants:
 * A still version exists.
 * Another still version exists for when the background is white and the logo fades in for a couple seconds, then it fades out.
 * On The Chronicles of Narnia for GBA, the logo is arranged with a snowy background.
 * On the NDS version of Cars, the logo is in a movie theater.
 * Certain versions of Kingdom Hearts II (it is unknown which ones), despite the release date, use an in-credit Disney Interactive Studios logo.

Technique: Simple fading effects for the animated version, none for the still version.

Music/Sounds: None. Sometimes, the game's opening theme or a whoosh noise.

Availability: Uncommon.
 * The animated version can be found on Disney video games of the era such as the console, PC, and PSP versions of Cars.
 * The still version can be seen on Cars, The Proud Family, and the European version of The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, among others, all for the GBA.
 * The white background version can be seen on Kingdom Hearts II.

(February 9, 2007-January 12, 2017)
Logo: On a black background, a glowing 3D pearl white shield, with "Di SNEY " in a  corporate font in it, and below it is "INTERACTIVE STUDIOS" in the same tint. The logo shines. Copyright info is shown below, or sometimes not at all.

Variants:
 * For the majority of Game Boy Advance games, early games and Pixar games (except for Toy Story Mania!, Toy Story 3: The Video Game, and the PS2 and Xbox versions of Ratatouille, which had the regular logo instead), "INTERACTIVE STUDIOS" is absent. Two other Pixar games, WALL-E and Up, don't even have the shield.
 * For Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS games, the logo is still, but sometimes superimposed over the intro of the game. The previous variant can be used here as well, for example on Herbie: Rescue Rally.
 * There is a still version of the logo with "INTERACTIVE STUDIOS" on it in a white background with no shining. The shield is also silver.
 * There is a version with a white background. This can be seen on trailers, but also on a few games.
 * On mobile and iPhone releases, the logo is designed as just "Disney Games" on a background.
 * On later games with this logo, the shield appears darker than usual, with the waving ripple, but without the shine.
 * There are other custom variants used in games.
 * A longer variant of this logo exists, in which sparks are seen forming the oval on a mechanical-looking background before flashing to reveal the final product. This version was animated by Hammer Creative.

Technique: Simple 2D animation. None for the still version.

Music/Sounds: Sparkling and whooshing, sounded by 5 Alarm. None or the opening theme of the game for still and custom variants.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, a majestic rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio is heard, usually only using the first six notes.

Availability: Common. The still version can be found on a majority of GBA, NDS, and 3DS games, and all Kingdom Hearts games from Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories onwards up until Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. PC games that have this logo include Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, The Princess and the Frog, Meet The Robinsons, Bolt, and Ratatouille.

Final Note: Since May 2016, many Disney games use either the 2011-present theatrical logo (making Disney the last film studio to begin using their film logo on games) or the 2D print Disney wordmark.