Draft:Qubo

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum




Background

Qubo was launched in 2006 as a multi platform children's entertainment joint venture between NBCUniversal, Ion Media Networks, Classic Media, Corus Entertainment and Scholastic. NBCUniversal dropped out from the partnership in March 2012 and Ion acquired NBCUniversal's interest in the venture. A year later, Ion wholly acquired all of Qubo from Classic Media (now known as DreamWorks Classics), Corus, and Scholastic.

On February 28, 2021, Qubo ceased broadcasting after Ion was acquired by the E.W. Scripps Company. As well as that, sister channels Ion Plus and Ion Shop ended broadcasting as well.

1st ID (September 9, 2006-February 28, 2021)


Visuals: These IDs contain a cartoonish 3D style. The IDs contain Qubo's "Qube" logo as the main icon, with the logo appearing at the end of each ID. See Variants for the list of IDs.

  • Note: The defunct NBC and Telemundo block, Qubo on NBC, has the words "on NBC" with NBC's peacock logo slide in on the end of a variant. It should not be treated as a separate ID or a separate logo.

Variants: This ID had a large amount of variants, listed below:

  • Skateboard: On a skate-park setting, there are 2 cubes, one green and one white. The green cube then turns into a green helmet on top of the white cube's head. The cube then dives down with a skateboard, skates under a loop, and then jumps off a ramp. The cube then turns into the Qubo logo.
  • Boombox: On a city setting, there is a person made out of cubes wearing a cap, glasses, and a Qubo chain. The person, whilst holding a boom-box, break-dances in front of 7 small cubes. The Qubo logo from the chain is seen at the end.
  • Arts & Crafts: On an orange background, a pair of white gloves cut a red paper with scissors. The paper is cut into 7 red cubes. Another pair of gloves is gluing blue cubes in a string, which they then show off. The last pair of gloves crumbles multiple colored-papers into the Qubo logo, which the gloves then stretches and prints in a table.
  • Machinery: On a factory setting, there is a truck, a soccer ball and a rubber chicken on a rail, which leads to what seems to be a transformer. A green ray is then blasted to the rubber chicken, which is sent inside the transformer. On a screen printed in the machine, a model of the rubber chicken is seen. The turkey model is then wiped and replaced with the Qubo logo. The cube is then punted off a tube. The cube rolls, and then jumps into a sky-blue background, which is when the Qubo logo is seen.
  • Playground: On a typical playground setting, two Qubo logos are jumping over two ropes. As the camera starts to pan around, it reveals that there is more equipment in the background, like a swing set and something that appears to be monkey bars. The two Qubo logos previously skipping rope connect with each other with an orange spring, and bounce around for a bit. The spring turns into a basketball, and the two Qubo logos dribble the ball for a bit. The Qubo logo in the right (in red) transforms into the standard Qubo logo on a sky blue background.
  • Vacuum: Unknown.
  • Tornado: In a messy bedroom with two Qubo logos, another Qubo logo opens a door and talks gibberish; possibly telling the two logos to clean their room. The door closes, and the two logos on the bed start to bounce around (one even rides a skateboard for a few seconds) and transform into a tornado. Ironically, the tornado cleans the room instead of making it worse. After a while, the tornado becomes one Qubo logo, which sits on the bed .The camera then zooms towards the logo, finishing in the same fashion as the other ones, but the background is the same color as the bed.
  • Giant: Unknown.
  • Race: On a street/highway/road setting with a giant sun, there is a starting line banner with the text "QUBO 500" and two checkered flags (possibly a parody of the Indianapolis 500) on it. Then, four race cars in different colors zoom through the starting line. It then cuts to another part of the road with a crossing sign containing two Qubo logos on it. (if you look closely to the right, you can still see the starting line) The cars then zoom past again, and we cut to a crosswalk with three Qubo logos crossing the road. (one is bigger than the others) As the camera zooms out and the racecars approach the crosswalk, a fourth Qubo logo, which is the smallest of all of them, runs across the sidewalk as the racecars come to a stop. The camera then zooms into the smallest Qubo logo and the text appears as usual on a green background.
  • Magic: A hand holding a magic wand opens a magic book where a giant sea monster appears, growling, then closes and opens the book to reveal a pink rabbit, then does not close the book, but a Qubo logo appears, quickly jumping to reveal it on a yellow background.
  • Artist: Unknown.
  • Dance Party: Unknown.
  • Soccer: Unknown.
  • Surfing: Unknown.
  • Table Tennis: Unknown.

Technique: Fast-paced CGI, done at The Ebeling Group.

Audio: Depends on the variant. At the end of every variant, a "pop" noise is heard.

2nd ID (2012-February 28, 2021)


Visuals: On a background with moving shapes, a blue Qubo logo in the center transforms into an object, with the Qubo text appearing after the transformation. The object varies depending on the variant. They all finish with the object transforming back into the Qubo logo, with the URL "qubo.com" fading in.

Trivia: The CGI version of the Qubo logo was first introduced in the fall of 2010.

Variants: The objects and background are different for each variant.

  • Balloon: On a yellow-orange background, the Qubo logo transforms into a blue balloon with a black string. It moves and does a flip, causing the Qubo text to rise a bit. It finishes with the balloon transforming back to the Qubo logo.
  • Bucket: On a yellow background, the Qubo logo transforms into a blue bucket. It hops around for a bit, causing the text below to separate for a bit. The logo then finishes the same as the Balloon ident.
  • Map: Unknown
  • Book: Unknown
  • Microscope: Unknown
  • Airplane: Unknown
  • Ball: Unknown
  • UFO: Unknown
  • Flower: Unknown

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A guitar solo accompanied by various sound effects. It ends in a 3-note strum.

Audio Trivia: This music can be also heard in the "Qubo Cares Sweepstakes" promo from January 1-June 30, 2011 and the K12 Learning Block bumper from 2013-2017.

Audio Variants:

  • Each variant has a different sound effect.
  • Between January 8, 2019 (which replaced the "Qubo Night Owl" programming block) and February 21, 2021 (seven days before the channel's closure), there are the sign-on and sign-off variants where the male announcer would say "You're watching Qubo!" or "Thanks for watching Qubo!"; around this time, Qubo would air infomercials between 1 am and 6 am.
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