Cinar (Canada)

Logo descriptions by Nicholas Aczel, Sean Beard, TrickyMario7654, JackLovesCLGLogos, and WillWill45
Logo captures by Eric S., EnormousRat, Juniorfan88, snelfu, V of Doom, StephenCezar15, Sagan Blob, originalsboy11, ClosingLogosHD, Gilblitz112, and TheEriccorpinc
Editions by WizardDuck, LJVborgSuperSet, mr3urious, GETENT, edunk5, KaratePianoLogoNerd, and Unnepad
Video captures courtesy of I am Arcade, Stephen Cezar, TheEriccorpinc Logo Channel, computerfish, ClosingLogosHD, BenIsRandom, Eric S., and NickelodeonBoy11

Background: Founded in 1976, Cinar (pronounced "seh-NAR") was originally a film distribution company which distributed international/foreign films from the 1970s to the early 1980s from offices in New York City. The company was owned by the married couple Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Charest. In 1984, things were changing for Cinar as the couple moved the company to Montreal, Quebec and began to focus on children's TV programming. Between 1985 and 2004, Cinar produced a number of successful shows such as Arthur, Caillou, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Adventures of David the Gnome, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Zoboomafoo, among others. However, in 2000, the founders of Cinar invested over $100,000,000 into Bahamian banks without any approval from the board, causing heavy chaos, including a major drop in its stock value and costly lawsuits. When this scandal was happening, Weinburg and Charest's popularity dropped heavily, and as a result, the founders decided to resign. In March 2004, the company was bought out by Michael Hirsh and the company was renamed and rebranded as "Cookie Jar Entertainment" (now an in-name-only unit of "DHX Media"). On April 14, 2004, Charest died after complications from plastic surgery.

1st Logo
(May 2, 1987-January 21, 1995)

Nicknames: "Interlocked Blue Bars", "Sparkles", "Rotating Blue Bars", "16-Bit Cinar", "Super Cintendo", "Cheesy CGI Cinar", "CIAAR"

Logo: On a computerized dark blue background vaguely looking like stone or rock, a blue line draws in, revealing many bright blue 3D bars interlocking with each other. The bars rotate up and zoom-out, revealing the text:

CINAR

glittering with stars. The word "CINAR" is thick and full of segmented lines, with the letter "I" dotted red and the letters "N", "A", and "R" connected together.

Variants:

Sometimes, "A" and "PRODUCTION" (or "PRESENTATION") are shown above and below the logo, respectively.
On the first season of Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1992-93), the Cinar logo is in-credit on a black background, bypassing this logo.
A 2-D still of this logo with "A" above and "PRODUCTION" below was seen on David the Gnome, Adventures of the Little Koala, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1993-94 season, before the 2nd logo was introduced).
An animated variant of the "PRODUCTION" variant exists, where "CINAR" turns upward, the text wipes in and the background is a black-grey gradient.
The logo may be shorter, so that it starts fading into the zoom-out. This is used for programming, and the background is not rocky. This variant is also remarkably faster.
On A Bunch of Munsch, the logo animation starts at the zooming and is transitioned out from the ending sequence in the credits (which shows Robert Munsch pushing down the end credits' background with a surprised look on his face, followed by him flashing away into the background and a fade to this logo). Also, there's a copyright stamp on the logo itself.

FX/SFX: The bars interlocking, and the glittering stars.

Music/Sounds: A synth note and a whoosh, then a bang, and finally a 7-note trumpet-like theme that sounds like it came from an SNES game, though this theme is rarely heard.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On most shows, the end theme plays over it.
The animated "PRODUCTION" variant used a soothing synth-piano theme that's similar to the 1985 song "Hurts to Be in Love" by Gino Vannelli, and the 1990 song "Butterfly on a Wheel" by The Mission.

Availability: Very rare.

Last seen in the U.S. when Boomerang reran Young Robin Hood. Can be seen on Cinar shows of the period on VHS releases by Golden Book Video, such as specials 2-6 of Madeline (Cinar was not involved in the first special). The musical variant can be found on the Just for Kids video release of John the Fearless and was found on reruns of Maya the Bee on Canada's YTV during the 1990s.
The variant from A Bunch of Munsch is preserved on VHS tapes of the series from both Golden Book Video and Sony Wonder.
The still version is seen intact on pre-season 5 episodes (the Amazon Instant print has this replaced by the next logo) on DVD (from Nickelodeon) of Are You Afraid of The Dark?, followed by the Nickelodeon logo, while the animated "PRODUCTION" variant was seen on the U.S./Canadian release of The World of David the Gnome, which is intact on the U.S. DVD release.

Editor's Note: This logo is a product of its time for utilizing early computer graphics, although this is saved by the coolness of the animation (kinda resembling the Marvel Productions "CGI Spidey" logo).

2nd Logo
(October 28, 1992-December 26, 2003)

Nicknames: "Space", "Cinar in Space", "CGI Cinar", "1992: A Cinar Odyssey"

Logo: On a space background, a long white flash zooms out from the bottom of the screen and comes to the middle, forming a redesigned Cinar logo that flashes once. Most of the differences are subtle, but the most obvious is that the letters "N", "A", and "R" are separate. The logo flashes and the disclaimer "CINAR is a registered trademark of CINAR Corporation" appears below.

Variants:

The logo may or may not have a registered trademark "®" symbol on the upper right of the "R".

Sometimes, the logo is bylineless. This occurs mostly on the musical variant.

Most of the time, the byline is used in different forms, like on Caillou and Arthur.

Sometimes, the byline would say: "CINAR is a registered trademark of CINAR Films Inc.". This was used until about 1998 on some productions, though very few like Emily of New Moon continued to use this until at least 2000.
On French dubs of their shows, the byline can sometimes be in French and thus reading either "CINAR est une marque déposée de Corporation CINAR", "CINAR est une marque de commerce enregistrée de CINAR Films Inc." or "CINAR est une marque de commerce de Les Films CINAR Inc."
On extremely rare occasions, the trademark "TM" symbol is seen in place of the registered trademark "®" symbol.
A still version of this logo exists on Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Wimzie's House, and Zoboomafoo, and some episodes of Emily of New Moon.
On The Baskervilles, the logo is above the Alphanim logo against a black background, with the Citv URL on the bottom right.
Another still version with "A" above and "PRODUCTION" below was seen on the second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
A filmed version exists where the red dot on the "I" fades in and the rest proceeds normally, except it has a different flash.
A shorter version of the filmed variant exists.
A version with an URL under it exists.
An in-credit variant appears on some shows such as Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings.
Some shows/movies such as Mona the Vampire would have the logo shortened to just the flash.
The color of the dot may vary from light red to orange, depending on the quality.
On seasons 3 and 4 of Emily of New Moon, an URL of the show's website is also seen below the byline and Cinar's URL.
On the 1997 show Lassie, a copyright for Lassie II Productions is seen above the byline and URL.

FX/SFX: The white flashes. Great CGI.

Music/Sounds: A whoosh with a calm synth tune, which is rarely heard. It most commonly used the ending theme of the show. On some shows, like Night Hood and The Busy World of Richard Scarry, it is silent.

Availability: This was very common years ago, but is now rare, due to plastering with Cookie Jar.

Survives on pre-2004 Arthur episodes on both DVD and VHS, and pre-Cookie Jar DVD and VHS releases (from both Sony Wonder and PBS Home Video) of Caillou, but This TV and other current prints of Cinar shows plaster it with the Cookie Jar logo.
Re-airings of The Busy World of Richard Scarry on This TV kept the Paramount logo, but replaced "A CINAR Presentation" in the in-credit logo with "A COOKIE JAR Presentation" (though it was retained on some older DVDs and VHS releases of the show). Many Cinar logos that contained an in-credits logo would also be changed to Cookie Jar as well.
The longer version can be seen on the BWE Video VHS of The Whole of the Moon, the Avalanche Home Entertainment VHS of Sally Marshall is Not an Alien, and the obscure New Zealand film called Bonjour Timothy. It could be possible that this logo can be found on the 2000 series The Upstairs Downstairs Bears, but Smile of A Child's airings of the said show cut all of the show's logos out.
The logo is currently intact on Are You Afraid of the Dark? and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo reruns on NickSplat, and 2000-2002 episodes of Caillou on the PBS Kids Video App.
In Canada, this is also intact on pre-2000 episodes of Caillou on Treehouse. Don't expect this logo to be used on the English dub of Miffy as as that used an in credit notice.
The logo's music variant on home video releases can be found on Sony Wonder VHS prints of Caillou, but for DVDs with this variant, it appears on Zoboomafoo DVD releases.
Can be seen on UnisTV, and TeleNiños airings of Mona The Vampire and on post-1st season episodes of Mona The Vampire on CBC in Canada.
It was also recently spotted on After School Cartoons reruns of Ripley's Believe It or Not: The Animated Series on Pluto TV.
It's also preserved on Time-Life's DVD of The Adventures of Paddington Bear.

Editor's Note: A nice logo update that improves on the last logo's faults. It's also fondly remembered by many.

3rd Logo
(1999-2001)

Nicknames: "Bouncing Cinar", "CGI Cinar II"

Logo: We zoom to a dimly-illuminated filmstrip laid on a brown ground, and then the Cinar logo jumps onto the ground. We slowly zoom onto the logo as the same byline from the previous logo appears below.

FX/SFX: The logo jumping, and the zooming.

Music/Sounds: Boinks are heard over the sound of an airplane landing while the logo jumps, when it's finished, we hear some babies and animals laughing and cheering, heard over a honk and a harp.

Availability: Ultra rare. It was seen on the Sony Wonder DVD release of Caillou: Volume 2 after the Sony Wonder logo, and may have been seen on late '90s shows before it was plastered by the previous logo, or a Cookie Jar logo. Might be seen on VHS promos as well.

Editor's Note: Another great logo from Cinar with nice CGI that's sadly wasn't used often.

4th Logo
(2000, November 18, 2002-October 7, 2003)

Nicknames: "Bland CGI", "CGI Cinar III", "Cinar in The Sky", "Bland Cinar", "Blandar", "CinBland"

Logo: On a cloudy blue background, we see the Cinar logo, in white, zooming out on a blue/green gradient oval, with the same copyright stamp and URL from the previous logo fading in.

Variants:

On the final season of Mona the Vampire, the logo is superimposed over an image of a dark sky and a town underneath, with a bat flying over the logo.
On Zoboomafoo: Playtime, Zobooland, and Zoboomafoo: Leapin' Lizards, the print logo is on a white background.
On the Warner Home Video and Sony Wonder DVD's of Caillou's Holiday Movie, this logo appears, but without the byline.

FX/SFX: The CGI logo zooming out.

Music/Sounds:

On Caillou's Holiday Movie, a whoosh followed by Caillou laughing is heard.
On Mona the Vampire, the closing theme of the show, or silence as seen on the show's French dub.

Availability: Extremely rare. After Michael Hirsh acquired Cinar because of their 1999 scandal (as well as debts and losing worth) in March 2004, Cinar went kaput.

When though the print logo was introduced in 2000, it only appeared on Zoboomafoo games.
The only show this logo was seen on was the final season of Mona the Vampire.The logo was preserved on Canadian-English channel BBC Kids, but otherwise, was plastered with Cookie Jar when This TV aired the series. This logo never appeared on any other Cinar show in-production at the time, like Arthur, Caillou (except the original 2003 release of Caillou's Holiday Movie), or even Zoboomafoo, which all continued to use the last logo.
The original variant is only seen on the Sony Wonder and Warner Home Video releases of Caillou's Holiday Movie. Like with the above, re-releases and re-airings of the special plaster this logo with Cookie Jar (while keeping Calliou's laughter from the logo).

Editor's Note: It's considered by many to be a disappointing end to an otherwise solid lineup from the company. It has very simple and bland CGI animation compared to the previous logos.

Cinar (Canada)

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