Top 25 Logo Varations in Films and Video Games

So I've watched a lot of WatchMojo.com videos on YouTube and of all the lists they have done for films (believe me there is a lot of them), they have yet to do one on logo variations. Now what I mean by this is that these are the logos that you see first in any film or video game (TV shows don't count here I'm afraid) and while their main purpose is to tell you who distributed, financed and possibly published the finished product, having a variation of the logos to fit with the setting of the finished product just shows how much time and effort went into the finished product even if the end result is that it sucked or was very good all around. This became quite a big thing when digital effects and CGI were both the biggest and best thing that the world has ever seen and these are 25 of those logos. Not all of them had digital effects or CGI in them, but the way that they are shown, makes people ready for what is about to be shown and to make things fair, all these logos will be from films and video games that I have watched and played respectively and they will not be the generic logo variations that are seen in most of the studio's works. So let's get to it:

25 - Where The Wild Things Are

While the majoirty of these logos do have a bit of special effects, colour changes and CGI thrown in, this one has none of those things which is what makes it great. All the logos are just still images with some doodles done by the boy called Max which the film has the most focus on and in my eyes, it shows that the film has a bit of a playful element in it, despite its dark tone. I think for a film like Where The Wild Things are, there isn't really much needed to make the logos fit with the film. I mean it could've just passed with the generic logos, but the doodles on the logos defiently make it clear that the film has a playful tone in it which is how its sopposed to be and as you guys know, I love this film. Its one of my all time favourite films, despite me not reading the book and the logos are great even if its just still images with some doodles.

24 - Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2

Originally this was going to be the logos from the first film, but then I decided to opt for this one. Only reason I picked it was because its funny despite only being a few seconds long. The Columbia Pictures lady gets hit and thrown by a banana animal thing. That's it really. I just thought it was funny and of course the film was funny too so good stuff Sony.

23 - Heavy Rain
Our first video game logo. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video of the logos you see at the beginning (and also I only wanted the logos, not the first part of a walkthrough of the game), but the general idea is the Sony Computer Entertainment and Quantic Dream logos appear in what the title of the game says, in Heavy Rain. It pretty much sums up the setting of the game in a nutshell and sets the tone of it as well where its pretty much depressing. Now the game itself is a great game despite playing out like an interactive film more than an actual video game and the logos show those things quite well. I wish I could show you the logos, but as I say, you'd be getting some of the game as well so there's really not much point in it. But that's just me.

22 - Doom

If there was ever a film distributed by Universal that takes place in space, this is the sort of logo that I would expect to see. Its effectively the same Universal logo before the 100th anniversary one, but with Mars in the place of Earth where the film takes place. Unfortunately, this film came at a time where video game films were doomed to suck one way or another and based on news that I have read, Hollywood are ready to do them again in the near future as there is a lot more confidence in making them. Doom was one of the video game films of the past which did suck, but as I say, most video game films sucked back in those days one way or another and while this logo didn't do much to get people hyped up for the film that we were about to watch, its nice that the Universal logo can have its letters appear on another planet instead of always Earth and if anything, that's really the only thing I liked about this film.

21 - Man of Steel

So this was one of the more interesting logos that I saw when this film came out. Its all the logos of the distrubutors and production companies that helped make this film, scattered all around what seem to be the Superman logo, and there are a fair few of them. Now as far as 300, all of Zach Snyder's films have had a variation of the logos of the companies who helped make the films that he has made and I think this is because he is a visionary filmmaker and wants to show that in the logos of the companies who helped make the films and its great. This is really just the logos scattered in the Superman logo so nothing really to get excited about here, but it is kind of cool that they can do something like this, especially considering that this was the first entry in the DC Cinematic Universe so if we get logos like these in the rest of the trilogy, I will be very happy.

20 - The Cat in The Hat

I've come to realise now that many film adaptations of Dr. Seuss's work are often doomed to suck because of the Hollywood influence that they have had with The Grinch and Horton Hear's A Who being very close to the source material. The Cat In The Hat is widely seen as the mascot of Dr. Seuss's work and I knew that a film about said cat, would never work and it shows. Its a complete betrayl of the source material, especially due to the lack of ryhmes which according to Mike Myers's version of the character, is not very good at it (you just don't say that in a film based on a children's book where all the words ryhmed). But all criticisms aside, much like with Doom, the logos are really the only things that I liked about this film as well as its art style. All the logos look a lot like cartoons with a red and white feel to them which are the two colours of the Cat's hat which is most likely the only thing that the filmmakers got right from the source material. A shame really, but as I say, there is no way that you can make a film based on a very short Dr. Seuss book and have little to no rhyming in it.

19 - The Wild

One of the most unerated films that Disney have ever done, also had a very interesting logo. Its the same logo that was first used in I believe the first Pirates film with a bit of a 3D element to it and while I will admit that it does drag on but just a little bit, it is original. I say that because there has not once been a time where the line of light goes around the Disney castle gets interrupted by the main character's son and I like it, despite the drag. And you know, even though the film can be considered as Disney trying to cash in or compete properly with DreamWorks's hugely successful Madagascar films, it does show similarity to that film, but has a very different story all together. I just wished people paid more attention to it, but as for the logo, it was funny and as I said, there was never a logo variant quite like this until this film came out.

18 - The LEGO Movie

To be honest with you, I was kind of expecting to see this when I went in to see the film (twice) and I would've been gutted if there wasn't a variant. But anyway, Warner Bros. enjoy having their logos be messed up to fit in with the film, especially if the films are big and well hyped up which is certainly what The LEGO Movie was and considering that Warner Bros. already handle distribution of many forms of media with LEGO, it didn't surprise me that they would do the same here. So all 3 logos you see in this video, are unsurprisingly all made out of LEGO and hanging on a piece of string. Even the background is made of LEGO which in my eyes, perfectly captures the setting of the film and the film as the song says, is awesome and the logos show how awesome it is and I look forward to the next few films.

17 - Gremlins 2: The New Batch

So Gremlins 2. Not the best film in the world, but its very rare to have WB's biggest stars to make an apperance before the film even begins. I am of course refering to Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck without whom, Warner Bros. wouldn't be where they are today and having them introduce the film, shows how much Warner Bros. care for this sequel even if it ended up not being as good as the first film and you know, its been a long time since we saw the classic opening to all those Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons so it was a nice touch I thought.

16 - Sherlock Holmes

While it may not be the most entertaining logo on this list, I like that the film makers of Sherlock Holmes wanted to fully embrace the whole London setting by having the logos appear in cobbles which for those of you outside the UK, is another name for bricks if they were used for flat surfaces like paths and roads. It is quite a dull and pretty boring logo set, but I like it because of the logos fully embracing what is considered to be a known thing for us Brits.

15 - Fred Claus

So when you have a film set around Christmas, naturally the logos have to embrace the holiday and of all the Christmas film logos that I have seen, the Fred Claus one for me, is the best. Its effectively the logos for all the companies that helped make the film with some fairy lights attached to them all and snow which totally makes the film special, even though its not the greatest Christmas film out there. Its the only Christmas set that is visually great and actually has that Christmas spark in it and I like it.

14 - The Day After Tomorrow

Unlike most of the logos on this list, 20th Century Fox very rarely has variations of their logos and in my eyes, none of them are really as good as its competitiors. So naturally choosing which ones to put on this list was quite easy and this one comes from the disaster film, The Day After Tomorrow which isn't the best disaster film that I've seen, but its not the worst either. The logo is effectively the same as it has always been, but towards the end, it starts to have a storm brewing thus setting the tone to this film and despite the film being average, this logo got me pumped despite how generic it was.

13 - Maleficent

So a couple of years ago, Disney announced plans to remake some their animated classics into a more live action format and would also aim to make each film to not be a complete rehash of the film which based on my thoughts with the first two of them, they seem to be doing a good job of it, but they do need to work better on them. So Maleficent was the first of these films which rather than be a remake of the animated film Sleeping Beauty, the film makers decided to instead follow the same story with various differences made, but told from the perspective of the titular villian who for those of you who don't know, is known to be one of the greatest villains of all time (at least from what fans of the animated film say). Anyway, so instead of the Cinderella castle that we see at the start of most Disney films, we instead get the king and queen's castle from the world of Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent in its place and it does feel kind of nice to have something like this at the start of a film that talks about one of Disney's greatest villains.

12 - The Last Airbender

It is a bad film. That we can all agree on, especially those of us who are fans of the Nickelodeon show that the film was based on (and made by someone who claimed to be a fan of the show). Much like with Fox, Paramount also very rarely have variations of their logo and in recent years, they have really gone down hill with all the Bay films and just terrible decision making. But anyway, so the best thing about the film was of course its opening which stayed true and faithful to the show and the logos showed each of the elements represented in the show (well the main ones so no metal or blood bending here) by having them implemented in the logos such as the stars that go around the Paramount logo being replaced by water. It was a nice touch, its just a shame the film was just terrible.

11 - Batman: Arkham Origins

So ignoring the rest of the video, the logos here are very interesing. They all come in through the clouds with each one having a gothic like beat to them, eventually leading into the Batman logo which has the biggest one of all with a choir. Its a good way to start a Batman game and get people in the mood for it, even if the game acted as nothing more than filler until Arkham Knight, but hey, it was nice to see how people coped with Batman during the early days.

10 - Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole'

I am aware that many of these logos are from Warner Bros. but that's because there's just so many of them that I like. As I said previously, prior to Warner Bros. hiring Zach Snyder, all his films have had a variant of the Warner Bros. and their studios' logos and this is one that I did like a lot. His take on a children's film was a very big change of pace for him and something that I never thought he would do after having done a lot of dark and serious films. Though that being said, this film offered both those things despite being a children's film and some may say that this film is like the first Toy Story film in that there are a lot of scenes that children would find very disturbing. But anyway, so an owl flies through the logos as they appear in the clouds, telling us that we would be in for quite a ride, more so than I originally thought.

9 - Monsters VS Aliens

So I think this film was made for DreamWorks to try out the new 3D technology which at the time was relatively new to the world. So for their first 3D film, we got DreamWorks paying tribute to all the popcorn films of the past, but more specifically the monster films. The Blob, The Missing Link, you name it. So the logo plays out fine, but then a ufo appears abducting the child and then in classic film style, the film burns up revealing a 3D moving image. From the way I saw it, it felt like the right way to go about with this 3D technology and the logos perfectly captured the good days of popcorn films and I liked it a lot.

8 - 2 Fast 2 Furious

Its surprising that of all the logos that the Fast & Furious films have had, only the second film has a variation of the Universal logo. But that being said, it was able to show us the logo on a wheel and while the digital effects were not as good as they are now, you can't have a film series and not have any of the logos get a variation of them. At least the second film got that, but I will let it pass with the other films as the were made more serious, but funny as time moved on so that's all fine.

7 - Frankenweenie

Now interesting fact. This isn't actually an original film. Its a stop motion remake of quite an old short film which is significant for being the last film to use the Buena Vista logos and was one film that was never seen until it made it into a bonus feature on DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Tim Burton's more successful works with Disney (mainly this film and The Nightmare Before Christmas). So nearly 30 years later, Disney and Tim Burton worked on a stop motion remake of the film and it was more successful than its original counterpart. The premise is the form of a question which is "What if Frankenstien's Monster was a dog?" hence the name Frankenweenie. Now I'm pretty sure that I have done a review of both films in the past so if you would like to know more, please go and look at my review of them. Now as for the logo, the Disney castle comes out like it always does, before then suddenly going dark and black and white on us with a bit of Halloween like music, thus setting the tone of this parody and homage on one of the greatest Universal Monsters that ever lived, and quite a good parody and homage at that. Disney may not have had the best record of scary or Halloween-esque films, but they certainly know that Tim Burton is an asset and not one to be messed with.

6 - Serinity

Now if Universal ever did do a sci-fi film, this is exactly what I would want the logo to do. To have it play out like always and then instead of a fade out, we move to the planet underneath the big letters. Its the logo that I've always dreamed about seeing and I loved it. Its a shame that Universal don't do many sci-fi films (quite frankly, I wouldn't have minded seeing them do something for Gravity if the film makers actually got them as a distributor and not Warner Bros, its their loss at the end of the day), but its very clear that they will always try and make a variant of their logos and do their very best at it when they do make sci-fi films. Just wish there was more of them.

5 - Scott Pilgrim VS The World

Although I never read the Scott Pilgrim comics, I know that when you have a film based on a comic book that feels like you're in a video game, you have to do something great to make the film as great as it can be and Universal did just that. Now Edgar Wright has had a pretty good track record for Universal films with the Cornetto Trilogy, but Scott Pilgrim was a film that is significant as a film that has none of his collaborators in it and it was a blast. The Universal logo at the beginning is great because there has never been a time until now where the logo goes into 8-bit territory and it is done right and has pretty much topped everyone's favourite logo variation of 2010 just by how great it is and I love it.

4 - Tron Legacy

So the film had spectacular CGI and digital effects as well as a kickass soundtrack, but the story and the characters were not as good. That being said, I do enjoy a good 3D popcorn film that just looks beautiful to look at. So at the time of seeing this, I was still getting used to 3D films, although after watching Avatar, I realised that as long as people know what they are doing, 3D films can be done right and should never be used just for the sake of cheap CGI effects or a cash grab. Tron Legacy is one of those 3D films done right and the opening logo shows just that. A digitised and futuristic Disney castle, who doesn't want to see that?

3 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince + Deathly Hallows Part 1

Since Chamber of Secrets, the Harry Potter films have always had some kind of variation of the film and Warner Bros. logos with each one being more darker than the last. But of the ones that were made, both Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 1 were my favourites. HBP because of the clouds, the darkness and the serious music that accompanies the logos and DH1 because of how rusty and the unpleasant noise that comes with the Warner Bros. music. They both set the tones of both films well and it just shows that the series had gone a long way since the films started at the beginning of a new millennium and I was one of the people that grew up watching the films. Its also nice to see that Warner Bros. do want to keep the Harry Potter franchise alive and well with these theme parks and attractions and these upcoming spin-off films. Its great.

2 - Kung Fu Panda 2 + Rise of the Guardians

So these two films were among the last films that DreamWorks did before the deal with Paramount ended and watching them both, makes me like these 2 great and beautifully animated films more than I would normally like. The artstyle of the first logo does manage to feature in most of the film which despite being a Jack Black film (apparently some people have a problem with him or something) is one of the best animated films that I have seen in recent years and shows that traditional 2D animation and CGI 3D animation can both live in harmony if done right. As for the second logo, this one I liked as it was a film unlike any other. Despite being released at Christmas time, it is not entirely a Christmas film as it features other holiday characters as well as Santa. The logo shows the wintery feel of the film which is always important for a film to get straight with and its great. Both these logos with the films that have accompanied them, have shown that DreamWorks have come a long way since Antz and its great.

Honurable Mentions:

The Simpsons Movie - Ralph Wiggum singing the tune in the 0. Need I say more.

Green Lantern - The WB logo glows green and Green Lantern comics are shown in the DC part.

300: Rise of an Empire - Logos on doors with a bit of dramatic music to go with it.

Moulin Rouge! - Despite being generic, its not often we see curtains around screens at the cinema these days.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - We have mermaids, cannon noises and a pirate flag. Everything we love about pirates in a nutshell.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire - The logo which feels like its seeled onto something. (no video)

Lilo & Stitch - The logo gets captured by aliens and even has a distress beacon fly over it.

Chicken Little - First time the castle actually gets a new 3D look.

Enchanted - Same old Disney logo, but then goes into the castle itself. Doesn't get any better than that.

Oz the Great and Powerful - Black and White, very simplified and sounds a little bit like a music box.

Cinderella (2015) - Same generic logo, but cuts to the real castle towards the end. Like it should.

The Matrix Trilogy - All the logos are green with a black and white background and a bit of coding thrown in.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - The logos appear through clouds (though they are in no way, like the Harry Potter ones).

1 - Saving Mr Banks

So of all the logos on this list, why is this the one I like the most? Well I feel its a good send back to the old Disney logo and with it being a drama on the making of one of Disney's most beloved animation and live action hybrid musical films Mary Poppins, it felt appropriate. Its retro, fits well into what the film is about and even if the film may be a more adult film than anything Disney have released thus far, its good and reassuring to know that there is still a sign of care into the work that Disney do and you know, it shows how far the company have come since Steamboat Willie with all these huge advancements in technology and the acquisition of some very big production companies and licenses who thanks to Disney are in a much happier place for the world to enjoy. Sure there have been some rough times, but you can't expect every film studio to have a perfect run in the business. No such thing like that exists in this world.