Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Summary

Background
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the DVD and Blu-ray Disc distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was first established in November 1979 by Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. as "Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment", to distribute films from Columbia Pictures on VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, and Super 8mm, with Warner Bros. titles being released by them in the latter format. It was later renamed as "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video" (or "RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video" for international distribution, "RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video" (in conjunction with Hoyts) in Australia and "Gaumont Columbia RCA Video" (in conjunction with Gaumont) in France) in 1981 as a joint venture with RCA, "Columbia TriStar Home Video" on August 23, 1991 after acquiring RCA's shares from General Electric, "Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment" in 1999 before the name was made official in 2001, and to its current name in 2004. It is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures library for home entertainment, mainly releases from Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, but also releases product from Sony Pictures Classics, Screen Gems, Triumph Films, Destination Films, Stage 6 Films, Affirm Films, Revolution Studios, its television library, selected miscellaneous output from independent companies, and the [http://www.closinglogos.com/page/CBS+Films+Inc. CBS Films] theatrical releases co-distributed by CBS Home Entertainment. Since June 20, 2007, SPHE now handles the former Sony BMG kids label, Sony Wonder.

(November 1979-November 1982)
Nickname : "The Sunburst"

Logo : The same as the Columbia Pictures "Sunburst" theatrical logo, but there is a video freeze at the end, with "Columbia Pictures " blacked out.

COLUMBIA PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

written in white, in Cooper Black font, is chyroned in below.

Variants :
 * There is a black and white version of this logo seen on classic Columbia movies and shorts in B&W.
 * The end will vary from video to video, with it fading to black in one version while another cuts to black.

FX/SFX : Same as the "Sunburst" logo.

Cheesy Factor : The freeze-frame effect looks cheesy, and the font (which looks out of place) is obviously tacked/chryoned on top of the original Sunburst logo, plastering the "Columbia Pictures " company name (which can be briefly seen if one plays the logo in slow-motion and watches carefully).

Music/Sounds : Same as the theatrical version.

Availability : Has rare written all over it. You can find this logo on the original 1970s clamshell releases of Born Free, Breakout, The New Centurions, The Deep, You Light Up My Life, and the original Fun with Dick and Jane. Surprisingly, this logo also appeared on early-to-mid-1980s video prints of Gerald McBoing-Boing and Mr. Magoo cartoons. The black & white version appears on Gilda. Starting in June 1981, videocassettes of Columbia Pictures films went straight to the logo used at the time (a practice that lasted until 1989). There are also some sports specials and non-Columbia Pictures material that contain this logo, such as the 1982 VHS of The Batty World of Baseball. Surprisingly, this appeared on the mid-1980s and 1990s video releases of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the latter having it after the 1993 Columbia TriStar Home Video logo.

Scare Factor : Low.

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video
===1st Logo (December 1982-October 1987)===

Nicknames : "The Cube", "The Spinning Cube", "RCA/Columbia Box II", "CGI RCA/Columbia Box", "The RCA/Columbia Cube"

Logo : On a black background, we see a rotating cube, featuring the same logo as stated above on each side (either 1, 3, or 4 sides). The main difference to the logo, however, is that the border is now silvery, with "HOME VIDEO " etched in silver. A white sparkle appears on the side as it rotates.

FX/SFX : The CGI rotating cube, the white sparkle. Nice effects, but pales in comparison to its international counterpart.

Music/Sounds : None.

Music/Sounds Variant : On No Holds Barred, the New Line Cinema logo is plastered by this logo, keeping the film's opening title music and sound effects (of a ring announcer and a cheering crowd) while this logo is playing.

Availability : This logo is slightly easier to come across, seeing that it is more recent. However, this logo was only used in the United States and Canada. Again, Columbia releases went straight to the movie until 1989 (the last release to do so was Ghostbusters II). Also, from 1986 to 1987, this logo was restricted to the coming attractions part of the releases. Releases that had this logo include True Believer, Casualties of War, Postcards from the Edge, Glory, Pump Up the Volume, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Far Out Man, The Blob (1988 version), the uncut version of 976-EVIL, The Phantom of the Opera (1989 version), Xtro II: The Second Encounter, Critters 2, Night of the Living Dead (1990 version), Relentless, Hit List, Out of the Dark, Clownhouse, Hairspray (1988 version), Fast Getaway, Who's Harry Crumb?, Look Who's Talking 1 & 2,The Gods Must Be Crazy II, Troop Beverly Hills, Awakenings, Willow (a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release produced by Lucasfilm Ltd.), and many, many more. One of the last releases to include this logo was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze; here the logo fades out earlier than usual. Another You has RCA/Columbia's print logo on the box and on the video label, but the video itself has neither this nor the first Columbia TriStar Home Video logo.

Scare Factor : None.

RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video
===1st Logo (1982-1991?)===

Nicknames : "The International Spinning Cube", "RCA/Columbia Box II", "The RCA/Columbia Cube", "The CGI Cube"

Logo:  On a black background, a 3D cube comes up from the screen. It has the RCA logo in red at the top and "INTERNATIONAL VIDEO" at the bottom. Then the Columbia Pictures print logo in blue and white swoops up from the bottom. The cube spins once and settles down, facing the viewers.

Variations :


 * On some PAL tapes, the animation takes place on a pale marble background. When the logo has finished animating, it "ripples" out and the warning scrolls up, when the ripples ended.
 * On releases from Contacto Video in Colombia, the RCA/Columbia logo shrinks down to the lower right of the screen. Then the Contacto Video logo animates, then it shrinks and moves to the upper-left of the screen.
 * On the 1990 VHS release of Radio Days, at the end, there is a flash and the logo turns into the silvery print logo, which shines.

FX/SFX : The 3D cube rising, the Columbia Pictures print logo rising from the bottom. Pretty neat CGI animation; it's far superior to its North American counterpart.

Cheesy Factor : The only real cheesy factor is the fanfare.

Music/Sounds : A dramatic 1980s-sounding synthesized fanfare, complete with a couple whooshes, or a generic theme. Sometimes it is silent.

Availability : Rare. It was only used on video releases outside North America. However, if you have an NTSC tape from (at least) Mexico or Japan, or even a SECAM tape from France or Russia, you'll probably find this logo. The normal variant appears on UK releases of Flatliners and Ghostbusters II, while the marble background variant appears on Hope and Glory.

Scare Factor : Low. It's a very clean and professional logo.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
===1st Logo (January-August 1992, 1995)===

Nicknames : "Ultra Majestic Torch Lady-Pegasus Combo", "The Lack of Boxes", "Last of Columbia TriStar"

Logo : Over the usual cloud background, we pan past an extreme close up of the Torch Lady's legs and feet (covered in the robe of course), then dissolve into a pan of the TriStar Pegasus (in the print artwork style except for the body and the legs, which are in the 1993 movie logo style, but in the same color as the Pegasus' face and wings) unfolding his wings. The pan then quickly dissolves into a shot from the center of the Pegasus unfolding his wings, albeit in a close-up fashion, and then a dissolve to the Torch Lady zooming out from her face. The logo then dissolves to reveal the Torch Lady and Pegasus side-by-side on a cloud background in their print artwork styles, with "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" slightly sliding in with "HOME ENTERTAINMENT", in a smaller font, fading in letter-by-letter.

Variants :
 * On the promo for Little Secrets as seen on some 2002 VHS prints of Stuart Little and the DVD of Stuart Little 2, "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" is removed.
 * The VHS variant compared to the DVD variant has differences, the VHS variant has a bit of the top and right cropped and not shown and usually cuts to black if there are no previews on the tape or if it transitions to the DVD menu, though this was rarely used on DVDs. Some of the logo IDs cut to black instead of fading out. It includes the "Coming Soon" and "Now Available" text variants of the logo. Strangely, the logo without the text above and with the same transition as the other tapes without previews is also seen on The Wubbulous World Of Dr. Seuss: The Cat's Musical Tales to transit to the later ID of released multimedia. The widescreen is a tiny bit zoomed out from the full-screen version with the early jingle. The other variant (which is later adjusted for better view) fades to black after the animation to the logo is finished and uses straight HOR+ scaling method to change from 4:3 to 16:9.
 * On most Columbia TriStar DVDs from 2002-2005, the logo is in warp-speed.
 * The print logo has the typical boxes, with "COLUMBIA TRISTAR" above and "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" below; it's all on a white background. This logo appeared on TV-DVD previews found on TV-DVD releases of the era such as Married... with Children: The Most Outrageous Episodes, Soap: The Complete First Season (later reissued by Mill Creek), and seasons 2-5 of Sanford and Son and was never used on general releases.
 * On VHS releases from 2004-2005, it has a shortened version of this logo with a trailer bump, but has the DVD music. Seen on Spider-Man 2, White Chicks, and Fahrenheit 9/11.
 * On the DVD of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the logo transitions to the DVD menu - in order to do so, different audio is heard.
 * On the DVD version, the logo appears sped-up.

Trailer Variants : Rarely, letters would appear on top of the screen, and it, in regular font, with an announcer (Eric Gordon), would state the following (on VHS promos, half of the logo is playing in widescreen and the words are on the wide boxes): Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.
 * Now Playing In Theaters
 * Coming Soon To Theaters
 * Now Available on VHS and DVD
 * Coming Soon To VHS and DVD
 * Now Available
 * Coming Soon to Home Video
 * Now Available on Home Video
 * Coming Soon to DVD
 * Now Available on DVD

International Trailer Variants : On early Australian releases the logo plays normally and in the top right of the screen letters appear spelling "COMING SOON". So far this has only been spotted on a 2001 Aussie VHS release of Charlie's Angels.

FX/SFX : Of course, what's mentioned in the description doesn't cover the entire logo. Throughout the animation, the logos are artistically stylized, with mosaic and pixelization effects being used through the logo and a scrolling Matrix-like wall of typography appearing throughout. Also, the designers of the logo, Montgomery/Cobb, retouched the face of the Torch Lady and the wings of the Pegasus to make them look more realistic. The dissolves are done gradually, almost like wipes, and the logo seems to be divided up into five sections during the animation, before coming together as an actual logo at the end. The logo looks quite nice and artistic as a result.

Music/Sounds : There were two variants:
 * VHS (and early VCDs/DVDs) : Composed by Machine Head of Venice, California, a wonderful synthesized fanfare that is very majestic, fitting the majestic feel of the logo. Also, it would be interesting to note that the logo was considered one of the longest, clocking in at nearly 20 seconds, until others such as Hendring Limited, Photo-Video, The ABM Group, and Hammer Video Home were discovered.
 * DVD (and later international VHS) : An acoustic guitar tune combined with bells, strings, and a small chorus.

Music/Sounds Variants : On the VHS trailer version of this logo, the clicking noise heard at the beginning of the regular VHS version of the logo is absent. In Kermit's Swamp Years, the audio is synced within the 2001 Jim Henson Home Entertainment logo which extends the audio with the sped up track of the Jim Henson Interactive logo to perform the complete jingle. This causes the logo to transit to the other logo after this one fades out. Bear in the Big Blue House Live has their jingles seperate which allows the Jim Henson logo to start it's jingle after the logo dissolves.

Availability : Common on VHS, VCD, and DVD releases from the era. It has an extremely small to none chance of appearing on Laserdisc since it ended in 2001. Some of them are still in print. A few of the releases that include this logo are numerous Berenstain Bears and Dragon Tales releases from the time, Underworld, Hellboy, Mr. Deeds, Spider-Man, Radio, and pre-SPHE season sets of The King of Queens, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Good Times, and Seinfeld, among others. Tapes of this logo without the clip-on at the top include Jay Jay the Jet Plane: Fun to Learn and Jay Jay the Jet Plane: New Friends, New Discoveries, along with some prints of The Animal, Not Another Teen Movie, Black Hawk Down, and Daddy Day Care. The first music variant is extremely rare on DVDs, but has been spotted on the R1 DVD of the documentary Spellbound. It is also seen on the Region 2 DVDs of Charlie's Angels (2000) and a 2004 printing of S.W.A.T (2003). A widescreen version with the music has also been spotted on the R4 DVD release of "Born Free & Living Free". The second music variant on VHS can be seen at the end of Jay Jay the Jet Plane videos such as Soaring Sky High; the complete second music variant with the jingles synced only appears in the first scene of Kermit's Swamp Years before the movie's opening credits. Somehow, the first music variant did not appear on any DVDs released prior to 2002, which instead used the 8th logo. Strangely, this logo was not seen on the 2001 VHS release of The Animal; it just goes straight to their widescreen "Coming Soon to Home Video" bumper. Some of the last titles to use this include Leon: The Professional: Deluxe Edition and Seinfeld: Season 4, and it may have last appeared on NewsRadio: Seasons 1 & 2, which originally had the CTHE print logo but was later delayed into the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment era.

Scare Factor : None. It's a popular logo now that the widely hated "Split Boxes" have been put to rest. A nice fanfare and great logo concept makes this logo a winner.

(March 22, 2005- )
Nicknames : "The Shining Bars", "Ultra Majestic Sony Pictures Bars", "SPE Bars", "Sony Bars", "The Sony Parallelogram", "Lightbeam in Parallelogram", "Lightbeam in Striped Parallelogram"

Logo : Over a set of purple clouds, we see a bright light with rays shooting outward which start to create some lens flares. A set of white lines of light appear and zoom out to solidify into the Shining Bars, Sony Pictures Entertainment's logo, which give off rays of light. As this happens, the background turns black. The rays die down and we see "SONY PICTURES " in the Sony font appear below the Bars, a line is drawn underneath that, and "HOME ENTERTAINMENT " appears underneath.

Trailer Variants : On 2005-06 VHS releases by SPHE, one of the following phrases would fade in during the clouds portion of the animation with a male announcer saying the phrase. Afterwards, the rest of the animation plays as normal. Afterwards, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.
 * Coming Soon to Theaters
 * Now Playing in Theaters
 * Coming Soon to DVD and Video
 * Now Available on DVD and Video

Variants :
 * On a few DVDs since December 26th, 2005, and on Blu-ray Discs since June 20, 2006, it is much more contrasted.
 * On the Classic Comedy TV (Urban)/Classic Urban TV preview found on Sanford and Son: The Sixth Season and Soap: The Complete Fourth Season, the logo blinks several times in tune with the trailer's rap beat.

FX/SFX : Just great CGI; much better animation than its TV counterpart.

Music/Sounds : Two timpani drumbeats, followed by an uplifting-sounding horn/string arrangement. Sometimes, the theme is played in low tone.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * Sometimes, the theme plays in high tone.
 * Sometimes, the theme is off-sync with the logo.
 * On the double feature set of Annie/Annie: A Royal Adventure, disc 1 (Annie) has the music from the 3rd CTHV logo. That disc is likely a modified reprint of the original 1997 flipper DVD that has both widescreen and fullscreen versions, which may explain this plaster oddity.

Availability : Very common. Can be found on almost all DVDs, VHS, and Blu-Rays released by the company from 2005 onward. The print SPHE logo goes back to November 2004, and those early SPHE releases (such as Spider-Man 2, The Karate Kid, and Seinfeld: Season 4) still have the 2001 CTHE logo. The animated SPHE logo made it's debut on the PSP UMD of Spider-Man 2 in the spring of 2005. The first VHS & DVD to have this logo may have been Are We There Yet?. The trailer variants can be considered very rare because this logo debuted just as VHS was coming to a close, but they appear on VHS releases by SPHE such as some 2005 Berenstain Bears and Dragon Tales VHS tapes, xXx: State of the Union, and Bewitched (2005).

Scare Factor : None. It's just good CGI animation.