Bumper Films (UK)/Summary

Bumper Films was a children's stop frame production company, which was established by John Walker & Ian Frampton in 1982. They are best known for producing the original series of Fireman Sam, which aired from 1987 to 1994. They also created Joshua Jones, which aired briefly in 1992, Starhill Ponies, which aired from 1998 to 2001, as well as Rocky Hollow, which aired in 1985.

In December 2001, the Fireman Sam brand was sold to Gullane Entertainment, and after finishing production on Starhill Ponies in 2002, the company shut down. In Welsh, Bumper Films was called Ffilmial Bumper.

(November 17, 1987-November 17, 1994)

Nicknames: "Dodgem Car" "WHOOSHHHH!" "MY EARS!!!" "Whoosh of Doom" (Joshua Jones Variant)", "Bumper Car from Hell"

Logo: The end credits from the show fades to a white background, and a picture of a dodgem car fades in. Inside it are a boy with his arms out cheering and a girl looking through a telescope. On the car is a yellow flag with the company name in black. The whole symbol is colored blue and yellow. Underneath the dodgem car is the text "BUMPER FILMS Ltd for S4C", with "S4C" being in said channel's corporate typeface. A copyright stamp attributing Prism Art & Design Ltd is displayed underneath.

Variants: FX/SFX: The fade in from white.
 * On Fireman Sam, "with thanks to the Fire Service" is written in Gill Sans under "BUMPER FILMS Ltd for S4C". From 1988 onwards, the "S4C" text was updated to match the channel's then-new logo.
 * On Joshua Jones, the colors on the flag are inverted, and the copyright text is different. Instead, it reads "BUMPER FILMS" in Futura Condensed, and then "for S4C, BBC, Prism Art & Design" underneath. Below that are copyright stamps for Rob Lee and S4C.
 * On Season 4 of Fireman Sam, the logo has been made identical to the Joshua Jones variant, but with "With thanks to the Fire Service" underneath and the copyright stamp for Prism Art and Design Ltd.
 * On Welsh prints of the 4th season of Fireman Sam (or Sam Tân in Welsh), the logo is set on a black BG and is on the top with Welsh text saying "Cynhyrchiad" (Production in English) and on the bottom of that is the S4C logo of that time and text saying "Ar Gyfer" (For in English) on the top of the S4C logo. The copyright date is below that. "BUMPER FILMS" is in English though.
 * On current prints of the original series of Fireman Sam, the logo has the S4C logo in the left corner, and the HiT Entertainment logo in the right corner, and the copyright now says "© (year) S4C International (with S4C in the 1995 typeface, along with the notice that reads "BUMPER FILMS for S4C") and Prism Art & Design Limited, a HIT Entertainment Company."

Music/Sounds: The synthesized whoosh from Fireman Sam.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Joshua Jones, the whoosh sounds faster.

Availability: Presumably on original broadcasts and VHS tapes of the first four seasons of Fireman Sam. The variant with the HiT logo is seen on current DVD releases of the original series of Fireman Sam, though some DVD's have the original logo intact. The logo was present on all episodes of Joshua Jones, which was given a DVD release in Australia but not the UK. It may be possible that this logo was used for Bumper Films' first production, Rocky Hollow.

Scare Factor: It usually depends on the variant.
 * Fireman Sam variant: Low to medium, due to the whoosh and fade to white.
 * Welsh prints of the 4th season of Fireman Sam: Medium. The additional black background could make this worse.
 * Joshua Jones variant: Medium to high. The faster whoosh combined with the fade to white can get to many, mostly those in the United Kingdom.