Lyrick Studios/Summary

Logo descriptions by McDonald's1

Background: Lyrick Studios, formerly known as "The Lyons Group", was founded in 1991, and was a video production and distributing company, best known for their production and distribution of Wishbone and Barney & Friends. They did not start using a logo until 1996. Later, the company was bought out and rendered defunct by HiT Entertainment.

1st Logo (1996-1998, 2000)
Logo : On a white background, six letters zoom out to the center of the screen, in 30 degrees. The letters then separate themselves, revealing the word "Lyrick" in a font with colors (blue, yellow , red , green , purple , and orange ). After the letters have settled, a light blue dot flies out and dots the "I", and the word "S T U D I O S", with a line above it, wipes itself in on the bottom right of it. The trademark symbol fades in to the right of that same word.

Variants :
 * On some tapes from the company, "Distributed by" wipes in above the logo as the letters zoom out. There's also a still version of this logo.
 * There is a rare early variant of this logo where the logo is taller and skinnier, it doesn't have the shadow effect, "Studios" is in a different font, the words "Distributed by" are yellow and there is a bigger space between "Distributed by" and "Lyrick Studios". This variant is still. There is also a version of this variant without "Distributed by", which is seen at the end of the tape. This version can be seen on Joe Scruggs: "Live From Deep In The Jungle" and "Joe TV", the first 2 Francesco's Friendly World tapes, "Barney's Musical Scrapbook", and some others.
 * There is another early variant where the logo is zoomed closer to the screen and "Distributed by" is yellow. This can only be seen on the tapes of Vatican 2: The Faithful Revolution, a surprisingly non-children's release. Again, the version without "Distributed by" can be seen at the end of the tape.

FX/SFX : The zoom-out of the six letters, the "dot-the-I" sequence, the wipe-in of "S T U D I O S" and it's line, and then the fade-in of the trademark symbol. The still version just contains the simple fade-in and fade-out, whereas the "Distributed by" version consists of the barn door wipe-in above the logo.

Music/Sounds : A 4-note synth-piano riff is heard throughout the logo, with 3 low-toned synth violin notes as the "dot-the-I" sequence plays, followed by a twinkling sound and synthesized violin stinger.

Music/Sounds Variants :
 * The "Distributed by" variant features only 2 low toned notes for the "dot-the-I" sequence. Ringing bells can be heard when the "Distributed by" and "STUDIOS" text appear and during the "dot-the-I" sequence, and the tune ends with 2-note synth piano theme and synthesized violin stinger instead of the twinkling sound (although early releases with the "Distributed by" variant used the normal music).
 * On the 1998 VHS release of Barney & Friends: Down on Barney's Farm, the "Distributed by" music is used on the regular version of the logo, but the ringing bells are only heard once, since the words "Distributed by" aren't there.
 * The still version is silent.

Availability : Rare. This logo was only used for a few years, and were limited to tapes of Barney and Friends, VeggieTales, Wishbone, Kids for Character, Francesco's Friendly World, and Joe Scruggs. Most of these videos from this time period are long out of print and are hard to find; the latter 3 properties are quite obscure, for all of their VHS releases by Lyrick Studios were released throughout 1997. However, tapes of Barney and Friends are the least scarce of the the bunch, so those tapes are your best bet to find this logo. The later still version exists on 2000 VHS releases such as the first five VeggieTales shows.

Editor's Note : None.

2nd Logo (March 27, 1998-August 14, 2001)
Logo : To a lake (proably Otter Lake), which is surrounded by a forest at twilight. The sun is setting. On that lake, a silhouette of an ugly duckling is seen swimming from right to left on the bottom of the screen. Once it is far enough on the bottom left of the screen, the camera then begins to pan into the starry night sky. A child's hand, which has the index finger extended, touches the sky, causing ripples to appear. As the ripples fade away, the word "Lyrick" (in the same font as before, but with fatter letters) slowly zooms in and settles in the middle of the screen. The word shines as the word "S T U D I O S" and it's line, along with a Trademark symbol, fade in.

Variants :
 * Some VeggieTales tapes have the words "Distributed by" in a white and bold Arial Black font on a black background before the logo fades in. This is regularly seen on the openings and closings to the tapes.
 * There's a rare, early variation with fewer stars in the night sky, rough animation at 23fps, longer panning up in the sky until the hand comes, a redder sunset, a different forest design, and the logo is off-center. This appeared on the film Barney's Great Adventure. Most of the releases of this movie do not show the red sleeve on the child's arm due to their aspect ratio.
 * Another rare variation has the camera panning slightly upward to make room for the words "Distributed by" in italics, which are fading in above the logo while it is finishing it's animation.
 * There is a still version of this logo.
 * There is an extremely rare variant with the words "Distributed by" on a black background in white Arial font before the logo animates. This appeared on an alternate print of The Wiggles: "Yummy Yummy".

FX/SFX : A live-action and CG animation hybrid.

Music/Sounds : A beautiful orchestral piece, which is accompanied by the sounds of an ugly duckling crowing (or dog barking). It is soft when the silhouette of the ugly duckling is swimming, but then it gets louder as the camera starts panning upward. A crash cymbal is heard when the child's hand touches the sky. After that, the rest of the logo is fixed at the loudest volume that is reached.

Music/Sounds Variants: :
 * On the early variant, the cymbal crash comes a little late.
 * Like the previous logo, the still variant is silent.

Availability : Preserved on most VeggieTales and Barney and Friends tapes from the period distributed by the company. Also seen on all Wishbone tapes made after 1997, when Lyrick Studios began distributing the videos, taking over from PolyGram Video. Can also be seen on most The Wiggles, Bob the Builder, and Kipper tapes from the period. The logo also appears on some DVDs as well like More Barney Songs and the Mexican Spanish dub of Barney's Good Day Good Night. The early variant exclusively appears on the 1998 PolyGram film Barney's Great Adventure: The Movie, which is the first piece of media to use the logo. In 2000, the still variants began to replace the animated variant in the videos. One of the last (if not the last) releases to use this logo was the 2001 VHS print of The Wiggles: Wiggly Play Time.

Editor's Note : This is a very well-liked logo to people who grew up with their shows.

Final Note : In 2001, HiT Entertainment acquired Lyrick Studios. HiT kept the Texas office of Lyrick open for production of Barney & Friends. as a result of the HiT buyout they released nothing up to its shutdown in 2002, due to arguments from PolyGram over Barney's Great Adventure being released theatrically instead of DtV (and thus not part of PolyGram's picture deal). Today, Lyrick Studios' properties belong to HiT Entertainment (later Mattel Creations) except for VeggieTales, which is currently owned by NBCUniversal on behalf of DreamWorks Animation.