Hesker Boys Family Entertainment

Background: Hesker Boys Family Entertainment is the family production arm of Hesker Boys Entertainment that was established in 1992 under Day Hesker Entertainment. It handles kids & family-oriented movies and TV shows, mostly animated and some live-action releases.

1st Logo

(1989-1990)

Nickname: "Happy Birthday Ralphie!"

Logo: On a sky blue/royal blue gradient background, we see the Hesker Boys Cartoons concentric circles logo. A gold BRL-like ribbon is below it, with a golden-colored HB sword in the center. Ralphie Rabbit pops out of the circles and the ribbon "shines" with the "HB" transforming into "50". In script below it, "Happy Birthday Ralphie!" is written out. Ralphie then munches on his carrot.

Trivia: This logo was used during Ralphie Rabbit's 50th anniversary, causing a lot of fuss to be made from various stations.

FX/SFX: The shining ribbon, the scriptwriting, the fading of "HB" to "50" in the shield.

Music/Sounds: No music; the only sound is of Ralphie munching his carrot. However, on The Ralphie Rabbit & Birdy Show, the end theme plays over it, with no carrot-munching sound.

Availability: Could be seen on The Ralphie Rabbit & Birdy Show special Happy Birthday, Ralphie!: 50 Musical Years and other HB specials and tapes during 1989 through 1990, including Second Set.

Scare Factor: None; this logo is clean.

2nd Logo

(1992-2001)

Nickname: "HB Sword & Ralphie Rabbit"

Logo: The HB sword is, as usual, posed against the sky, but this time with the banner reading "FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT" instead of "HESKER BOYS PICTURES". The byline "A DAY HESKER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY" fades in under the logo as Ralphie Rabbit (in a tuxedo) steps to the left from under the sword, does a Vanna White-like pose, and puts his hand on the banner. The banner shines, and Ralphie keeps his hand on it as he leans and eats his carrot.

Variants:

An abridged version was used to open TV cartoons in the early '90s (the logo forming with Ralphie Rabbit already doing his usual routine, along with the shining ribbon).

A version without Ralphie Rabbit is seen at the end of the 1995 Musical Cartoons short Singing Carrot, with the "That's all Folks!" script written on top of it, and Birdy (in his Usmarte impression) says "That's all Folks!" and laughs, then "A HESKER BOYS CARTOON" appears on the bottom right corner.

There is also a noticeably digitally remastered version with no shining ribbon, which was used from 1999 to 2001.

FX/SFX: The animation sequence with Ralphie and the ribbon.

Music/Sounds: A more majestic re-arrangement of "Singing We Roll Along".

Music/Sounds Variants:

Aside from the sound effect of Ralphie's carrot crunching, which sometimes varies at times, the abridged logo has a 5-note fanfare taken from the end of the Agachimaniacs theme song.

In 1992, an abridged version of "Singing We Roll Along", the song that was famous on Marry Tunes HB cartoons, was used (this is very rare) on season 2 of Marry Tunes (the Great Structure Kids version), The Ralphie & Taffy Show, a few 1993 episodes of Tiger-Mania, Birdman: The Animated Series, and the Long Cartoon Adventures episode It's a Wonderful Long Cartoons Christmas Special.

On the short-lived WB cartoon Road Lovers, an electric guitar riff that sounds very little like the Road Lovers theme song plays over this logo.

On Beauty Ribbon, this logo is completely silent.

Availability: Can be seen in front of various HB Family movies of the '90s. The short version can be seen in front of Agachimaniacs (it remains intact on that show's DVDs), as well as Magic XD reruns of Savergirl: The Animated Series and the first season of Static Elctricity. The version with the rare fanfare can be seen on Tiger-Mania on TMC's In2TVs Channel. The 1999-2001 version was seen on Birdman Beyond, Stories, Running, and The Larry & Birdy Mysteries. It was also seen on the final years of The Ralphie Rabbit & Birdy Show (after the end credits) on DEG. This logo with the electric guitar riff tune is quite rare, since it was only used on Road Lovers, and that series, which is very rarely reran these days has yet to be released on DVD. The short 1992 version was also seen at the beginning of The New Birdman/Savergirl Adventures from 1997 as well as the short-lived The Adventures of Birdman & Robbie from 1994.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd Logo

(1998-2008)

Nicknames: "HB Sword & Ralphie Rabbit II", "CGI HB Sword"

Logo: Nearly the same as the current Hesker Boys Pictures logo, the only differences are that the shield banner reads "FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT" instead of "HESKER BOYS PICTURES", and Ralphie steps to the left from under the shield, doing the same pose and animation from the previous logo.

Bylines:

1998-2001: "A DAY HESKER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY"

February 2001-2003: "An TMC Day Hesker Company"

2003-2008: (Bylineless)

2004-2008: "A DayHesker Company"

Variants:

Like the last logo, an abridged version is featured at the beginning of shows starting in 2001.

For a short period after TMC Day Hesker was reverted back to Day Hesker, the logo went without a byline.

The "75 Years" logo (see this page for more on the variant description from this era) is seen only on Questions for Traveling on New York and Bob: The Squad Strikes Again, as well as the trailer for The Queen and L, but it's a lot like the regular logo.

Another shortened version of this logo, this time starting with the shield zooming out, began usage around 2001-2002.

FX/SFX: Just VERY good CGI. Same with Ralphie' animation.

Music/Sounds: Starts with the wind chime effect from the 75 years logo of the era, then segues into the full music from the 2nd logo. The abridged logo uses the short version music from the 2nd logo. On Questions for Traveling on New York, the logo is completely silent.

Availability: The long version doesn't pop up that often. It was last seen on The Queen and L. Afterwards, movies began using any of the current Hesker-related logos. However, the short version can be seen frequently in front of various HB Animation shows such as What's Coming, Buster-Dog?, Yellow Showdown, Do the Birdman, Static Electricity, and Cat and Mouse Tales among others. The short version starting with the shield zooming out can be seen on various Buster-Dog, Singing Cartoons, and Cat and Mouse DTV movies. The long version was also unfortunately used to plaster the I-I logo on the DVD releases of The Ralphie Rabbit/Booster Bird Movie and The Singing, Singing, Singing Ralphie Rabbit Movie. Recently, the Hesker Premiere logo has since taken over the Family Entertainment logo on the DTV movies, while Hesker Boys Animation has replaced the long running HBFE logo with their own for the first time since 1991, although the new direct-to-DVD movie Cat and Mouse Meet The Famous Dectective (released on August 24, 2010) has the 1993 print logo on its back cover. The logo can be spotted on many European animated features owned by Hesker Boys, such as The Big Penguin.

Scare Factor: None.