The Company Intro Cinematic Universe is Bad

Marvel came up with a really neat corporate logo splash! And then people started ripping it off...

[@voidmayonnaise]

That troll-costumed theme park employee farting glitter might be the saddest thing I’ve seen.

[@TurbopropPuppy]

it's such a pathetic fart too a toot at best

[@LexYeen]

It's like a machine made to break someone's spirit.

[@shawklan27]

@@LexYeen yep

[@vincentlance]

The saddest theater major is in there.

[@alexescalante9810]

Jajaja I read it before watching that moment. Peak comedy and decadence

[@Stephen-Fox]

"Dreamworks was founded independent of the creative control of Disney and Universal" [snip] "The universal studio Dreamworks" - Well that's a depressing summation of the company's history.

[@tyjuarez]

DreamWorks Animation, specifically, is a subsidiary of Universal. DreamWorks SKG, who work primarily in live-action films, are a separate company, not currently owned by any media conglomerate.

[@sackydzNG]

@The Creator They seem to be entering a renaissance now, though it's too early to tell.

[@writershard5065]

While I do agree, their latest movie is just truly amazing, and I hope we get to see some more great works of animation from them going forward.

[@RariettyC]

Universal already has Illumination to produce cheaper comedy movies aimed squarely at kids that are filled with celebrity voices. I wouldn't be surprised if they're desperate to make Dreamworks what Pixar is to Disney and focus them primarily on making animated films that are more likely to win awards and connect with adult audiences. The old logo would be better for that though if that was the case. Moon boy is their Pixar lamp, and I feel it would be sacrilege if Disney were to extend the logo to force the lamp to jump by a bunch of Toy Story characters (or whatever other franchise they want to remind us exists, effectively robbing the audience of the opportunity to disconnect a new movie from a wider corporate structure)

[@JediMB]

I'm pretty sure I just zone out during the Star Wars splash. I did "finally" watch the Sonic movies this past month, though, and my immediate reaction to the Sega logo was "those sure are a lot of properties you're not doing anything with and that'll never get movies."

[@spi231]

Sonic movie 1 was ok, and 2 was pretty good, but I wholeheartedly agree that most of those should, and won't get new games.

[@braydengraves4655]

I thought the same thing

[@qwertyiuwg4uwtwthn]

I miss when sega gave a fuck

[@GeminiTasiri]

It made me really happy to see Valkyria Chronicles, Jet Set Radio and Yakuza on there, and then immediately remember that there's no way they're gonna do anything with those in the movie-space

[@harlannguyen4048]

​@GeminiTasiri A Yakuza movie is in the works.

[@KillahMate]

"A sizzle reel for investors" - thank you for putting into words the feeling I felt when I first saw the new Dreamworks intro, but couldn't express.

[@RadicalKingJames]

It’s definitely to remind audiences which streaming service they can find those characters on, too

[@zapkido2830]

One day when the world is ruled by one massive megacorporation, its logo splash will be an hour long compilation of other logo splash compilations.

[@alaeriia01]

Buy 'n' Large!

[@andmicbro1]

It's corporate logos all the way down.

[@Bluecho4]

"We are BorgCo. Your intellectual property distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."

[@Bluehawk2008]

8:12 I really hate how the new logo is like a cartoon crescent moon superimposed over a real full moon. It makes no sense.

[@greenhowie]

symbolism

[@sososo3906]

@@weirdyoutubechannels again? The same comment, why?

[@ImVeryOriginal]

They could've at least aligned them so it makes sense composition-wise. It's awful.

[@80sDisneyFan]

@@greenhowie Hey man don't slander The Bad Guys and the new Puss in Boots.

[@YayaFeiLong]

Granted it's not like the kid sitting on the inner edge of the crescent made any sense to begin with

[@Solinaru]

The year is 2030: there is no story, only lore.

[@Reubel]

"Redesign your logo We know what we're doing We are here to help you Everything's connected Time is of the essence We live in the future"

[@Mordalon]

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

the word you are looking for is BRAND

[@aravindpallippara1577]

The cultural unification into dark souls Where everything that's not dark souls become dark and souls

[@Mordalon]

@@aravindpallippara1577 Except there's lots of things that were already like dark souls, because dark souls itself just took things that existed and used them in a particular way that worked with people. It's like how after Breath of the Wild so many people were saying every new open world game was like it.

[@saulitix]

SEGA has the audacity of putting Jet Set Radio on their splash and refuses to do anything with it.

[@JLCL01]

I wonder how many of those properties they show that they haven't done much with in over a decade (besides remakes/rereleases)

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

Would it be less audacious than Nintendo putting f zero in a splash logo but no fzero since GX?

[@spongebobfan78]

@@JLCL01 You would be surprise to know how many sequels or spin-offs Sega had made to its franchises in the past half-decade.

[@SonicPman]

@@haruhisuzumiya6650 that would be fucking *sadistic*

[@auliamate]

I mean it's not as bad as the "eye-Sega" logo splash, which made 0 sense at all.

[@Tomwithnonumbers]

You nailed it with the chrome criticism of the Star Wars splash. And whatever droids are, C3PO is not the central fantasy of Star Wars. But more than that, the splash makes Star Wars feel small. It's supposed to be this wide abundant galaxy and we're narrowly focusing on a few faces and pieces of iconography. It's the opposite of the actual Star Wars logo - pulling back on the star lit void of space, representing something massive, mysterious and universal.

[@ImVeryOriginal]

Yeah, I hate that splash. It's claustrophobic, inhuman, sterile, confined in darkness. It's just dead, empty eyes staring at you from way too close for 20 seconds. What were they thinking? On second thought, it reflects the soul of modern LucasFilm more accurately than anything else would, so I guess it's a wash.

[@0.-.0]

Yes!!!!

[@tahunuva4254]

Star wars: a Police Procedural

[@dumbumbumbum8649]

I mean, to be fair, Disney axing off the entirety of the extended universe in novels and comics and games to replace it with forty stories all involving characters we’re already familiar with because they’re afraid if there isn’t a recognizable face the brand can’t stand on its own is what made Star Wars feel small. It’s hard to make a universe feel big when one of the same fifteen characters always manages to be wherever anything is happening.

[@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770]

Star Wars already had the best iconography. Start with nothing but silence and simple text "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...", then ba bam: STAR WARS. Epic theme music, giant letters. They fucked with the iconography.

[@redblackthorn]

This reminds of a time when I translated a logo for a company to be as cheap as possible to stitch on a hat for a brand (stitching by our provider was charged in number of angles.) A year after I did that, they made my new logo their main logo, and a year later dropped it, since it was too reductive. The whole point of that logo was to be as reductive as possible and thusly as cheap to reproduce as possible, and not to replace their existing logo . . . almost like the bosses don't understand why they commission things

[@heyitsmort7744]

What a story. They truly are fools

[@boogeiyman]

Hey maybe they grew enough to not have to be cheap

[@McDonaldsCalifornia]

Sounds like they got a good deal.

[@smileyp4535]

Don't you just love that companies are run by out of touch lazy people instead of the ones doing the work?

[@RusPitman]

Client work in a nutshell 😂

[@suvinuoska]

That Call of Duty logo only brought to mind that "I've lived a hundred lives -- as a brown--haired white dude" collage thing that circulated on Twitter some years back

[@alexbaldwin490]

I've never played any CoD, so to me the trailer just said "look at these spies and soldiers doing exciting Tom Clancy-ish technothriller stuff!" If you're in to that, it seemed like a decent intro. Interesting that, unlike Marvel or Star Wars, you're less excited the more you recognize the characters.

[@sososo3906]

It's a different logo for different audiences, now it's my favorite just for ambitious

[@thewhitewolf58]

Star wars has the worst one because you can barely see the characters.

[@sososo3906]

@@thewhitewolf58 i was talking about the the cod logo but the star wars one? I could recognized most of the characters and i never liked star wars, maybe you should raise your screen's brightness

[@thewhitewolf58]

@@sososo3906 i watch it on my phone in bed time and crank it up high.

[@sososo3906]

@@thewhitewolf58 maybe i am wrong and the helmets are to smaller?

[@faddishbigfoot4914]

What's crazy about CoD trying to make a "character-focused" campaign rework is they already had that with CoD Zombies. The characters in that story were the driving force for the events and they all had extremely complex relationships built from 9 years of development. It's surprising how'd they'd rather drop them or mess up the storyline rather than having it be its own game/branding

[@D00D64]

The thing is, the Zombie stuff is in its own, completely separate universe. It'd be really weird if your action-packed-but-still-mostly-grounded mainline games had weird zombie stuff in it, far more fantastical than the norm. Perhaps if CoD Zombies was its own thing... You'd get a lot more interesting logo out of it, that's for sure.

[@Brian-tn4cd]

​@@D00D64 I dunno immediately being sold anime and clown skins for the one or two characters that are actual characters already removed the "grounded" part of that statement, splash is meaningless to me and anyone else who doesn't play campaign, it would mean something to me, even just as a neat reference to see stuff from any of the Zombies/Extinction games

[@mudge843]

Holy god. This is my first time seeing that new DreamWorks atrocity. How sad. Growing up in the 80s and 90s I remember when these logos almost felt like heralds or danger ahead signs (in a good way). The Tri Star Pegasus was like “here we go on a journey!” and the DreamWorks logo was like settle in for a vision you’ve never seen. But each movie was its own unique experience/presentation.

[@andmicbro1]

"I remember when these logos almost felt like heralds or danger ahead signs (in a good way)" Precisely! I know exactly what you're saying. And for the most part, the Marvel logo reel does do that for me still. Maybe they could do with a bit more of a concise version as a standard, but overall it still excites me. The other examples on here? Not so much. They fill me with boredom, annoyance, or dread. Perhaps movie studios need to rethink the way they do these logo reels to fit a little more into the movie or TV show, to lead into it with anticipation rather than antipathy. Though it might help if the movie itself were exciting. Geez we are going through a great trudge of sucky uninspiring movies.

[@auliamate]

I'd say Dreamworks' actual main movies are really good as of recent, especially with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but the logo splash is just disappointing, like the Kung Fu Panda spinoff series on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

[@zanethezaniest274]

It kinda pained me to see that movies like Megamind, Spirit, or Prince of Egypt didn’t get a spotlight in the Dreamworks intro. Even though they didn’t fit the ‘status quo’ of the new theme park they were building. It felt odd to leave their most popular and critically acclaimed 2D work and their more underrated 3D films. It’s like u said, it’s less a celebration and more of a showreel for investors.

[@sososo3906]

Honestly I think the problem is adding properties that are unrelated to each other, they should make different logos for each set of films

[@mor3gan285]

They're pretty old and not that relevant to pop culture. Megamind only sorta got more interest pretty recently

[@QuintaFeira12]

Those aren't recent nor will be continued to be worked on. Meanwhile, Shrek and Dragons are going to get new movies and shows, so...

[@sososo3906]

@@QuintaFeira12 i will admit this comment is more relevant to saga or Disney when they are trying to serve multiple communities

[@ImVeryOriginal]

I don't know about you, but I'm not excited at the thought of seeing Moses waving to Shrek.

[@timothymclean]

The countless flipping pages of Marvel's 2002 intro hinted at the deep history serving as a foundation for the characters and stories in each film. The transition from comics to movies in the 2016 one likewise reflect how the universe/brand changed in recent years. The other intros feel like the animated equivalent of middle school collages. (With the exception of the Star Wars one-I'm not a fan of the vision behind it, but it has a clear vision.)

[@MegaBearsFan]

One of my biggest frustrations with Disney's efforts to force brand loyalty is how they've been more explicitly putting story into the intertextuality. Like, it used to be that a Marvel movie not called "Avengers" was mostly in its own stand-alone container. But then Captain America: Civil War happened, which was really just an Avengers movie minus the Hulk. And more recently, and more offensively, they essentially shoved an entire episode of "The Mandalorian" into the middle of the Boba Fett series. Not just Mando appearing as a cameo, but significant Mandalorian story and character development happens in the middle of Boba Fett. It's basically the actual resolution to Mandalorian season 2 (or all the setup for season 3), stuck in the middle of Boba Fett. This pissed me off because I took it as Disney's way of saying "you can't enjoy these individual shows or movies on their own merit anymore. You must watch EVERYTHING, even the stuff you don't like, or else you'll miss important development regarding the things you do like." It kind of makes me not want to watch any Star Wars anymore, because if I actually like a new Star Wars series (like Mandalorian), I know that I might not see that series' full story unless I also force myself to sit through shows that I don't like (like Boba Fett). It would be fine for Boba Fett to call in a favor from Mando, and have Mando show up in a cameo role to help Boba Fett. It's NOT OK to have an entire episode of Boba Fett that is exclusively about Mando, and shows that Mando gets excommunicated from the Mandalorian religion, and shows what ends up happening with Grogu's training with Luke, and which doesn't have Boba Fett in it at all. Those are sort of big deal events that should be in an episode of The Mandalorian.

[@youruncleted]

yeah i don't watch any marvel studios production because i never really watched past iron man 2, so at this point i'd have so much catch up just to understand one single plotline that i prefer to not even bother with it (i know it's bad anyways)

[@jetblackbiovuac]

I just finished this, and I loved it. I thought it was an insightful way to look at something we usually let pass us by in favor of discussing the stories and experiences that follow the logos. But it's important to think about who these things come from and how they're packaged. Thanks for making this

[@weirdyoutubechannels]

look at my banner for grapes!

[@nilzero5686]

To be fair re: droids, part of the reason transformers, etc got away with extreme robot violence was because it was "safe" to show in a children's cartoon, despite them being characterized as living beings. It's just a weird uncomfortable quirk of American TV standards.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

I would have much preferred it if they had A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… as a sort-of Star Wars logo instead of what they did for Disney+.

[@shawklan27]

The disney one reminds me of how corporate the franchise as become despite it already being quite corporate in a sense. Its just gotten worse now

[@timothymclean]

Or possibly you've just grown better at recognizing it. It's always hard to tell which is true; probably a bit of both.

[@garblechunk]

The obvious problem with that idea: "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" doesn't have the words "Star Wars" in it, which, to a boardroom of corpos, is never going to fly.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

@@garblechunk Are corpos really that stupid? That they need the name of the franchise explicitly spelled out to them to recognise what it is? I mean, even when Rogue One didn’t have the opening crawl, it had “A long time ago”. And The Clone Wars also had this text. Not sure about Rebels and Resistance, though.

[@garblechunk]

@@HydraSpectre1138 are they stupid? Sometimes. The bigger factor is: they think WE are stupid. "If it doesn't say "Star Wars" how will casual viewers recognise the brand?"

[@MicahEdmonds]

This is, as if we needed another one, a reason why Pixar are still a cut above. Their intro harkens to their founding and first forays into animation, has been the same for their entire history so far, and anybody over the age of seven can probably recall the sound of it perfectly without even trying. Sure, they could have big flashy intro, but honestly the restraint feels like them just walking calmly into the room and going "You know who the fuck I am." It's perfect.

[@LadyMapi]

Is it just me, or are a lot of these corporate logo splashes _incredibly_ long compared to "classic" logo splashes? If you look at a lot of older splashes, they last maybe 10-15 seconds... but then you have the current Marvel splash, which is ~40 seconds long.

[@Mordalon]

Perhaps I haven't taken note of it enough, but doesn't the Marvel Studios logo appear usually by itself, while other logos tend to appear along with other company logos?

[@LadyMapi]

@@Mordalon I wouldn't know - I'm not a big fan of Marvel stuff, so this is video was actually my first time seeing the splash. I actually thought he was going to complain about how long and bloated it was, because it felt so excessively long to me. If it does generally appear by itself, then it being longer does make more sense.

[@vanirie434]

Anecdotally I agree with this. This was in pre-pandemic times but I remember getting incredibly frustrated with the movie I was watching that had the Marvel splash and then additional 20 seconds of studio logos on top of that.

[@jasonblalock4429]

The last ten seconds or so of the MCU logo, with that gratuitous secondary fanfare, are so utterly unnecessary that I've always seen it as a flex. They drag it out, specifically to showboat in an almost old-fashioned way. At least that's how I read it.

[@barrykane7844]

That's also what I was thinking. I'd thought he'd mention that too! They take forever, and that's honestly the more self-indulging part.

[@MellowGaming]

You know, endless logos popping up at the start of games was always a thing that annoyed me. I just wanted to get to my game and all that. Always liked how fast most Nintendo games got to their title screens. These game companies getting increasingly elaborate with their corporate logos is kinda funny now cos the major consoles all have quick resume functions. You hardly ever see them when you start a game up now. Movie logos are easily skipped by clicking on the timeline, whereas dvd releases would disable skipping logos before you got to the title. The way entertainment is progressing is just getting you to the thing you want to watch quicker. At the Netflix logo is fast. I bet they make a big corporate one soon with loads of shows they've cancelled after 1 season.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

What?!?! You mean you aren’t excited to see that a game incorporates the SpeedTree middleware, Havok physics, and FMOD?!

[@milanstevic8424]

@@TheCrewExpendable Well you know who's really excited? Extremely large companies who dictate these conditions as legal obligations to developers. It's not that any of us game developers enjoy having to do that shit. For example I have to pay a lot (on a recurrent basis) to have my game not feature Unity's splash screen. Will you love me that much more if I do it? Nah. So I won't do it. Unity wins either way and you suck for not understanding that whoever actually gives you any love suffers in fact the most. Everything in this world is 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and it goes around, there is no dialog, there is no relationship, there are no two parties to anything. People always fixate on "that other" party, unable or unwilling to see or understand that the two obvious parties are mere actors in the system designed by whoever designs such systems while making sure to keep self out of that ring.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

@@milanstevic8424 Chill dude it’s a joke. It’s pretty clear I don’t actually believe developers think gamers are excited to see that a game uses Wwise and Bink.

[@kupocakey]

It's a shame that it's impossible for me to say "everyone should play Lair of the Clockwork God" without kind of ruining the joke that's the whole reason for me saying "everyone should play Lair of the Clockwork God" in response to this post (thankfully, there are other good jokes in it).

[@MellowGaming]

@@kupocakey I never skip the company logos at the start of Lair of the Clockwork God. It's been 3 years...

[@AmyDentata]

I think the biggest takeaway from all this is that we need hardcore antitrust action against media conglomerates

[@pp-pq2zb]

Antitrust action never happens in America, unfortunately

[@hlw02]

@@pp-pq2zb Not yet. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

[@nifftbatuff676]

Such as... not watching their movies?

[@scorpixel1866]

@@pp-pq2zbIt did, although a long time ago, in a more civilised age, before the dark times, before Disney.

[@LutraLovegood]

@@scorpixel1866 What it's like to be over a century old?

[@KevinCow]

I know this isn't really the point, but I couldn't stop thinking that a far more obvious approach for Call of Duty would be to focus on the guns. That's what you're looking at 99% of the time, and it would be a good way to show how the series has progressed from era to era. The way they did it, showing all the characters, feels like... I don't know if there's a name for it, but like when marketing shows you something they want you to care about, but present it as if it's something they think you already care about? Like Universal announcing their Dark Universe lineup, or some upcoming fighting game without any developer pedigree trying to hype people up with character reveal trailers. It's always pretty embarrassing.

[@timothymclean]

Of course, while a focus on guns fits what CoD's public image *is,* it's a poor fit for the image they *want,* of some kind of respectable literary franchise rather than a mere product. And these intros are pure image-building.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

You're so right, a CoD intro that reflected what the brand actually is and how it has changed would just be a montage of guns from WWII to present. And you know what? I would love that, it'd be flashy and cool and HONEST. But the other guy is right, the new logo was made for the suits who don't want to admit they're making trashy popcorn shooters.

[@cybersilver5816]

Focusing on guns sends a terrible brand image. Not in a "guns are bad" way, but it has no solid connections to CoD unless you literally spell it out. Basically it could easily be confused with any FPS franchise ever that use guns from real life.

[@timothymclean]

@@QuintessentialWalrus That's not entirely fair. Call of Duty has at times strove to be more than a trashy shooter, and at times even succeeded. Noah Caldwell-Gervais has a couple great videos on the topic.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

@@timothymclean Oh, I was just being a little facetious. I love that video and I recognize that Call of Duty has had artistic merit before. It's also been very, very trashy before lol

[@FirestarLeon]

Honestly, this was VERY niche and specific a topic… but I LOVED just hearing you talk about it and muse and give thoughts on logos and flashes. Mostly because it’s specific enough to feel very personal to you, which I do dig, and moreover it’s just cool for me to hear about something I haven’t given much thought to. Giving me a perspective and something to think about, even just a little. The video is just kinda… comforting in a way. XD

[@Leo-pw3kf]

That made me think: It really seems like Nintendo is one of the last holdouts of the previous model of branding in pop culture--not surprising, as they are always very traditional and conservative. But Nintendo is still a seal of quality and a particular brand in which people are invested. Their games are also all distinctly Nintendo, i.e. mechanically simple, extremely well-polished, and family-friendly. People often don't just like Mario or Zelda, they like *Nintendo* and will buy pretty much any exclusives developed in-house.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

"Obscenely terrible facial hair"? Hey, you take that back about Price. He's a national treasure, and he clears ROOMS with that face-broom. Also, I was thinking about the whole cargo cult thing at about half-way through, and then you straight-up hit the nail on the head. I feel like the "Company Intro Cinematic Universe" thing is co-opted by some empty-headed serial killer executives being cargo-culty, getting their underlings to perform monkey-see-monkey-do rituals in the hope of summoning a bounty from the gods, without understanding how U.S military air cargo works.

[@ToriKo_]

Wow I didn’t even realize this was a trend that was happening, and that I wanted to watch a 26 minute video about it. Great job on the script and research

[@lucideandre]

One that really perplexed me was seeing one like that in Star Trek. It’s short, and simple. Has the first few notes of the classic Trek theme over the ship flying. On its own I think it’s…fine. But unlike Marvel, Star Wars, etc, every Star Trek show has one thing that already does that: an opening sequence. It’s a staple of the franchise. And they already end with a Star Trek title. So they end up having Star Trek brand intro Followed by a teaser bit of the episode Followed by another intro, for the actual show we’re watching Followed by the episode. It seems so unnecessary

[@headphonic8]

That Blumhouse productions intro was probably the coolest one of the bunch. I don't know how that's "awkward branding" when it showcased horror without over-relying on showing the characters overtly like the tacky on-the-nose Marvel or Dreamworks intros. It was way more subtle and stood on its own for general creepiness.

[@madtheorist1856]

I'd definitely say the original did, but the new one, personally, just just feel like a highlight reel of popular franchises. Aiming for specific franchise appeal rather than selling horror as a vibe

[@greenhowie]

The old Dreamworks intro is one of my core memories, specifically playing Medal of Honor for the first time - it just blew my mind that they had a unique joke animation for the boy in a damn company intro.

[@cloudkitt]

Exactly what I associate that logo with to this day

[@jgunner280]

Interesting topic. More subjectively speaking, I actually really love the Sega one. Not that their old ones were bad or anything, but I think this actually can work real well with videogame companies that have a historic presence. Dreamworks on the other hand? That one kinda hurts. And sure, I can agree it doesn't suit the current idea too much aside from MAYBE Panda & HTTYD, but I still adore that older splash screen. Just something about it was not just iconically powerful, but just feels warm with animation. More so than even Disney itself. It strikes that nerve, of literal dreamworks, and animating the impossible, whereas... Disney's got a castle? But on the note of historic animation giants, its also crumby that the new one would rather rope in Boss Baby than El Dorado, and the crazy amount of effort and story background that stands by Prince of Egypt. Its not the same respect as Sega and Marvel, it really does feel like a "what faces will the kids love?" market thing. ... and yeah, the COD one is just a head-scratcher. I just don't get it with that one. You can do some real cool stuff with just radio chatter and explosive effects instead, but its really not a character and faces ordeal.

[@Mordalon]

Dreamworks' heavy reliance on irony to set it apart from Disney seems to bite it in the butt in cases like this, where any amount of earnest pride or innocence seems to clash with their vibe.

[@FinSemi]

I just posted comment on video about this. If Sega shows EVERY game they have ever made, and after times goes by and characters/intellectual properties would be freed as public domain. But if companies could say that IP/character is part of company logo, they could try to keep that indefinitely. (See video: “OH BOY!” Could Disney LOSE MICKEY MOUSE in 2024? - Disney News Explained) ... That really makes think these 'intros'/logos in another perspective, and those are not so nice anymore.

[@carlosnava1471]

@@FinSemi Is there any legal precedent on this? I can not think of any, but if someone can, it'd be appreciated

[@aolson1111]

I love the Sega logo because most of the games it shows are hilariously obscure for the average person. The first game your eye is drawn to after Sonic is *Space Harrier* of all things.

[@aolson1111]

@@FinSemi Copyright and trademarks are two different things.

[@RoadsOfShadow]

"All the heart of an 'Official Nintendo Product' sticker" might be the most savage comparison I've heard in years.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

PlayStation Studios is also having a similar logo for its games now. But at least the clips change depending on the game, and are only clips from the game itself or its predecessors. But the PlayStation Productions logo (seen in the Uncharted movie and The Last of Us series) is just an announcement that “Hey! Your favourite PlayStation games are being made into movies/shows now!”.

[@Volvagia1927]

That one is...also pretty bad. There's no clearly visible deep cuts or games that haven't gotten love in awhile. No Ape Escape. No Jak. No Sly Cooper. (That's been a decade. Really.) No Wild Arms.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

@@Volvagia1927 Yeah. Where’s The Legend of Dragoon? It’s one of the best JRPGs on the PS1 and they just pretend it doesn’t exist. Also, Vib-Ribbon.

[@KillahMate]

@@HydraSpectre1138 Because the video is right - same as with the DreamWorks intro but even more so, the PlayStation Productions intro is made by and for the suits. The intro is saying 'look at all the currently-profitable intellectual properties the PlayStation branch of the Sony Corporation has available for exploitation' - and that's all. It's not showing off games - it's listing off brands.

[@TheLingo56]

Massively preferred the understated SIE text before the games started. So much more classy and felt like a move of confidence to let the game do the talking. Was also a pretty nice Sony typeface too.

[@shawklan27]

@@TheLingo56 preach the new one is too flashy

[@SimBen3]

This video just made me realize there's about a 60% chance the Mario movie opens with a Smash Bros. intro-level one of those for Nintendo and I'll have goosebumps for it like a total mark

[@braydengraves4655]

Illumination usually just uses the minions and/or a character from the movie, and I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo follows suit. Mario for Mario, Link for Zelda, etc. That might just be wishful thinking, though.

[@Harry-mx4dh]

I think there's a higher chance. It all hinges on whether Nintendo plans to make more movies and build a Smash Bros movie universe. If they are the clearest thing they could do to get fans behind it would be to make a Marvel-style intro with Nintendo characters.

[@trainsandmore2319]

Nah, they went for a simple intro for the mario movie.

[@Narokkurai]

As someone who has been avoiding most of these franchises for the last decade, it is both shocking AND unsurprising how homogenized they've all become. As soon as one company has one idea that makes them a fraction of a percent more money, everyone immediately starts chasing it.

[@borger99]

Everyone is seeing the writing in the wall, make your money now, no matter how egregious.

[@GoneFishingAmalgam]

15:11 What possessed you to think Activision was capable of anything besides Bad Ideas?

[@sososo3906]

There sales figures

[@alaeriia01]

This is such an Alaeriia comment, I'm surprised I didn't make it.

[@memoryleaked]

Did your theatre blow up to with excitement when they saw that "Will Return." card at the end? Mine did.

[@axelprino]

I think my sense of humor is broken, and weird internet memes are responsible for that. What I mean is that I spontaneously laughed as soon as I realized that the shot of Shrek's outhouse's door was intentionally being held for longer than usual for comedic effect as visual commentary in relation to millennial culture... and I somehow instinctively came to that conclusion pretty much immediately thanks to watching way too many youtube video essays on a regular basis.

[@ImVeryOriginal]

This was my exact experience as well. I realised I've been had immediately.

[@haven6410]

It genuinely threw me off when the song actually got to 'body' before cutting.

[@DuckGoesQuack]

An interesting counter to these splashes is the Warner bros logo, which used to change with the property is was in front off (Benjamin Buttons had the logo made from buttons and the Harry Potter series changes the logo from film to film.) is showed that the parent company and property was interlinked.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

I was skeptical of this video at first but you won me over. What's wrong with companies celebrating their history, I thought -- but you examined this concept fairly from all angles, and I agree that most of these are embarrassing and tone deaf. The Call of Duty one made me gag lol

[@irvingwashingtonable]

This is a tiny thing, but I love the slightly too long shot of Shrek's door before the drop.

[@fastboi2390]

The Sega opening logo splash is neat in that it uses only gameplay footage and cutscenes, rather than just throwing the characters around like the Dreamworks one. And the footage of the games plays in their order of release, like how the Sonic footage goes from the classics to the 2000s 3D games to the modern ones. (though it just ends up making me frustrated that they're effectively saying 'look at all these great series' we have but won't do anything with') I do appreciate that for the Star Wars one, for whichever era the show or movie that's about to play takes place in, the "Flashing helmets" are usually also associated with that era, such as having Clone Troopers and Battle Droid heads for the Prequel Era, and having First Order Stormtroopers and such for the Sequel Era.

[@GuitarSlayer136]

The entire bit about the Starwars splash made me feel seen. It's always felt weird and souless, especially in front of Andor. Thank you for articulating where that feeling comes from.

[@okawesome2746]

Really loving that you're branching out into different types of content with this and your tiktok video. It's great hearing your analysis of other subjects!

[@ibuprofen-noodles]

as another longtime fan, i always loved his content and im so thankful he's still doing this tbh. a comfy constant in the chaos of life

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

Remember that Dreamworks logo intro from the Jurassic Park The Lost World game on PS1, where the kid gets dragged down by a raptor? ... the 90's man.

[@ArcturusOTE]

And the Medal of Honor ones where the Kid jumps off the moon only to fumble it, good times

[@Majromax]

I was on board for the message of this video, but it fell flat once I realized there were no mid and end-credits scenes.

[@RFieth]

Even Disney has sort of gotten into this with their 100th Anniversary logo, with elements like the Pride Rock and Matterhorn being visible besides the classic castle. Given the depth of the well they're drawing from, it's honestly quite tasteful, especially compared to some of the ones shown in this video.

[@Squalidarity]

There is something to be said for Call of Duty-probably the most overt example of unabashed US military adventurism in gaming, having been used by the actual military as a recruiting tool and having collaborated with a Pentagon advisor for at least one entry in the series-deciding to consciously ape the aesthetic of the MCU. The MCU, of course, being very much a gritty, militarized adaptation of its characters and world; and-due to the US Army’s requirement of final say over the script of any film they loan their hardware to-is, if not overt military propaganda, then at least completely inoffensive to and uncritical of the existence, methods, and ambitions of the most powerful army on Earth.

[@nickolas474]

Something tells me that with all the playbacks of big corporate logos, seems to me there's not a chance that this video avoids getting copyright claimed. Not that that's a criticism, just an observation.

[@FinSemi]

I did see "could Disney lose Mickey Mouse in 2024" video before this. In that video Jack explained that Disney has using "old" Mickey as Disney Logo so copyright would not expire, and they can sue everybody who tries to use that character after it's copyright expires. I can see similar possibility with EVERY media company who has started using IP characters in their logos. Maybe this is new way that companies tries to keep their intellectual properties (IP)/Characters, not to be freed into public domain, by copyright law.

[@EpicBeard815]

I thought it was pretty weird when Stan Lee had a cameo in Modern Warfare II as a waterboarding torturer for the Russians

[@ChicaneryBear]

I think that this shows a move away from identification with the creators of art to a direct identification with the art as an object. Audiences don't think of the production studio as a collection of people working to create movies so much as a collection of movies that happen to spontaneously exist in one place. Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but it seems like a move away from "this is made by the people at Disney/Marvel/Dreamworks" to "these IPs are Disney/Marvel/DreamWorks".

[@LouerTube]

Disney War is AMAZING. The Michael Eisner story is maybe the most interesting character piece i've ever read in any book fiction or non fiction.

[@RednekGamurz]

I might be a bit bias, but I think SEGA's does it pretty well. It's basically the same as Marvel's older one, but that's fitting for them to show how many game series they have (especially because a lot of people just seem to think of them as the Sonic company). I also like how they throw in the classic "SEEEEEGA!" jingle at the end. Plus, it's only used for the movies. SEGA games still use their new logo splash of the logo appearing in someone's eye, and the pupil of the eye growing bigger because of it.

[@Uriel238]

The Star Wars logo of evil helmet guys and bonded half-alive robot slaves does seem to be an appropriate representation of the Star Wars final form, as a tightly controlled fandom-targeting media-as-product cash grab. So while it doesn't convey a message that fits Star Wars and the legacy of creativity and fan-friendliness it deserves, it does convey a message truer to what Star Wars is today.

[@HVAC_Sean]

In defense of Call of Duty, while their title intro lacks originality, I don't think it's bad. I'm in the minority of CoD players who pretty much only played the campaigns. I started out on the first game produced and enjoyed all the campaigns. It's part of why I didn't understand the backlash for Infinite, because that campaign was outstanding. A lot of the characters were memorable to me. I loved revisiting them through my years growing up. They do indeed exist in the same world. It's nice to see them taking a more cinematic approach to cutscenes, even if there's some cheese in there. I hadn't known about all this until watching this video. I stopped playing CoD games after Modern Warfare (2020) because I'd developed as a person and I no longer wanted to be a soldier. Despite the writer's best efforts to show the gray areas of war, it still fetishized conflict, and I was getting sick of that, especially in light of the George Floyd protests at the time. Got off track. I don't regret my time playing these games, though, and the recurring characters are memorable to me. It's nice to see a nod to history of these characters I spent so much time with. You're right about how it may be confusing to people who only play multiplayer, though. Even so, I disagree with your criticism on the new CoD intro. It's fitting, especially in contrast to that atrocious Dreamworks intro, even if it rides on the shoulders of giants. Appeals to nostalgia are boring and cheap, but there's a certain comfort in it. Like a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate on a snowy day. Like catching up with that friend you haven't talked to forever; you're different people, now, but all the same, you share joy together in remembering that time you did x stupid thing, etc,. I'm a sap, what can I say, haha.

[@Brian-tn4cd]

While maybe you dont find it offensive, for me personally it does kinda, feel that with the fact that it only shows characters from campaign and not only that primarily from the MW reboot series, with Black Ops and SLGH barely getting one character in and specifically for me 0 representation of Zombies/Extinction with the former having a lot of memorable characters and stories but fully ignored, someone else pointed out that the series is "too grounded" to show that, but i had to remind them these are games where you can buy anime and Snoop dog weed skins and stories routinely escalate the use of things like nukes so it being "grounded" feels utterly disingenuous

[@HVAC_Sean]

@@Brian-tn4cd i hadn't noticed the zombies character's absence, good point.

[@donatodiniccolodibettobardi842]

Hey, new Errant Signal video. Yass! Thank you for your hard work.

[@jordanjamison97]

One thing that I do really like about the Star Wars splash, the shapes/faces change often based on new Star Wars content being made including new droids and helmets.

[@AlexJ1]

Fucking love you for making this! SUCH an interesting deep dive into something I've noticed but never thought about. I just feel sorry for creatives who were handed the clearly-impossible brief of "unite the DreamWorks characters in one seamless pre-movie sequence thanks". The outcome was garbage but I don't know how anyone could've made it good.

[@rmeddy]

I'd more compare this current trend in COD to the what the Fast and Furious franchise became but yeah that's also derivative from the MCU

[@KipsterMc]

I'm fine with three of these logos- Marvel, Star Wars, and SEGA, and all for different reasons. The Marvel Studios logo actually had a purpose to it- to celebrate the progression from comics to films- and the logo sometimes removes the music in favor of audio that leads into the film, which you don't see other logo splashes do. For Star Wars, while it isn't quite as good as what Marvel does, it still at least shows that all of the stuff is part of the same universe, plus they change the characters shown for each new show and even do animated characters for the animated shows. For SEGA, admittedly it's just a standard fare splash logo, but it at least acknowledges various SEGA properties that don't get much attention these days. Plus it features an orchestral version of the iconic "SEEEGAAA" jingle, which makes the splash logo worth it in my opinion. The rest of the splash logos have no need to exist though

[@krellend20]

Chris, if the first 15 seconds of this video does not remain your video intro from now on I don't even know what you're doing with your life.

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

I suggest a little improvement, the camera slowly pans away to show: "Ludonarrative Dissonance"

[@ZackKoutaRoxas]

I can't believe you made a 26 minute video about logos and splash screens. Anyway that's why I subscribed thank you.

[@poisonedlava]

So I was taking a sip of water when that excellent Shrek gag pulled its punchline...almost ruined my PC. Worth it.

[@Skenel]

Chris could be here talking almost half an hour about company logos splash animations and I would sit down and listen to each and every word. Anything can be made interesting in an Errant Signal video.

[@Lycandros]

That hold before Shrek pops out of the outhouse then subsequent quick cut made me chuckle.

[@DavetheTurnip]

The timing on that last Shrek reference was great! I really enjoyed this one. I couldn’t believe it when you revealed what prompted this video 😂

[@vroenis]

This is such a great video, it perfectly encapsulates the little corner of cultural criticism I love so much on KZbin & the internet as a whole. I'm so glad it's still relatively thriving.

[@jesustyronechrist2330]

Oh yeah... The "brand showcase". It takes the characters out of their universes and stories and makes it into a commercial, not a intro nor a logo. It's advertizement in disguise... And to make a commercail, you need a lot of products and recognizable "icons". Hence why they're desperately trying to establish a cast of characters or a universe so that they can show "look at all these things that we made! Can you recognize any of them? Of course you can! Yeah, we're that credible!". I dunno, it feels kinda narcissistic, almost like they're huffing their own farts, lathering in their own accomplishments. Which I mean sure, it's fine to be proud of them, but I'd respect the company more if they wouldn't advertize their other products when I'm watching one.

[@Robert399]

Another reason the Marvel one is better is they're not too strict about how it's used. At a minimum, they allow other audio to play over it so it feel like part of the movie intro. The others feel more like pre-roll ads.

[@TheNewton]

7:37 I was confused by the puss boots intro like it was saying somehow bossbaby would make an appearance and there would be shark scenes somehow like it's some sort of metaverse traveling fantasy movie. Weird and forced, but the actual movie is amazingly good.

[@BoneMachine1443]

there's a tonal gap between Call of Duty and Marvel movies in that one is US military & CIA propaganda, and the other is US military & CIA propaganda with Joss Whedon quip banter

[@ZIMMER1994]

Really enjoyed that this wasn’t just a takedown of the form in its entirety or another lazy, “Look how Marvel ruined everything” take. I like how you examined what makes a splash like this work, how it’s deployed, and why vs what all makes it fall flat.

[@Dixavd]

I always loved the comic-pages Marvel logo and was disappointed when they changed it.

[@shortbread1818]

The new one is nice but can’t replace the OG ✊😔

[@larryinc64]

I'm a little surprised you went through this entire video without ever mentioning Super Smash Bros. though you came close with mentioning the WB clone of it. But yeah, I guess in some ways it's like how a lot of late 2000s design was aping off of he clean sleek look Apple pushed for their products.

[@LadyMapi]

I'm not sure if Super Smash Bros fits with the overall thrust of the essay, honestly. The original Super Smash Bros was released 23 years ago, and was a video game company making a fighting game. Making a mascot fighter out of their existing properties made sense - it gave them an easy way to fill out a roster with cool, distinct characters. On top of that, all of the characters they had used had had a game come out only a few years earlier, so they weren't really banking on nostalgia. MultiVersus, on the other hand, is a non-video-game company handing their IP off to a video game company and going "make a game out of these". It has a very different feel to it.

[@Omahdon]

The Call of Duty splash logo caught me completely off guard: had me cough-laughing for maybe a little too long at its audacity. Really now? A series famed around its multiplayer component and the ever more predatory monetisation of said multiplayer component? A more honest splash logo would be a series of "connecting to lobby" screens followed by the screen being splashed with red jello as the player is killed immediately by a sad adult shouting racial slurs and rape jokes.

[@MalachiWadas]

Ok i need someone to do that now lmao

[@thecrinjemasterjay]

I’m on the same side, but tbh the PlayStation studios splash is really nice and I enjoy it every time I open up a game for some reason

[@bossdoorpodcast]

God every time you cut to that Dreamworks collage where Shrek and the gang just kind of ignore the boy in the moon for a minute and then awkwardly wave so he'll leave... they give off the same vibes I feel about having to see the collage at all, just get it over with.

[@samhayes2073]

Interesting video, while Marvel definitely made this more popular, it almost feels like the Smash Brosification of these studios. Smash Bros was definitely a gateway drug into a bunch of Nintendo games for me, and I remember especially the 3DS/Wii U version leaning heavily on an envelope motif in the advertising. Building up Smash as a prestige event that these characters were being invited to. It felt almost like an extension of the game even if it was just a ploy to get you to buy it. Always something kind of uncomfortable about how these branding elements that sit in the middle of the Venn Diagram where the experience you love, and the commercialese of the text intersect.

[@syd1467]

Next time we will have the Valve guy turn around and start singing a Cleveland Show ass theme song about all Valve's properties

[@lethe.archive]

why would you show me that clip of musk. why did i have to be cursed with this knowledge that i had previously forgot.

[@CaptainRufus]

That second Marvel intro ain't got squat on the old 80s HBO Feature Presentation opening.

[@lemonautical]

marvel's intro makes sense. like the video states, it's an interconnected universe with characters that have at least the potential to interact. but with things like ready player one or the WB smash clone, i'm becoming more and more tired of corporate branding and advertising being presented as a "fun mashup". seeing batman throw a batarang at jake the dog and shaggy go super saiyan on a gremlin divorces the original content of context and feels like a desperate cash grab by the corporation saying "remember your childhood? remember all of our marketable franchises that we don't do anything with anymore? please give us money"

[@Mordalon]

I don't mind when crossovers make sense with the tone of what is crossing over. I can even enjoy some clashing tones as a joke. But when they have to dilute or severely alter characters just to force them together, that's when it puts me off.

[@Brawltendo]

The whole mashup thing is encouraged by Smash fans now who seem to care more about how many references can be crammed into a character rather than how they’re actually designed for gameplay purposes. It’s why you can look at pretty much any fan moveset concept and just every single move is an explicit reference to something from their series. Thankfully the actual designers are more subtle than that (although it’s definitely gotten worse over time) and are able to give characters, well, character without having to be like “don’t you remember when x character did y? So memorable and nostalgic, right?”

[@enzmondo]

4:06 this version of the Marvel Studios logo is the Avengers Endgame version with the missing characters I some scenes due to them disappearing after the Snap.

[@GrandHighGamer]

I really don't see why a Star Wars Story branded TV show in the Star Wars section of the Disney App needs Star Wars branding logos before it? Mission Impossible doesn't need to do this, Indiana Jones doesn't (but probably will), Dirty Harry doesn't, every other long-running movie-verse doesn't. It just feels like it draws attention to how hideously corporate the whole enterprise is, while also wasting your damn time for a show that's exclusive to a streaming app and thus something you're unlikely to ever 'accidentally' watch.

[@GreenPowerStar]

I think the one that really made me notice this issue was the PlayStation Productions logo before Uncharted. They had one before that , and it was pretty blatant too, but like DreamWorks or Marvel, it often themed itself around the film/show or used popular characters most outside their fanbase would recognize (Last of Us, God of War). However, when the new logo flashes characters the average non-gamer filmgoer will never know or care about (Astro?? Sackboy??), it broke the illusion for me. Sega's did something admittedly similar, but due to its structure, at *least* it's one big shot with them all instead of trying to focus on them individually. It's an Easter egg for long time or hardcore fans, not a lingering shot expecting you to recognize what you're looking at. I also kind of wish Cartoon Network films had taken off, since they did something like this in the same year as Spider-Man when they released The Powerpuff Girls movie, filling a theater with recognizable Cartoon Network characters interacting with each other in a massive theater. I think there'd at least be more thought and variety going into these if they didn't have only Marvel as a reference point. It's a shame CN's usually gets overshadowed in this discussion because it was only on the one film.

[@veespa_]

Great video, incredibly well-made and thought provoking. I would _LOVE_ LucasArts point and click adventure games to be made into films. I would be cautiously optimistic, as I feel there are several different angles they could go about it that would not do them justice, but, doing them right would just be amazing. I always thought a Monkey Island animated movie series in the style of-or, at the very least, inspired by-Curse of Monkey Island would have a lot of potential. Grim Fandango, in polished 2023-level 3D animation, also could be great. I’m unsure, though, of the style Day of the Tentacle should use…

[@tomsko863]

Loved the video. Great job on analysis. Looking back, I don't find those splash screens at all enjoyable. I instinctively skip past them. Specifically the Star Wars one I found annoying. You shed a little light on it. The color pallet and weird imagery felt very off for me, especially with so many characters that I didn't like or at the minimum care about. It was also both too short and too long. Or to put it another way: it was just long enough to be annoying but too short to get up and do something meaningful in the meantime. I've learned to perfectly skip past it so I don't have to watch it. Hopefully I will still remember once Andor S02 starts.

[@Mordalon]

You can practice on Mando S3 or Ahsoka.

[@tomsko863]

​@@Mordalon Stopped Mando after 4.5 episodes, never found Ahsoka interesting. Will wait for Andor S02.

[@Mordalon]

@@tomsko863 Did you never watch the Clone Wars or Rebels?

[@tomsko863]

@@Mordalon A little bit. Wasn't my jam. Felt like a kid banging action figures into each other yelling "bang, bang!" then one falls over. I wasn't 10 anymore so it didn't excite me.

[@jasonblalock4429]

As someone who enjoys most of the current-era Star Wars stuff... I 100% agree about the splash logo. It's awful. You actually helped me grok WHY I dislike it so much. Also, it's just not telling a story. At all. There's no ethos, only neon lights and chrome. Also, to add onto the COD dogpile: That logo is just so *dour,* especially the music. I get that this isn't exactly a happy brand, but nothing about that logo gives me "Ohboy I'm excited to play this game!" vibes. Even a lowkey Saving Private Ryan-esque trumpet call would have helped. Also also, given Bobby Kotick's personality... I'm betting he was just jealous and wanted to rip off Marvel.

[@orijimi]

It feels like forever since you got after something in a video. I love it.

[@papermelon]

Thank goodness someone’s talking about it. It’s SUCH a pet peeve of mine that my wife and I started making fun of about a year ago, and Puss In Boots was the last straw with that horrendous company sizzle real

[@missybarbour6885]

22:50 It's actually so funny that you used Hunchback as an example here because my theory is that movie was one of the things that made Disney realize it had to change its branding strategy. Maintaining a squeaky clean family friendly image was starting to backfire for them by the end of the 90's. People brought their kids to see Hunchback and were surprised when that movie starts with a corrupt judge TRYING TO DROP A DISABLED BABY DOWN A WELL?!?!? In parents' defense, the advertising for the movie really buried the themes of "racial discrimination and societal prejudice justified by religion" because... that wasn't Disney's brand. Anything even remotely adult was released under the Touchstone Pictures label so it wouldn't be associated with Disney. You can see how a very narrow brand image was starting to cause them problems. Not too long after that was when they started buying up other properties like they were on clearance sale, and just in general we saw Disney moving away from that highly specific type of movie you described them being known for. But every few years they still release a Moana or Encanto, so I guess they can do both lol

[@B1G_Dave]

What!?!? No end of video teaser scene for upcoming videos!?!?!? Unsubscribed

[@fnkyron]

The “Marvelization” with COD thank god someone finally pointed it out! I’ve had this idea popping into my brain so long now. The cameos and needle drops and stuff, it’s all there

[@Redem10]

Somewhere there's a very sad dark universe logo

[@lostmarble540]

I like how the video title is completely incomprehensible until after you've watched the video

[@spongebobfan78]

For the Sega one, IIRC, they already had a lot of movies in the works like Comix Zone, Space Channel 5, Persona, etc. I think the collection of games in the intro is a preparation for that.

[@eugenecooper6395]

As a person who never played CoD, I think it would make sense if they just showcased different time periods and locations in their intro. So the message would be “Look, you can dive into various times in history or points on the map doing military stuff!”