Flying Rhinoceros

Background

Flying Rhinoceros was a Portland, OR-based animation studio founded in 1994 by Ray Nelson, Jr. after he left Will Vinton Studios (now Laika), also in Portland. It produced children's entertainment products for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Tommy Nelson and other companies. In 1998, the studio released Flying Rhinoceros Amazing Brain Online Optimization Machine (FRABOOM), which was described as an online children's museum with a similar format to those like educational rivals StarFall and ABCmouse. In 2016, Fraboom was shut down, and Flying Rhinoceros went dormant. However, in 2018, Nelson opened another studio named "Really Big Creative."

1st Logo (2004-2006)

Nicknames: "Buzz Mulligan", "The Rhino"

Logo: On a gradient blue background, we see a drawing of a grey rhinoceros wearing brown pilot gear and a pink scarf riding a yellow bi-plane. He is smirking and giving a thumbs up. The whole drawing is enclosed in a blue triangle with a red, v-shaped banner underneath, which reads "FLYING RHINOCEROS" in Arbitary Bold, with the "R" in a different font and placed in the middle of the banner. Above the logo is a red/orange/yellow banner reading "Entertainment." The logo zooms in slowly.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Ray Nelson.

Variants:

There is an early variant on books released before 1998. Here, the rhinoceros is shaded and more detailed.
On episodes of BoomToons, the logo is still on a black background, with "A Flying Rhinoceros Production" underneath it.
The colors of the logo vary, depending on what book it is. The normal color scheme was introduced with Connie and Bonnie's Birthday Blast-Off, released in 1994. Plus, the wordmark in the top banner varies as well, but often says "EDUCATION."
An animated version was used on their website (flyingrhino.com/newui). Here, the scarf is flapping and the plane's fan is spinning. It can be found on the Wayback Machine.

FX/SFX: Just the logo zooming in. For the website variant, it's Flash animation

Music/Sounds: The sound of a jet, followed by a 9-note xylophone tune, likely stock music as it is also used in the funding credits for Arthur.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Horned Avenger: The Battle Against Von Boredom, as well as On the Farm with Farmer Bob DVDs. They're no longer in stores, so you can only find them on Amazon.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2006-2016)

Nicknames: "The Rhino II", "WHERE'S MY PLANE?!", "The Nick Jr. Ripoff"

Logo: On a white background, a black stick figure is standing on a grey hill. A smaller stick figure, presumably a child, runs up to it and is held up. The camera zooms out, revealing the hill to be a rhinoceros similar to the one from the previous logo, but he's not wearing any clothes and no plane is shown. To the right of him is a light blue rectangle reading "flying rhinoceros" in black, with a "Connecting Parents and Kids" slogan in white underneath. The rhinoceros bops its head a bit.

Trivia: The rhinoceros was created to promote the release of Fraboom in 1998.

Variant: In 2013, a new logo was introduced on their now-defunct website (flyingrhino.com). Here, the rhinoceros is white and no slogan or rectangle are used.

FX/SFX: Flash animation done in-house.

Music/Sounds: A violin tune, accompanied by the child giggling, followed by a xylophone/trumpet tune when the camera zooms out.

Availability: Rare. The rhinoceros first appeared on Fraboom in 1998, but the logo was never used until the release of Horned Avenger: Brainfreeze Drawing a Blank in 2006. It later appeared on Gigi: God's Little Princess DVDs. It doesn't plaster the previous logo on some versions of their websites, books or box art, though.

Editor's Note: None.