Magna Home Entertainment

Background

Starting in 1985, Magna Home Entertainment has been distributing various tapes and DVDs into Australia. In 2009, Magna Home Entertainment was bought by the Beyond Group. The label mainly distributes children's animation, movies such as Dances With Wolves and it was the current distributor of the English dub of Pokemon. In 2011, it was folded into the Beyond Group to become part of Beyond Home Entertainment.

Magna Vision

(Late 1980s?-Mid 1990s?)

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Nicknames: "The Rifle Bird", "Australian-Owned, Australian-Made"

Logo: We start off with a black screen saying: "The Following Exclusive Footage Has Been Recorded On A High Quality Magna Vision Videocassette" with the "Magna Vision" part replaced with the company logo, consisting of the silvery-blue word "MAGNA" in a sans-serif font with the legs of the first and last letters extended out to make a bar with "V I S I O N" in sky blue stretched out. Then it fades to a male Victoria's rifle bird, while a black bar with the caption "THE AUSTRALIAN "RIFLE-BIRD"" fades in below. It then fades to a female Victoria's rifle bird, then back to the male bird spreading its wings, while the caption fades out. Then we see the female bird, then the male bird yet again with its wings still spread out with the other bird. They start to spread their wings out at each other, and when the female bird flies off, the male bird spreads its wings out again and opens its beak. Then the background changes to a cloud background with the logo from before zooming in.

FX/SFX: The footage and the background change and zooming.

Music/Sounds: A didgeridoo tune with strings in the background and wildlife sounds. At the end, a male announcer says "Magna Vision, Australian owned, Australian made".

Availability: Probably seen on their earlier VHS releases; for example, an early 1990s VHS release of The Jungle Book (1942 film).

Magna Pacific

1st Logo (Mid 1990s?-2002)

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Nicknames: "The Rifle Bird II", "Multi-colored Rifle Bird"

Logo: On a white background, we see a multi-colored version of the rifle bird spreading its wings. Underneath, we see the same wordmark, but with "P A C I F I C" replacing "V I S I O N", and the font for "M A G N A" is different.

Variants:

• On later releases, we see the word "MAGNA" above "PACIFIC" below the rifle bird. Underneath "MAGNA PACIFIC", we see the words "ENTERTAINING & INFORMING", stacked on each other.
• There is another version of the above variant, but this time, the rifle bird is positioned on the left side of the screen, and the words "MAGNA" and "PACIFIC" are stacked on each other on the right side. The words "ENTERTAINING & INFORMING" are seen underneath.
• There is a variant where we see the rifle bird and the word "MAGNA" above "PACIFIC" (both in white) on a black background.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. Seen on VHS's and early DVD's (such as their first DVD release of Dances with Wolves and FairyTale: A True Story) by the company. The second variant can seen on their DVD release of the 1996 film adaption of Emma. The black background variant was seen on their 2000 VHS release of Dungeons and Dragons.

2nd Logo (2002-2006)

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Nicknames: "The Rifle Bird III", "Blue Rifle Bird"

Logo: On a gray background, we see a blue light appear out of nowhere. A blurry figure appears, which shines and is revealed to be the outline of the rifle bird with the words "MAGNA PACIFIC" under it, all in black. The logo turns dark and reverses colors (black background, blue logo). A blue light shines down on the bottom of the logo.

Variants:

• On some VHS releases, the URL "www.magnapacific.com.au" is cheaply tacked on beneath the logo.
• There is a short version that can be found at the end of their releases.

FX/SFX: The lights and the shining.

Music/Sounds: Soft music followed by zapping sounds for the revealing for the logo. A dramatic stinger follows and a glass sound is heard for the shining at the end.

Availability: Seen on all Magna Pacific releases during this period, such as their releases of Sheeep, Bratz, Winx Club (4kids dub), Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4Kids dub) and Totally Spies!. It also appeared on a print of the Pingu DVD Pingu Forever!.

3rd Logo (2006-2009)

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Nicknames: "Absence of the Rifle Bird", "The Ship"

Logo: We start underwater. We then move out of the water and see a tall ship on a green sky. We move from the right of the ship to the left. There is a ray of light, which shines and transitions the ship to a stylized logo, with the masts in white on a red background. The rest of the logo has a white background. Underneath the masts are the words "MAGNA PACIFIC".

Variant: A still version exists.

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI with the shine effect perfectly transitioning from the CGI boat to the stylized logo.

Music/Sounds: Various water and creaking sounds coming from the ship with a light theme which sounds a bit like what you would hear on Pirates of the Caribbean.

Availability: Seen on all Magna Pacific releases from 2006 to 2009.

Magna Home Entertainment

(2009-2011)

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Logo: On a black background, we see the word "MAGNA". Underneath is "HOME ENTERTAINMENT".

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on all releases by Magna after 2009 before its demise.