Turner Pictures

Background

Turner Pictures was founded by Turner Broadcasting in 1989 as their film production division, initially producing made-for-TV movies, then expanding to features. Turner Pictures continued to produce films as an autonomous division alongside Turner Broadcasting's recently-purchased New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. "Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution, Inc." was also founded to handle international sales and distribution of Turner Pictures productions. Turner Pictures feature films were released through New Line Cinema starting in 1993 and lasted until 1996 when, Warner Bros. took over distribution from New Line after its parent company Time Warner purchased Turner that same year. Turner Pictures continues to operate under the name "TNT Originals, Inc.", producing TV movies.

(1991-May 29, 1998)

Standard logo
"WORLDWIDE" variant
Superimposed "WORLDWIDE" variant
"WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION, INC." variant (B&W)
"WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION, INC." variant (color)
Israeli "WORLDWIDE" variant

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Logo: A white outlined representation of a mansion stands on a black background. Underneath, in white are the words "TURNER PICTURES". The shadows against the house shift from right to left, and as that happens the words turn from white to brown.

Trivia: The mansion stands at the center of Turner Broadcasting's headquarters at its Techwood campus in Atlanta, Georgia. The building was once the home of the Progressive Club (a group consisting of members of Atlanta's Russian-Jewish community), before Ted Turner bought the complex for CNN and Superstation WTBS in the early 1980s.

Variants:

On some international prints and the 1997 UK VHS release of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Bumper Edition, the text reads "TURNER PICTURES WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION, INC." and the text turns yellow.
Another variant features the sans-serif text "WORLDWIDE" spaced out below "TURNER PICTURES".
- An Israeli trailer for Andre has this logo green-tinted and squished to fullscreen.
There is a variant that was done for widescreen (2.35) films, where the 1.85 version is cropped to accommodate the scope format. This appeared on Fallen.

Technique: Traditional animation. Produced by Jerry Lieberman Productions.

Music/Sounds: A single, somber tone with birds chirping. When the shadow shifts to the left, a bell tolls.

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes it is silent or carries the film's opening theme.

Availability: Uncommon.

Seen only on some Turner movie productions, such as Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Gettysburg, Angus, Almost Heroes, Michael and Fallen, as well as older VHS copies of Which Way Home, Montana (1990), and Grand Isle.
It was originally seen on VHS and international prints of Tom and Jerry: The Movie plastering the Miramax Films logo, however most DVD/VCD releases and current prints go straight to the opening credits.
- However, a recent DVD print preserved the logo, which is also retained on a TV print shown in Australia.
The "Worldwide" variants can be seen on Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights (TV and streaming prints only), Boomerang airings of Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, the 1995 UK release and a Starz Encore airing of The Pagemaster (1994), UK VHS releases of Turner material from First Independent Films such as the 1997 UK VHS release of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Bumper Edition, and a Bulgarian VHS release of The Jetsons.
The Israeli variant can be seen on a trailer for Andre.