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[Anthony]

If you're a geek like me, you'll care about stuff like this.

The new Walt Disney Pictures logo can be seen in front of POTC: Dead Man's Chest, and it's rather nice!  After the boring blue castle of the 90s and the strange Dinosaur-esque torchlight version at the start of the 00s, this one is totally, totally different!  It uses some dazzling, magical 3D animation, yet isn't actually very modern at all.  It's like an advert for Walt Disney World...

It's a lot like the recently updated Paramount one - you start out looking upwards at the sky as a shooting star passes by, and then you pan downwards to see some kind of enchanted valley and river (at least I think it was a river...) trailing off into the distance.  The colour scheme is all purples, blues and hints of gold.  It reminded me a lot of the CGI animation for the 50th commercials, and seems to have been inspired a lot by the Disney theme parks.  Infact, as the camera travels down towards the ground, the top turret of what appears to be Cinderella Castle comes into view.  As the camera rests on the ground looking directly at the crisp 3D castle, fireworks blast off and a shower of pixie dust shoots across the castle like in the old logos.  I remember the castle walls extended off to either side of the picture, with glowing lanterns along them.  A 3D "Walt Disney Pictures" (in the same fonts as before) fades into view.  

And that's that!  I think I missed out a lot of stuff, there are probably lots of hidden details in the large overview of the river that relate to past Disney films.  I forgot the new logo was being shown at the start of Pirates, so I wasn't prepared. (Didn't have my geeks notebook out... -joking, of course! :lol: )

What surprised me most (apart from the fact that they've really copied Paramount rather a lot), is that the logo is SO Disney.  It doesn't try to be grown up and dark like the old torch logo (still to be seen on the Pirates 2 trailers).  Infact, seeing this VERY nostalgic Disney-ish logo and then witnessing crows pecking at the eyes of dying sailors in the opening minutes of the film was rather a strange contrast... :lol:

Anyway, when you see it for yourselves at the start of Pirates 2, let us know what you thought!  We'll be seeing a lot more of it in years to come, and it's an important part of the whole Disney brand.

[Sam]

Actually, I liked the simplicity and symbolic meaning of the old logo. I'm looking forward to seeing the new one, though.

[Dlrpfan]

i also quite like the new one after all the old one has not been changed for a long time

[Anthony]

I saw the logo (or "Identity" as I've noticed it being called officically) again today on a bigger screen and it's a really beautiful logo.

The river landscape features a train crossing the river on a viaduct, before you head up into the clouds and then the top turret of the castle comes into view.  The camera pulls back and the whole castle comes into view, with "When You Wish Upon A Star" providing a lovely instrumental soundtrack.  I didn't notice any extra details in the riverscape (I thought they might have included nods to past films in there or something), but the whole thing is so crisp, new and magical that I was saying "whoa!" before the film even started!  Can't wait to see this in front of more films.  The simplicity of the old blue animation was good, but this one is good because it seems to be saying "Ha! We're Disney, we have castles and magic and lots of good history, beat that!" to the other studios.

It's funny to watch the (awful) new-ish DreamWorks Animation logo, considering the many years of CG animation they've had, and then compare it to this Disney one, with Disney only having done 1 fully CG film.  

As I said before though, it is very odd to see this animation be followed a few minutes later by crows pecking at dying bodies...  :? lol

[The Butlin Boy]

Just seen it before potc2 and it really is fantastic!

[Anthony]

From http://www.animated-news.com, a preview of the new logo:



And the following article takes a look at what went into making the new logo:

Old Disney magic in new animated logo
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/fi ... 1002802054

Moviegoers who saw Walt Disney Pictures' "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" over the weekend also discovered an unexpected bit of treasure.

Buried beneath the usual movie trailers, just as "Dead Man's Chest" started, Disney unveiled a new, computer-animated logo that the Burbank-based studio spent a year designing.

In just 30 seconds, Disney's digitally revamped curtain-raiser travels from a star high above the clouds to reveal a jewel-colored landscape at dusk. The animated camera glides over a glistening lake to arrive at a glowing Disney castle where the studio's classic logo is spelled out in a silvery new 3-D typeface.

Disney's revised film insignia is a departure from the studio's decades-old, two-tone blue-and-white logo centered on a spartan white castle, animated by traditional 2D methods. But the new logo also hearkens back to such timeless Disney iconography as pixie dust, Pinocchio's star, a bank of fluffy clouds that Mary Poppins would recognize, a pirate ship and a mythical castle topped with luminescent spires.

"The goal was to create the most elegant, beautiful, magical castle that would represent not only Disney past but also Disney present," said Oren Aviv, president, Buena Vista Pictures Marketing. "The new logo is filled with breathtaking visual sweep, charm, scale and grace that we believe best represents the movies the studio is making today, movies like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'National Treasure,' that have a bigger scope and scale."

Aviv and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, first discussed the idea of a computer-animated logo makeover during a marketing meeting a year ago.

The execs tapped Disney producer Baker Bloodworth and director Mike Gabriel, both Oscar nominated in 2004 for the animated short film "Lorenzo." Gabriel devised three different treatments, created animatic storyboards, showed Aviv and Cook the frames and re-worked the designs until everyone was on board. Academy Award-winning studio Weta Digital in New Zealand was chosen to animate the story and add visual effects. "We chose to go to the world's best (visual effects) studio, where they specialize in live action/real-life simulation," Aviv said.

Aviv also tapped John Sable and John Blas from within Disney's marketing division to design the logo's new 3-D typography. When the imagery was 80% complete, the studio enlisted composer Mark Mancina ("Tarzan") to write a new musical score that was recorded with a full orchestra. The score's production was overseen by Chris Montan, president of Walt Disney Music.

"There are updates and upgrades," Aviv said. "But the trick, for us, is to honor the past logo, Disney's past as a studio, and Walt Disney himself. At same time, we tried to make it stunning and relevant for moviegoers not just today but decades into the future."

According to studio insiders, repeat viewings of the new logo yield a number of winks to those in the know -- one of the castle's flags, for example, is said to bear Walt Disney's family crest.

The cast and crew of "Dead Man's Chest" was the first audience to view the new logo on the big screen.

"They just exploded," Aviv said. "At every screening I've attended since, it's gotten applause. It's visually so stunning and scored with a stirring piece of music, so it's easy to get excited. It also means a lot to be a Disney-branded movie, which represents quality, a high level of entertainment and what people have come to expect -- that you can bring the whole family. It has real meaning for people."

[experiment627]

Personally, I think the updated logo is a bit overboard. Did they really have to do that much?

And: why did they have to change the castle from DL's to WDW's?  :?

[Patrick]

I finally have seen it and love it also is it me or does it seem rather remenisant of the original castle concept art for Disneyland Paris?  Nice to see they are finally moving on about time too and now Pixar is part of Disney they may also start using this.

[penfold12]

I took my nephew (8 Yrs old) to see Dead Mans Chest this weekend, and as soon as the logo came up he asked me if we could go to Disneyland soon! So for a company big on synergy, it works well!

[Kristof]

Beautiful, really beautiful!  My whole family was stunned!

[Anthony]

They're getting another new logo - this time for Disney Animation Studios.  I guess in a similar way to how we currently get the Walt Disney Pictures and then the Pixar Animation Studios logo, they'll use this to make it clear when a feature is made by Disney itself.

From Animation Guild blog:

"I got a peek at the new "Disney Animation Studio" logo that will run in front of the animated features coming out of Burbank. (Pixar, of course, has its own logo with -- the jumping lamp.) The Disney version is classy, involves a couple of well-known corporate trade marks, and is understated. I liked it."

Meet the Robinsons must be the first film it'll be used with.