This week on the Qt3 Movie Podcast for The Avengers: Age of Ultron the guys talk about their favorite studio logo gimmicks.
Dingus
3 The Matrix
2 Constantine
1 Raiders of the Lost Ark
Kelly
3 Strange Brew
2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
1 The Orphan
Tom
3 Raiders of the Lost Ark
2 Lucy
1 Alien 3
Forgot to send in my picks for the Podcast so I’m making sure to choose three logo’s that weren’t chosen by either the guys or the listeners.
I really like the WB logo that looks to be carved into the large door with one man carved below it on each side holding it up. There is sunlight filter into the room which lights the dust that if floating in the air. The doors and logo then open up. Here is a pic of the logo: 
When the WB door opens it leads to the Legendary Pictures logo which is carved into another door. The logo looks fine but the door and logo then open which shows the viewer what looks like a sculpture (relief?) of the aftermath of a battle. As the camera continues to close in, the picture changes from sculpture to real and we see that it’s the aftermath of the first movie with Leonidas and his brave Spartans strewn across the field of battle. Here is a pick of the logo opening: 
This is my number one pick because I didn’t remember at all seeing this when I watched it on a cable movie channel. I wound buying this second hand and popped it in to see if there was anything and I was shocked that just as the screen comes to life and you see the blue Earth of the Universal logo, you also see this: 
And then when the words Universal start to scroll across the screen you also see this just below the I in Universal: 
I thought that was pretty darn clever.
Sorry for this being picture laden but I’m a heck of a lot better at showing than telling.
I approve of the visual nature of your presentation, marquac!
-xtien
Hah. I hadn’t listened to the podcast yet, but Indy 4 came to my mind as well. It’s not my ‘favourite’, but the crappily made CGI gopher perfectly sets the tone for what is to come.
Waterworld - flooding the Universal globe.
Me too, very glad someone’s already mentioned Oblivion; it’s the first thing I thought of.
Until about five minutes ago, I was certain that Annette Bening’s face was superimposed onto the Columbia Studios’ model in “The American President.” (She’s kind of a goddess in that movie, so it fits.) Turns out the movie was “What Planet Are Your From?” which is an abomination of a film. As such, I will continue to believe it was “The American President.”
I always liked the start of Coming to America when the camera rises up over the Paramount mountain to fly into the nation of Zamunda.
The Warner Bros. logo in the Harry Potter series. My favorite is Azkaban where you see the window of the Dursley house through the logo:
That’s the first one I thought of.
No love for the a capella rendition of the Universal theme music from Pitch Perfect?
