The Baby Einstein Company

Background
The Baby Einstein Company, commonly simply known as Baby Einstein is an early children's entertainment company and a line of multimedia products. It is founded on June 4, 1996 by Julie Aigner-Clark to expose children to classical music, poetry, and art. The company was originally named I Think I Can Productions since June 1996 before changing its name to Aigner-Clark Productions in October 1998, likely due to her two-video deal with the I Think I Can English School, a Japanese school that teaches English, expiring, making her lose the rights to said name. A few months later, the company changed to its current name. From 2000 to 2001, the company's videos were distributed by Artisan Entertainment under the Family Home Entertainment label before Aigner-Clark sold the company to The Walt Disney Company on November 7, 2001. On October 14, 2013, Kids II, Inc. acquired the brand from Disney.

1st Logo (November 23, 1999-November 23, 2010)
Logo: Same as the Aigner-Clark Productions logo, previously same as the I Think I Can Productions logo, except the text now reads:

"The Baby Einstein Company

Presents".

The colors of the text may vary depending on the show.

FX/SFX: None.

Sounds: The opening theme of the show. Availability: Common. Seen on Baby Einstein videos starting with Baby Shakespeare: World of Poetry and ending with the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits.

2nd Logo (August 15, 2000-November 21, 2007, 2008-2010)
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Nicknames: "The Rolling Caterpillar", "Great Minds Start Little.", "CGI Caterpillar", "CGI Rolling Caterpillar", "Colorful Caterpillar"

Logo: On a white background, a colorful caterpillar enters from the far left of the screen, and slowly inches towards the screen and it glances at the camera midway through, which slides in on wheels. While the caterpillar inches toward the screen, it blinks when each chime note plays. Once the caterpillar reaches the center of the screen, it comes to a halt, which stops, and looks at the screen. A caterpillar then blinks twice using its eyes and opens its mouth, which smiles. On the caterpillar's first blink, the company's logo appears on the floor. The caterpillar then closes its mouth as the camera pulls up to a bird's eye view and zooms out, with the caterpillar continuing to look at the screen as this happens. The camera then reveals the logo, consisting of the words "baby einstein" in a multicolored, sloppy handwritten font and a drawing of a boy's head next to the word "baby", with "the" at the upper-left corner and "company" at the bottom-right corner.

Variants:


 * Originally in 2000 until 2003, when the camera settles in place, the dark words "Great minds start little." fly down to the bottom left corner of the screen.
 * In the logo's later years, it would oftentimes freeze before the text "Great minds start little." appears.
 * There are in-credit variants with the colorful caterpillar in the logo omitted.
 * One where the logo is shown on a white background at the end of Baby Einstein videos such as Baby Mozart,
 * and one where the logo in a white slanted rectangle is shown at the upper half of the screen on a darker background with stars. During the Little Einsteins variant, a copyright notice is seen at the bottom of the screen. It can be found on Little Einsteins on Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior.
 * During this logo's early years, the logo is in a square.
 * Starting on November 21, 2007, there is a variant where the Baby Einstein logo is now in a box with the waltograph logo in.
 * A variant exists where the black text "A Subsidiary of The Waltograph Company" appears in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
 * There is a translated Canadian French variant of the logo where the text "Great minds start little." is translated in "Les grands esprits naissent tout petits.". This variant can be found on Quebec/Canadian French VHS releases of a few Baby Einstein videos such as Baby Santa's Music Box.
 * On the Baby Einstein discovery kits, there is a version where the Baby Einstein logo from the next one was shown instead, and when the camera pulls up to a bird's eye view, it pans a little in which it is slightly stabilized.

Character: The colorful caterpillar. A colorful caterpillar is seen made up of several spheres. It has a sphere for the face, with  antennas above it, beady black eyes and pink cheeks around its mouth, made up of  and  spheres for the caterpillar's body, with a smaller  ball connecting them in between, and tinier  and tiny  spheres for the caterpillar's tail, and four lavender toy wheels.

Trivia:


 * The logo was based on a scene from Baby Einstein: Language Nursery featuring a toy caterpillar. Instead, the character in this logo would eventually have spheres with colors, which makes it the name "Rolling Caterpillar".
 * The caterpillar in this logo would eventually be given the name Cal (since 2018), after Baby Einstein was brought by Kids II.
 * The colorful caterpillar in this logo would be given the name "Rolling Caterpillar", since it makes an appearance during this logo and the next one, while it is mentioned on some non-Baby Einstein video-related DVD releases during the early years.

FX/SFX: CGI animation by Stephen Rozmiarek.

Cheesy Factor: None.

Music/Sounds: A calm, soothing woodwind/chime theme in D# Major, with sounds of nature (ex. birds chirping and wind) in the background, and two cartoon-like blinking noises for the caterpillar when it stares.

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * Sometimes, when this music finishes, we hear Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over saying: "For more information on our developmental products for babes - and toddlers, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."
 * Sometimes, Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over was not heard.
 * For the in-credit variant, the show’s ending theme is heard.
 * Staring in 2010 with the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits, the sounds of nature were different, only the sound of the bird chirping is heard. At first, the bird chirping is heard before the shakers playing in the background, followed by a 2-note piano tune while we can hear the shakers, and a ding, playing along with the shakers, are heard in the background before the music starts when the caterpillar in the logo blinks while it enters. Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over in this variant was omitted. Also, after the second bird chirping sound plays, we hear bell chimes.

Availability:

Scare Factor: None; this is a soothing logo.
 * Animated Variant: Seen on DVD/VHS releases of most Baby Einstein videos starting with Baby Van Gogh and ending with Lullaby Time, which has the next logo instead. Also appears on a Baby Einstein promotional video from 2002. Don't expect to see this on post-2007 prints of these videos either; they have the next logo instead. That also makes the last appearance on the Baby Einstein discovery kits, but it uses the next logo instead as well. It also makes an appearance on DVD/VHS releases of Language Nursery, which is the first video to have this logo. It’s reused on the Baby Einstein Discovery Kits. When the show started, this logo does not appear on Chinese DVD releases of Baby Einstein videos (ex. Baby Newton).
 * In-credit variant: It is seen on a Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior series Little Einsteins and a print of Baby Einstein shows such as Baby Mozart.

3rd Logo (November 23, 2007-2008-November 23, 2010)
Nicknames: "The Rolling Caterpillar II", "CGI Caterpillar II", "CGI Rolling Caterpillar II", "New CGI Caterpillar", "New Baby Einstein Logo", "Colorful Caterpillar II"

Logo:

Later Variant: Since 2013, the logo is seen without the Disney logo, after Disney sold Baby Einstein to Kids II, Inc.
 * November 23, 2007-2008: Same as the previous logo, but the Baby Einstein logo is now in a box with the Disney logo in the upper-left corner of the box. Also, "the" and "company" were both omitted.
 * 2008-November 23, 2010: Between 2008 to late November 2010, the logo has been re-animated. Also, the caterpillar's mouth does not close while looking at the screen. The camera when it pulls up to a bird's eye view which reveals the Baby Einstein logo which is in a box with the Disney logo in (the logo might be slightly bigger, similar to the Discovery Kits variant) is different, and, when the caterpillar enters in, the screen waits to pull out.

Variant: On promos from 2008, 2009 or 2010, the logo plays backwards.

FX/SFX: CGI animation, or same as the 2nd logo.

Cheesy Factor: None.

Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo.

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * Sometimes, a version exists with a new narrator voiced by Julie Aigner-Clark.
 * As with the previous logo, there is no voice over sometimes.
 * For the re-animated variant, after the music finishes, we hear Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over saying the following words, which varies.
 * "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental products, and for tips on how to create moments or discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."
 * "To learn more about Baby Einstein developmental and entertainment products, and for tips on how to make moments or discovery with your baby, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."

Availability: Common. It appeared on DVD releases of Baby Einstein videos starting with Lullaby Time to World Music. That also makes an appearance on 2009-2010 DVD releases of Baby Einstein videos from 2004 or other year.

Scare Factor: Low; like the soothing logo, but the caterpillar's smile while it continues to look at the viewer might surprise some people.