The Baby Einstein Company

Background
The Baby Einstein Company (commonly simply known as Baby Einstein and stylized as baby einstein or the baby einstein company) 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, except the text now reads:

"The Baby Einstein Company

Presents".

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

Variant: Starting in 2008 with the 10th Anniversary edition of Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven, they used CGI animation, with the boy's head being animated and moving to the top-right half of the screen.

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. The CGI variant is rare and can be seen on 10th Anniversary editions of Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven.

2nd Logo (August 15, 2000-November 21, 2007-November 23, 2010)
Nicknames: "The Rolling Caterpillar", "Great Minds Start Little."

Logo: On a white background, a colorful caterpillar is seen made up of several spheres. It has a sphere for a head, with  antennas. Over the head is two beady black eyes and a black mouth with two pink cheeks, made up of and  balls for the body, with a smaller  ball connecting them in between, and tiny  and  marbles for the tail, and four lavender toy wheels. It enters from the far left of the screen in the distance, blinks, and slowly inches toward it (it glances at the camera midway through). Once the caterpillar reaches the center of the screen, it comes to a halt, and looks at the viewer, blinking twice using its eyes and opening its mouth. On the first blink, the company's logo fades in on the ground. On the second blink, the caterpillar closes its mouth, the camera pulls upward to a bird's eye view and zooms out. A caterpillar continues to look at the viewer as this happens, which reveals the company's logo, consisting of the words "the baby einstein™ company" in left-aligned, stacked format, multicolored and sloppy handwritten font (with "the" at the upper-left and "company" at the bottom-right, both in black and in the sans-serif font) and a crude drawing of a boy's head with spiky hair and glasses next to the word "baby", and when the camera settles in place, the dark blue words "Great minds start little." fly down to the bottom left corner of the screen.

Variants:


 * Starting in the mid-2000s, the text "Great minds start little." does not appear. While some versions remove the text from the animation, other versions will simply freeze the logo before the text appears.
 * In-credit variants without the colorful caterpillar exist.
 * An in-credit still version appears on Little Einsteins, placed on top of the square with the copyright text in white underneath, on a darker  background with stars.
 * An later variant of the in-credit still version exists with the square omitted.
 * On the Little Einsteins film "Our Huge Adventure", "www.albert-einstein.org" is added in the copyright text.
 * On the Little Einsteins second season 1 episode, "(C) The Baby Einstein Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Baby Einstein, the Boy's Head logo, Little Einsteins and the Little Einsteins logo are trademarks of The Baby Einstein Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. EINSTEIN and ALBERT EINSTEIN are trademarks of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All Rights Reserved. www.albert-einstein.org" is is in the copyright text.
 * Starting officially on November 21, 2007, but debuted in early 2007, the Baby Einstein logo is now in a box that includes the Disney logo. The trademark symbol by the "n" in "einstein" was replaced with the registered trademark symbol.
 * A variant of the logo exists where the black text "A Subsidiary of The Waltograph Company" fades in at the bottom-left corner of the screen in place of the text "Great minds start little.". It appears on the Baby Einstein VHS sampler.
 * A Canadian French translated variant of the Baby Einstein Company logo exists in which the text "Great minds start little." is translated in "Les grands esprits naissent tout petits.".
 * On the Baby Einstein discovery kits, a version exists 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 up slightly.
 * A website promo variant of the 2007 version exists where the URL reading "www.babyeinstein.com" is seen at the bottom left of the screen, appearing when the logo would oftentimes freeze.

Trivia:


 * The logo was based on a scene from Baby Einstein: Language Nursery featuring a toy caterpillar.
 * The caterpillar in this logo would eventually be given the name Cal, after Baby Einstein was brought by Kids II.
 * The boy's head in this logo is said to have been the basis for the design of Leo from Little Einsteins, which Baby Einstein helped produce.

FX/SFX: CGI by Stephen Rozmiarek. None for in-credit versions.

Music/Sounds: A calm, soothing woodwind/chime theme in E-flat major, a 7-note chime and a 10-note flute tune just before it's interrupted by the caterpillar's blink, with sounds of nature (ex. birds chirping and wind) in the background, and two cartoon blinking noises for the caterpillar. (Similar to the sound "Sound Ideas, BLINK, CARTOON - XYLO EYE BLINKS", but has been edited, the 1st blink part is in "-8" pitch, and the 2nd blink part is in "+8" pitch.) The music continues playing where it rises to a crescendo when the camera pulls upward, ending with three dings and three notes.

Music/Sounds Trivia: Sounds in this logo are the birds chirping and wind. The sound effect can be found here.

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * Starting in the mid-2000s, when this music finishes, Julie Aigner-Clark says: "For more information about our developmental products for babies - and toddlers, visit babyeinstein.com. Enjoy the show."
 * Sometimes, there is no voiceover.
 * The in-credit versions have the show's ending theme.

Availability: 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. It last appeared on the Baby Einstein discovery kits, but it uses the next logo instead as well. This logo is also used as a home entertainment logo. It appears which doesn't use the next logo instead on 2007 Baby Einstein DVD re-releases, ending with the video "My First Signs". It can also be found on a website promo, which has the next logo instead as well. The in-credit variant appears on Little Einsteins.

3rd Logo (November 23, 2007-2008-2009-November 23, 2010)
Nickname: "The Rolling Caterpillar II"

Logo: 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 words "the" and "company" were both omitted. 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 Disney Baby Einstein logo is different, and, when the caterpillar enters in, the screen waits to pull out.

Later Variant: Since 2013, the logo is seen without the Disney logo, after Disney sold Baby Einstein to Kids II, Inc.

Variants:


 * On promos from 2008, 2009 or 2010, the logo plays backwards.
 * On a "Welcome to Baby Einstein" promo from early 2008, the Disney Baby Einstein logo is slightly stretched to normal and is slightly off-center, placed at the upper-half of the screen.

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

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.
 * Starting in either late 2008 or early 2009, after the music finishes, Julie Aigner-Clark's voice-over says the following things, 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.