Gecko Studios

Background
Gecko Studios was a production company that was formed by Elliot Strange in 1987, based in Tyler, Texas. Following creative issues at ABC centering on The Halloween Gang and them restructuring their programs under the guidance of the Q5 Corporation for that year's television season, Strange sought to fund and produce a greenlit syndication run for the show, leading to him creating Gecko and seeking out other producers interested in the project. Strange's association with producers Phil Sterns and Julia West from the syndicated season helped to finance a pet project Strange was working on, which would become The Key to Laurie Locke. The film was a modest success, but enabled Strange to build connections from there. He would later help acquire and produce an American dub of the anime film Gin no ōzara no yōsei (released in the US as The Fairies of Silver Platte.) From there, Gecko would produce animated commercials for local Texas businesses, but would later land major clients such as RadioShack, Chili's, Sizzler, Whataburger and the Got Milk? campaign. In 1997, Gecko landed a deal with DreamWorks Pictures to produce new content in a three production deal. Two shows were released while a proposed animated film was ultimately rejected as DreamWorks had acquired Pacific Data Images time before and considered it more practical to produce animated films in-house; this film would eventually be released under Sony's specialty label Destination Films and Gecko would shut down due to its financial failure. In 2019, Gecko's website relaunched and hinted at two new projects, later revealed to be remakes of the web series Princess Natasha and the obscure television series This Just In.... Princess Natasha ran on HBO Max and would later debut on Cartoon Network in the US at its conclusion, but a switch in show-runners (the new one had been outed for pro-police brutality tweets related to the Hong Kong protests) led to a sharp decline in viewership. The This Just In... reboot, produced under the name Sami, languished due to Strange's refusal to release the show on Netflix, feeling their original productions lacked quality (his views also owed to the Cuties controversy.), as well as his opposition to The Walt Disney Company leading him to reject offers from Fox and Hulu, both owned by or associated with Disney. His quality views also led him to not allowing companies like Bento Box Entertainment and Titmouse, Inc. to participate in the project, but he was able to land a deal with 6 Point Harness. The show was going to be released on AppleTV+, but was outbid by Pop. The creator of the original series, Steve Marmel, was set to be involved but was kicked off of the project due to his more radicalized takes on then president Donald Trump. The show lasted for a single season (said to have been intended as such) and Strange promptly retired from the professional animation industry. Gecko remains active as a producer of internet content, notably serving as the handle for Strange's NewGrounds account and related YouTube channel.

1st Logo (1987)
Logo: On a black background, we see a grey box containing a circular image of a girl with her hair arranged in a pony-tail fashion and wearing a red sports shirt with blue jeans, standing in a fighting stance. The girl throws a few rapid punches before the image freezes. Beneath the frame is the text "GECKO STUDIOS" in black.

Trivia: The girl in the logo is known as Judy. She was the first character ever created by Strange. She was intended to be included in The Halloween Gang, but as co-creator Byron Blessard had become more accepting of ABC's impending alterations, intended to revision her as a more submissive character (Blessard had also become infamous for a number of allegations of pedophilia, which would get confirmed years later.) The extent of the conflict led to Strange using Judy as a personal trophy to reflect his victory against Blessard and the network. Judy would appear in The Halloween Kids and would also appear in various commercials produced by Gecko.

FX/SFX: The punching.

Music/Sounds: Various punching sounds, ending with a bell sound.

Availability: Appeared on syndicated episodes of The Halloween Gang. This and the Sternwest Productions logos would wind up plastering the Blessard Animation Productions on local reruns of the first season and the eighth through thirteenth episodes of the second (those were traded off from the syndicated seasons) distributed through The Program Exchange. This principle also applies to earlier VHS releases through Family Home Entertainment.

2nd Logo (1989-1995)
Logo: We fade in to a white background with scribbles on it, as well as a black number "3". The area flashes a bit before cutting to the number "2" against the same background but with smaller, more faded blue scribbles, then cutting to "1" with green and yellow scribbles. Suddenly, the image from before fades in. The background flickers as Judy throws a punch before the image clears out, leaving an image of her in a circular frame, with "GECKO" above her in yellow and red squares (a gecko embryo replaces the "O" in "GECKO" and "STUDIOS" below in a spaced out font. All of this is on a grey stone background.

FX/SFX: Traditional animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on The Key to Laurie Locke,the Streamline Pictures dub of The Fairies of Silver Platte and the 1995 remake of The Beast of Yucca Flats.

3rd Logo (1998-2004, 2020-2021)
Logo: Against a desert landscape, we see Judy leaning against a lone phone poll. "Gecko STUDIOS" is to the left of it in black. A comet is seen shooting by.

Variant(s):


 * An updated version exists, featuring an older and more muscular Judy striking a pose. The poll was knocked down and we see the company name etched onto it.
 * On Sami, this shares the screen with the logo for Harvey Levin Productions.

FX/SFX: The comet.

Music/Sounds: A sustained electric guitar note played along with a hum.

Availability: Appeared on the short-lived The Halloween Kids and first appeared on the ultra short-lived 1998 revival of Inner Sanctum. Also appeared at the end of the direct-to-video film The Incredible Hulk Vs. The Wolfman. Was brought back for the Princess Natasha reboot and Sami.

4th Logo (2002)
Logo: On a blue/grey gradient background with various objects littered about, we see the text "GECKO STUDIOS" in a red and gold jumbled font. To the right of it is a sunburst containing Judy, two other girls, a muscular woman, a teen girl and a teen male.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appeared on the video game Green Jean.

5th Logo (2006)
Logo: We see an image of a sketch of a tree fade in. It cuts to the same image, this time more detailed and then again to a 3D rendering of the tree. The tree expands, displaying various character (those of other Gecko films and programs) before each are sucked into a gecko embryo with a texture similar to the tree, set against a sky background. "GECKO STUDIOS" is below.

FX/SFX: 3D animation.

Music/Sounds: A chime-type tune, along with two electric guitar notes and the sound of laughter.

Availability: Appeared on The Doomed Stones. This doesn't appear on The Incredible Hulk Vs. The Wolfman, which has the 3rd logo at the end.