DNA Productions

Background: DNA Productions is an animation company founded in 1987 by John A. Davis and Keith Alcorn. One of its most successful projects was Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and its animated spin-off series on Nickelodeon. The production company closed down in 2006, after the release of The Ant Bully, which was a box office flop during its theatrical run. Many of its employees went to work for Reel FX Creative Studios, while others went to O Entertainment and founded its animation division, Omation. It restarted in 2012 but has been dormant for three/four years.

1st Logo (1991-1994)
Logo: On a white background, three people (two of which are John A. Davis (who is on the right) and Keith Alcorn (on the left), TBA in the middle) are seen with quirky expressions on their faces; they look somewhat distorted. The pictures are all in boxes and in grayscale. Copyright information is seen below.

Variants: - An animation where Lil' Puss Puss is expanding his head until it explodes, with blood covering Nana in the process as she shrugs nonchalantly. - A static image of Puss Puss holding up Nana's disembodied head and presents it with his other hand as he smiles. This appeared on "The Honeymoonies".
 * In 1993, the picture changed to three people (John A. Davis on the left, Keith Alcorn in the middle, TBA on the person on the right; it could be Paul Claerhout, who voiced the 7th logo.) with vivid expressions while the photo is distorted.
 * On "Off the Record", the 1993 logo plays as normal, but the vocals are backmasked. When the music ends and fades to black, it then fades back in and finally ends with a broken glass sound effect.
 * Two shorts from 1994 replaced the people with either:

FX/SFX: The text wobbling.

Cheesy Factor: The text looks ugly as well as the strange pictures. The 1994 variants are just unnecessarily violent.

Music/Sounds: The end theme of the short.

Availability: Seen on Nana and Lil' Puss Puss.

Scare Factor: It depends on the variant.
 * Low to medium for the original two logos. It appears jarringly, and the end music, the faces, and the mere surprise of seeing this instead of the other DNA logos might get to some. None to minimal for those used to seeing this, or find it be funny. The Off the Record variant can catch those off-guard.
 * The later variants could range from low to nightmare. The somewhat grotesque cartoon animation might unnerve many, specially those uncomfortable with the sight of blood. The static image variant is worse; the disembodied head, the expression on Nana's face, the blood on the floor, the somewhat evil grin on Puss Puss, and the excessive detail can definitely give people nightmares, even if it's on a white background, although it's lower and can be considered funny to those who are used to the short's morbid content.

2nd Logo (1996)
Nicknames: "The Demo", "DNA Drive-In", "Pegasus Crashing Into a Rock Formation"

Logo: We see a road with cacti spread about it on the sides. The camera zooms into a drive-in theater, with large signs depicting "The Demo: Now Showing On Screen 1". Once it fully zooms into a screen, we see an animated pegasus flying in the air as normal. Helix the Cat (who looks rough) flies by using his tails as a propeller and the pegasus looks at him for a moment. Helix motions toward the audience in a pose that seems like he's going to whisper to them as he flies offscreen. Suddenly, the pegasus is in shock and it crashes into a giant rock formation, with the big letters "DNA" carved into it. The camera slowly pans out.

FX/SFX: The zoom-in to the theater screen, and the animation afterwards. A good combination of traditional cartoon animation and CGI.

Music/Sounds: A triumphant score with pianos and such continues along the animation. This becomes distorted once the pegasus flies into the giant rock. A final, triumphant chord plays as the rock structure is revealed.

Availability: Unknown, but it has indeed been used somewhere; because of this, this can be considered extremely rare.

Scare Factor: None to medium. The music changing at the end will probably put a few off, but at the same time cause some to chuckle.

3rd Logo (1990s)
Nickname: "Paper DNA"

Logo: Just three pieces of paper being crumpled over and over, each saying the letters "D", "N", "A".

Music/Sounds: A gurgling sound, spitting, and a burp.

Availability: Unknown.

Scare Factor: Low. It might startle some with it's jarring appearance.

4th Logo (1997)
Nickname: "DNA?"

Logo: The logo consists of "DNA?" in a bold color-changing font spinning on a bluish background.

FX/SFX: The text spinning. It's hard to tell what this logo really resembles, making it almost seem like a station ID.

Music/Sounds: A quirky, fast-paced woodwind theme.

Availability: Unknown.

Scare Factor: None to low.

5th Logo (Late 1990s)
Logo: The word "DNA" places itself by letter on a textured floor. The letters are textured as well.

FX/SFX: The animation, which is rather effortless.

Music/Sounds: Three different voices exclaim "D! N! A!" as their respective letters appear.

Availability: Unknown.

Scare Factor: Minimal to low. Some people might be rattled with the startled appearance.

6th Logo (1994-2002)
Nicknames: "Helix, the Purple Cat Scientist", "Where's Paul?"

Logo: Inside a red-orange circle on a very dark red background, we see a purple cat (nicknamed Helix) with two tails looking like DNA and a big pink human-like nose, wearing a white lab coat with a purple bowtie on it, from the back. In a circle around the circle containing the creature, we see the pink text "DNA PRODUCTIONS INC." in a cartoony font. He then turns his head to look at us, and jumps to face us while holding his arms out. The text shines.

FX/SFX: Helix turning around and jumping, the text shining; pretty fluid animation. For the prototype, Helix raising his finger and the text shining.

Variant: A prototype version had a black background, red, puffy text, and a rougher version of Helix having an even more unfriendly appearance. He simply raises his finger in the air and adorns a Cheshire Cat grin.Helix is also contained within a solid, blue circle.

Music/Sounds: The best way to describe the noises heard is two series of echoing, bouncy, high-pitch, distorted "guitar notes", followed by an echoing beat, and a loud, echoing (SPROING) sound as Helix finishes his jump. The prototype had a stock high-pitched "phone-voice" sound.

Availability: Rare. Seen on the 1998 Jimmy Neutron pilot "Runaway Rocketboy", which can be found on the Confusion Fusion DVD. Was also seen on the obscure video series Jingaroo. The prototype can be seen as a bumper on a Nana & Lil' Puss Puss VHS tape.

Scare Factor: Low to medium. The weird noises and Helix might catch you off guard if you haven't seen it before, expecting the 7th logo and wind up with this, but otherwise it's harmless. None to low for the prototype.

7th Logo (June 2000-May 2012)
Nicknames: "Hi, I'm Paul!", "DNA Monkey", "Paul, the Three-Eyed Monkey"

Logo: On a tropical background complete with a beach, and a sunset, we see the black, lowercase text "d n a productions" with "d n a" bigger and spaced and "productions" underneath, near the top of the screen, and 2 double helix coconut trees twisting behind a bush. A monkey jumps up from behind the trees with his back turned to us. Then, he turns around, revealing that he has a parietal eye, and waves at us, saying "Hi, I'm Paul!"

Variants: There are eight variants, they can be viewed on dnahelix.com: Trivia: The logo's mascot is named after Paul Claerhout, one of DNA's first three employees. According to a Tumblr post of a Email asking about Paul's creation (which might be proof that DNA has restarted), Paul was voiced by Claerhout himself.
 * Double Your Pleasure: Two Pauls appear and say "Hi, we're Paul!"
 * Bi-Lingual Paul: Paul is wearing a (barely visible) hat and a mustache, when he turns around, he says "¡Hola, soy Pablo!", which means "Hi, I'm Paul!" in Spanish. His mustache falls off.
 * Backwards Masking Paul: The logo is played in reverse, making Paul sounding like he's saying "Oh, my eye!".
 * Water Running: Paul tries to say his dialogue by saying "Hi, I'm…" but spots at the view of the ocean and starts running to speak: "…running in the water!"
 * Paul Blooper #1: Paul forgets his lines, and says "So what do you want me to say now?"
 * Paul Blooper #2: Paul forgets his lines again, and says "Hi, I'm.....line?"
 * Paul Blooper #3: Paul forgets his lines one last time, and says "Hi, I'm…oh, forget it!" and Paul runs away, exiting the logo.
 * Coffee Break Paul: Paul is missing. A man off-screen says softly, "Paul?".

FX/SFX: The spinning trees, and Paul jumping up and waving to us, all in gorgeous CGI animation for the time that still doesn't look out of place today.

Music/Sounds: A happy tropical xylophone sounder, most likely a stock piece. Tropical birds and insects can be heard in the background, but only on the original variant. Paul's voice is an innocent, high-pitched man's voice.

Music/Sounds Trivia: This logo's music is featured in the Macintosh game Ants Afire as seen in this video, as the finishing sound in ImgBurn and DVD Decryptor, as a tool in Kid Pix, and in the Sound Ideas Series 6000 sound effects library;in addition, the last part of the theme was used on a recent ad for Aldi in Australia (a video can be found here; the theme is heard about 3/4 of the way in).

Availability: Uncommon. This appeared on all episodes of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour. The double Paul appears on "Raise the Oozy Scab/I Dream of Jimmy". The coffee break Paul appears on "Bells of Notre Dame". The reverse Paul appears on "Aaughh! Wilderness!/"Journey to the Center of Carl". The Spanish Paul appears on "Onion Rings/Jimmy and the Mystic Yo-Yo". The blooper 1 Paul appears on "Party at Neutron's/Ultra Sheen". It is "Cheer Factor/Aisle 8A" where the blooper 2 Paul is found on. Current TV prints plastered all of them with the normal version. The logo can be still seen on VHS, DVD and Amazon Video. The variants are all retained on Hulu prints of of the show.

Scare Factor: Normal & Paul Blooper #2: Depends on your point of view; it can range from none to low. This logo has scared a few children, and Paul's third eye can startle some, but most people should be fine watching it.

Double Your Pleasure: Minimal to low, due to both of the 2 Pauls and the same reason above.

Bi-Lingual Paul: Minimal to low. Paul's mustache, along with his 3 eyes, might catch you off-guard.

Backwards Masking Paul: Low, due to Paul staring suddenly at the beginning, still with 3 eyes.

Water Running: Low, due to Paul running in the water if he doesn't stay still at the screen.

Paul Blooper #1: Low, bordering on medium for those seeing it the first time. Paul suddenly coming up and saying something different can be a little surprising, although it's intended to be funny.

Paul Blooper #3: Low, bordering on medium for those seeing it once again. Paul suddenly coming up and saying his dialogue and says "forget it" furiously, and Paul runs away to exit the logo.

Coffee Break Paul: None to minimal. The sudden voiceover saying "Paul?" might catch some off-guard.

Regardless, some people find that Paul is cute and funny, and this is a memorable logo. Music/Sounds Variant: Seen on live-action shows like Crossing Jordan on NBC, Desperate Housewives on ABC, etc. and instead of the xylophone music and Paul's innocent, high-pitched man's voice, they are replaced with the VID-TV announcer from the BND logo.

Variants

 * Crossing Jordan/DNA Productions Variations
 * Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius/DNA Productions Variations
 * Desperate Housewives/DNA Productions Variations