Information AboutNelvana |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NELVANA | |
| animation studios | |
| companies based in toronto | |
| companies established in 1971 | |
| corus entertainment | |
| entertainment companies of canada | |
| television production companies of canada | |
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company, founded in 1971, that is well-known for its work in children's Animation , among many things. It was named by its founders— Michael Hirsh , Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith —after a Canadian Comic Book Superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s. Corus Entertainment , a spin-off from Shaw Communications , has owned the company since September 2000. Most of its films, shows and specials are based on licensed properties, mainly children's literature. But, as with most companies of its kind, original programming is also part of its roster. In spite of its status as a cartoon company, it ventured into the world of Live Action from its establishment up until the late 1990s. Well-known franchises from Nelvana include '' Care Bears '', '' Babar '', '' Little Bear '', '' Eek! The Cat '', '' Franklin '' and '' 6teen '', along with the North American dubs of the Anime series '' Beyblade '', '' Cardcaptor Sakura '' and '' Medabots ''. It also distributes the Nicktoons '' The Fairly OddParents '' and '' Danny Phantom '', and the Cartoon Network TV show '' My Gym Partner's A Monkey '', outside the United States. As Of , its library comprises of more than 1,650 cumulative half-hours of original programming.Fitzgerald, James (May 1, 2001). "Nelvana's 30th Anniversary Profile" . KidScreen Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2006. HISTORY 1970s Nelvana started in 1971 when two graduates of York University , Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, teamed up with a British animator-designer by the name of Clive A. Smith in Toronto, Ontario . Hirsh and Loubert, who had a passion for Underground Film making, had founded a small company called Laff Arts in the late 1960s. Smith, whose interest was in Rock N' Roll music, had previously been among the crew for The Beatles ' Animated Series and their 1968 film, '' Yellow Submarine ''. Hirsh has commented on the background of Nelvana's founding: Soon after they stumbled upon a collection of local ''. Amid all this success, Hirsh, Loubert and Smith named their new enterprise Nelvana—after a Canadian comic book Superheroine from World War II , Nelvana Of The Northern Lights , who was one of the characters in the '' Canadian Whites '' canon. A derelict apartment in downtown Toronto served as the company's first building, and a homemade wooden stand mounted over a toilet was among its first camera equipment. "To create zooms," Hirsh recalls his early experience with this machine, "we would pile up phone books under the art work." During their first year and a half, the trio lived off a superfluous s for the CBC. Among the studio's first productions was a low-budget CBC Short Subject series, '' Small Star Cinema '', which combined live-action and animation to tell stories of ordinary life from a child's point of view. It was followed by 1975's '' Christmas Two Step '', a similarly-styled special in which a girl tries to be a lead dancer at a Christmas pageant. 's ''Holiday Special'']] Then, thanks to new talent from ''. 1980s At the start of the 1980s, Nelvana was offered the chance to work on '' Heavy Metal '', an animated anthology of science fiction stories that studios in Canada and other countries were working on. Nelvana declined this opportunity, instead going on to concentrate on the production of its first feature film, '' Rock & Rule ''. Based heavily on the earlier special ''The Devil and Daniel Mouse'', and originally titled ''Drats!'', the film was produced for five years using all of the studio's resources, totalling $8 million. Upon its release by MGM/UA in 1983 , it received little promotion in the United States and quickly disappeared at the box office. The financial demise of ''Rock & Rule'' would have ended Nelvana's operations altogether, had the company not saved themselves from debt by working full-time on children's television series. On its agenda at that time were its first three live-action franchises, '' The Edison Twins '', '' 20 Minute Workout '' and '' Mr. Microchip ''. With DiC Entertainment , Nelvana worked on the first season of '' Inspector Gadget '', and animated the pilot episode of '' The Get-Along Gang ''. Early in the decade, the company worked on four television specials based on American Greetings properties. They were '' The Magic Of Herself The Elf '', based on Mattel 's Toy Line ; '' Strawberry Shortcake's Housewarming Surprise ''; '' Strawberry Shortcake And The Baby Without A Name ''; and '' Strawberry Shortcake Meets The Berrykins '', the last three of which featured the Eponymous Doll . There were two shows from Nelvana based on the AmToy properties, '' Madballs '' and '' My Pet Monster ''. But perhaps its greatest success at the time came in the form of the '' and '' Adventure In Wonderland '', as well as a Television Series .DiC Entertainment also made 22 episodes of the Care Bears series before Nelvana reclaimed the rights for the animated franchise. In the area of science fiction, Nelvana produced '''', two Saturday-morning series based on '' Star Wars '', along with select episodes of DiC's '' Dinosaucers ''. At one point, there was talk of an animated CBS show from the studio, based on the BBC 's '' Doctor Who ''; the plan never came to fruition,1 but concept art was created by Ted Bastien.2 For Orion Pictures ' 1986 Live-action Western Comedy , '' ¡Three Amigos! '', the company made use of Animatronics in one scene with a talking turtle. In 1987 , Michael Hirsh produced Nelvana's first self-made film of this calibre, the Whoopi Goldberg comedy '' Burglar ''. The company's fourth live-action series, ''''. Retrieved July 10, 2006. Also that year, Nelvana established BearSpots , a facility for producing television commercials that lasted until 1993.Fitzgerald, James (May 1, 2001). "Nelvana's 30th Anniversary Profile" . KidScreen Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2006. As the decade came to a close, the revived Nelvana had its next big success with based on Tim Burton 's '' Beetlejuice ''. 1990s Following ''Babar'' 's '' Pippi Longstocking '']] In autumn 1993, Nelvana signed a multi-year project to produce five feature films for ('' The Trumpet Of The Swan ''), Clive Barker ('' The Thief Of Always '') and Graeme Base ('' The Sign Of The Seahorse ''); an original production called ''Mask Vision'' was also in the works.Tolusso, Susan (March 28, 1994). "Nelvana joins the public procession..." Playback Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2006. However, none of those films ever made it past the finishing stage. During the 1990s, another set of features from Nelvana was distributed by different companies. A . Retrieved June 22, 2006. doubling what the first ''Care Bears Movie'' received during its original release. In September 1996, ''. Retrieved July 10, 2006. Golden Books Withdraws Offer for Nelvana. (1995, November 5.) ''New York Times.'' Retrieved June 29, 2006. In 1997, a small Computer Animation company called Windlight Studios was absorbed into Nelvana's assets. Its co-founder, Scott Dyer , became Nelvana's senior vice president in charge of production in late 2001.Maule, Christopher J. and Acheson, Archibald Lloyd Keith (2001). ''Much Ado About Culture: North American Trade Disputes'', p. 122. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08789-4. Retrieved June 22, 2006.Yaffe, Samatha (November 20, 2001). "Loubert goes solo in wave of consolidation" . Playback Magazine. Retrieved July 6, 2006. In late 1997, Nelvana and Britain's Channel 4 began work on '' Bob And Margaret '', the company's first animated franchise for adults since ''Rock & Rule''. It was based on the National Film Board Of Canada 's '' Bob's Birthday '', an Academy Award Winner For Best Short , which Channel 4 also produced.Maule, Christopher J. and Acheson, Archibald Lloyd Keith (2001). ''Much Ado About Culture: North American Trade Disputes'', p. 122. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08789-4. Retrieved June 22, 2006. In August 1998, Nelvana acquired Kids Can Press , publishers of the '' Franklin '' children's books upon which the Television Series was based. This turned them into an "integrated company"—in which Kids Can's subsequent publications would begin with Nelvana's franchising of those works.Klein, Naomi (2002). ''No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs'', p. 147. Picador. ISBN 0-312-42143-5. Retrieved June 22, 2006. The company's first two computer-animated shows, ''''. Retrieved June 22, 2006. In August 1999, Nelvana made a US$40 million deal with the in the U.S. market and Teletoon in Canada. 2000s On ''. Nelvana's separate subsidiary, Kids Can, started taking advantage of the acquisition by making its output available through Klutz merchandise.Shirkani, K.D. (2000, April 13). Nelvana adds Klutz books to kids shelf . ''Variety Magazine''. Retrieved June 30, 2006. On September 29 , 2000 , after almost two weeks of negotiation, Corus Entertainment acquired Nelvana's operations for C$554 million. NELVANA LTD Report of Foreign Issuer (6-K) SIGNATURES at EdgarOnline. Retrieved June 23, 2006. Heather Shaw, the Executive Chair of Corus, remarked on this event:
A year after Corus' purchase, co-founders and co-.)'' has made that clear, but this makes my job less rather than more," he commented on the state of Corus' affiliation and his resulting departure.Yaffe, Samatha (November 20, 2001). "Loubert goes solo in wave of consolidation" . Playback Magazine. Retrieved July 6, 2006. In 2001, the studio began to work on computer-animated feature films aimed at young audiences. So far, only , based on the '' Rescue Heroes '' toy line and TV show, has seen the light of day in U.S. cinemas. The rest of them, based on ''Rolie Polie Olie'' and the ''Care Bears'', have been released Directly To DVD . In 2001, Nelvana acquired the rights to the English-language version of yet another anime series, ''Medabots''. The following January, ''Beyblade'' (in association with Hasbro and Mitsubishi ) became its third such property. "Nelvana Spins a Deal to Bring Beyblade Phenomenon to North America" . 2002, January 10. PR Newswire. Retrieved June 24, 2006. In October 2002, during one of Nelvana's most difficult years, Corus announced that Michael Hirsh, the last remaining co-founder among Nelvana's staff, was stepping down as CEO of the company which he co-founded. The following month, ''. Retrieved July 10, 2006.Ball, Ryan (October 23, 2002). "Nelvana CEO Hirsh Steps Down" . Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 23, 2006.Ball, Ryan (November 6, 2002). "Corus Ent. Names Hirsh’s Nelvana Successor" . Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2006. "Focus on Canada" , June 2003. WorldScreen.com. Retrieved July 2, 2006. The following September, Corus launched and ADV Films , which have no involvement with the label. On network, along with Spanish-speaking sister station Telemundo , first aired the block on September 9; I began carrying it six days later. In September 2006, Nelvana was integrated into Corus' children's television division. A spin-off unit, Nelvana Enterprises, was created in the process; it will focus on international distribtuion of the company's shows. , another former EVP at Nelvana, became president of the new distributuion unit.Strauss, Marise (October 2, 2006). "Movie Central, Nelvana at center of Corus shuffle" . Playback Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006. In March 2007, Nelvana acquired international rights to Cartoon Network 's hit series '' My Gym Partner's A Monkey . FRANCHISES Many of Nelvana's TV shows are based on properties from other companies, most of which started in other forms of media. A great deal of them are based on children's and comic books; examples include '' Anatole '', ''Babar'', ''The Berenstain Bears'', ''Franklin'', ''Jane and the Dragon'', ''Little Bear'', '' Pippi Longstocking '', '' Redwall '', ''Rupert'', ''Tintin'', ''Wayside School'' and the shows in the ''Bookworm Bunch'' block. "We bring good books to life," Michael Hirsh has replied when asked on the faithfulness of such shows to the original source material. "Nelvana creates animated magic" . ''The Ontario Business Report'', March 2001, pp. 1-2. PDF file retrieved July 2, 2006. Nelvana has also had considerable success with animated fare based on toys; American Greetings' ''Care Bears'' has been the most familiar example of this. Also, there have been series and specials based on ''Strawberry Shortcake'' (also from AGC), ''Madballs'' and ''My Pet Monster'' (from AmToy) and ''Rescue Heroes'' (from Fisher-Price ). It has also translated big-screen franchises to televised properties, such as ''Star Wars'' (''Droids'' and ''Ewoks''), ''Beetlejuice'', '' An American Tail '' ('' Fievel's American Tails ''), '' Free Willy '' and '' The Neverending Story ''. It has even ventured into the video game world with a show based on Nintendo 's ''Donkey Kong Country''. In the field of anime, the company holds the North American rights to Clamp/ Kodansha 's ''Cardcaptor Sakura'' series. Also, it holds international licensing rights to ''Beyblade'' and ''Medabots''. As with many other animation studios, there is also original programming within Nelvana's roster. ''6teen'', ''Clone High'', '' Mission Hill '', and ''Eek! The Cat'' among others, are some Nelvana cartoons not based on any other source material. As Of , the studio has made close to 25 feature films for theatrical, home entertainment, and television distribution. Well-known releases include ''Rock & Rule'', the first five Care Bears movies, two ''Babar'' films and 1997's ''Pippi Longstocking''. Live-action has been a part of its mainstay from its early years. The company has had ''Burglar'' and ''Malice'' as its own feature projects in that area, and has contributed as such to ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' and ''¡Three Amigos!''. On television, Nelvana has made live-action shows such as ''The Edison Twins'', ''T and T'', '':20 Minute Workout'', ''Nancy Drew'' and ''The Hardy Boys''. AROUND THE WORLD With its historic headquarters in Toronto, Nelvana has offices in Paris and Tokyo; it also owns a distribution branch in Shannon, Ireland .Fitzgerald, James (May 1, 2001). "Nelvana's 30th Anniversary Profile" . KidScreen Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2006. Nelvana information at Corus website . Retrieved June 14, 2006. Its Hollywood and London branches closed down in September 2006 as a part of Corus' organisational restructuring.Ball, Ryan (September 12, 2006). "Corus Makes Changes at Nelvana" . Animation Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006. In the United States, Nelvana's series have been broadcast on the ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, NBC and WB networks, and cable stations including Nickelodeon , Disney Channel, Showtime , Cartoon Network , Adult Swim , and ABC (FOX) Family . In Canada, they can be seen on Teletoon, YTV, CBC, the Family Channel and Treehouse TV . Elsewhere, they have aired on the Boomerang channel (in Latin America); on the BBC , ITV , Channel 4 , Five , Nick Jr. and Tiny Pop (in the United Kingdom); on RTÉ (in the Republic of Ireland); and on France 2 and France 3 . Nelvana's franchises have been shown on over 360 television stations in more 180 countries, in approximately 50 languages. Nelvana information at Corus website . Retrieved June 14, 2006. Nelvana company overview at dfait-maeci.gc.ca . Retrieved June 14, 2006. '' The Fairly OddParents '' and '' Danny Phantom '', two Nicktoons created by animator Butch Hartman , are distributed by Nelvana outside the United States. The latter has been in the top of the ratings for Nickelodeon, YTV and the BBC, and has also been successful among viewers in several European markets and Australia. Program information for ''The Fairly OddParents'' at Nelvana site. Retrieved June 24, 2006. NOTABLE PERSONNEL Apart from its trio of founders, there have been several key personnel from Nelvana's past and present, a great deal of whom have left the company. Among the most well-known people to work in the studio are Bill Perkins , John De Klein , Wayne Gilbert , John Halfpenny , Peter Hudecki , Vincenzo Natali , Arna Selznick , Laura Shepherd , Susan Snooks and John Van Bruggen . Voice work from the company's past and present includes, but is not limited to, Melleny Brown , Alyson Court , Don Francks , Dan Hennessey , Jim Henshaw , Hadley Kay , Bill Kopp , Martin Lavut , Julie Lemieux , Stephen Ouimette , Susan Roman , John Stocker , Tara Strong , Colin Mochrie , Cree Summer , Colin O'Meara , Brent Titcomb , Louise Vallance , and Chris Wiggins . Two former Nelvana employees, ''.. Retrieved October 23, 2006. Lenora Hume , from the company's early years, is the senior vice-president of DisneyToon Studios . INFLUENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE Nelvana had a planet named after it in the ''Star Wars'' series, on Cartoon Network's ''. During Chapters 23 to 25, Anakin Skywalker travels to a planet called " Nelvaan ". ''Clone Wars'' also pays homage to the franchise's animation predecessors in the form of the planet's dog-like inhabitants, who resemble characters from ''Rock & Rule'', the studio's first film. Trivia for ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'' at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 28, 2006. Another well-known series in the genre, ''. Retrieved June 28, 2006. The "Nelvana Independent Short Film Grand Prize", given out at the ''. "Three-Prize Winner at Annecy Wins Top Prize at Ottawa" (September 25, 2006). Animation World Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006. SEE ALSO Related topics Related Canadian companies
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