The company saw the purchase as being a complement to its children's television channels, including YTV and Treehouse. [22], The company's first two computer-animated shows, Donkey Kong Country and Rolie Polie Olie (with Paris-based Sparx* and distributed by Disney) premiered on American TV in 1998. This turned them into an "integrated company" in which Kids Can's subsequent publications would begin with Nelvana's franchising of those works. The show's title duo was Mr. T of A-Team fame, playing a former boxer named T.S. White (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. Founded in 1971, it was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s. In October 2006, Nelvana announced a co-production agreement with Canadian toy company Spin Master and Japanese partners TMS Entertainment, Sega Toys and Japan Vistec to create the new anime property Bakugan Battle Brawlers. As with many other animation studios, Nelvana has a wide range of established original series and characters within its roster. 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. The second, "Booknet," was to be focused on adaptations of adult and children's literature, and would have been a 60/40 joint venture between Corus Entertainment and Nelvana. Hirsh has commented on the background of Nelvana's founding: Soon after they saw a collection of local comic books from the 1940s and acquired the ownership rights. It was followed by Nelvana's first ever television special Christmas Two Step in 1975, a similarly styled special in which a girl tries to be a lead dancer at a Christmas pageant. Two months later Golden Books withdrew from the deal stating that they would concentrate more on children's entertainment.[3][15][16]. Nelvana started in 1971 when two graduates of York University, Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, teamed up with a Vitaphone animator-designer Clive A. Smith in Toronto, Ontario. Doug Murphy, another former EVP at Nelvana, became president of the new distribution unit. The initial incarnation of the franchise ran for four seasons, spanning 189 episodes and spurred billions in merchandise sales. In the field of anime, the company holds the North American rights to Clamp/Kodansha's Cardcaptor Sakura series. Founded in 1971, it was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s. In September 1989, ABC began to air one of the company's products: an animated series based on Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. Upon its release by MGM/UA in 1983, it received little promotion in the United States and quickly disappeared at the box office. In 2018, Nelvana appointed Cinedigm as the company's new U.S. home video partner. In the area of part-time animation work, they made ten C$1,500 fillers for the CBC. This turned them into an "integrated company" in which Kids Can's subsequent publications would begin with Nelvana's franchising of those works. That same month, it acquired the North American rights to its first anime property, Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura (which was renamed Cardcaptors for its English dub). 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. James Earl Jones, but also introduce audiences to the villainous bounty hunter Boba Fett, who would not make his first theatrical appearance until two years later in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. Scott Dyer, the studio's executive vice-president of production and development, became the overseer of the division, which includes Treehouse TV, Discovery Kids Canada, and YTV. 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. During the 1990s, another set of features from Nelvana was distributed by different companies. The company's production logo is a polar bear looking at the North Star. Nelvana had already used the company's software on projects like 6teen, Ruby Gloom as well as the aforementioned Detentionaire. On 29 April 2015 they launched a YouTube channel promoted by YTV as Nelvana Retro, which was renamed "YTV Direct" in 2016 after also incorporating non-Nelvana content such as Nickelodeon shows. In the area of science fiction, Nelvana produced Droids and Ewoks, two Saturday-morning series based on Star Wars. Beyblade Metal Fusion debuted globally in 2010, running for 141 episodes before inspiring a direct spin-off, as well as a sub-franchise consisting of BeyWheelz, BeyWarriors: BeyRaiderz and BeyWarriors: Cyborg. The Cat among others, are some of Nelvana's cartoon series that were not based on any other source material. All rights goes to the original owners of the content shown in this video. This franchise, its first international co-production, won many ACE Awards in the United States and Geminis in Canada. Many of Nelvana's TV shows are based on properties from other companies, most of which started in other forms of media. At the time, there was no production industry per se in Canada, either in animation or in television production. This short scene, officially entitled "The Faithful Wookiee", would not only feature the original character's voices including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and Lenora Hume, from the company's early years, is the senior vice-president of DisneyToon Studios. On October 19, 2016, Nelvana redesigned their logo to mark the studio's 45th anniversary, as well as take part in Corus' brand refresh following latter's acquisition of Shaw Media. "Loubert goes solo in wave of consolidation", "Public TV again turns to Canada for kidvid", "New offerings from PBS and Nick Jr./CBS", Of All Things Nelvana and Cardcaptor Sakura, "Digital TV channel applications swamp CRTC", "Nelvana announces proposed digital television networks", "CORUS ENTERTAINMENT WINS BIG IN DIGITAL SPECIALTY TELEVISION LICENSING", "ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2003-599", "Nelvana Spins a Deal to Bring Beyblade Phenomenon to North America", "Corus Ent. [35], A year after Corus' purchase, co-founders and co-CEOs Loubert and Smith left the studio. Both licenses expired as neither launched by the required date of November 24, 2004. Allers went on to work on Aladdin, The Lion King, and Hercules. In early 1985, the first movie based on the toy line turned the company's fortunes around, grossing $23 million in the US, and another $1.5 million in its native Canada. [3] Also that year, Nelvana established BearSpots, a facility for producing television commercials that lasted until 1993.[1]. Many of the company's staff members, including Smith and Loubert, expressed interest in the proposition. Despite the successes of their earlier works, perhaps its greatest success at the time came in the form of the Care Bears, thanks to its acquisition of the character rights from American Greetings, the franchise owners. [5] Meanwhile, Hirsh and Loubert collaborated on a related primer from Peter Martin and Associates, The Great Canadian Comic Books. 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. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Ontario, and has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (previously known as Nelvana Ltd.) is a Canadian animation studio and children's media company owned by Corus Entertainment. John Cassaday[36] has made that clear, but this makes my job less rather than more". A spin-off unit, Nelvana Enterprises, was created in the process, to focus on international distribution of the company's shows. A sequel to the game was planned, but was cancelled due to poor sales. The first, titled "The Nelvana Channel," would've presented the company's library of material alongside related information in a picture-in-picture format.