Sunbow Productions

Sunbow Productions

Industry	Television production and film studio
Fate	Foreclosure
Founded	1980
Defunct	1998
Headquarters	New York
Key people	Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal
Parent	Griffin-Bacal Advertising

Sunbow Entertainment was an animation studio, founded in 1980 and owned up until 1998 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York. The first animation efforts by Griffin-Bacal were producing the animated commercials for Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line.

The success of the animated commercials led partners Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal to form Sunbow Productions.

Company overview

Sunbow is noted for many cartoons aired during the 1980s. Most of their work was co-produced with Marvel Productions. Although it is not limited to Hasbro's various toy line products its reputation is tied to the many cartoon series tied to them. Its animation was initially produced by the Japanese animation studio Toei Animation, supplemented by the South Korean animation studio AKOM later on. By 1987, most of Hasbro's toylines were losing money and various internal struggles forced the company to end popular series such as G.I. Joe and Transformers. Two of Sunbow's animated movies, (The Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie) flopped at the box office, forcing a third project, G.I. Joe: The Movie, to be released directly to video instead. Sunbow also worked with TMS Entertainment with Hasbro's Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, and one episode of season 3 of The Transformers, "The Call of The Primitives".

In a bid to produce original material, Sunbow produced several cartoons through the early 1990s such as The Nudnik Show, The Tick and Conan the Adventurer. Of these, only The Tick managed to gain popularity and critical acclaim.

On April 28, 1998 Sunbow Productions was bought by Sony Wonder, a division of Sony Music. Sunbow was sold for US$10 million dollars in 2000 to TV Loonland AG, which then bought Metrodome Distribution, who had the European rights to the Sunbow catalogue. After TV-Loonland acquired Sunbow Productions and Sony Wonder's television business, the company formed Sunbow Entertainment.

Previously, Rhino Entertainment owned the US home video distribution rights to the Sunbow catalogue. The rights then changed hands to Sony Wonder with its acquisition of the catalogue. However, Sony Wonder was shut down in March 2007.

On June 21, 2007 it was announced that Sony Wonder had been moved into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which at the time owned the US rights to the Sunbow catalogue. In May 2008, Hasbro released news that it had obtained the rights to all the Sunbow and Marvel co-produced cartoons based on its properties. This includes Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Jem and the Holograms and many more.

Productions

Among the various series produced by Sunbow are:

• Donner (2001)
• Cramp Twins (2001)
• Lion of Oz (2000)
• Rainbow Fish (1999)
• The Right to Play (1998) (commercial for UNICEF)
• Salty's Lighthouse (1997)
• Deepwater Black (Mission: Genesis in the U.S.) (1997)
• The Brothers Flub (1997)
• G.I. Joe Extreme (1995)
• The Adventures of Hyperman (1995)
• The Mask (1995) (co-production with Dark Horse Entertainment, Film Roman Productions, and New Line Television)
• The Littlest Pet Shop (1995)
• Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles (1994) (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero spin-off)
• The Tick (1994) (co-production with Fox Children's Productions, Graz Entertainment. Inc and Saban Entertainment)
• Conan the Adventurer (1992)
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (1991) (co-production with IDDH, Abrams / Gentile Entertainment and Continuity Comics)
• The Nudnik Show (1991)
• Transformers: The Rebirth (1987)
• Transformers: The Return of Optimus Prime (1986)
• Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987) (co-production with TMS Entertainment)
• Transformers: Five Faces of Darkness (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions and Akom Animation Studio)
• My Little Pony 'n Friends (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Robotix (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Inhumanoids (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Glo Friends (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Moon Dreamers (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Potato Head Kids (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The GLO Friends Save Christmas (1985)
• Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Robotix (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Super Sunday (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Jem (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• G.I. Joe (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Transformers (1984) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• G.I. Joe: The Revenge of Cobra (1984) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1983) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Charmkins (1983) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Great Space Coaster (1981) (co-production with Metromedia)

The only movies produced by Sunbow were:

• G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Inhumanoids: The Movie (1986)

External links

• The Ultimate G.I. Joe Cartoon Website
• The Internet Movie Database
• TheTransformers.net Europe's largest Transformers Fan Site
• The Visionaries.net The web's leading resource for Visionaries Cartoon, Visionaries Comic and Visionaries Toy information
• Transformers @ The Moon The largest Transformers resource for Transformers toys, cartoon and comic information