Wild Brain

Wild Brain

Type	Private
Industry	Entertainment, Animation
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Los Angeles, New York, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Products	television series, special, television commercials, licensed merchandise
Owner(s)	DHX Media
Divisions	animation, Kidrobot collectables, Mondo Mini Shows, Ghostbot, Six Point Harness
Website	Wildbrain

Wild Brain (stylized as W!LDBRAIN) is an award-winning entertainment company that develops and produces television programming, motion pictures, commercial content and licensed merchandise. Started in 1995, they have offices in Los Angeles and New York.

Film productions include the Annie Award-winning CGI short Hubert's Brain, while television work includes Nick Jr. series Yo Gabba Gabba! and highly rated Disney Channel series Higglytown Heroes. and the popular award-winning Monster High for Nickelodeon.

They have produced national commercials for clients like Esurance, Chiclets, Target, Nike, Honda, Kraft, the Wall Street Journal and Lamisil, (featuring Digger the Dermatophyte). Their ad work has won Clio Awards, Addy Awards, BDA Awards, and Annie Awards.

A subsidiary, Kidrobot, creates limited edition toys, clothing, artwork, and books. It has stores in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

History

In 1976, two men named Drew Takahashi and Gary Gutierrez created a company named (Colossal) Pictures. It became well known in the 1980s and 1990s for its innovative design work. Many of it's clients included MTV, Nickelodeon, Disney, and Coca-Cola.

In 1991, (Colossal) Pictures created a subsidiary called BIG Pictures so they could produce a television show called Back to the Future: The Animated Series for CBS. Also created at the studio was Liquid Television for MTV and BBC Two.

In 1994/95 Colossal had to scale down the studio to make way for "another animation studio". In October 1994, John Hays, Phil Robinson and Jeff Fino started a new studio called WildBrain. Five years later, (Colossal) Pictures shut down in 1999. WildBrain was an independent company until 2009, when DHX Media purchased Wildbrain.

The same year, Phil Robinson, and Amy Capen, exec producer of WildBrain's San Francisco studio started an independent company called Special Agent Productions.

Wildbrain Entertainment

Wild Brain's first venture into television was 13 I Am Weasel shorts for the Hanna Barbera-produced Cartoon Network series Cow and Chicken, in 1997. I Am Weasel later spun off to become a separate show. In 2000, Wild Brain launched Mr. Baby and Poochini's Yard; the second series aired globally, but did not appear in the United States until 2002, airing as Poochini. Wild Brain produced two animated series for Disney Channel's preschool-friendly programming block Disney Junior (formerly Playhouse Disney), Higgytown Heroes and the forthcoming Oki's Oasis, and is currently producing The Aquabats Super Show! for Hub. The studio has also done commercials and promos for companies like MTV, Noggin, Locomotion, Coca-Cola and Cartoon Network.

TV shows

• Betty Boop's Hollywood Mystery (1990) (as BIG Pictures)
• Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991–1992) (as BIG Pictures)
• Liquid Television (1991–1994) (as BIG Pictures)
• Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (storyboards) (1995-2000)
• Freakazoid (pre-production) (1995-1997)
• KaBlam! ("The Brothers Tiki" shorts) (1997)
• I Am Weasel (1997–2000)
• O Canada (opening title) (1997)
• Spawn (1998)
• Space is Dum (1999-2001)
• Zoog Disney (second season only) (1999-2000)
• Poochini's Yard (2000–2002)
• Mythbusters (special effects) (2003)
• Higglytown Heroes (2004–2008)
• Yo Gabba Gabba! (2007–present)
• Team Smithereen (2009–2011)
• The Ricky Gervais Show (2010–present)
• The Hard Times of RJ Berger (2010–present)
• Monster High (2010)
• Octonauts (2010)
• Bubble Guppies (first season only) (2011–present)
• Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (2011)
• Oki's Oasis (2012)

Films

• FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998)

Commercials

• Coca-Cola "Major League Baseball" (1996)
• NTB "Campaign" (1996)
• Mainstay "Up, Down, Up" (1997)
• Nike "Destination Moon" (1997)
• Locomotion "Startup" (1997)
• Locomotion "Retromotion Intro" (1997)
• Cartoon Network "Acme Hour" (1997)
• Animax "Station ID's" (1998)
• Coke "Super Mom" (1998)
• KFC "Colonel Sanders" (1998)
• Levi's "Sensitive" (1998)
• Nestle "Chewy Runts" (1998)
• Xerox "Two Cities" (1998)
• Hershey's "Kisses" (1998-)
• Noggin "Chia" (1999)
• Parfums De Couer "Juice Babes" (1999)
• Pillsbury "Moon" (1999)
• Nike "Playa's Delight" (2001)
• Esurance "Campaign" (2004-2009)
• Lamisil "It's Alive" (2006)

Short films

• Out In Space (1997)
• Humanstein (1998)
• A Dog Cartoon (1998)
• El Kabong Rides Again (2000)
• Hubert's Brain (2001)
• Erin Esurance in "Carbon Copy" (2007)

Wildbrain Consumer Products

YO GABBA GABBA! apparel, accessories, books, electronics, games, home décor and toys are available at retail through top licensees, including Kidrobot, Spin Master, Ltd., Simon & Schuster, Nickelodeon Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment, Nickelodeon/Sony BMG and others.

Kidrobot (Wildbrain subsidiary) was the first to hit shelves with apparel and collectible merchandise.

Web animation

The studio was one of the pioneers of web-based flash animation series, which were offered to the public from their website in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The studio was also the animation provider of Happy Tree Friends Season 1-2.

Executives

• Michael Polis
• Marge Dean
• David Graber
• Bob Higgins

Directors

• George Evelyn
• Paul Fierlinger
• Christian Jacobs
• Denis Morella
• Scott Schultz
• Phil Robinson
• John Hays
• Ed Bell
• Robin Steele
• Dave Marshall

External links

• Wildbrain
• Animation Insider Article
• SF Weekly "The Little Animation Company That Could" by Ryan Blitstein