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Nelvana

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This article is about the entertainment company. For the female superhero, see Nelvana of the Northern Lights.
Nelvana Limited
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryAnimation, franchise licensing
Founded1971
HeadquartersOriginal Office:
Canada Toronto, Ontario, Canada
International Offices:
France Paris, France
Republic of Ireland Shannon, Ireland
Japan Tokyo, Japan
Key people
Founders:
Michael Hirsh
Patrick Loubert
Clive A. Smith
Current CEO:
Paul Robertson
ProductsComprising mainly of children's animation; see also List of Nelvana franchises
RevenueC$600 million (2001)[1]
OwnerCorus Entertainment
Number of employees
600-700+ (2000-01)[2][3]
ParentCorus Entertainment
Subsidiariesqubo (co-owned with NBC Universal, Classic Media, Scholastic Books, Connecticut Public Television and ION Media Networks)
Websitenelvana.com

Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company, founded in 1971, known for its work in children's animation. 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. 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 original programming is also part of its roster. It ventured into the world of live action from its establishment up until the late 1990s.

Well-known franchises from Nelvana include Care Bears, Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend, Babar, Tintin, Rupert, Fievel's American Tails, Little Bear, Eek! The Cat, The Terrible Thunderlizards, Franklin and 6teen, along with the North American dubs of the anime series Beyblade, Cardcaptor Sakura and Medabots. The company has also tried miniseries, like Rotting Hills.

It distributes the Nicktoons such as: Spongebob Squarepants, Oh Yeah! Cartoons, The Fairly OddParents, Chalkzone, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Danny Phantom, and the Cartoon Network original series My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Disney Channel original series Handy Manny, Webkinz, Club Penguin, Line Rider and My Friend Rabbit outside the United States. As of 2001, its library comprises more than 1,650 cumulative half-hours of original programming.[1] The company has international offices in France, Ireland and Japan.

History

1970s

Scene from A Cosmic Christmas, Nelvana's first TV special

Nelvana started in 1971 when two graduates of York University, Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, teamed up with a British animator-designer Clive A. Smith in Toronto, Ontario. Hirsh and Loubert, who had a passion for underground filmmaking, 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:

Clive is an animator, and Patrick and I became interested in animation when we were in university together. At the time, there was no production industry per se in Canada, either in animation or in television production. There were stations making local shows, but you didn’t have people making programs for sale around the world. So, blissfully unaware of all it would involve, we decided to start a company in Toronto.

Soon after they discovered a collection of local comic books from the 1940s and acquired the ownership rights. In turn, they made a half-hour television documentary for the CBC focusing on Canadian comics. Their two-year travelling tour of the art from the National Gallery of Canada, "Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941-45", gave locals a chance to revisit the country's past heritage in that field.[4] Meanwhile, Hirsh and Loubert collaborated on a related primer from Peter Martin and Associates, The Great Canadian Comic Books. 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 Chargex credit card that Loubert received at university, spending up to C$7,500 on it before they reclaimed double that cost as their first ever transaction.[1] Under those conditions, Nelvana was involved in the production of documentaries and live-action films. In the area of part-time animation work, they made ten C$1,500 fillers 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.

File:Fettcartoon.JPG
Boba Fett, the Star Wars character Nelvana introduced in its segment of 1978's Holiday Special

Nelvana worked on their first television specials: A Cosmic Christmas (1977), The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978), Please Don't Eat the Planet (better known by its subtitle, Intergalactic Thanksgiving) (1979), Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979), Easter Fever (1980) and Take Me Up to the Ball Game (1980). During that time, George Lucas, an aficionado of their work, commissioned the company to work on a 10-minute sequence for the CBS TV film, The Star Wars Holiday Special. This short scene, officially entitled "The Faithful Wookiee", would introduce audiences to the villainous bounty hunter Boba Fett, who would make his first theatrical appearance in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back.

1980s

File:RockandRule.png
The high cost of Rock & Rule, Nelvana's first feature film, almost made the studio bankrupt.

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.

Nelvana's work on the Care Bears franchise was among its earliest success stories.

But 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. In early 1985, the first movie based on the toy line turned the company's fortunes around, grossing $23 million in the U.S., and another $1.5 million in its native Canada. Its tremendous success gave way to two more big-screen movies, A New Generation and Adventure in Wonderland, as well as a television series.[5]

In the area of science fiction, Nelvana produced Droids and Ewoks, two Saturday-morning series based on Star Wars. 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,[6] but concept art was created by Ted Bastien.[7]

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.

In 1988, Nelvana and Scholastic Corporation produced a video series of Clifford the Big Red Dog based on the 1962 book. It was also distributed by Family Home Entertainment on the video releases.

The company's fourth live-action series, T. and T., premiered in 1988 on Canada's Global network. The show's title duo was Mr. T of A-Team fame, playing a former boxer named T.S. Turner, and Canadian actress Kristina Nicoll as an East Coast lawyer by the name of Terri Taler. Nelvana faced bankruptcy for the second time when the show's original American distributor was going out of business; in six weeks, they were saved when they found a replacement.[3] Also that year, Nelvana established BearSpots, a facility for producing television commercials that lasted until 1993.[1]

As the decade came to a close, the revived Nelvana had its next big success with a movie and an HBO television show based on Jean de Brunhoff's Babar book series. This franchise, its first international co-production, won many ACE Awards in the U.S. and Geminis in Canada. In September 1989, ABC began to air one of the company's products: an animated series based on Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.

1990s

Following Babar's success, the studio acquired the rights to animated series based on Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin, Maurice Sendak's Little Bear, Joanna Cole's The Magic School Bus and the British comic strip Rupert the Bear. Nelvana had self-made successes of its own during the 1990s, such as Eek! The Cat, Dog City (with Jim Henson Productions) band Ned's Newt. Less successful was its animated series for children, Little Rosie featuring the voice of Roseanne Barr for the American Broadcasting Corporation, which was cancelled in 1991, after its first season.

Video poster for Nelvana's 1997 film based on Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking

In autumn 1993, Nelvana signed a multi-year project to produce five feature films for Paramount Pictures, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing; the first two began production the following summer, at a cost of over US$20 million each.[8][9] Three of the projects were based on books by E.B. 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.[10]

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 1993 live-action thriller called Malice came out under the Columbia Pictures banner; 1997 saw the studio's retelling of Pippi Longstocking from Legacy Releasing; and Babar: King of the Elephants was released in Canada by Alliance Atlantis in 1999. Among them, only Malice would go on to achieve box-office success in North America. Its US$46 million gross was the highest ever attained by a Nelvana production,[11] doubling what the first Care Bears Movie received during its original release.

In September 1996, Golden Books Family Entertainment was in talks to acquire the company for US$102 million,[12] just after having purchased the family video library of Broadway Video Entertainment, a subsidiary of Broadway Video.[13] Many of the company's staff members, including Smith and Loubert, expressed interest in the proposition. But Hirsh went up against it, arguing with then COO Eleanor Olmstead about its possible effects on his institution. Two months later Golden Books withdrew from the deal stating that they would concentrate more on children's entertainment.[3][14]

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.[15][16]

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.[15]

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.[17]

The company's first two computer-animated shows, Donkey Kong Country and Rolie Polie Olie (with Paris-based Sparx*) premiered on American TV in 1998. That same year, it held a monopoly on CBS' Saturday-morning schedule; the deal included Franklin, Flying Rhino Junior High, Anatole, Birdz and Mythic Warriors as part of the package. In January 1999, Franklin (on the CBS line-up) and Rupert (a part of Nick Jr. since 1991) swapped networks.[18]

File:George Shrinks2.jpg
George Shrinks, one of the six shows that Nelvana produced as part of the Bookworm Bunch

In August 1999, Nelvana made a US$40 million deal with the Public Broadcasting Service to produce its first ever Saturday morning shows, all of them based on popular children's books.[19] The six series—Timothy Goes to School, Seven Little Monsters, Corduroy, Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse, George Shrinks and Elliot Moose—were launched the following September as part of the Bookworm Bunch line-up.[20] That same month, it acquired the North American rights to its first anime property, Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura (renamed Card Captors).[21] The resulting English dub was broadcast on Kids WB! in the U.S. market and Teletoon in Canada.

2000s

On April 12, 2000, Nelvana announced its purchase of the Palo Alto-based children's book publisher Klutz in a US$74 million deal—at that time, its largest buyout ever—[22] and integrated it into its Branded Consumer Products division. The company, founded in 1977, was best known for its children's series, Books Plus. Nelvana's separate subsidiary, Kids Can, started taking advantage of the acquisition by making its output available through Klutz merchandise.[23]

On September 29, 2000, after almost two weeks of negotiation, Corus Entertainment acquired Nelvana's operations for C$554 million.[24] Heather Shaw, the Executive Chair of Corus, remarked on this event:

Corus is pleased to gain the expertise of Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive Smith as they join our growing team. These three visionaries founded Nelvana in 1971 and have built it into a world-class animation company with first-class content and production assets. In acquiring Nelvana, Corus strategically positioned itself for further international growth. Nelvana distributes its programs to over 160 countries with 80% of its revenue generated from international sources. Corus will continue Nelvana's tradition of developing highly visible and marketable new productions and further building its extensive international program library. We will leverage this acquisition through our strong balance sheet, and we are truly delighted to welcome such experts into our company.

A year after Corus' purchase, co-founders and co-CEOs Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith left the studio. Loubert voluntarily left his establishment on November 16 after its new owners eliminated 50 positions from the staff. "The time has come that Corus will stop acquiring for a while and start operating. John Cassaday[25] 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.[16]

In 2001, the studio began to work on computer-animated feature films aimed at young audiences. So far, only one of them, 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.[26]

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, Paul Robertson, former president of Corus Television and head of YTV, took his place, and became leader of the studio's senior management, while it was making its way back to full-time animation. He explained the reason for the status change circa 2003: "We were perhaps getting a little farther afield in doing live action and extending ourselves into a lot of new areas that weren't exactly our core capabilities." With Hirsh's departure, Corus announced a C$200 million writedown for the company; by next August, it planned to reduce the staff down to 200.[3][27][28][29]

File:6teengang.jpg
6teen, an example of a recent Nelvana series aimed at the older demographic.

The following September, Corus launched their home entertainment division. Texas-based FUNimation, along with British company Maverick, has distributed titles from the studio with this label, including Redwall, Pecola, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, Timothy Goes to School and the Disney Channel TV special The Santa Claus Brothers.[30] Nelvana's newer titles have been distributed by MGM, Lionsgate and ADV Films, which have no involvement with the label.

On May 8, 2006, Nelvana joined forces with ion Media Networks (owners of TV network i), NBC Universal and Scholastic Books, along with Classic Media and its Big Idea Productions unit, to launch qubo, a new children's entertainment endeavour spread across all medium platforms, including video-on-demand on digital cable. The new project will feature new and library programming from the partners, each one producing a new show every year.[31] The NBC 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 distribution of the company's shows. 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.[32] Doug Murphy, another former EVP at Nelvana, became president of the new distribution unit.[33]

In 2007, Nelvana acquired the rights to its fourth anime series, Bakugan Battle Brawlers. The series was aired on Teletoon and became a quick success. In 2008, merchandising rights were sold by Nelvana to Cartoon Network in the US, and the series began airing on CN in February 2008.

Franchises

Main article: List of Nelvana 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.[2]

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.

Eek! The Cat, a popular Nelvana show of the 1990s

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 2008, 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

File:Tv hi fairlyoddparents 01.jpg
The Fairly OddParents, one of four Nicktoons distributed internationally by Nelvana Outside the United States.

With its headquarters in Toronto, Nelvana has an office in Paris; and distribution offices in Shannon, Ireland and Tokyo, Japan..[1][34] Its London branch closed down in September 2006 as a part of Corus' organisational restructuring.[32]

In the United States, Nelvana's series have been broadcast on the ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS, NBC and (the now defunct)WB networks (now part of The CW), and cable stations including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Showtime, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and ABC (FOX) Family and MTV. 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 and KidsCo (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.[34][35]

The Fairly OddParents, created by animator Butch Hartman, is distributed by Nelvana outside the United States. This show 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, Latin America and Australia.[36]

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 better-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, Wayne Robson, Graham Halley, Keith Knight, Susan Roman, John Stocker, Tara Strong, Allen Stewart-Coates, Colin Mochrie, Cree Summer, Colin O'Meara, Brent Titcomb, Louise Vallance, and Chris Wiggins.

Eight former Nelvana employees, Roger Allers,Charles Bonifacio, David Brewster ,Anne Marie Bardwell, Tom Sito, Ralph Palmer, Mark Koetsier and Andrew Hickson, went on to become staff members at Walt Disney Feature Animation in the 1980s and 1990s. Allers, who worked on Aladdin, The Lion King and Hercules. Retrieved October 23, 2006.</ref> Lenora Hume, from the company's early years, is the senior vice-president of DisneyToon Studios.

Nelvana had a planet named after it in the Star Wars series, on Cartoon Network's Expanded Universe series Clone Wars. 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.[37]

Another well-known series in the genre, Star Trek: The Next Generation, has made reference to the company name with a system of five planets named after it. One of them, "Nelvana III", is notably mentioned in the episode "The Defector".[38]

The "Nelvana Independent Short Film Grand Prize", given out at the Ottawa International Animation Festival since 2004, pays homage to the name of the company. So far, the recipients of this prize have been 2004's Ryan, the Chris Landreth biography about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin;[39] 2005's Milch, from director Igor Kovalyov;[40] and, in 2006, Joanna Quinn's Dreams and Desires: Family Ties.[41]

Logos

1st logo (1978-1986)

A boring polar bear looking up under a seven-star semicircle outline, sometimes the semicircle is not there at all. Underneath it said "NELVANA LIMITED", "A NELVANA PRODUCTION", "© NELVANA LIMITED (year)", "Produced by Nelvana Limited in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation" or just "NELVANA". It was used in tandem with the 2nd logo from 1985 until 1986. Notable Nelvana productions that had this logo include The Edison Twins, Rock & Rule, Star Wars: Droids, Star Wars: Ewoks, The Care Bears Movie, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation and early Nelvana animated television specials (A Cosmic Christmas didn't feature the logo, nor did the Strawberry Shortcake specials did or other co-productions with Those Characters from Cleveland).

2nd logo (1985-2000)

File:Nelvana1985.png
The Nelvana Neon Polar Bear logo used from 1985 to 2000.

This is the first animated logo. On a black background, a blue square with a red outline turns counterclockwise. Then fills the whole screen to turn into a background. Seven yellow stars appear in a semicircle and "NELVANA" appears below in red. Then a blue shower of light is sent down from the star at the top to over the word "NELVANA" which then shines in orange. The shower of light turns in to a neon polar bear looking up a star. The logo first appeared in The Care Bears and last appeared in Little Bear.

Variations: There were two variations of this logo:

  • There was one on Babar: The Movie when the polar bear stands up on its first two feet before in its regular position.
  • The Babar: The Movie version was seen on Care Bears: Adventure in Wonderland, only the background is black.

3rd logo (1996-2004)

On a space background we see the 1st logo of Nelvana only the seven-star semicircle has a blue chrome outline. Also the polar bear and "NELVANA" text. First the polar bear zooms out and shines until the light died down, then the "NELVANA" text, and the seven-star semicircle zooms out as well. When the logo's shown, a comet from behind the logo passes and the logo ends with each star shining. On TV, it usually appears after all the other logos. It was also used in tandem with the 2nd logo until 2000.

Variations: There were six variations:

  • Starting in 2000, when the company was bought to CORUS Entertainment, a CORUS Entertainment byline was added (with "CORUS" written in its corporate font). The text reads as "Nelvana is a Corus Entertainemt company". It was seen on 2000-2003 Nelvana shows, as well as The Little Bear Movie.
  • On Babar: King of the Elephants, the starfield looks more cleaner, a 5-point star shines in the distance and the Nelvana logo spins on its side and the polar bear bumps a star.
  • There was a new variation with a more delayed zoom-out including the CORUS byline on Franklin's Magic Christmas, that logo ends with the bear shining again and the logo zooming in again.
  • The logo has a shorter version with the CORUS byline from 2000 and with the ending theme playing over it. It was seen on three of its productions: Donkey Kong Country, Franklin and Max & Ruby.
  • On the shows distributed by Nelvana, the words "Distributed by" appeared above the Nelvana logo and "INTERNATIONAL" where below it.
  • The logo was seen beside the ending credits and the other logos are also in its place before it. It was seen in the last episode of Tales from the Crypt and the only episode with this variation: "The Third Pig."

4th logo (2003-2004)

On a white background; the same logo of Nelvana like last, only it is in 2-D and the outline is dark blue and "NELVANA" is in a different font. Underneath is the website URL: www.nelvana.com. Underneath "www.nelvana.com" is a CORUS Entertainment byline, and unlike in the previous 1996 logo, it has the Corus wording in a different font(not in it's respective font). It can be seen on programs like Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, and Cyberchase. It was used in tandem with the 3rd logo until 2004.

5th logo (2004-present)

On a black background is a white polar bear with a blue outline it stands on the word "NELVANA" which is white with a blue outline too, and this time the stars are white with a blue outline. And there is only one star that the bear is looking at. The bear strikes its head onto the star causing it to shine, then a white light haze is shown behind the logo shining until it quickly dissolves soon after. Underneath it says "A Corus Entertainment Inc. Company" in a different font from the 1996 logo (3rd logo, see above).

Variations: This logo has four variations:

  • The word "INTERNATIONAL" in a blue rounded rectangle is between "NELVANA" and the Corus byline.
  • The bear kinda "swims" to be part of the logo first.
  • The words "A NELVANA PRODUCTION" in the show's font is above the logo. No haze is shown. This one was seen on Horrid Henry, and the UK version of Oggy and the Cockroaches.
  • One rare variation includes the bear "burping" out the star, and "NELVANA" in its respective font, and then suddenly the bear get slimed by a dark green snot-colored slime, and covers the "NELVANA" text. Again, no haze is seen while the snot-slime is dripping off of the polar bear and "NELVANA". This is only seen on the TV series Grossology on Jetix UK.

See also

Footnotes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e Fitzgerald, James (May 1, 2001). "Nelvana's 30th Anniversary Profile". KidScreen Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
  2. ^ a b "Nelvana creates animated magic". The Ontario Business Report, March 2001, pp. 1-2. PDF file retrieved July 2, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d Daly, John (2001, January 31). The Toughest SOBs in Business. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 10, 2006.
  4. ^ "Canadian Heroes" page at internationalhero.co.uk. Retrieved July 10, 2006.
  5. ^ DiC Entertainment also made 22 episodes of the Care Bears series before Nelvana reclaimed the rights for the animated franchise.
  6. ^ Lofficier, Jean-Marc (1997). The Nth Doctor. Virgin Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 0-426-20499-9.
  7. ^ "CBC Television - The Planet of the Doctor ("Ted Bastien's Nelvana photo gallery.")". CBC Television. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
  8. ^ McRoberts, Kenneth (1995). Beyond Quebec: Taking Stock of Canada, p. 175. McGills-Queens University Press. ISBN 0-7735-1314-0. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  9. ^ Maddever, Mary (September 11, 1995). "Nelvana boosts feature involvement". Playback Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2006.
  10. ^ Tolusso, Susan (March 28, 1994). "Nelvana joins the public procession..." Playback Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
  11. ^ Box office data for Malice at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  12. ^ Golden Books is Negotiating to Buy Nelvana. (1996, September 26.) New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
  13. ^ Reuters (1996-07-31), "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Golden Books Agrees to Buy a Video Library", The New York Times {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  14. ^ Golden Books Withdraws Offer for Nelvana. (1995, November 5.) New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
  15. ^ a b 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.
  16. ^ a b Yaffe, Samatha (November 20, 2001). "Loubert goes solo in wave of consolidation". Playback Magazine. Retrieved July 6, 2006.
  17. ^ Klein, Naomi (2002). No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, p. 147. Picador. ISBN 0-312-42143-5. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  18. ^ Adalian, Joseph (1998, December 14). "Nick vet CBS-bound as nets alter kidvid skeds". Variety Magazine. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  19. ^ Collins, Geneva (Aug 16, 1999). "Public TV again turns to Canada for kidvid". current.org. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
  20. ^ Bedford, Karen Everhart (July 31, 2000). "New offerings from PBS and Nick Jr./CBS". current.org. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
  21. ^ Ross, Carlos (August 9, 1999). Of All Things Nelvana and Card Captor (Sakura?) Editorial at THEM Anime Reviews. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  22. ^ "Nelvana Buys Book Publisher" at AllBusiness.com. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
  23. ^ Shirkani, K.D. (2000, April 13). Nelvana adds Klutz books to kids shelf. Variety Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
  24. ^ NELVANA LTD Report of Foreign Issuer (6-K) SIGNATURES at EdgarOnline. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
  25. ^ Cassaday is the president and CEO of Corus Entertainment. (NB: His name should not be confused with that of the comic book artist.)
  26. ^ "Nelvana Spins a Deal to Bring Beyblade Phenomenon to North America". 2002, January 10. PR Newswire. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  27. ^ Ball, Ryan (October 23, 2002). "Nelvana CEO Hirsh Steps Down". Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
  28. ^ Ball, Ryan (November 6, 2002). "Corus Ent. Names Hirsh’s Nelvana Successor". Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  29. ^ "Focus on Canada", June 2003. WorldScreen.com. Retrieved July 2, 2006.
  30. ^ Ball, Ryan (September 25, 2003). "Nelvana Home Entertainment Launched". Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  31. ^ ION Media Networks, Scholastic, NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment, and Classic Media/Big Idea Unite to Launch Groundbreaking Multi-platform Network for Children. Press release at ion Media Networks site. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  32. ^ a b Ball, Ryan (September 12, 2006). "Corus Makes Changes at Nelvana". Animation Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006.
  33. ^ Strauss, Marise (October 2, 2006). "Movie Central, Nelvana at centre of Corus shuffle". Playback Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006.
  34. ^ a b Nelvana information at Corus website. Retrieved June 14, 2006.
  35. ^ Nelvana company overview at dfait-maeci.gc.ca. Retrieved June 14, 2006.
  36. ^ Program information for The Fairly OddParents at Nelvana site. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
  37. ^ Trivia for Star Wars: Clone Wars at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
  38. ^ Episode information for "The Defector" at TV.com. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
  39. ^ Smith, Patrick (October 12, 2004). "Ottawa Animation Festival 2004: One Animators [sic] Perspective", pg. 4. Animation World Magazine. Retrieved July 19, 2006.
  40. ^ Kovalyov wins Grand Prize. November 2005 archive page at CalArts School of Film/Video site. Retrieved July 19, 2006.
  41. ^ "Three-Prize Winner at Annecy Wins Top Prize at Ottawa" (September 25, 2006). Animation World Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2006.

Bibliography

  • Stoffman, David (2001). The Nelvana Story: Thirty Animated Years. Toronto, Ontario: Nelvana Publishing Company (ISBN 1-894786-00-9).

Template:Nelvana animated films

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