Nelvana
Nelvana logo used from 1996 to 2003 | |
Company type | Public (since 1994)[1] |
---|---|
Industry | Animation, franchise licensing |
Founded | 1971 |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Key people | Founders: Michael Hirsh Patrick Loubert Clive A. Smith Current CEO: Paul Robertson |
Products | Comprising mainly of children's animation; see also List of Nelvana franchises |
Number of employees | 600 (2001)[1] |
Parent | Corus Entertainment |
Website | nelvana.com |
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 of the 1940s. Corus Entertainment, a spin-off from Shaw Communications, has owned the company since September 2000.
Nelvana is one of the most prominent and influential animation studios outside the United States, and in the entire world. Well-known franchises from the studio include Care Bears, Babar, Little Bear, 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, outside the United States. As of 2024, its library comprises of more than 1,400 cumulative half-hours of original programming.[1]
History
Early years: 1970s
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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 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 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 stumbled upon a collection of local comic books from the 1940s, the trio acquired the ownership rights. This led to a CBC-produced television documentary about Canadian comics, a related book from Peter Martin and Associates, and a two-year travelling tour of the art from the National Gallery of Canada. 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." Under those conditions, it was involved in the production of documentaries and live-action films, as well as part-time animation work.
Among Nelvana's first productions was a short subject series for the CBC, 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.
Then, thanks to new talent from Sheridan College, all of whom were graduates of the institution, 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
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.
Rock & Rule would have ceased Nelvana's operations altogether, had the company never saved themselves from working full-time on children's television series after its demise. On its agenda at that time were its first three live-action franchises, The Edison Twins, :20 Minute Workout and Mr. Microchip; it also worked on early episodes of DiC Entertainment's Inspector Gadget and The Get-Along Gang, and some of the last original television specials based on the Strawberry Shortcake doll.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ac/The_Care_Bears_Movie_%281985%29_poster.jpg/150px-The_Care_Bears_Movie_%281985%29_poster.jpg)
But Nelvana received its greatest success in the form of the Care Bears, after acquiring the rights to the characters from the owners of the franchise, American Greetings. 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 also based on the toys.[2]
Droids and Ewoks, two Saturday-morning series based on Star Wars, were also produced by Nelvana in the mid-1980s. Also from the company at the time were shows based on the Madballs and My Pet Monster toys, and select episodes of a sci-fi series by the name of Dinosaucers (also produced by DiC). In 1986, there was talk of an animated CBS show from the studio, based on the BBC's Doctor Who; the plan never came to fruition.[3]
It was also involved in the production of two live-action comedy films, the 1986 western ¡Three Amigos! (the company made use of animatronics in one scene with a talking turtle), and its 1987 production of Burglar.
The company's fourth live-action series, T and T, premiered in 1988 on Canada's Global network. The show's title duo comprised of 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. 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 another 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 also had self-made successes of its own during the 1990s, such as Eek! The Cat, Dog City (with Jim Henson Productions) and Ned's Newt.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/Movie_poster_pippi.jpg/220px-Movie_poster_pippi.jpg)
In the fall of 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 $20 million each.[4][5] 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.[6]
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 Palm Pictures' release of a low-budget science-fiction film called Spaceman, and the studio's retelling of Pippi Longstocking from Warner Bros.; 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 $46 million gross was the highest ever attained by a Nelvana production,[7] 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 $102 million, just after becoming the owners of Broadway Video.[8] Two months later, they withdrew from the deal without any explanation, and stated that they would concentrate more on children's entertainment, an ironic twist of fate given Nelvana's established status in that field.[9]
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.[10] Windlight Studios, a small computer animation company, was absorbed into the company's assets during the mid-1990s.[11]
Starting in late 1997, Nelvana and Britain's Channel 4 began work on Bob & 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.[11]
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.[12]
In August 1999, Nelvana made a $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.[13] 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.[14] That same month, it acquired the North American rights to its first anime property, CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura.[15] The resulting English dub of this series, broadcast on Kids WB! in the U.S. market, was ignored and criticised outright by purists of the original Japanese version.
The 21st century
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—[16] 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.[17]
On September 29 that same year, after almost two weeks of negotiation, Corus Entertainment acquired Nelvana's operations for C$554 million.[18] 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 positions 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.
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.[19]
Also in 2001, it began to work on computer-animated feature films. 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 October 2002, during one of Nelvana's most difficult years, Corus announced that Michael Hirsh was stepping down as CEO of the company which he co-founded. The next 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."[20][21][22]
The following September, Corus launched Nelvana's 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.[23] In addition, Nelvana's newer titles have been distributed by MGM, Lionsgate and ADV Films.
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 a new children's entertainment endeavor spread across all medium platforms, including video-on-demand on digital cable. The new project, Smart Place for Kids, will feature new and library programming from the partners, each one producing a new series a year. [24]The NBC network will start airing the block in September, with Spanish-speaking sister channel Telemundo to follow in October.
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.[1]
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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Eek_the_Cat.jpg/220px-Eek_the_Cat.jpg)
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 2024, the studio has made close to 25 feature films for theatrical, home entertainment, and television distribution. Well-known releases include Rock & Rule, all 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, Malice and Spaceman 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 like The Edison Twins, T and T, :20 Minute Workout, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.
Around the world
Nelvana has office locations in Toronto, Hollywood, London, Shannon in Ireland and Tokyo.[25] In the United States, the company's series have been broadcast on the ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and WB networks, and cable stations including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Showtime and ABC Family. In Canada, they can be seen on Teletoon, YTV, CBC, the Family Channel and Treehouse TV; in Latin America on the Cartoon Network and spin-off block adult swim; in the United Kingdom on Channel 4, ITV, Tiny Pop and the BBC; in the Republic of Ireland on RTE; and in France on FR2 and FR3. In addition, over 360 television stations, in over 180 countries on six continents, have aired Nelvana franchises in over 50 languages.[25][26]
Two Nicktoons from the American channel Nickelodeon, Danny Phantom and The Fairly OddParents (both of them the brainchild of 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 popular among viewers in several European markets and Australia.[27]
Influence in science fiction
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.[28] Another such well-known series, Star Trek, has made reference to the company name with a system of five planets named after it. One of them, "Nelvana III", is notably mentioned on a Next Generation episode, "The Defector".[29]
Footnotes and references
- ^ a b c d "Nelvana creates animated magic". The Ontario Business Report, March 2001, pp. 1-2. PDF file retrieved July 2, 2006.
- ^ DiC Entertainment also made 22 episodes of the Care Bears series before Nelvana reclaimed the rights for the animated franchise.
- ^ Lofficier, Jean-Marc (2003). The Nth Doctor, p. 9. iUniverse. ISBN 0595276199. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ McRoberts, Kenneth (1995). Beyond Quebec: Taking Stock of Canada, p. 175. McGills-Queens University Press. ISBN 0773513140. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ Maddever, Mary (1995, September 11. "Nelvana boosts feature involvement". Playback Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2006.
- ^ Tolusso, Susan (1994, March 28). "Nelvana joins the public procession..." Playback Magazine. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- ^ Box office data for Malice at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ Golden Books is Negotiating to Buy Nelvana. (1996, September 26.) New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
- ^ Golden Books Withdraws Offer for Nelvana. (1995, November 5.) New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
- ^ Klein, Naomi (2002). No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, p. 147. Picador. ISBN 03122421435. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ 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 0472087894. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ Adalian, Joseph (1998, December 14). "Nick vet CBS-bound as nets alter kidvid skeds". Variety Magazine. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ Collins, Geneva (Aug 16, 1999). "Public TV again turns to Canada for kidvid". current.org. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
- ^ Bedford, Karen Everhart (July 31, 2000). "New offerings from PBS and Nick Jr./CBS". current.org. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
- ^ Ross, Carlos (1999, August 9). Of All Things Nelvana and Card Captor (Sakura?) Editorial at THEM Anime Reviews. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ^ "Nelvana Buys Book Publisher" at AllBusiness.com. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- ^ Shirkani, K.D. (2000, April 13). Nelvana adds Klutz books to kids shelf. Variety. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
- ^ NELVANA LTD Report of Foreign Issuer (6-K) SIGNATURES at EdgarOnline. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
- ^ "Nelvana Spins a Deal to Bring Beyblade Phenomenon to North America". 2002, January 10. PR Newswire. Retrieved June 24, 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.
- ^ Ball, Ryan (September 25, 2003). "Nelvana Home Entertainment Launched". Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Nelvana information at Corus website. Retrieved June 14, 2006.
- ^ Nelvana company overview at dfait-maeci.gc.ca. Retrieved June 14, 2006.
- ^ Program information for The Fairly OddParents at Nelvana site. Retrieved June 24, 2006.
- ^ Trivia for Star Wars: Clone Wars at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
- ^ Episode information for "The Defector" at TV.com. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
See also
Related topics
Related Canadian companies
- National Film Board of Canada
- Cookie Jar Entertainment (formerly Cinar)
- CinéGroupe
- Atkinson Film-Arts (defunct since 1989)
- Studio B Productions
- C.O.R.E.
Further reading
- Stoffman, David (2001). The Nelvana Story: Thirty Animated Years. Toronto, Ontario: Nelvana Publishing Company (ISBN 1894786009).
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png)
- Official site
- Template:Imdb company
- Nelvana at The Big Cartoon DataBase
- Nelvana on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
- Stamp of the superheroine after whom the company was named
- "Three Men and a bear: Nelvana at 25" by Ellen Besen and Marc Glassman, Take One (Autumn 1996) at LookSmart's FindArticles
- ^ KidScreen: Nelvana's 30th Anniversary Profile by James Fitzgerald (NOTE: full article available to site members only)
- Canadian Jewish News: "Nelvana has found the formula for success" by Sheldon Kirshner