FilmFair

Last updated
FilmFair Communications
Filmfair Animation
Industry Television production
Film
Founded1959;65 years ago (1959) (as FilmFair)
1968;56 years ago (1968) (as FilmFair London)
Defunct1996;28 years ago (1996)
FateFilmFair: Library sold to Altschul Group Corporation
FilmFair London: Sold to and absorbed by CINAR Films
SuccessorAltschyl Group Corporation
Wildbrain
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, U.S.
London, England
Key people
Parent Independent (1968–early 1980s)
Central Independent Television (early 1980s–1991)
Caspian Group (1991–1996)

The evolution of WildBrain
WildBrain logo.svg
1968 FilmFair London is founded
1971DIC Audiovisuel is founded
1972 Strawberry Shortcake brand is first developed
1974 CPLG is founded
1976CINAR and Colossal Pictures are founded
1982DIC Enterprises is founded
1984 Ragdoll Productions is founded
1987DIC Audiovisuel closes
1988 Studio B Productions is founded
1992 Epitome Pictures is founded
1993DIC Enterprises becomes DIC Entertainment
1994 Wild Brain is founded‚ and Red Rover Studios is founded, DIC Entertainment brands as The Incredible World of DIC
1995Platinum Disc Corporation is founded
1996CINAR buys FilmFair's library
1997 Decode Entertainment is founded
1999Wild Brain acquires Colossal Pictures' employee base
2002 Nerd Corps Entertainment is founded
2004Halifax Film Company is founded, CINAR rebrands as Cookie Jar Group
2005Platinum Disc Corporation merge as Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
2006Decode and Halifax Film merge as DHX Media, DIC acquires CPLG, and Ragdoll Worldwide is formed with BBC Worldwide
2007DHX Media buys Studio B Productions and Wild Brain becomes Wildbrain Entertainment
2008Cookie Jar Group absorbs DIC and House of Cool absorbs Red Rover Studios
2010DHX Media buys Wildbrain Entertainment‚ and Peanuts Worldwide is founded
2011Decode Entertainment and Red Rover Studios closes
2012DHX Media buys Cookie Jar Group
2013DHX Media buys Ragdoll Worldwide
2014DHX Media buys Epitome Pictures, Nerd Corps, and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment's family content library; Cookie Jar Group is absorbed
2016The WildBrain multi-channel network launches and Studio B and Nerd Corps merge as DHX Studios
2017Wildbrain Entertainment closes; DHX Media buys Peanuts Worldwide and Strawberry Shortcake
2018Halifax Film becomes Island of Misfits
2019DHX Media rebrands as WildBrain, Epitome Pictures closes, and the WildBrain MCN becomes WildBrain Spark
2020CPLG becomes WildBrain CPLG
2023WildBrain acquires House of Cool

FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated cartoons, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, clay animation, and cutout animation.

Contents

History

Foundation

FilmFair was founded in 1959 by American animator Gus Jekel in Los Angeles, California. After working with Walt Disney Productions and other Hollywood animation studios in the 1930s, Jekel incorporated FilmFair because he wanted the freedom to create live action work as well. The studio was in Animation Alley, a stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard that runs through Studio City in northern Los Angeles. [1]

Jekel's company produced television advertisements—some animated, others live action—and was extremely successful; even Disney was a client. [2] [3]

In the late 1960s, Jekel asked an English colleague, Graham Clutterbuck, to start a European office for FilmFair. Clutterbuck had been producing and coordinating television ads for European advertising agencies and had just lost his job as director general of Les Cinéastes Associés in Paris. Although he was not well-acquainted with animation, Clutterbuck accepted the job offer. Clutterbuck established FilmFair's European office in Paris. It was there that he met Serge Danot, who pitched his ideas for a children's series, but Clutterbuck turned him down. Soon after, Danot signed a contract with the BBC to produce the series The Magic Roundabout . He invited Clutterbuck to watch them film. While there, Clutterbuck met the series' co-creator, Ivor Wood. [2] Later, the two men agreed that Wood would make animated films for FilmFair. The success of The Magic Roundabout paved the way for more stop-motion animation at the BBC. Soon, Wood came up with the idea for The Herbs , which premiered on BBC1 in 1968. [2]

FilmFair London

By this time, Beatlemania had made England a cultural hotspot. Clutterbuck found it too difficult to attract English talent to France, so he moved the office to London. [2] There, Barry Leith joined the company as director of animation. Wood and Leith collaborated on The Wombles , but Wood also had a few ideas for animating Michael Bond's stories about Paddington Bear. Bond was enthusiastic about Wood's artistic vision and began scripting the first series. [4] BBC1 premiered Paddington in 1976 to great acclaim. FilmFair produced new episodes of the programme for three years, and it expanded into a considerable media franchise.

FilmFair continued to produce successful stop motion programmes through the mid-1970s. The company's first classically animated series, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings , premiered in 1974 on ITV. It was adapted from a series of children's books written and illustrated by Edward McLachlan. [5] The company's first series not directed by Wood was The Perishers , a classically animated series directed by Dick Horn.

As FilmFair London continued to produce animated television series for the BBC and ITV, they eventually reached an international audience through broadcast syndication and home video distribution.

Acquisitions

In the early 1980s, Central Independent Television bought a controlling share of the European branch of FilmFair. Graham Clutterbuck died of cancer on 30 April 1988; FilmFair dedicated Bangers and Mash to his memory.

In 1991, Central sold FilmFair to Storm Group (also known as the Caspian Group), one of FilmFair's video distributors. Altschul Group Corporation (AGC) bought FilmFair's American branch in 1992, as part of campaign to acquire more than a dozen film companies. Discovery Education, a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, bought AGC's film catalogue in 2003. [6] As of 2022, Discovery Education is now owned by Clearlake Capital, with Francisco Partners along with Discovery, Inc.'s successor and Warner Bros. parent company Warner Bros. Discovery holding minority stakes.

In 1996, the Caspian Group sold FilmFair London's catalogue and production amenities to Canada-based company CINAR Films, whose purchase included all associated distribution, publication, licensing, and merchandising rights. [7] In 2000, Cinar executives were implicated in a financial scandal, and again in 2001. In 2004, the company rebranded to Cookie Jar Group, which in turn was acquired by DHX Media (now WildBrain) in 2012, thus acquiring the rights to the European FilmFair properties and making DHX the largest independent producer of kids programming with 8,550 half hours up from 2,550. [8]

Productions

Animated television series

TitleOriginal
broadcast
NetworkAnimationDirector(s)
The Herbs 1968 BBC1 Stop motion Ivor Wood
Hattytown Tales 1969–1973 Thames for ITV Stop motionIvor Wood
The Adventures of Parsley 1970BBC1Stop motionIvor Wood
The Wombles 1973–1975BBC1Stop motionIvor Wood
Barry Leith (dir. of animation)
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings 1974–1976Thames for ITV Traditional Ivor Wood
Paddington 1975–1986BBC1Stop motionIvor Wood
Barry Leith (dir. of animation)
The Perishers 1978–1979BBC1TraditionalDick Horn
Moschops 1983 Central for ITVStop motionMartin Pullen
The Adventures of Portland Bill 1983Central for ITVStop motionJohn Grace
The Blunders 1986Central for ITVTraditionalIan Sachs
The Shoe People 1987 TV-am for ITVTraditionalClennell Rawson
Edward and Friends 1987 BBC2 Stop motionMartin Pullen
Jo Pullen
Jeff Newitt
Windfalls 1988Central for ITVStop motionJenny Kenna
Stories of the Sylvanian Families 1988Central for ITVStop motionJo Pullen
Martin Pullen
Bangers and Mash 1988Central for ITVTraditionalIan Sachs
Huxley Pig 1989–1990Central for ITVStop motionMartin Pullen
Nellie the Elephant 1990–1991Central for ITVTraditionalTerry Ward
The Dreamstone 1990–1995Central for ITVTraditionalMartin Gates
Rod 'n' Emu 1991Central for ITVTraditionalIan Sachs
Dick Horn
The Gingerbread Man 1992Central for ITVStop motionMartin Pullen
Astro Farm 1992–1996Central for ITVStop motionDavid Johnson
The Legends of Treasure Island 1993–1995Central for ITVTraditionalDino Athanassiou
Simon Ward-Horner

Television specials

TitlePremiereNetworkAnimationDirector
Paddington Goes to the Movies 1980 BBC1 Stop motion Barry Leith [9]
Paddington Goes to School1984BBC1Stop motionMartin Pullen [10]
Paddington’s Birthday Bonanza1986BBC1Stop motionGlenn Whiting [11]
Totally Minnie 1988 NBC Traditional Scot Garen
World Womble Day 1990 Central for ITV Stop motionMartin Pullen [12]
The Wandering Wombles1991Central for ITVStop motionMartin Pullen [12]
Brown Bear's Wedding 1991Central for ITVTraditionalChris Randall (anim.) [13]
White Bear's Secret1992Central for ITVTraditionalChris Randall (anim.) [14]

Pilots

TitlePremiereAnimation
The Further Adventures of Noddy [15] 1983 Stop motion

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Magic Roundabout</i> Childrens television series

The Magic Roundabout is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show Le Manège enchanté but with completely different scripts and characters.

<i>The Wombles</i> UK childrens book fictional characters

The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in creative ways. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, Beresford's stories are primarily concerned with the lives of the inhabitants of the burrow on Wimbledon Common in London, England.

Ivor Sydney Wood was a prolific Anglo-French animator, director, producer and writer. He was known for his work on children's television series.

<i>The Herbs</i> Television series

The Herbs is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond, directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1 Watch with Mother timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long.

Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings is a British children's animated series about the adventures of a young boy named Simon, who has a magic blackboard. Things that Simon draws on the chalkboard become real in the Land of Chalk Drawings, which Simon can enter by climbing over a fence near his home with a ladder. The stories often revolve around the unintended effects that Simon's drawings have on the Land of Chalk Drawings, such as when an upset Simon draws a picture of his angry self, which goes on a rampage.

Michael Hirsh is a Belgian-born Canadian producer. He has been a significant figure in the Canadian television industry, or more specifically children's programming, since the 1980s, with his most well-known role being the co-founder of animation studio Nelvana.

Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese-American animation studios since 1978. The company, based in Xindian, Taipei and Los Angeles, California, has done traditional hand-drawn 2D animation/ink and paint for various TV shows and films for studios across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookie Jar Group</span> Canadian media company

DHX Cookie Jar Inc. was a Canadian media, production, animation studio, and distribution company owned by DHX Media. The company was first established in 1976 as CINAR Films Inc., a Montreal-based studio that was heavily involved in children's entertainment. The company's business model, which included the licensing of its properties into educational markets, had a significant impact on its success; by 1999, CINAR held CDN$1.5 billion of the overall children's television market.

The Adventures of Paddington Bear is an animated children's television series based on the book Paddington Bear by Michael Bond and developed by Bruce Robb.

Micheline Charest was a British-born Canadian television producer and founder and former co-chairman of CINAR. In 1997, Charest was ranked 19th in The Hollywood Reporter's list of the 50 most powerful women in the entertainment industry.

Edward and Friends is a children's TV series in claymation from FilmFair that aired on British, New Zealand and Canadian television in 1987–1989. Each episode was 5-minutes in length and was based on the 1980s Lego Fabuland theme. 28 episodes were produced. It was the Lego Group's first foray into animation and television in general. Bernard Cribbins provided the voice-over for the show, written by Michael Cole with music by Mike Batt.

Michael Emlyn Young is a Welsh Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning producer. He is the founder of two animation companies in both the UK and the US. His company in 2015 changed its name from Mike Young Productions to Splash Entertainment, which also is a majority owner of Popular AVOD network Kabillion.

<i>The Wombles</i> (1973 TV series) British stop-motion animated TV series (1973–1975)

The Wombles is a stop-motion animated British television series made in 1973–1975. The Wombles are creatures that live underground, collecting and recycling human rubbish.

<i>Paddington</i> (TV series) Series of British animated shorts

Paddington is a British children's animated television series based on the Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond. Broadcast from 1976 to 1980, the series was scripted by Bond himself, and produced by FilmFair; it was narrated by Michael Hordern, who also voiced all of the characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddington Bear</span> Fictional character in childrens literature by Michael Bond

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book A Bear Called Paddington and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond, and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum, David McKee, R. W. Alley and other artists.

The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You is a French Canadian children's animated short film directed by Gerald Potterton as part of The Real Story of... / Favorite Songs animated anthology series. The short was produced by Cinar and France Animation in association with Crayon Animation and Western Publishing and was released in January 1992 in the United States. It also features the voices of Ed Asner and Roger Daltrey.

The Adventures of Parsley is a 32-episode children's television series animated in stop motion. Produced by FilmFair, The Adventures of Parsley was a spin-off of The Herbs. Its opening credits featured either Parsley the lion roaring or Dill the dog barking with their head in a circle, in parody of MGM's logo. Unlike in The Herbs the animal characters talked, a typical episode featuring a dialogue between the overenthusiastic Dill and the more laid back, deadpan Parsley. Other characters from The Herbs made occasional appearances. As in The Herbs the narration was provided by actor Gordon Rollings.

The Wombles is an animated series for children transmitted in 1997 and 1998, based on the 1973 series created by Elisabeth Beresford. The Wombles had remained popular with children into the 1980s. After FilmFair was acquired by the Canadian company Cinar Films in 1996, a new series of episodes was made, with three new Womble characters. The series is a co-production with Cinar and United Film & Television Productions/HTV Wales, in association with FilmFair Limited and ITV. 52 episodes were produced.

<i>The Upstairs Downstairs Bears</i> Animated childrens television series

The Upstairs Downstairs Bears is a British-Canadian children's stop-motion animated series. The series was co-produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and Canada's Cinar in co-production with Egmont Imagination in Denmark, in association with Imagination Production and FilmFair Animation. The series was broadcast on CITV in the United Kingdom and Teletoon in Canada. It consists of a single season of 13 half-hour episodes, or 26 shorts.

References

  1. Sito, Tom (2006). "Lost Generations, 1952–1988". Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. p. 226. ISBN   978-0-8131-2407-0. OCLC   69331438 . Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Graham Clutterbuck: A great entrepreneur". Animator (23). 1988. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  3. Potter, Ian (2008). The Rise and Rise of the Independents: A Television History. Isleworth: Guerilla Books. ISBN   9780955494321. OCLC   236120118.
  4. Warner, Jennifer (5 September 2014). The Unofficial History of the Paddington Bear. BookCaps Study Guides. p. 40. ISBN   9781629173818 . Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  5. "Biography: Edward McLachlan". British Cartoon Archive . University of Kent. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  6. Alexander, Geoff (2010). Academic Films for the Classroom: A History. Jefferson: McFarland & Co. pp. 65–66. ISBN   9780786458707. OCLC   601049093 . Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  7. "CINAR Completes Acquisition of FilmFair" (Press release). CINAR Films, Inc. 26 November 1996. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  8. "DHX Media Closes Acquisition of Cookie Jar Entertainment" (Press release). Halifax: DHX Media. 22 October 2012. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  9. "Paddington Goes to the Movies". Toonhound. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  10. Paddington Goes to School at IMDb OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  11. "Paddington's Birthday Bonanza". Toonhound. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  12. 1 2 "The Wombles". Toonhound. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  13. Brown Bear's Wedding at IMDb OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  14. White Bear's Secret at IMDb OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  15. "Martin Cheek stop-frame puppet animation – Page 2 – Animator Mag". 9 December 2010.

Further reading