Industry | Television production Film |
---|---|
Founded | 1959 1968 (as FilmFair London) | (as FilmFair)
Defunct | 1996 |
Fate | FilmFair: Library sold to Altschul Group Corporation FilmFair London: Sold to and absorbed by CINAR Films |
Successor | Altschyl 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) |
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1968 | FilmFair London is founded |
---|---|
1971 | DIC Audiovisuel is founded |
1972 | Strawberry Shortcake brand is first developed |
1974 | CPLG is founded |
1976 | CINAR and Colossal Pictures are founded |
1982 | DIC Enterprises is founded |
1984 | Ragdoll Productions is founded |
1987 | DIC Audiovisuel closes |
1988 | Studio B Productions is founded |
1992 | Epitome Pictures is founded |
1993 | DIC Enterprises becomes DIC Entertainment |
1994 | Wild Brain is founded‚ and Red Rover Studios is founded, DIC Entertainment brands as The Incredible World of DIC |
1995 | Platinum Disc Corporation is founded |
1996 | CINAR buys FilmFair's library |
1997 | Decode Entertainment is founded |
1999 | Wild Brain acquires Colossal Pictures' employee base |
2002 | Nerd Corps Entertainment is founded |
2004 | Halifax Film Company is founded, CINAR rebrands as Cookie Jar Group |
2005 | Platinum Disc Corporation merge as Echo Bridge Home Entertainment |
2006 | Decode and Halifax Film merge as DHX Media, DIC acquires CPLG, and Ragdoll Worldwide is formed with BBC Worldwide |
2007 | DHX Media buys Studio B Productions and Wild Brain becomes Wildbrain Entertainment |
2008 | Cookie Jar Group absorbs DIC and House of Cool absorbs Red Rover Studios |
2010 | DHX Media buys Wildbrain Entertainment‚ and Peanuts Worldwide is founded |
2011 | Decode Entertainment and Red Rover Studios closes |
2012 | DHX Media buys Cookie Jar Group |
2013 | DHX Media buys Ragdoll Worldwide |
2014 | DHX Media buys Epitome Pictures, Nerd Corps, and Echo Bridge Home Entertainment's family content library; Cookie Jar Group is absorbed |
2016 | The WildBrain multi-channel network launches and Studio B and Nerd Corps merge as DHX Studios |
2017 | Wildbrain Entertainment closes; DHX Media buys Peanuts Worldwide and Strawberry Shortcake |
2018 | Halifax Film becomes Island of Misfits |
2019 | DHX Media rebrands as WildBrain, Epitome Pictures closes, and the WildBrain MCN becomes WildBrain Spark |
2020 | CPLG becomes WildBrain CPLG |
2023 | WildBrain 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.
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]
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.
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]
Title | Original broadcast | Network | Animation | Director(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Herbs | 1968 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Ivor Wood |
Hattytown Tales | 1969–1973 | Thames for ITV | Stop motion | Ivor Wood |
The Adventures of Parsley | 1970 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Ivor Wood |
The Wombles | 1973–1975 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Ivor Wood Barry Leith (dir. of animation) |
Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings | 1974–1976 | Thames for ITV | Traditional | Ivor Wood |
Paddington | 1975–1986 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Ivor Wood Barry Leith (dir. of animation) |
The Perishers | 1978–1979 | BBC1 | Traditional | Dick Horn |
Moschops | 1983 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Martin Pullen |
The Adventures of Portland Bill | 1983 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | John Grace |
The Blunders | 1986 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Ian Sachs |
The Shoe People | 1987 | TV-am for ITV | Traditional | Clennell Rawson |
Edward and Friends | 1987 | BBC2 | Stop motion | Martin Pullen Jo Pullen Jeff Newitt |
Windfalls | 1988 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Jenny Kenna |
Stories of the Sylvanian Families | 1988 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Jo Pullen Martin Pullen |
Bangers and Mash | 1988 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Ian Sachs |
Huxley Pig | 1989–1990 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Martin Pullen |
Nellie the Elephant | 1990–1991 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Terry Ward |
The Dreamstone | 1990–1995 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Martin Gates |
Rod 'n' Emu | 1991 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Ian Sachs Dick Horn |
The Gingerbread Man | 1992 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Martin Pullen |
Astro Farm | 1992–1996 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | David Johnson |
The Legends of Treasure Island | 1993–1995 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Dino Athanassiou Simon Ward-Horner |
Title | Premiere | Network | Animation | Director |
---|---|---|---|---|
Paddington Goes to the Movies | 1980 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Barry Leith [9] |
Paddington Goes to School | 1984 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Martin Pullen [10] |
Paddington’s Birthday Bonanza | 1986 | BBC1 | Stop motion | Glenn Whiting [11] |
Totally Minnie | 1988 | NBC | Traditional | Scot Garen |
World Womble Day | 1990 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Martin Pullen [12] |
The Wandering Wombles | 1991 | Central for ITV | Stop motion | Martin Pullen [12] |
Brown Bear's Wedding | 1991 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Chris Randall (anim.) [13] |
White Bear's Secret | 1992 | Central for ITV | Traditional | Chris Randall (anim.) [14] |
Title | Premiere | Animation |
---|---|---|
The Further Adventures of Noddy [15] | 1983 | Stop motion |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.