World Events Productions | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | 1980 |
Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
Key people | Ted Koplar Peter Keefe [1] |
Products | Anime, cartoons |
Subsidiaries | Calico Entertainment |
Website | wep voltron |
WEP LLC, doing business as World Events Productions, is an American-based animation and distribution company in St. Louis, Missouri, best known for releasing the anime titles Voltron, Defender of the Universe and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs , as well as producing the original animated series Denver, the Last Dinosaur . [2] [3]
Founded in 1980 by Ted Koplar, son of St. Louis businessman and KPLR-TV founder Harold Koplar, World Events Productions, Ltd. started out as a "current events" program on the TV station titled World Events.
In 1982, Koplar teamed with Jack Galmiche and Frank Babcock to produce three nationally syndicated shows featuring Kickboxing. The shows were produced and distributed nationally from St Louis, Las Vegas, and New York's Madison Square Garden.
In 1983, while attending a science fiction convention, Ted Koplar discovered the anime series Beast King GoLion and saw a potential in distributing it on U.S. television. WEP licensed the series from Toei Animation and released it in 1984 in an edited and English-dubbed form as Voltron . The show was met with high ratings nationwide. After airing all episodes of GoLion, WEP adapted Armored Fleet Dairugger XV into the second season of Voltron. The second season lacked the ratings of the first season, as viewers were more used to the GoLion team. In response, WEP commissioned Toei Animation to produce 20 more episodes of the GoLion-based Voltron. [4]
In 1987, WEP licensed Star Musketeer Bismark from Studio Pierrot and released it as Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs . The series was rewritten with several episodes rearranged or omitted; in addition, six new episodes were animated for the U.S. version. Despite lacking the popularity of Voltron, Saber Rider has received a cult fan following throughout the years; most prominently in Germany. [5]
After years of licensing and broadcasting anime, WEP ventured to original animated works. In 1988, the company released Denver, the Last Dinosaur , which was met with positive feedback from parents' groups and was recommended by the National Education Association. Vytor: The Starfire Champion was released in 1989. Despite being an International Film and Video Festival and a New York Festival Award winner, [6] the show's run on television was short-lived.
In 1998, WEP revisited the Voltron franchise with an all-new TV series. Voltron: The Third Dimension was the 3-D animated sequel to the original series, featuring some of the original voice cast plus actors Clancy Brown and Tim Curry. Despite winning a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing, the series received mixed responses from critics and fans of the original series.
In 2008, World Events licensed the original GoLion and Dairugger XV in the U.S.
In 2010, Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics) acquired distribution rights for the Voltron franchise.[ citation needed ]
WEP, Kickstart Productions and Classic Media released an all-new animated Voltron series titled Voltron Force in June 2011. The series takes place sometime after events in the original series and aired on Nicktoons.
World Events Productions settled a legal dispute with Toei Animation in 2010 over copyright infringements of a potential live-action Voltron movie. In the past, both companies disputed when Voltron: The Third Dimension was released. The previous dispute was settled in 2000, with WEP acquiring the animated properties Voltron and GoLion, as well as 'Vehicle Force Voltron' and 'Dairugger'. The most recent legal issues between the two companies focus on WEP's right to adapt the anime into live-action and possibly marketing it in Japan. As a result of this dispute, 20th Century Fox and New Regency Productions pulled out of the live-action project. [7] [8]
In July 2009, Atlas Entertainment acquired the live-action film rights. [9] This prompted film producers James Young, Ford Oelman and Mark Costa to file a lawsuit against World Events Productions, claiming that their companies - Animus Films and NHO Entertainment - have held exclusive live-action rights to Voltron since 2004. [10] The live-action project was eventually scrapped in June 2010 in favor of a new Voltron television series. [11] On November 4, 2016, three months after the completion of NBCUniversal's acquisition of Classic Media's parent company, DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, [12] [13] it was announced that Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation will make the film with David Hayter writing the script. [14]
Voltron is an American animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant super robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe and Ted Koplar through his production company World Events Productions, Voltron was an adaptation of several Japanese anime television series from Toei Animation. The original television series aired in syndication from September 10, 1984, to November 18, 1985. The first season of Voltron, featuring the "Lion Force Voltron", was adapted from the series Beast King GoLion. The second season, featuring the "Vehicle Team Voltron", was adapted from the unrelated series Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.
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Armored Fleet Dairugger XV is a mecha anime series aired in Japan from 1982 to 1983 for 56 episodes.
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Voltron: Fleet of Doom is an American-Japanese television special involving heroes of both Voltron series working together to defeat their sworn enemy, King Zarkon, who aligns with the remnants of Emperor Zeppo's Drule Empire to create a mighty armada called the Fleet of Doom.
Voltron is an animated television franchise.
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Peter Eugene Keefe was an American television producer best known for creating the popular series Voltron, an English-dubbed combination of Beast King GoLion, and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, two similar but unrelated "mecha" anime series originally created and produced by Toei Animation. Keefe's work on the series is credited with introducing American audiences to Japanese animation and influenced later shows like the Dragon Ball, Pokémon, and Power Rangers franchises, although earlier Japanese TV programs like Astro Boy, Speed Racer and Ultraman had aired on American television prior to the premiere of Voltron.
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Voltron: Legendary Defender is an animated mecha television series produced by American companies DreamWorks Animation Television and World Events Productions and animated by South Korean studio Mir for Netflix. It is a reboot of the Voltron franchise and the Japanese anime series Beast King GoLion. Its animation is a mix of anime-influenced traditional animation for characters and backgrounds and CGI for Voltron action sequences. Voltron: Legendary Defender is set in a science fiction universe where planetary energy called quintessence can be used to power vehicles and magic. The series follows the adventures of the Paladins of Voltron who must learn to work together to form the legendary robot Voltron and use it to defeat the Emperor Zarkon and the Galra Empire. The series ran from June 10, 2016, to December 14, 2018, having released 78 episodes over 8 seasons.
Voltron is an animated television series produced by World Events Productions for a total of 124 episodes. The series is an adaptation of the Japanese super robot anime series Beast King Go-Lion, which was dubbed into English and edited to create Voltron episodes. Later episodes also use footage from the mecha anime Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.
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