History
Jetlag Productions started out as a small animation company, assisting in the productions of such series as The New Adventures of He-Man and Heroes on Hot Wheels in 1990, and Conan the Adventurer in 1992, until it was approached by Joe, Ken, and Stan Cayre (known artistically as the Cayre Brothers) of GoodTimes Entertainment. The company then replaced Golden Films as GoodTimes's provider of budget animated productions, when the contract with Golden Film expired. Under the name of their new establishment, the Cayre Brothers produced Children's Classics, a series of animated films that were very similar to those from Golden Films in style. Beginning their releases in 1994, Jetlag Productions produced a total of 17 different animated films, 13 adaptations of existing material, and four original features. All 17 films were around 45 minutes in length, and were released as direct-to-video VHS features, under the "GoodTimes" name by GoodTimes Home Video. Their last release was The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was released on April 30, 1996, just before GoodTimes turned to a new company, Blye Migicovsky Productions, for their new line of animation releases. Jetlag Productions' films were revived on DVD under a "Collectible Classics" label in 2002 by GoodTimes Entertainment. The new releases were widely available until GoodTimes filed for bankruptcy in 2005 and all assets were transferred to Gaiam.
Music
Unlike its predecessor, Golden Films, Jetlag Productions did not rely on familiar classical compositions as the soundtrack to their films (the only exception would be Heidi , which featured a variation of Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood"). Instead, a variety of original compositions were created from scratch, produced by Andrew Dimitroff.
Original songs
Jetlag Productions incorporated original songs across all 17 of their productions. Each film featured a set of three original songs. While the inclusion of musical numbers followed a certain formula, there were exceptions to this rule. For instance, "A Christmas Carol" (1994) departed from the typical opening musical number, and "Hercules" (1995) concluded with an instrumental rendition of "Son of Zeus" rather than a vocal performance. Despite the prevalent use of off-screen voices for most songs, a few films featured in-character performances, such as "Hip Hip Hooray" from "Snow White" (1995), "Sleep and Dream" from "Magic Gift of the Snowman" (1995), "(It's the) Chance of a Lifetime" from "Cinderella" (1994), and "Out on My Own" from "Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle" (1994). An exception to this trend was the duet "When Love Has Gone Away" from "Cinderella" (1994), sung by the characters Cinderella and the prince. Among the many songs featured in Jetlag's films were notable titles like "Dream On, Cinderella" from "Cinderella"; "Start With A Smile", "This Is Home", and "(We're) The Very Best Of Friends" from "Heidi"; and "Never Give Up" from "Hercules".
Musicians
The composers and lyricists involved in original soundtracks. Among these credits, the following artists were credited as:
- Music producer: Andrew Dimitroff
- Composers: Nick Carr, Ray Crossley and Andrew Dimitroff
- Lyricist: Joellyn Cooperman
Credited musicians
- Ray Crossley
- Andrew Dimitroff
- Milcho Leviev
- Mel Steinberg
- Leslie Woodbury
- Kathleen Barr (as the singing voice of Tooey in Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle (1994), performing "Out on My Own")
- Garry Chalk (as the voice of Leo in Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle (1994), performing "I'm a Really Nice Guy")
- Wendy K. Hamilton-Caddey (for songs such as "A Little Bit of Magic", "The Season of Love", "Keep Christmas in Your Heart", and "Land of Pocahontas", among others)
The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of folktales, popularizing stories such as "Cinderella", "The Frog Prince", "Hansel and Gretel", "Town Musicians of Bremen", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Snow White". Their first collection of folktales, Children's and Household Tales, began publication in 1812.
A fairy tale is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. Prevalent elements include dragons, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, merfolk, monsters, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, witches, wizards, magic, and enchantments.
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world. The protagonist is a young girl living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between 7 BC and 23 AD, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.
Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The best known of his tales include "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge", "Cendrillon" ("Cinderella"), "Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté", "La Belle au bois dormant", and "Barbe Bleue" ("Bluebeard").
'Puss' is a character in the fairy tale "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots" by Charles Perrault. The tale was published in 1697 in his Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale of a cat helping an impoverished master attain wealth through its trickery is known in hundreds of variants.
"Sleeping Beauty", also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.
"Hansel and Gretel" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Grimms' Fairy Tales. It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister.
Little Red Riding Hood is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, it features supervision by Ben Sharpsteen. The film was directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi. The film features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, and Luis van Rooten.
"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale most notably recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Brothers Grimm's story was developed from the French literary fairy tale of Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (1698), which itself is an alternative version of the Italian fairy tale Petrosinella by Giambattista Basile.
Giambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. His collections include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known European fairy tales. He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan fairy tales known as Il Pentamerone.
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies. In Perrault's Cinderella, he concludes the tale with the moral that no personal advantages will suffice without proper connections.
Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all.
The Wicked fairy is the antagonist of Sleeping Beauty. In some adaptations, she is known as Carabosse. The most notable adaptation of the character is Maleficent, a Disney villain who appeared in various Disney media, beginning with the 1959 Walt Disney film Sleeping Beauty.
GT Media, Inc. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and classics. The founders for the company were the brothers Kenneth, Joseph and Stanley Cayre of Salsoul Records. Its headquarters were in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company had a distribution facility in Jersey City, New Jersey and a duplication facility in Bayonne, New Jersey, known as GTK Duplicating Co..
Toshiyuki "Toshi" Hiruma is a film producer, who has produced Batman: Gotham Knight, The Batman, Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.!, Daffy Duck for President, Justice League and What's New, Scooby-Doo?. He directed many animated movies in the 1990s with fellow director Takashi Masunaga for Jetlag Productions.
Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye is a collection of literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault, published in Paris in 1697. The work became popular because it was written at a time when fairy tales were fashionable amongst aristocrats in Parisian literary salons. Perrault wrote the work when he retired from court as secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV of France. Colbert's death may have forced Perrault's retirement, at which point he turned to writing. Scholars have debated as to the origin of his tales and whether they are original literary fairy tales modified from commonly known stories, or based on stories written by earlier medieval writers such as Boccaccio.
Joseph Jack Cayre is an American billionaire businessman and real estate developer. Together with his brothers he co-founded the record label Salsoul Records, video tape distributor and producer GoodTimes Entertainment, and video game publisher GT Interactive. He is also the founder and principal of the New York-based real estate development firm Midtown Equities.
Cinderella is a 1955 West German family film directed by Fritz Genschow and starring Rita-Maria Nowotny, Renée Stobrawa and Werner Stock. It is based on the namesake fairytale by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.
In fairy tales, a true love's kiss is a motif and commonly used trope whereby a kiss from a "true love" possesses magical powers and holds significant importance.
