Sunbow Productions
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Sunbow Entertainment is an animation studio, founded in 1980 first in Japan and owned up until 1998 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York. The first animation efforts by Griffin-Bacal were producing the animated commercials for Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line.
The success of the animated commercials led partners Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal to form Sunbow Productions. One of Sunbow's most well known productions is the long running syndicated series The Great Space Coaster.
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[edit] Company overview
Sunbow is noted for many cartoons aired during the 1980s. Although it is not limited to Hasbro's various toy line products its reputation is tied to the many cartoon series tied to them. Its animation was initially produced by the Japanese animation studio Toei, supplemented by the South Korean animation studio AKOM later on. By 1988, most of Hasbro's toylines were losing money and various internal struggles forced the company to end popular series such as G.I. Joe and Transformers. Two of Sunbow's animated movies, (The Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie) flopped at the box office, forcing a third project, G.I. Joe: The Movie, to be released directly to video instead.
In a bid to produce original material, Sunbow produced several cartoons through the early 1990s such as The Nudnik Show, The Tick and Conan the Adventurer. Of these, only The Tick managed to gain popularity and critical acclaim.
On April 28, 1998 Sunbow Productions was bought by Sony Wonder, a division of Sony Music. Sunbow was sold for US$10 million dollars in 2000 to TV Loonland, which then bought Metrodome Distribution, who currently have the European rights to the Sunbow catalogue.
Previously, Rhino Entertainment owned the US home video distribution rights to the Sunbow catalogue. The rights then changed hands to Sony Wonder with its acquisition of Sunbow. However, Sony Wonder was shut down in March 2007.[1]
On June 21, 2007 it was announced that Sony Wonder had been absorbed into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which currently owns the US rights to the Sunbow catalogue. However, it is unknown when or if any of the shows in the library will be re-released by the company in the future.
In May 2008, Hasbro released news that they had obtained the rights to all the Sunbow-produced cartoons based on their properties. This includes Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony and many more.[1]
[edit] Productions
Among the various series produced by Sunbow are:
- Cramp Twins (2001)
- Lion of Oz (2000)
- Mega Babies (1999)
- Salty's Lighthouse (1999)
- Deepwater Black (Mission: Genesis in the U.S.) (1997)
- The Brothers Flub (1997)
- The Adventures of Hyperman (1995)
- The Mask (1995)
- The Littlest Pet Shop (1995)
- The Tick (1994)
- Conan the Adventurer (1992)
- Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (1991) (Co-Production With IDDH, Marvel Productions and Continuity Comics)
- The Nudnik Show (1991)
- Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987) (Co-Production with TMS Productions)
- My Little Pony and Friends (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- Robotix (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- Inhumanoids (1986) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- Super Sunday (1985) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- Jem (1985) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- G.I. Joe (1985) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- Transformers (1984) (1986) (Co-Production With Toei Company, Marvel Productions)
- G.I. Joe: The Revenge of Cobra (1984) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1983) (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- The Great Space Coaster (1981)
The only movies produced by Sunbow were:
- G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
- The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (Co-Production With Toei Company and Marvel Productions)
- My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (Co-Production With Marvel Productions)
[edit] References
- ^ TVShowsOnDVD.com: Transformers DVD news: SonyWonder Goes Under; Uncertain Future For Transformers DVDs!
[edit] External links
- The Ultimate G.I. Joe Cartoon Website
- The Internet Movie Database
- TheTransformers.net Europe's largest Transformers Fan Site
- The Visionaries.netThe web's leading resource for Visionaries Cartoon, Visionaries Comic and Visionaries Toy information
- Transformers @ The Moon The largest Transformers resource for Transformers toys, cartoon and comic information
