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68-487: Wayside School is a series of short story cycle children's books written by Louis Sachar . Titles in the series include Sideways Stories from Wayside School (1978), Wayside School Is Falling Down (1989), Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (1995), and Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (2020). The books tell of a school where the contractor misread the blueprints and mistakenly built it sideways. As such

136-462: A television series . In the area of science fiction, Nelvana produced Droids and Ewoks , two Saturday-morning series based on Star Wars . At one point, there was talk of an animated CBS show from the studio, based on the BBC 's Doctor Who ; the plan never came to fruition, but concept art was created by Ted Bastien . For Orion Pictures ' 1986 live-action western comedy , Three Amigos ,

204-500: A 75% increase in earnings in 1998, credited to increased original production and sales of its library programming, the deal with CBS, and the addition of a publishing business with the acquisition of Kids Can Press. In August 1999, Nelvana announced a US$ 40 million deal to produce six new series based on popular children's books for a planned PBS block. The six series— Corduroy , Elliot Moose , Timothy Goes to School , Seven Little Monsters , George Shrinks , and Marvin

272-413: A C$ 200 million writedown for the company; by next August, it planned to reduce the staff down to 200. Hirsh has also taken an advisory role in the studio. The following September, Corus launched their home entertainment division . Texas-based FUNimation , along with British company Maverick , has distributed titles from the studio with this label, including Redwall , Pecola , Tales from

340-484: A Chicago-based distributor. The block was offered internationally on a barter program distribution model with one–two hours of daily sections or three–four hours of the weekend block. In 1998, Nelvana entered into an agreement with U.S. network CBS to program a new Saturday morning animation block for the 1998-99 television season, which would be branded as CBS Kidshow . The block would feature six new series based on children's book properties, and all were to comply with

408-485: A chance to revisit the country's past heritage in that field. Meanwhile, Hirsh and Loubert collaborated on a related primer from Peter Martin and Associates, The Great Canadian Comic Books . During this time the new company was named Nelvana after World War II -era Canadian comic book superheroine Nelvana of the Northern Lights . A derelict apartment in downtown Toronto served as the company's first building, and

476-505: A children's book set at an elementary school with supernatural elements. Although the book's students were named after children from Hillside and there is a presumably autobiographical character named "Louis the Yard Teacher," Sachar has said that he draws very little from personal experience, explaining that "....my personal experiences are kind of boring. I have to make up what I put in my books." The Wayside School books take place on

544-504: A co-production agreement with Canadian toy maker Spin Master and Japanese partners TMS Entertainment , Sega Toys and Japan Vistec to create the new anime property Bakugan Battle Brawlers . The series debuted in Canada on Teletoon the following summer and became a quick success. In 2008, merchandising rights were sold by Nelvana to Cartoon Network in the U.S., and the series began airing on

612-415: A facility for producing television commercials that lasted until 1993. As the decade came to a close, the revived Nelvana had its next big success with a film and an HBO television show based on Jean de Brunhoff 's Babar book series. This franchise, its first international co-production , won many ACE Awards in the U.S. and Geminis in Canada. In September 1989, ABC began to air Beetlejuice ,

680-473: A homemade wooden stand mounted over a toilet was among its first camera equipment. "To create zooms," Hirsh recalled of his early experience with this machine, "we would pile up phone books under the art work." During their first year and a half, the trio lived off a superfluous Chargex credit card that Loubert received at university, spending up to C$ 7,500 on it before they reclaimed double that cost as their first ever transaction. Under those conditions, Nelvana

748-582: A second/third-grade class at Hillside Elementary School in Berkeley, California . Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life-changing experience. Sachar graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Economics , and began working on Sideways Stories From Wayside School ,

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816-558: A show produced by Nelvana and based on the film by Tim Burton . Following Babar 's success, the studio acquired the rights to animated series based on Hergé 's The Adventures of Tintin , Maurice Sendak 's Little Bear , Joanna Cole 's The Magic School Bus and the British comic strip Rupert Bear . Nelvana had self-made successes of its own during the 1990s, such as Eek! The Cat , Dog City (with Jim Henson Productions ) and Ned's Newt (with TMO Film GmbH). Less successful

884-410: A similarly styled special in which a girl tries to be a lead dancer at a Christmas pageant. When Nelvana was founded in 1971, their original goal was to create live-action productions involving animation in them during their early days. Nelvana worked on their first television specials: A Cosmic Christmas (1977), The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978), Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979), Please Don't Eat

952-480: A sub-franchise consisting of BeyWheelz , BeyWarriors: BeyRaiderz and BeyWarriors: Cyborg . Their next program Mike the Knight debuted in 2011, a co-production between HIT Entertainment aired on Treehouse TV and CBeebies later in the year. Detentionaire was produced between 2011 and 2015. Created for Teletoon, the show has also been aired internationally, including on ABC3 , and has been released on

1020-443: A substitute from the second book that believed all the students were named Benjamin; Mrs. Day, the school secretary; and David, Mr. Kidswatter's chauffeur. A few more characters include Hobo Bob, a hobo who hates socks brought in by Sharie for show-and-tell; Xavier Dalton, a man who made Ms. Nogard bitter and hateful after being disgusted by her third ear; Mr. Finch, a man who saved up his life savings to start an ice cream company; and

1088-448: A third nostril, alongside Mrs. Drazil, Louis's old teacher who remembers students that forgot homework assignments from decades ago, and Ms. Wendy Nogard, who could read thoughts with a third ear on the top of her head. The thirtieth story has had thirty students taught throughout the course of the books (in order of first mention): In addition to the permanent twenty-eight students, there have been two one-off students: Other members of

1156-469: A variety of voices or perspectives reflective of the radical subjectivity of modern experience. Kennedy finds this proliferation in keeping with modernism and its use of fragmentation, juxtaposition and simultaneism to reflect the "multiplicity" that he believed to characterize that century. Scholars such as James Nagel and Rocío G. Davis have pointed out that the story cycle has been very popular among ethnic U.S. authors. Davis argues that ethnic writers find

1224-522: Is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment since 2000. Founded in July 1971 by Michael Hirsh , Patrick Loubert , and Clive A. Smith , it was named after Nelvana of the Northern Lights , the first Canadian national superhero, who was created by Adrian Dingle . The company's production logo is a polar bear looking at Polaris , the North Star. The company

1292-410: Is a wide range of possibilities that fall between simple collections and novels in their most-commonly understood form. One question is how well the stories stand up individually: chapters of a novel usually cannot stand alone, whereas stories in collections are meant to be fully independent. But many books have combined stories in such a way that the stories have varying degrees of interdependence, and it

1360-593: Is based in Toronto , Ontario , Canada in North America and it maintains international offices in France, Ireland and Japan, as well as smaller offices in the top three cities in the U.S. Many of its films, shows and specials are based on licensed properties and literature, but original programming is also part of its roster. Although the company specializes in children's media, Nelvana has also co-produced adult animations like

1428-407: Is more significant than their unity (e.g., Go Down, Moses ); and the novella , in the classical sense of a collection of unrelated stories brought together by a frame story and a narrator(s) (e.g., Winesburg, Ohio ). [All examples are Lundén's.] Robert M. Luscher compares and contrasts the short story cycle and science fiction short stories combined into longer fixups . In their study of

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1496-400: Is the teacher of the nineteenth story, which doesn't exist; her class includes four students named Ray, Virginia, Nick, and Mark. She and her students supposedly do not exist either. There is also Miss Worm, the teacher of the honors class story who is annoyed by Mrs. Jewls's teaching methods. A few one-off characters include Mrs. Waloosh, the eccentric dance teacher at the school; Mrs. Franklin,

1564-495: Is these variations that cause problems in definition. Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris, for instance, claim that the stories in a story cycle are more independent than those in a composite novel , and James Nagel points out that both cycle and sequence are misleading, since cycle implies circularity and sequence implies temporal linearity, neither of which he finds to be essential to most such collections. Rolf Lundén has suggested four types of cycles, in order of decreasing unity:

1632-730: The Columbia Pictures banner; 1997 saw the studio's retelling of Pippi Longstocking from Warner Bros. ; and Babar: King of the Elephants was released in Canada by Alliance Atlantis in 1999. Among them, only Malice would go on to achieve box-office success in North America. Its US$ 46 million gross was the highest ever attained by a Nelvana production, doubling what the first Care Bears Movie received during its original release. In 1993, Nelvana along with Galaxy Films and De Souza Productions produced Cadillacs and Dinosaurs for

1700-541: The Palo Alto -based children's book publisher Klutz in a US$ 74 million deal—at that time, its largest buyout ever —and integrated it into its Branded Consumer Products division. The company, founded in 1977, was best known for its children's series, Books Plus . Nelvana's separate subsidiary, Kids Can, began taking advantage of the acquisition by making its output available through Klutz merchandise. In September 2000, Corus bought Nelvana for $ 540 million. The company saw

1768-611: The United Kingdom 's Channel 4 began work on Bob and Margaret , the company's first animated franchise for adults since Rock & Rule . It was based on the National Film Board of Canada 's Bob's Birthday , an Academy Award winner for Best Short , which Channel 4 also produced. In December 1997, Nelvana began distributing a syndicated programming block, the Nelvana Kidz Klub, through MediaVentures International,

1836-404: The cycle , in which the ending resolves the conflicts brought up at the beginning (e.g., The Bridge of San Luis Rey ); the sequence , in which each story is linked to the ones before it but without a cumulative story that ties everything together (e.g., The Unvanquished ); the cluster , in which the links between stories are not always made obvious and in which the discontinuity between them

1904-731: The CBS network, based on the comic book of the same name (formally known as Xenozoic Tales ) by Mark Schultz . It only lasted one season. In September 1995, Nelvana produced Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys based on the popular well-known book series. Tracy Ryan portrayed Nancy Drew while Colin Gray and Paul Popowich portrayed Frank and Joe Hardy , respectively. In addition, Jehene Erwin and Joy Tanner portrayed Bess Marvin and George Fayne , respectively, on Nancy Drew , while Fiona Highet played new character Kate Craigen. The series were based on The Nancy Drew Files and The Hardy Boys Casefiles . However,

1972-415: The Cloud of Doom , being a person who is often pranked by Miss Mush because he is shorter than her. He also appears in the final chapter of Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom. Mr. Kidswatter is the school principal, who hates all the kids and often overreacts when things don't go his way. Dr. Pickell, who got introduced in the third book, was originally a psychiatrist, but got fired in the same chapter he

2040-604: The Cryptkeeper , Timothy Goes to School and the holiday special The Santa Claus Brothers . Nelvana's newer titles have been distributed by MGM, Lionsgate and ADV Films , which have no involvement with the label. In 2007, home video distribution rights for the company's catalogue were transferred to Shout! Factory . In 2004, the studio produced an animation anthology , which included 10 recurring shorts. Titled Funpak , it aired on YTV for 13 weeks starting in February 2005, with

2108-633: The Elf , based on Mattel 's toy line ; Strawberry Shortcake: Housewarming Surprise ; Strawberry Shortcake and the Baby Without a Name ; and Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Berrykins , the last three of which featured the eponymous doll . There were two shows from Nelvana based on the AmToy properties, Madballs and My Pet Monster . Despite the successes of their earlier works, perhaps its greatest success at

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2176-589: The Planet (better known by its subtitle, Intergalactic Thanksgiving ) (1979), Easter Fever (1980) and Take Me Up to the Ball Game (1980). During that time, George Lucas , who was impressed with A Cosmic Christmas , commissioned the company to work on a 10-minute sequence for the CBS and CTV TV film Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. This short scene, officially entitled "The Faithful Wookiee", would not only feature

2244-796: The Tap-Dancing Horse —were launched the following September as part of the PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch line-up. That same month, it acquired the North American rights to its first anime property, Clamp 's Cardcaptor Sakura (which was renamed Cardcaptors for its English dub). In April 2000, Nelvana announced that it had filed for two category 2 television licences from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to launch digital cable channels. The first, titled "The Nelvana Channel", would've presented

2312-496: The U.S. and was a financial failure. The company survived by working full-time on children's television series. These included its first three live-action franchises ( The Edison Twins , 20 Minute Workout and Mr. Microchip ), the first season of Inspector Gadget with DIC Entertainment , and the pilot episode of The Get Along Gang . Early in the decade, the company worked on four television specials based on American Greetings properties. They were The Magic of Herself

2380-916: The U.S. government's educational programming guidelines . In April 1998, Nelvana entered into an agreement with ITV franchise Scottish Television to co-produce these new series, and hold distribution rights to them in the United Kingdom. In August 1998, Nelvana acquired Kids Can Press , publishers of the Franklin and Elliot Moose children's books upon which the Franklin and Elliot Moose were based. This turned them into an "integrated company" in which Kids Can's subsequent publications would begin with Nelvana's franchising of those works. The company's first two computer-animated shows, Donkey Kong Country and Rolie Polie Olie (with Paris-based Sparx* and distributed by Disney Channel ), premiered on U.S. television in 1998. In March 1999, Nelvana reported

2448-467: The channel in February 2008. The initial incarnation of the franchise ran for four seasons, spanning 189 episodes and stimulated billions in merchandise sales. Following Bakugan , Nelvana entered into another anime co-production, this time reviving the Beyblade property with d-rights , Takara Tomy and Hasbro . Beyblade: Metal Fusion debuted globally in 2010, running for 167 episodes before inspiring

2516-625: The company made use of lip-sync animation for a musical sequence in which the main characters sing a song at a campfire, with their horses singing along. In 1987, Michael Hirsh produced Nelvana's first self-made film of this calibre, the comedy feature Burglar , which was the first live-action feature film the company had ever produced. Also in 1987, the company, along with independent filmmaker Pierre David , film, video, and television production company Malofilm Group , and home video distributor New Star Entertainment, formed Image Organization, an independent production company that mainly specialized in

2584-512: The company's business card ; on the front was a suited businessman, and inside was the businessman with the pants down. The company was dissolved after an ad agency advised them that the company's name was unprofessional. Nelvana was founded by Hirsh, Loubert, and Smith in 1971. Hirsh recalls: At the time, there was no production industry per se in Canada, either in animation or in television production. There were stations making local shows, but you didn't have people making programs for sale around

2652-471: The company's library of material alongside related information in a picture-in-picture format. The second, "Booknet", was to be focused on adaptations of adult and children's literature, and would have been a 60/40 joint venture between Corus Entertainment and Nelvana. The channels were approved that following November. Both licences expired as neither launched by the required date of November 24, 2004. On April 14, 2000, Nelvana announced its purchase of

2720-438: The composite novel as a short story collection where the focus lies on the coherent whole. (the examples are theirs): The organising principles Multiple of these organizing principles may be used in order to create a composite novel. Nelvana Nelvana Limited ( / n ɛ l ˈ v ɑː n ə / ; sometimes known as Nelvana Enterprises or Nelvana International and commonly known as Nelvana ; stylized as " nelvana ")

2788-551: The first season of Clone High , John Callahan's Quads! , Bob & Margaret , and Committed . Nelvana International distributes three Nickelodeon shows: Taina , the first five seasons of The Fairly OddParents , and The Backyardigans (a co-production with Nick Jr. ). As of 2001 , its library comprised more than 1,650 cumulative half-hours of original programming. Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert first met as friends and partners at York University , Canada in 1967. They made films with other students. This

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2856-419: The format useful "as a metaphor for the fragmentation and multiplicity of ethnic lives" insofar as it highlights "the subjectivity of experience and understanding" by allowing "multiple impressionistic perspectives and fragmentation of simple linear history". Dunn and Morris list several methods that authors use to provide unity to the collection as a whole. These organising principles pertain to their theory of

2924-644: The genre, Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris note that the form descends from two different traditions: There are texts that are themselves assembled from other texts, such as the way the tales from the Arthurian cycle are compiled in books by Chretien de Troyes , Wolfram von Eschenbach , Thomas Malory and the Mabinogion . Then there are the classic serialized novellas , many of them with frame stories ; this genre includes One Thousand and One Nights , The Decameron , The Canterbury Tales , etc. Dunn and Morris show how in

2992-405: The nineteenth century, the genre appeared in such forms as the village sketch collection (e.g., Our Village ) and the patchwork collection (e.g., Louisa May Alcott 's Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag ). J. Gerald Kennedy describes the proliferation of the genre in the twentieth century, attributing it in part to the desire "to renounce the organizing authority of an omniscient narrator, asserting instead

3060-555: The numerous cows, one of which ended up on the nineteenth story, that came to the school leading to it being shut down for 243 days. In 2005, Nelvana produced an hour-long television special loosely based on the books called Wayside: The Movie . The special was later spun off into a series titled Wayside , which aired on Nickelodeon (U.S.) and Teletoon (Canada) from 2007 to 2008. Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. New York: Avon Books, Inc., 1978. Short story cycle Scholars have pointed out that there

3128-424: The original character's voices including Harrison Ford , Mark Hamill , Carrie Fisher , Anthony Daniels and James Earl Jones , but also introduce audiences to the villainous bounty hunter Boba Fett , who would not make his first theatrical appearance until two years later in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back . This first animated appearance created a great buzz around the new character. Nelvana also started to use

3196-428: The polar bear as its mascot. At the beginning of the 1980s, Nelvana chose to produce its first feature film, Rock & Rule , over working on Heavy Metal , internationally-produced animated science fiction anthology. Rock & Rule was inspired by The Devil and Daniel Mouse and cost five years and $ 8 million using all of the studio's resources. The film was released by MGM/UA in 1983 with little promotion in

3264-575: The projects were based on books by E. B. White ( The Trumpet of the Swan ), Clive Barker ( The Thief of Always ) and Graeme Base ( The Sign of the Seahorse ); an original production called Mask Vision was also in the works. However, none of those films ever made it past the finishing stage. During the 1990s, another set of features from Nelvana was distributed by various companies. A 1993 live-action psychological thriller called Malice came out under

3332-493: The proposition. But Hirsh went up against it, arguing with then COO Eleanor Olmsted about its possible effects on his institution. Two months later Golden Books withdrew from the deal stating that they would concentrate more on children's entertainment. In November 1996, Virgin Interactive released Toonstruck , a PC -based adventure game featuring animation and artwork produced by Nelvana and Rainbow Animation. The game

3400-543: The purchase as being a complement to its children's television networks, including YTV and Treehouse . A year after Corus' purchase, co-founders and co- CEOs Loubert and Smith left the studio. Loubert voluntarily left in November after Corus eliminated 50 positions from the staff, saying "The time has come that Corus will stop acquiring for a while and start operating. John Cassaday has made that clear, but this makes my job less rather than more". In 2001, Nelvana acquired

3468-501: The rights to the English-language version of yet another anime series, Medabots . The following January, Beyblade (in association with Hasbro and Mitsubishi ) became its third such property. In October 2002, Corus announced Hirsh's resignation; the following month, Paul Robertson , former president of Corus Television and head of YTV , became leader of the studio's senior management. With Hirsh's departure, Corus announced

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3536-413: The school staff include Louis, a character based on Louis Sachar himself, being the school's caretaker and physical education teacher with a mustache of many colors who is friends with all the kids; Miss Mush, the school's cafeteria lady whose meals are so horrible, students rarely dare to eat them, as well as her assistant, Mr. Pepperadder, who only appears in the math spin-offs and Wayside School Beneath

3604-399: The school was constructed as a 30-story skyscraper. The 19th floor was omitted from the plans. Sachar released two spinoff books of mathematics and puzzles interspersed with stories: Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School (1989) and More Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School (1994). Wayside: The Movie is a television special loosely based on the books that aired in 2005, and

3672-508: The series was not distributed well, mostly due to it being in first-run syndication, and both series were cancelled in December. In September 1996, Golden Books Family Entertainment was in talks to acquire the company for US$ 102 million, just after having purchased the family video library of Broadway Video Entertainment, a subsidiary of Broadway Video . Many of the company's staff members, including Smith and Loubert, expressed interest in

3740-482: The thirtieth story of Wayside School, which is taught by Mrs. Jewls, a nice teacher with occasionally impractical teaching methods. She is the replacement for the old teacher, Mrs. Gorf, who was an evil teacher who could wiggle her ears and stick out her tongue to turn the students into apples. Her ghost reappeared in a later chapter, albeit now repentant to show students the importance of differences. The third book introduces her son, Mr. Gorf, who could steal voices through

3808-592: The thriller genre and tied itself to over 100 films in the international market by 1996. Nelvana and New Star would sell their shares in the company to David and Malofilm in 1989. In 1988, Nelvana and Scholastic Corporation produced a video series of The Video Adventures of Clifford the Big Red Dog based on the 1962 book. It was also distributed by Family Home Entertainment on the video releases. The company's fourth live-action series, T. and T. , premiered in 1988 on Canada's Global network. The show's titular duo

3876-557: The time came in the form of the Care Bears , thanks to its acquisition of the character rights from American Greetings, the franchise owners. In early 1985, the first film based on the toy line turned the company's assets around, grossing US$ 23 million in the U.S., and another $ 1.5 million in its native Canada. Its tremendous success gave way to two more feature films, A New Generation and Adventure in Wonderland , as well as

3944-518: The winning short announced to be greenlit in May of that year. One of the shorts, Sidekick , was the one adapted into a successful cartoon series from 2010–2013 . In May 2006, NBCUniversal announced a joint venture with Nelvana, Ion Media Networks , Scholastic , and Classic Media , known as Qubo , which aimed to operate a multi-platform children's educational television brand in the U.S. featuring programming from its partners. In September 2006, Nelvana

4012-634: The world. So, blissfully unaware of all it would involve, we decided to start a company in Toronto. They bought ownership rights to a collection of local comic books from the 1940s and then produced a half-hour television documentary focused on Canadian comics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Their two-year travelling tour of the art from the National Gallery of Canada , "Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941–45", gave locals

4080-438: Was Mr. T of A-Team fame, playing a former boxer named T.S. Turner, and Canadian actress Kristina Nicoll as an East Coast lawyer by the name of Terri Taler. Nelvana faced bankruptcy for the second time when the show's original U.S. distributor, Qintex Entertainment (formerly Hal Roach Studios) was going out of business; in six weeks, they were saved when they found a replacement. Also that year, Nelvana established BearSpots,

4148-476: Was Loubert's first experience with filming; he recalled: I had been hitchhiking in Europe during the previous summer, and I got a ride with an Italian film director visiting locations. I hadn't heard of him. When I got home I looked up his films – it was Gillo Pontecorvo , a brilliant political filmmaker who had directed The Battle of Algiers . That was the beginning for me. The Canadian television and film industry

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4216-452: Was followed-up by the Wayside animated series that originally ran from 2007 to 2008. While a student at University of California, Berkeley , author Louis Sachar began working at an elementary school to earn college credit. Sachar later recalled, I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in

4284-442: Was integrated into Corus's children's television division, headed by executive vice-president and general manager Scott Dyer who, in addition to Nelvana, oversaw YTV , Treehouse TV , and Discovery Kids Canada . A spin-off unit, Nelvana Enterprises, was created in the process, to focus on international distribution of the company's shows. Doug Murphy became president of the new distribution unit. In October 2006, Nelvana announced

4352-467: Was introduced in due to him including unusual side effects in his sessions. He is now the school counselor, and uses hypnosis on the students to cure their ailments but also adds strange side effects. Mrs. Surlaw is the librarian on the seventh floor, who owns a large stuffed walrus that students can hug after they have checked out a book. Rather than organizing books by genre, fictionality, or subject, she orders books on shelves by number of pages. Miss Zarves

4420-527: Was involved in the production of documentaries and live-action films during the early 1970s. In the area of part-time animation work, they made ten C$ 1,500 fillers for the CBC. Among the studio's first productions was a low-budget CBC short subject series, Small Star Cinema , which combined live-action and animation to tell stories of ordinary life from a child's point of view. It was followed by Nelvana's first ever television special Christmas Two Step in 1975,

4488-511: Was its animated series for children, Roseanne Barr 's Little Rosey , for the American Broadcasting Company , which was cancelled in 1991, after its first season. In Autumn 1993, Nelvana signed a multi-year project to produce five feature films for Paramount Pictures , with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing; the first two began production the following summer, at a cost of over US$ 20 million each. Three of

4556-556: Was set in an animated world using traditional 2D animation, but also featured the digitized likeness of actor Christopher Lloyd as a live-action character trapped in the animated world interacting with the cartoon characters around him. A sequel to the game was planned, but was cancelled due to poor sales. In 1997, a small computer animation company called Windlight Studios was absorbed into Nelvana's assets. Its co-founder, Scott Dyer, became Nelvana's senior vice-president in charge of production in late 2001. In late 1997, Nelvana and

4624-532: Was small at the time. Loubert, Hirsh, and York University friends Jack Christie and Peter Dewdney founded a small company named Laff Arts that produced small experimental films. They were joined by Vitaphone animator-designer Clive A. Smith in Toronto, Ontario ; Smith's interest was in rock n' roll music, and helped produce the Beatles ' animated series and 1968 film Yellow Submarine before moving to Canada to work on short films and commercials. Smith designed

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