WildBrain

WildBrain Entertainment
Subsidiary
Industry Entertainment, Animation
Fate Absorbed by parent company (WildBrain name now used for online streaming service)
Predecessor Colossal Pictures
Founded 1994 (as an animation studio)
2016 (as an online streaming service)
Founders John Hays
Phil Robinson
Jeff Fino
Headquarters Los Angeles, California,
New York City, New York, United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Products television series, special, television commercials, licensed merchandise
Parent Independent (1994–2010)
DHX Media (2010–present)
Divisions animation, Kidrobot collectables, Ghostbot
Website http://www.wildbrain.com/

WildBrain (stylized as W!LDBRAIN) was an animation studio that developed and produced television programming, motion pictures, commercial content and licensed merchandise. Established in 1995 and acquired by Canadian media company DHX Media in 2010, it maintained offices in Los Angeles and New York City until it started operating DHX Media's YouTube channels.

Film productions include the Annie Award-winning CGI short Hubert's Brain, while television work includes Nick Jr. series Bubble Guppies and Yo Gabba Gabba!, and highly rated Disney Channel series Higglytown Heroes. WildBrain also produced earlier animated shorts and television specials of Monster High for Mattel.

They have produced national commercials for clients like Esurance,[1] Chiclets, Target, Nike, Honda, Kraft, the Wall Street Journal and Lamisil, (featuring Digger the Dermatophyte). Their ad work has won Clio Awards, Addy Awards, BDA Awards, and Annie Awards.

A subsidiary, Kidrobot, creates limited edition toys, clothing, artwork, and books. It has stores in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

Today, the WildBrain name is used for a streaming channel for DHX Media's intellectual properties on YouTube. DHX continues to produce WildBrain's ongoing shows, including reboots of Rosie & Jim and Brum, as well as making original content, including toy reviews and surprise egg openings, all for YouTube.

History

In October 1994, John Hays, Phil Robinson, and Jeff Fino started "WildBrain animation studio" in San Francisco's Castro district. The new company bootstrapped with contract work from local game companies such as Broderbund, LucasArts, and Living Books. In 1996 WildBrain moved to a 17,000 square foot warehouse at the corner of 18th and York St. in the Mission District spearheading the growth of what came to be known in San Francisco as "Multimedia Gulch". In 1999, Austin based Interfase Capital invested almost $17 million in Wild Brain.

Over the next few years, WildBrain's staff ballooned from a staff of about 20 to about 250. It struck deals with Yahoo! and the Cartoon Network to produce animated shorts for the Web. It launched WildBrain.com, creating animated web shorts such as Groove Monkey, Mantalope, and numerous web series including Joe Paradise, Glue, Graveyard, and Space Is Dum.

After legendary studio Colossal Pictures closed down in 1999, and with the financial backing of the Interfase companies, WildBrain expanded further, providing employment for former Colossal directors and staff. Around this period they produced the series Higglytown Heroes and Poochini.

In 2004, Charles Rivkin, former CEO of The Jim Henson Company, joined WildBrain as president and CEO. Rivkin oversaw the creation and development of the "Yo Gabba Gabba" series for Nick Jr.

In 2007, former founder Jeff Fino left to start Nuvana, an educational web-based company with former Colossal Pictures Producer, Joe Kwong.

In 2008, Rivkin left WildBrain after newly elected President Obama appointed him US Ambassador to France and Monaco. Michael Polis, the marketing director of WildBrain, then became the new CEO.

Around this time John Hays left WildBrain to work on indie features ("La Mission" and "Howl," which opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival).

By 2009, the original founders of the company had all left WildBrain, and the company moved to Los Angeles. It had been an independent company until DHX Media purchased WildBrain in 2010.

The same year, Phil Robinson, and Amy Capen, exec producer of WildBrain's San Francisco studio started an independent company called Special Agent Productions. Robinson died in 2015 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.[2][3][4]

In 2016, the brand was ingested into DHX Media, and no longer uses the "WildBrain" name for TV shows. The WildBrain name is now used as a streaming service and a YouTube channel.

WildBrain Entertainment

TV shows

Films

Selected commercials

Short films

  • Out In Space (1997)
  • Humanstein (1998)
  • A Dog Cartoon (1998)
  • El Kabong Rides Again (2000)
  • Hubert's Brain (2001)
  • Erin Esurance in "Carbon Copy (2007)

Video games

WildBrain Consumer Products

YO GABBA GABBA! apparel, accessories, books, electronics, games, home décor and toys are available at retail through top licensees, including Kidrobot, Spin Master, Ltd., Simon & Schuster, Nickelodeon Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment, Nickelodeon/Sony BMG and others.

Kidrobot (WildBrain subsidiary) was the first to hit shelves with apparel and collectible merchandise.

Web animation

The studio was one of the pioneers of web-based flash animation series, which were offered to the public from their website in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The studio was also the animation provider of Happy Tree Friends Season 1-2.

Executives

  • Michael Polis
  • Marge Dean
  • David Graber
  • Bob Higgins

Directors

  • George Evelyn
  • Paul Fierlinger
  • Christian Jacobs
  • Denis Morella
  • Scott Schultz
  • Phil Robinson
  • John Hays
  • Ed Bell
  • Robin Steele
  • Dave Marshall

References

  1. ↑ Alex Miller, "Cross-Media Case Study: Secret Agent of Change", OMMA, March 2006.
  2. ↑ "Phil Robinson". FALLOUT: JaMie BaKeR's BLOG. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  3. ↑ "Wild Brain Co-Founder Phil Robinson, RIP". Cartoon Brew. 2015-01-29. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. ↑ "Director and Studio Co-Founder Phil Robinson Dies". Animation Magazine. 2015-01-29. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
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