Artisan is co-producing a direct-to-home feature based on the popular PBS children’s character Arthur. All characters and underlying materials (including artwork) © Marc Brown. © 2003 WGBH.

Mainframe Entertainment, which animated Hot Wheels: World Race and the Barbie movies, is partnering with Artisan and DIC Ent. to produce the CGI direct-to-home feature Inspector Gadget Saves the Day … Maybe (2005). Encouraged by its successful reinvigoration of the Strawberry Shortcake franchise through direct-to-home features, DIC approached Mainframe to help with Inspector Gadget. Mainframe will handle home distribution in non-U.S., English-speaking territories such as Canada, Australia and the U.K, while Artisan will handle distribution in the U.S. The financing for production is coming largely from DIC, the rights holder, with Mainframe and Artisan contributing as distribution partners.

In a separate project, Mainframe approached legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk and entered into an agreement to produce a direct-to-home CGI feature, tentatively titled Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Goes the Circus (2006). IDT Entertainment, the parent company of Mainframe, will handle worldwide television and home distribution of the Tony Hawk movie. IDT is also producing other direct-to-home features based on Spawn and Stan Lee franchises.

Rick Mischel of Mainframe is producing direct-to-video features with legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk. The films, produced on a one-year schedule, are being made in the range of $3 million to $6 million.

According to Rick Mischel, ceo of Mainframe, the films are being produced on a one-year schedule, with about 12 weeks for preproduction, seven months for production, and two months for post-production. It depends on the complexity and length of the film, but in general they are being made in the range of $3 million to $6 million.

One final example of a toy franchise making the transition to direct-to-home animated features is Hasbro’s G.I. Joe. The toys were launched in 1964, and Hasbro is now producing direct-to-home CGI features to boost sales and strengthen the G.I. Joe brand as new characters are introduced. G.I. Joe: Valor Vs. Venom (Paramount Home Entertainment, 2004) was animated by Dallas-based Reel FX Creative Services, with outsourced contributions coming from the U.K., Canada, South America, Europe and Australia. An earlier project, G.I. Joe Vs. Cobra: Spy Troops aired on the Cartoon Network in September 2003.

The Little Polar Bear, a co-production of Warner Bros. and Rothkirch Cartoon Film in Germany, had a theatrical release in Europe before its home distribution in the U.S. Similarly, most anime features for the U.S. market — based on television series, videogames or comicbooks — may have a theatrical premiere abroad. Direct-to-home anime titles are often created as co-productions. According to Carl Macek, a producer with top U.S. anime distributor A.D.V. Films, the cost for production ranges from $10,000 to $40,000 per minute, with $15,000 being the average. Lady Death (2004) was written by Macek and bought by A.D.V. Films. The studio then sold distribution rights to foreign markets to secure funding, and worked with a boutique Korean animation studio, Sun Min, to complete the production.

For anyone interested in producing animation or running an animation studio, two introductory texts are Producing Animation by Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatabadi (Focal Press, 2001), and The Animation Business Handbook by Karen Raugust (St. Martin’s Press, 2004).

Greg Singer is an animation welfare advocate, eating in Los Angeles.