Category: Licensing

Cinar's library of over 2,200 half-hours of family programming will soon be traveling to new territories thanks to a distribution agreement with VGI Entertainment Ltd., a UK-based distribution company. Under the terms of the deal, VGI will distribute Cinar titles such as CAILLOU, ARTHUR, MONA THE VAMPIRE and THE BUSY WORLD OF RICHARD SCARY in sub-Saharan Africa. "We are very pleased to add VGI's expertise and knowledge to the Cinar team," said Louis Fournier, head of distribution for Cinar. "We are confident that our fascinating cast of characters will find a welcome home in Africa.

Buena Vista International Television has licensed its 'Classic Treasures' package to a number of key broadcasters across the Asia Pacific region for telecast on terrestrial television for the first time. The collection, which includes A BUG'S LIFE, MULAN, POCAHONTAS, TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2 will air on the Seven Network in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand and on the Media Corp-owned Channel 5 in Singapore.

Egmont Imagination has signed an exclusive worldwide direct marketing agreement with Readers Digest to distribute THE FAIRYTALER on video and DVD. Launched this week at MIPCOM Jr., THE FAIRYTALER is a 26 x half-hour animated series that newly illustrates Hans Christian Andersens classic tales, which include THE UGLY DUCKLING, THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES, THUMBELINA and THE LITTLE MERMAID. The series is a co-production between Magma Film, Egmont Imagination and fellow Danish companies A. Film and Danmarks Radio, as well as Germany's Super RTL.

In a major promotional licensing development, the Nelvana-distributed action series BEYBLADE will be promoted via all Kelloggs childrens cereal brands in the UK. Set to launch October 1, 2002, the Kelloggs UK campaign will place 12 million BEYBLADE spinning top toys in all leading Kelloggs cereals. The first of numerous global BEYBLADE promotions planned for 2002-2003, Kelloggs will support the BEYBLADE campaign with a comprehensive media program involving television and print.

Family entertainment company Raven Moon Entertainment, Inc. hassigned a multi-faceted development deal with Pangea Corporation, astrategic marketing and content development entity, which specializesin the kids entertainment and toy industries. Pangea will assistRaven Moon in the further development of its intellectual properties,while also establishing licensing and cross-promotional opportunitiesfor Raven Moon's GINA D'S KIDS CLUB brand, a series oflive-action/animated videos for children. Pangea has worked with DIC

McFarlane Toys and Warner Bros. Consumer Products have joined forces to create action figures based on Warner Bros. Pictures' highly anticipated second and third installments of THE MATRIX Trilogy -- THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, both slated for release in 2003. Action figures based on the films will debut in conjunction with each film's release. McFarlane Toys is working closely with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to determine which characters will become action figures.

Barcelona-based Grupo Neptuno has completed a major deal with Basque television producer Euskal Irrati Telebista (ETB) for the distribution of its catalogue worldwide, excluding Latin America and Spanish-speaking stations in the United States. ETB's complete line up of more than 1,000 hours of documentaries, entertainment, animation, feature films and live-action series will join Grupo Neptuno's existing catalog, which includes the preschool series CONNIE THE COW, distributed by AAC Kids and TV-Loonland, and the Flash animated series 2020, a co-production with Megatrix.

Gullane Entertainments popular childrens property THOMAS & FRIENDS, has now been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and will be seen in eighteen countries across Central and South America including Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico, and throughout The Caribbean. The series launched in early July 2002 on Discovery Kids Latin Americas newly expanded pre-school block.

Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products and Mattel, Inc. have announced a comprehensive, multi-year agreement that grants Mattel the master toy licenses for several of Warner Bros. core franchises including LOONEY TUNES, BABY LOONEY TUNES, BATMAN, SUPERMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Mattel will develop and market products such as vehicles, action figures, playsets, plush, games, puzzles, dolls, adult collectibles and other categories based on the properties.

Disney has partnered with Hasbro, Inc. to bring the popular characters from Disney's summer hit LILO & STITCH to stores. The unruly alien is captured in numerous ways including SPITTIN' STITCH with "real spitting action" created by holding him underwater to fill him up, then squeezing him, ELECTRONIC EXPERIMENT 626 STITCH has electronic features which allow Stitch to make laser sounds and speak "alien." And if you want to transform an alien into a pet, the 2-in-1 SWITCHIN' STITCH turns Stitch from outlaw alien experiment into a family pet.

DecodeEntertainment Inc. has appointed The Sharpe Company as theinternational licensing agent for its new 3D animated preschoolseries THE SAVE-UMS! The series is scheduled to debut in February2003 as part of Discovery Kids new "Ready, Set, Learn" programmingblock on TLC and Discovery Kids Channel in the U.S. and on CBCCanada. Sharpe, current licensing agent for properties such asHUMPHREY'S CORNER and THUNDERBIRDS, will license THE SAVE-UMS! in allterritories outside North America.

DreamWorks SKG and Hasbro, Inc. have announced that Hasbro willproduce a line of G.I. JOE Adventure Team figures based on theupcoming DreamWorks animated feature SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVENSEAS, scheduled for release in May 2003. To support the movie, Hasbrowill offer the new line of G.I. JOE Adventure Team featuring Sinbadbattling mythological monsters. The 12" action figure line willinclude Sinbad vs. The Roq, a monstrous bird of prey; Sinbad vs.Serpens, a dragon-like sky serpent; and Sinbad vs. Scorpious, a