Nelvana



A Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971, mainly known for its world-renowned animation studio. If you've watched Canadian animation, especially for young children, there's a major chance Nelvana had something to do with it.

In recent years storybook-to-screen transitions have become a specialty, the studio having faithfully reproduced the distinctive style of the Care Bears, Babar, Little Bear, Miss Spider and Rupert, among many others.

Nelvana's corporate overlord is Corus Entertainment, which acquired the company in 2000. Corus also owns a number of other media companies in Canada, including Treehouse TV (essentially a Canadian version of Nick Jr. airing a large number of Nelvana programs), YTV (aimed more towards the preteen market) and Kids Can Press (publisher of the Franklin books.)

Gets a Shout-Out in Star Trek: The Next Generation when a secret Romulan base is supposedly located on the planet "Nelvana III"; and for their work on the kiddie series Droids and Ewoks, they also got a Star Wars species named after them: the Nelvaanians.

Animated programs/movies that Nelvana has made/dubbed:

 * 6teen
 * Ace Ventura - The Animated Adaptation
 * Babar - The Animated Adaptation
 * The Backyardigans
 * Bakugan - The English Dub
 * Beetlejuice - The Animated Adaptation
 * The Berenstain Bears - The 2003 Animated Adaptation
 * Beyblade - The English Dub
 * Birdz
 * Blaster's Universe - The Animated Adaptation
 * Blazing Dragons
 * Braceface
 * Cardcaptors - The English Dub
 * Care Bears
 * Class of the Titans
 * Clone High
 * A Cosmic Christmas - TV special
 * Cyberchase
 * Danny Phantom (non-USA)
 * Delta State
 * The Devil and Daniel Mouse
 * Di-Gata Defenders
 * Dog City - The Animated Adaptation
 * Donkey Kong Country - The Animated Adaptation
 * Eek the Cat
 * Fairly Oddparents (With Nickelodeon, non-USA)
 * Flying Rhino Junior High
 * Franklin - The Animated Adaptation
 * Free Willy - The Animated Adaptation
 * The Future Is Wild - The Animated Adaptation
 * Gargoyles - The Goliath Chronicles (With Disney)
 * Grossology
 * The Hardy Boys - The Live Action Adaptation
 * Hot Wheels Battle Force 5
 * Inspector Gadget (With Di C, T Ms and Wang) (first season only)
 * Intergalactic Thanksgiving (a.k.a. Please Don't Eat the Planet) - TV special
 * Jane and the Dragon - The Animated Adaptation
 * Jacob Two Two - The Animated Adaptation
 * Little Bear - The Animated Adaptation
 * Madballs: Escape from Orb! (straight to video special produced to promote the toy line)
 * The Magic School Bus - The Animated Adaptation
 * Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse - The Animated Adaptation
 * Medabots - The English Dub
 * Metal Fight Beyblade - The English Dub
 * Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends - The Animated Adaptation
 * My Dad the Rock Star
 * My Pet Monster
 * Nancy Drew - The Live Action Adaptation
 * Neds Newt
 * The Neverending Story - The Animated Adaptation
 * Pearlie
 * Pelswick
 * Pippi Longstocking - The Animated Adaptation
 * Redwall - The Animated Adaptation
 * Rock and Rule
 * Rolie Polie Olie
 * Romie-0 and Julie-8 (Runaway Robots) - TV special
 * Rotting Hills
 * Ruby Gloom - The Animated Adaptation
 * Rupert - The Animated Adaptation
 * Sam and Max - The Animated Adaptation
 * Scaredy Squirrel
 * Seven Little Monsters - The Animated Adaptation, Co-Production with Hong Ying.
 * Sidekick
 * Spliced
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special - Specifically, the animated short in the middle. Considered the best part of the special, for what it's worth.
 * They also made "Droids" and "Ewoks"
 * Stickin' Around
 * Tales From the Crypt Keeper - They also did the last episode of Tales from the Crypt "The Third Pig"
 * Timothy Goes to School - The Animated Adaptation
 * The Adventures of Tintin - The Animated Adaptation
 * Tuff Puppy (non-USA)
 * Wayside - The Animated Adaptation
 * Xenozoic Tales - The Animated Adaptation

The work of Nelvana provides examples of:

 * Animated Adaptation: they have probably done more series based on children's books than original ideas
 * Canada, Eh?: Often used in the form of such things as characters sporting clothing with maple leaves or playing sports such as hockey.
 * No Export for You: Unless you manage to find a helpful Canadian friend or access on the Internet, just forget about seeing certain series, or in some cases, certain episodes of some series. For example, Nick Jr. still does not carry every episode of Franklin and only rarely airs certain episodes of ~Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends~ and/or took a long time to import them.
 * Qubo airs a lot of Nelvana shows, as the company is a shareholder in the service.