DIC Entertainment

DIC Entertainment (pronounced "deek"; stylized as DiC) was an animation studio based in Burbank, California that focused on the production of animated material. It was founded by Jean Chalopin in 1971.

The Walt Disney Company owned DIC through a Limited Partnership through DIC's CEO Andy Heyward from 1996 to 2000, which was acquired as part of Disney's purchase of Capital Cities/ABC.

Connection with Disney[]

Early Business/Joint-venture with Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises[]

DIC's first business with Disney was when their parent company DIC Animation City, Inc. signed a North American home video deal with Buena Vista Home Video on July 12, 1993, allowing the creation of a video label^[1] which would eventually be called DIC Toon-Time Video. The Home Video deal was not completely exclusive, as DIC continued on releasing some of their shows through other Home Video distributors as well.

On July 26, 1993, DIC Animation City formed a Delaware limited partnership with Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. called DIC Entertainment, L.P. in order to control DIC's production library and provide material for Capital Cities/ABC to distribute in the international market. DIC's founder Andy Heyward owned a 95% majority stake, while CC/ABC owned 5%. DIC Animation City was supposed to remain as an independent company but was subsequently folded a year later, making the limited partnership fully owned by Capital Cities/ABC.

In 1994, DIC and Capital Cities/ABC formed another Delaware limited partnership called DIC Productions, L.P., which owned the production/distribution venture of animated and live-action programming for the children's television and video markets. Capital Cities/ABC owned a 95% majority stake in the venture, while Heyward owned the remaining 5%. Despite CC/ABC owning a large stake in the business, DIC continued to continue producing programs independently from ABC as well as being allowed to continue to sell, market and self-distribute their own programmes in North America, although they mostly went with independent children's producer Bohbot Communications for syndication. Internationally, ABC Distribution Company handled the exclusive international distribution of DIC's programs.

One major addition for the joint-venture came in September 1994, when the syndicated television block Dragon Club (小神龙俱乐部) premiered in China, followed on in October with Panda Club. The two blocks expanded the reach of DIC's programming to the Chinese market.

Disney ownership[]

In August 1995, The Walt Disney Company announced they would acquire Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion. The purchase was closed in January 1996 and so DIC’s ownership transitioned to The Walt Disney Company.

As with the Capital Cities/ABC ownership, DIC continued their operations independently as a separate subsidiary through Disney.^[2] DIC retained distribution and marketing to their own franchises in North America, continuing their partnership with Bohbot Entertainment, while internationally, with ABC Distribution Company being folded into Buena Vista International Television, the latter became DIC Entertainment’s new exclusive overseas distributor. In a 1998 interview, Andy Heyward described his partnership with Disney, stating that Disney had a "Very strong product that’s tried and true" and was not "subject to the trends and fads" and was "associated with the highest quality".^[3]

Feature Film Division[]

DIC's first year with Disney began with the launch of a live-action film unit known as DIC Films. The division signed a first-look deal with Walt Disney Pictures and through this deal, two films were put into development - an original feature film called Meet the Deedles and a live action adaptation of Inspector Gadget. In 1998, the deal extended for another two years,^[4] with planned live-action film adaptations based on the animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, and the anime series Sailor Moon, as well as two original projects - Beardstown Ladies and a Disney Channel Original Movie called Genius in the works. Out of all the films planned, only Genius was completed and aired.

Direct-to-Video Division[]

In April 1998, DIC announced to form a direct-to-video division, which would provide material that Buena Vista Home Entertainment would distribute worldwide, with their first two titles being a Madeline movie, and an Inspector Gadget compilation film.

The Madeline title was officially announced as Madeline: Lost in Paris on March 1, 1999 for a release on August 3, 1999 under the Disney umbrella.^[5] As Disney classified the movie as a more "niche audience" release, the marketing was given a far different treatment to Disney's own fare, with Buena Vista mostly focusing on promoting the release to coincide with the Madeline franchise's 60th Anniversary, with promotion being focused within touring Birthday Party events held by DIC, Eden Toys and Penguin Putnam.^[6]

The other release - Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets was released in March 2000 to coincide with the home video release of the live-action movie.

Problems[]

Behind the scenes at Disney showed that their management had very little interest in DIC and disliked their animation style, being nothing like theirs. According to Michael Swanigan, a storyboard writer for Sabrina, The Animated Series, Disney was not immediately aware that Capital Cities/ABC owned DIC at the time of the acquisition.^[7]

Sale[]

On September 25, 2000, it was announced that Andy Heyward was gaining funds to fully re-purchase DIC from Disney through Bain Capital Partners. November 18, 2000, Disney accepted the sale and was closed on November 25, 2000, officially making DIC re-independent and reinstating the international distribution rights to their catalogue following the reopening of DIC's international sales offices. DIC however, continued with an association with Disney, which included:

• Sabrina: The Animated Series remaining part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning (ABC) and Disney's One Too (UPN) blocks (and later Disney Channel and Toon Disney).
• The third season of The New Adventures of Madeline airing on Disney Channel on the Playhouse Disney block, as well as the series remaining part of the Playhouse Disney and Toon Disney airtimes.
• Work on a sequel to Inspector Gadget.
• DIC programs remaining as part of a portion of Toon Disney's schedule.
• Two direct-to-video films distributed through Buena Vista Home Entertainment (This would never came to fruition in the end).

DIC's film library was originally intended to be kept by Disney, but instead went back to DIC, with the exception of the live-action films.^[8]

Seth Kearsley, who worked for the company as the the director and producer for Mummies Alive! and later made a Kingdom Hearts animated pilot for Disney, has said that Disney were required to sell DIC Entertainment off because DIC operated as a non-union studio and The Walt Disney Company wasn’t allowed to own a union and non-union animation studio at the same time.^[9]

Aftermath[]

In July 2001, The Walt Disney Company announced that they would purchase Fox Family Worldwide from News Corporation and Saban Entertainment. At the time, the international rights to DIC's pre-1990 catalogue were held by Saban Entertainment. The deal was completed by October, and so the rights went to Disney.

International rights to DIC's newer programmes went to some Disney networks overseas. Disney Channel Asia acquired Super Duper Sumos and was later followed up with Disney Channel France acquiring the series as well. Fox Kids Latin America, which was now part of Disney after the Fox Family Worldwide purchase, acquired Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! and Super Duper Sumos. In the United States, Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! was sold to ABC and aired on Disney's One Saturday Morning before moving to Toon Disney. German joint-venture channel Super RTL also continued acquiring and airing DIC's programmes as well.

In October 2002, DIC announced that the international broadcast rights to their "Movie Toons" (which at the time, were recently airing on Nickelodeon in the United States) library was acquired by Walt Disney Television International in France, Germany (Alongside Super RTL), Italy, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, the Middle East and Scandinavia. For which in these countries, they would air on a respective Disney Channel, Toon Disney or Playhouse Disney network.

In January 2004, DIC unrevealed a new content package - Totally Sabrina, consisting of Sabrina, The Animated Series which had already aired on Disney networks overseas for many years, and brand new series Sabrina's Secret Life, was sold to Walt Disney Television International for airing in United Kingdom, Ireland, Asia, Taiwan, Australia, France, Latin America including Brazil, the Middle East and Spain. In Germany, both Disney Channel and Super RTL acquired the package. In the same year, Heyward purchased Bain Capital's stake in DIC Entertainment and took the company public in the United Kingdom stock market the following year.

In 2005, DIC pre-sold their then-new movie Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever! and 39 episodes of Sabrina to the Japanese Disney Channel.^[10] In the United States, Disney Channel and Toon Disney premiered DIC's then-newest series Trollz as a hour-long TV movie before its full syndicated run.

In March 2006, DIC Entertainment fully re-acquired the rights to their pre-1990 catalogue from Disney.

In July 2008, Cookie Jar Entertainment purchased and folded DIC Entertainment. As of 2020, most of DIC's former assets and library are owned by Canada-based WildBrain (formerly known as DHX Media), who acquired Cookie Jar in October 2012. Some exceptions include the live action films they produced with Disney, which the latter retains full ownership to.

DIC programmes on Disney networks[]

Disney Channel/Toon Disney[]

When Toon Disney launched on April 18, 1998, the channel didn't include just Disney programmes. A selection of DIC Entertainment programmes: Gadget Boy, The Littles, The New Archies, Super Dave: Daredevil for Hire, Wish Kid, What-a-Mess and The Wizard of Oz all aired within launch of the network, in addition to Madeline (a package consisting of the CINAR-produced specials and the DIC-produced TV series) which already began airing on Disney Channel a year prior after its relaunch. This was joined in September 1998 with one of Toon Disney's more popular acquired offerings - Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. These shows continued to air on Toon Disney even after the sell-off, with Groundhog Day 2001 being deemed as a "Sonic Hog-A-Thon" on the network, where Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog aired for the entire day.

During the channel's rebrand in September 2002, all of the older programmes, including the DIC programmes, were removed (Except for Madeline, however, Gadget Boy was removed in 2001) in favor of Disney's One Saturday Morning shows, including Sabrina, The Animated Series and Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!. Madeline and Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! were removed in 2003, while Sabrina, The Animated Series was removed in September 2004 in favor of new series Sabrina's Secret Life, which aired until 2005. Madeline was also removed around the same time on Disney Channel/Playhouse Disney.

Other[]

In May 1998, DIC and Buena Vista Television signed a two year agreement with the then-upcoming PAX Network where DIC would be the sole provider of children's programming for the television network group. Originally, DIC and Buena Vista offered up a packaged educational programme block called Freddy's Firehouse, which would air for five hours overall every weekend and was also planned to be sold as an independent formatted package handled through Buena Vista International Television overseas. However, PAX decided to produce their own block for their network instead, called Cloud Nine, which aired various archived DIC programmes.

Internationally[]

Outside the United States, DIC shows would also air on international Disney networks and blocks due to BVIT's worldwide distribution rights to DIC's post-1990 catalog. However, BVIT mostly licensed the company's shows to basic channels rather than their premium networks. DIC shows on Disney Channel were mainly seen on the Asian feed, who aired almost every programme from the company at the time.

DIC Toon-Time Video[]

DIC Toon-Time Video was a video label distributed in the United States by Buena Vista Home Video, that focused on distributing most of DIC's shows onto VHS. The label was created in 1994, replacing the standard DIC branding on Buena Vista-distributed DIC releases. The partnership was semi-exclusive, as some DIC shows were also released through other distributors, even during Disney's ownership of the company. The label would be retired in 2000, with the last release through the label being the Sailor Moon: The Doom Tree Series VHS boxset.

Outside North America, Buena Vista Home Video would occasionally release some of DIC's programs onto VHS in some countries like Latin America and Australia, but distribution overseas was mostly done through other home video distributors.

Shows/movies produced during Disney ownership[]

Note: With the exception of the live action movies, all of the following programs had very little connection to Disney, even during the era when the company owned DIC. This is because DIC traded independently from Disney's other subsidiaries.

Television Series[]

• The Legend of Sarmoti: Siegfried & Roy (1996, Fox)
• Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (Season 4, 1996, Fox)
• Inspector Gadget's Field Trip (1996-1998, The History Channel)
• Hurricanes (Season 4 and 5, 1996-1997, Scottish Television)
• Gadget Boy's Adventures in History (1997, The History Channel)
• Sailor Moon R (1997, eps. 66-82 [73-89 unedited], USA Network)
• Extreme Dinosaurs (1997, produced for Bohbot Entertainment, Syndication)
• Mummies Alive! (1997, Syndication)
• The Wacky World of Tex Avery (1997, Syndication)
• Pocket Dragon Adventures (1998, produced for BKN International, Syndication)
• Sonic Underground (1999, Syndication)
• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (1999, Fox, Scottish Television)
• Sabrina: The Animated Series (1999, UPN and ABC)
• Archie's Weird Mysteries (1999, PAX)
• The New Adventures of Madeline (Season 3, 2000, Disney Channel)

Live-Action Movies[]

• Meet the Deedles (1998, Theatrical)
• Inspector Gadget (1999, Theatrical)
• Genius (1999, Disney Channel Original Movie)

Direct-to-Video Movies/Compilations[]

• Double Dragon: The Shield of the Shadow Khan (1994, distributed by Buena Vista Home Video)
• Siegfried and Roy: Masters of the Impossible (1996, distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
• A Christmas Carol (1997, distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
• Mummies Alive!: The Legend Begins (1998, distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
• Our Friend, Martin (1999, distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
• Madeline: Lost in Paris (1999, distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment under Disney brand)
• Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets (2000, distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
• Monster Mash (2000, distributed by Universal Studios Home Video)
• Archie's Weird Mysteries: Archie and the Riverdale Vampires (2000, distributed by Universal Studios Home Video)

Other[]

• Sonic Christmas Blast (TV Special, 1996, USA Network)

DIC shows that aired on Disney networks[]

Disney-era[]

• Mummies Alive! -
  • United Kingdom - Diggit
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Germany - Super RTL
• The Wacky World of Tex Avery
  • United Kingdom - Diggit, Disney Channel
  • Asia - Disney Channel
• Sonic Underground
  • United Kingdom - Diggit
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Germany - Super RTL
• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Middle East and North Africa - Disney Channel
  • France - Toon Disney
• Sabrina: The Animated Series
  • United States - ABC (Disney's One Saturday Morning) and UPN (Disney's One Too), Disney Channel, Toon Disney
  • United Kingdom - Diggit, Disney Channel, Toon Disney
  • Most International Regions - Disney Channel and/or Toon Disney
• Archie's Weird Mysteries
  • United Kingdom - Diggit
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • France - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • Spain - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
• The New Adventures of Madeline
  • United States - Disney Channel
  • Australia - Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney
  • Germany - Super RTL

Post-Disney[]

• Evolution: The Animated Series (2001)
  • Asia - Disney Channel
• Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! (2001)
  • United States - ABC and Toon Disney
  • Latin America - Fox Kids
• Super Duper Sumos
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Latin America - Fox Kids
  • France - Disney Channel
• Stargate Infinity (2002)
  • France - Disney Channel
• DIC Movie Toons (2002, TV movies)
  • United Kingdom - Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Playhouse Disney
  • France - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • Germany - Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Super RTL
  • Italy - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Australia/New Zealand - Disney Channel
  • Spain - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • Middle East - Disney Channel
  • Scandinavia - Disney Channel
• Strawberry Shortcake (2003-2008)
  • Asia - Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney
  • Netherlands - Fox Kids/Jetix
• Sabrina's Secret Life (2003)
  • United States - Toon Disney
  • United Kingdom - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • France - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
  • Germany - Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Super RTL
  • Italy - Fox Kids
  • Asia - Disney Channel
  • Taiwan - Disney Channel
  • Australia/New Zealand - Disney Channel
  • Latin America/Brazil - Disney Channel
  • Middle East - Disney Channel
  • Spain - Disney Channel and Toon Disney
• Trollz (2005)
  • United States - Disney Channel and Toon Disney (One-off airings)
• Inspector Gadget's Biggest Caper Ever! (2005, movie)
  • Italy - Disney Channel
  • Japan - Disney Channel
• Horseland (2006)
  • Asia - Disney Channel

References[]