Sunbow Entertainment

This article is about the animation studio. For the atmospheric phenomena, see 22° halo

Sunbow Entertainment, LLC

Industry	Television production and film studio
Fate	Folded into TV-Loonland
Founded	1980
Defunct	2004
Headquarters	New York, United States
Key people	Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal
Parent	Griffin-Bacal Advertising (1980–1998) Sony Wonder (1998–2000) TV-Loonland AG (2000–2004)

Sunbow Entertainment was an animation studio, founded in 1980 and owned until 1998 by Griffin-Bacal Advertising in New York City and in the United States. Griffin-Bacal's first animations were animated commercials for Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line.

The success of the animated commercials led partners Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal to form Sunbow Productions.

Company overview

Sunbow is noted for many cartoons aired during the 1980s. Most of their work was co-produced with Marvel Productions. Although it is not limited to Hasbro's various toy lines its reputation is tied to the cartoon series tied to them. Its animation was initially produced by the Japanese animation studio Toei Animation, supplemented by the South Korean animation studio AKOM later on. By 1987, most of Hasbro's toy lines were losing money and internal struggles forced the company to end popular series such as G.I. Joe and Transformers. Two of Sunbow's animated movies, The Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie, flopped at the box office, forcing a third project, G.I. Joe: The Movie, to be released directly to video. Sunbow also worked with TMS Entertainment with Hasbro's Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, and one episode of season 3 of The Transformers, "Call of The Primitives".

In a bid to produce original material, Sunbow produced several cartoons through the early 1990s such as The Tick and Conan the Adventurer. Only The Tick managed to gain popularity and critical acclaim.

On May 4, 1998, Sony Wonder, a division of Sony Music bought Sunbow Productions^[1] and it was later bought by TV-Loonland on October 3, 2000, as well as Sony Wonder's television business assets,^[2][3] which then bought Metrodome Distribution, who had the European rights to the Sunbow catalogue.

Previously, Rhino Entertainment owned the U.S. home video distribution rights to the Sunbow catalogue. The rights then changed hands to Sony Wonder with its acquisition of the catalogue. However, Sony Wonder was shut down in March 2007.^[4]

On June 20, 2007, it was announced that Sony Wonder had been moved into Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which at the time owned the U.S. rights to the Sunbow catalogue.^[5][6] On May 14, 2008, Hasbro announced that it had obtained the rights to all the Sunbow Productions animated series based on Hasbro properties. This includes Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Jem and the Holograms, and many more.^{[7][8][9][10]} The titles are currently managed as part of the Hasbro Studios library. TV-Loonland filed for bankruptcy in 2009.^[11]

Productions

Television

• The Cramp Twins (2001)
• Generation O! (2000)
• Fat Dog Mendoza (1998)
• Salty's Lighthouse (1998)
• The Crayon Box (1997)
• The Brothers Flub (1997)
• G.I. Joe Extreme (1995)
• The Adventures of Hyperman (1995)
• The Mask (1995) (co-production with Dark Horse Entertainment, Film Roman, and New Line Television)
• Littlest Pet Shop (1995)
• Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles (1994) (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero spin-off)
• The Tick (1994) (co-production with Fox Children's Productions, Graz Entertainment, and Saban Entertainment)
• Conan and the Young Warriors (1994)
• Conan the Adventurer (1992)
• My Little Pony Tales (1992) (co-production with Graz Entertainment)
• Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (1991) (co-production with IDDH, Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, Marvel Productions and Continuity Comics)
• Transformers: The Rebirth (1987) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Transformers: The Return of Optimus Prime (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987) (co-production with TMS Entertainment)
• Transformers: Five Faces of Darkness (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions and Akom Animation Studio)
• My Little Pony 'n Friends (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Robotix (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Inhumanoids (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Glo Friends (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• MoonDreamers (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Potato Head Kids (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The GLO Friends Save Christmas (1985)
• Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Robotix (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Super Sunday (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Jem (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)^[12]
• G.I. Joe (1985) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Transformers (1984) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• G.I. Joe: The Revenge of Cobra (1984) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1983) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Charmkins (1983) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• The Great Space Coaster (1981) (co-production with Metromedia)

Films

• The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions)
• Inhumanoids: The Movie (1986) (co-production with Marvel Productions) (Direct-to Video)
• G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) (co-production with Marvel Productions) (Direct-to Video)

References

External links

• Sunbow Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database