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Allow Us To Explain

DreamWorks Acquires Classic Media, Awesome Stuff On The Way (Trust Us)

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:10 am, July 24th, 2012


DreamWorks Animation, the folks who brought us Shrek, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon, have just acquired the privately owned animation studio, Classic Media. Why should you care? Classic Media owns the motherload of awesome cartoon and comic properties. And all it cost them was $155 million in cash. Hit the jump to find out what characters from your childhood we’ll likely be seeing again very soon. 

“Classic Media’s library of intellectual property, which is focused on family characters and brands, features a vast collection of filmed entertainment with over 450 titles and more than 6,100 episodes of animated and live-action programming,” it states in the press release. “Classic Media owns one of the world’s largest comic book archives and media rights to the titles in the Golden Books library, which have sold over two billion copies worldwide.”

They were founded by former Marvel Entertainment CEO Eric Ellenbogen and Broadway Video executive John Engelman who wanted to gather properties they thought weren’t getting enough exposure. Here’s just a sliver of what they own the rights to:

  • Casper the Friendly Ghost
  • Where’s Waldo?
  • Lassie
  • The Lone Ranger
  • George of the Jungle
  • Rocky & Bullwinkle
  • Voltron
  • Rankin/Bass’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & Frosty the Snowman
  • Gumby
  • Felix the Cat
  • Little Lulu
  • Filmation’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Ghostbusters, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
  • Lamb Chop’s Play Along
  • VeggieTales

And now, barring a few exceptions which can’t be used for either television or film because those rights still lie with others, DreamWorks owns them all. “Classic Media brings a large and diverse collection of characters and branded assets that is extremely complementary to DreamWorks Animation’s franchise business, and we plan to leverage it across our motion picture, television, home entertainment, consumer products, digital, theme park and live entertainment channels,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation.

Collider writes, “While The Lone Ranger is already in development at Disney, and this acquisition clearly doesn’t supersede previous deals regarding other properties set up other studios, it still gives DreamWorks Animation a large number of titles to draw from.” Meanwhile, DreamWorks has already started production on their first Classic Media property, Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

“As part of DreamWorks Animation’s ongoing diversification strategy, this acquisition combines our hit-driven business with Classic Media’s extensive and sustainable library revenue stream,” added Lew Coleman, DreamWorks Animation’s President and Chief Financial Officer. “We expect the transaction to be accretive to our earnings in the first full year following the completion of the acquisition.”

Uh, ya think? DreamWorks films regularly make hundreds of millions at the box office. So yes, this is huge for them but also huge for us because it means we can get that Voltron movie I always wanted.

Which property are you most excited to see DreamWorks revive?

(via Collider)

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  • http://twitter.com/TaraNewman TaraNewman

    I would love an updated Felix the Cat movie!  Oriana! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NMD3mzgQxw

  • Anonymous

    Of the new versions of those characters in recent years, their success have been…spotty.

    The Tracy Ullman-voiced Little Lulu was glorious.  The various Rocky and Bullwinkle movies? Not so much.  Underdog?  Explain how you screw up a movie where Peter Goddamn Dinklage is playing Simon Bar Sinister and Partick Warburton is playing Cad?  Well, they sure found a way.

    If this means we’ll see more good quality reboots, good (What little I’ve heard and seen of Peabody and Sherman sounds promising), more the better.  I’m hoping we see them get into other media areas, like comics.

  • Terence Ng

    In these dark, hedonistic times, the wholesome and sanctimonious (not to mention nutritious) message of Christian vegetables is exactly what this effed up gay-loving country needs.

    Just kidding. But seriously: Who wants some gazpacho?

  • Anonymous

    Now this movie can finally exist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arP1YKAyR_g

  • http://twitter.com/invalidname Chris Adamson

    There’s only one way this doesn’t suck: if the Filmation assets include the 1979 “Flash Gordon” cartoon, and Dreamworks discovers that there is a surviving cut of “The Greatest Adventure of All” (the two-hour movie version that starts out with Flash helping the Polish resistance in WWII and investigating why the Nazis are getting help from outer space), and they release it on DVD.

    The odds are very low, given that a previous owner of the Filmation library (the cosmetics company L’Oreal) converted the shows and movies to standard-def PAL and destroyed the film library, meaning the surviving material can never be released in a true hi-def format, and will always have timing problems when running in non-PAL framerates. And that’s assuming FG:TGAOA even got converted.

  • http://ladymercury-10.livejournal.com/ Maiasaura

    I miss Lamb Chop so much.

  • http://twitter.com/onegirlgeek Jennifer

    I’d be down for some Felix the Cat. 

  • John Wao

    Wow that’s quite a collection of properties. I can see Rocky and Bullwinkle being rebooted and back on TV along with Casper the Friendly Ghost and Felix the Cat. And get ready for a Lassie movie or tv show.

  • Victoria Eden

    I have only one thing to say:

    This is the song that never ends.
    Yes, it goes on and on, my friends.
    Some people, started singing it not knowing what it was,
    And they’ll continue singing it forever just because
    This is the song that never ends…

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    I love you.

  • Anonymous

    I’m pretty sure the Filmation assets include none of the licensed stuff, which also means I STILL won’t get a Fantastic Voyage box set.

    Busby Birdwell was the Neil Degrasse Tyson of my generation.

  • Victoria Eden

     Hahah, not the usual response I get when I start singing that song.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003037095323 Jerilyn Nighy

    Yay!  More corporate control over intellectual property.

  • Carmen Sandiego

    I want a live-action Where’s Waldo Caper/Chase (and it should come out around the same time as that Carmen Sandiego movie that’s being produced).

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/XIWZRWAXJQKAJ4QEHKMVMCMLAY brian

    I had me some lamb chop the other day.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/XIWZRWAXJQKAJ4QEHKMVMCMLAY brian

    Ugh.

    Get ready for jack black as waldo.

  • http://www.wordflow.webs.com/ Invisible_Jester89

    Gumby! Felix! Rocky and Bullwinkle! Casper!

    At least three of those four need updated, much more modern, and in some cases better film adaptations than what we currently have.

  • http://www.facebook.com/steve.hullfish Steve Hullfish

    VeggieTales

  • http://www.facebook.com/steve.hullfish Steve Hullfish

    VeggieTales and Rocky and Bullwinckle

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