Nelvana a All P
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FEA TURE lsons Ne f o tesy r ou c tos ho Nelvana a All p , Michael Hirsh Patrick Loubert Clive Smith In 1971, when three some of the finest animated rotting away." The three got young men decided to in- and children's live-action hold of the books and acquired corporate themselves into a shows in the world. the rights to them. The CBC film company called Nelvana, helped to finance a docu- the commercial cinema scene The three first met in the late mentary on an interesting was far different than it is 1960s, a time well remem- moment in Canadian popular today in Canada. Very few bered for its funky, rebellious history; Peter Martin and features were being made in attitudes. Hirsh and Loubert Associates came on as a this country, much less started a small production firm publisher of a coffee-table Toronto, and the occasional called Laff Arts with a business book on Johnny Canuck, independently produced tele- card portraying a man in a suit Nelvana and their cohorts; and vision show created here was on the front; when the card the National Gallery of Canada rarely broadcast interna- was flipped over onto its back, agreed to support a two-year tionally. Michael Hirsh and he had dropped his pants. travelling tour of the comic Patrick Loubert, two York Hirsh admits now, "Toronto book art. These successes University graduates with a wasn't ready for that kind of helped to establish the trio. As taste for underground film- humour." The designer of the a tip of the hat to the project, making, and Clive Smith, a card was Clive Smith. A few they named their new rock 'n' rolling expatriate Brit years of scuffling and hap- company Nelvana. who had worked on the hazard collaborations followed animation for The Beatles until a surprising find gave the Their first studio was housed cartoon show, hardly seemed trio a fresh start. in a grotty downtown apart- like a trio destined to crack the ment near the intersection of global television market. A Hirsh, Smith and Loubert King and Spadina, in Toronto's short life as a studio making discovered a cache of comic downtown core. "The walls educational films and com- books made in Canada during were grey with slime running mercials (the story of the vast WW II. Heroes such as Johnny down them," recalls Smith. majority of companies started Canuck, Nelvana of the Northern Hirsh remembers that their back then) seemed to be their Lights and others enjoyed a animation camera stand was likely fate. Against the odds, vogue during the war, a homemade wooden frame the company has grown from supported by the enthusiastic mounted over a toilet and a staff of three to 300. Their readership of Canada's over- "to create zooms, we would polar bear logo is now seen seas military force. Nearly 30 pile up phone books under asso-ciated with Eek! The Cat, years later, the remaining the art work." Beetlejuice, Babar, Little Bear, stock of these old comics were, The Adventures of Tintin, Nancy as Clive Smith recalls it, "in a For the next five years, the Drew and The Magic School Bus, warehouse, sitting there, company survived on a mix of 18 F A L L 1 9 9 6 RUPERT THE BEAR by Ellen Besen and Marc Glassman r- T AK E 0 N -E 19 animation service Over the next four years, Nelvana created five other 30-minute work, documen- holiday specials, notably The Devil and Daniel Mouse, Intergalactic taries and dramatic Thanksgiving and Romie-O and Julie-8. Well designed and crafted, live-action films. these shorts presented amusing, sentimental stories that touched They made a group on contemporary ethical and social themes. The best of the of shorts for the CBC, group, Intergalactic Thanksgiving (1978), is a wacky shaggy dog Small Star Cinema, that tale in which corn pone earthling farmers transform an Alice-in- were gentle slice-of-life Wonderland society of joking green-skinned aliens into tales depicting situa- responsible ecologically oriented crop growers. During this time, tions from a child's point Smith was able to swell the ranks of his Sheridan graduates to of view. This series, include such now well-known animation heavyweights as incorporating animation Chuck Gammage, Charlie Bonifacio, Frank Nissan, Bill Spears with actors, led to a simi- and Lenora Hume. Nelvana's half-hours consistently garnered larly styled holiday presen- fine audience ratings while winning international recognition for tation, Christmas Two Step, in the company. One fan of their efforts, George Lucas, 1975. That film is a charming look at a girl commissioned them to create a 10-minute animated piece for his who wants to be the lead dancer at a 1978 Star Wars television special. Christmas pageant. But something quite remarkable had happened. Nelvana had discovered a new source of talent: the graduates from the classical animation course at Sheridan College (a community college located just outside of Toronto in Oakville). Smith's new recruits—notably David oping to build on their string of successes, Nelvana Thrasher, Robin Budd, Woody Yocum and embarked on an ambitious new project, a fully animated feature Mitch Rochon—created a Gepetto-like film. Intended for the young adult market, Rock & Rule (1983) Grandfather Clock character and allowed him was designed as a futurist film noir, in the style of Blade Runner to inhabit a world that was more fully realized and the Heavy Metal comic books. The complex story tells of Mok, than anything previously produced by Nelvana. a retired rock star of the future who lures female vocalist Angel away from her lover, Omar, and their rock band, in order to use Although commercial animation was considered her voice to contact creatures in another dimension. Although to be a dying art at this time, the positive reactions to Christmas the film meanders for much of its 75 minutes, there are fine Two Step's animated sequences set Nelvana on a bold new course. visuals throughout and a handful of extraordinary scenes. The company decided to make a fully animated half-hour Probably its peak is reached in a "Mok video" where the television special. For Smith, it was the realization of his artistic dissipated rock singer, clearly inspired by Mick Jagger, gets to dreams. For Hirsh, the businessman of the group, it was a "classic strut his stuff one more time for the consumption ,of his media- capitalist situation." His market research indicated a need for crazed acolytes. new animated Christmas shows. Thanks to Sheridan College, there was a largely under-utilized "skilled labour force" uniquely Despite the soundtrack contributions of Iggy Pop, Deborah Harry, available in Toronto. This force would be harnessed by Nelvana Lou Reed and Cheap Trick, Rock & Rule failed to catch on with its to create work with a quality of animation that would have been intended audience. Constant rewriting while in production had unthinkable six years earlier. added years to the film's completion date during which time Deborah Harry had parted from Blondie and was no longer a Now all they needed was an idea. It was then that the dark, superstar. Worse, the limited resources of the studio had been creative force of the team, Patrick Loubert, had what Hirsh still committed to the film, so failure placed Nelvana in a precarious calls "a dream," although his partner recalls the event as being financial position. Although Hirsh considers Rock & Rule "an real and quite eerie. Loubert was awakened in the middle of the artistic success" and it has gone on to achieve a reputation as a night by "bright lights where no lights should be." Looking cult classic, the trio was forced to make some difficult decisions in through binoculars, from his home on the Toronto islands, he order to continue to keep the company afloat. could clearly see rotating light formations and bright colours. Loubert later found out that over 1,000 calls were made to hot- Hirsh refers to the period from 1983 to 1986 as Nelvana's "dark lines describing this possible UFO sighting. Inspired, Loubert years." In order to keep the studio going and work their way out came up with the concept of a Christmas story in which the Magi of debt, they took on service jobs for television, handling such would be spacemen, a timely approach thanks to the eagerly projects as Inspector Gadget and Mr. Microchip. They became a pre- anticipated films Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. and post-production house which farmed out its animation to the Far East. Overnight, Nelvana went from producing a half Outwitting critics who "told me outright that it couldn't be done hour of full animation per year to producing 100 hours of limited in Toronto," Smith directed his talented crew of Sheridan recruits animation per year. During the adjustment phase, Nelvana's through the successful completion of The Cosmic Christmas (1976). high quality animation team dispersed to jobs throughout the It turned out to be Nelvana's breakthrough project. A pre-sale to world; in recent years, however, some of these alumnai have the CBC financed the show but, for the first time, Hirsh cast his returned home. net widely. He struck up a relationship with James Kellor of Viacom, who agreed to syndicate The Cosmic Christmas in the One of the service jobs taken on by Nelvana paid immediate United States. Broadcast throughout North America, the show dividends: The Care Bears. "Everybody loves them," admits an garnered critical acclaim and became a huge success.