[Hasbro] has acquired Dublin-based Boulder Media, the company behind Disney Channel’s “Wander Over Yonder” and Cartoon Network’s “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“With Boulder, we will deliver the highest quality animation that will engage our audiences with deep storytelling and great characters in a very cost-efficient manner,” said Hasbro chairman-CEO Brian Goldner. ...
Hasbro has been a presence in animation for multiple years now. They run the playbook started by Filmation thirty-plus years ago with He-Man, that Disney does with the Cars franchise. And that ... to be frank ... every entertainment conglomerate does with its animated movies and television shows: use the animated product to sell loads of games, action figures, plush toys, etc.
But what this means (probably) is that Hasbro sees itself being in the animation game for the long haul. And will be creating animated half-hours until the plastic merchandise beloved by children disintegrates and blows away. That will likely happen sometime around 2132.
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3 comments:
Sorry Steve, but He-Man is Mattel.
Yeah, you're correct. Filmation was separate from Mattel, but the He-Man series was an early example of a cartoon company making half-hours to expressly promote toy lines, rather than toys being sold as something of an after-thought to a cartoon.
Disney, from its early days, got into licensing Mickey toys, games, comic strips, dolls, (etc.) But the cartoons weren't made to support merchandise (although support was a by-product of their creation, I guess). Unlike He-Man, which would never have been made without the toy line, the Mickeys would have been made regardless.
Hasbro is now going to know what it feels like to be Bandai (who themselves bought out an animation studio years before they were selling toys from their shows)!
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