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Atkinson Film-Arts
Former Canadian animation studio From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Atkinson Film-Arts was an animation studio based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The company is best known for producing the first two Care Bears television specials – The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine – and the four syndicated specials that inspired The Raccoons (as well as first-season episodes of the show itself). Atkinson also produced the Christmas specials The Little Brown Burro, Tukiki and His Search for a Merry Christmas and The Trolls and the Christmas Express and the 1986–87 series The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (with DIC Entertainment).[1][2][3]
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They also worked on the 1981 science fiction anthology movie Heavy Metal and The Body Electric, an animated movie featuring music composed by the Canadian rock band Rush.[4]
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Vic Atkinson founded the company.[5]
Atkinson was hospitalized after overseeing the production of two segments for Heavy Metal. He recovered and oversaw The Christmas Raccoons before leaving the company and selling his share to Bill Stevens. Atkinson did not like the direction the company was heading in and stated that "I won't produce garbage" while Stevens says he left over disagreements regarding growth and financial risk.[5] The Christmas Raccoons cost $700,000, The Raccoons on Ice cost $850,000 and the episodes of The Raccoons cost up to $415,000.[6]
F. R. Crawley, who was $1.2 million in debt, sold his company to Stevens for $1.[7]
Merilyn Read acquired the rights for Babar the Elephant and discussed creating a special with Atkinson-Crawley. Babar and Father Christmas was one of the most expensive specials at the time, with a budget of $600,000.[8]
Sheldon Wiseman and Kevin Gillis formed Hinton Animation Studios, which recruited from Atkinson-Crawley's employment. In 1987, Stevens attempted to aid the financial ailing company by raising $6 million through a public offering under the name The Crawley Group, but the stock market crashed three days before his presentation. The company had $4 million in debt by 1988, and owed a large amount of unpaid wages causing more employees to join Hinton Animation.[9]
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Filmography
Television specials
Television series
Direct-to-video films
Feature films
Short films
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