Update: A representative from Nelvana has responded to our request for a comment or clarification on the studio’s current status.
To confirm, Nelvana is not shutting down. It was announced earlier this year that as certain productions were completed, we would be pausing new studio productions for the time being. Nelvana continues to operate, focusing on distribution, merchandising, and managing existing properties. As always, we continue to review opportunities and priorities as part of our ongoing business operations.
So it appears that while the company will continue to exist, it seems as if their focus will be on managing their existing library rather than developing and producing new projects.
Our original report is as follows –
Reports are beginning to spread across social media that Canadian animation studio Nelvana shut down last Friday, August 29.
Posts on X and Reddit indicate that the studio closed at the end of last week. The reports follow news that Nelvana’s parent company, Corus Entertainment, was having ongoing financial difficulties.
Based in Toronto, Nelvana was founded in 1971 by Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert, and Clive A. Smith. Early half-hour specials produced by Nelvana include A Cosmic Christmas (1977), The Devil and Daniel Mouse (1978), Romie-0 and Julie-8 (1979) and Take Me Up to the Ball Game (1980).
Star Wars impresario George Lucas was impressed with A Cosmic Christmas and reached out to the company to have them produce an animated segment for an upcoming television project titled The Star Wars Holiday Special. The segment, which would become known as “The Faithful Wookie,” introduced audiences to the character of bounty hunter Boba Fett two years before appearing in live action in The Empire Strikes Back. The rest of the Holiday Special has been rightly lambasted by fandom for its quality (or lack thereof), but “The Faithful Wookie” segment is the only portion of the show that has been made available on the Disney+ streaming service. Lucasfilm and Nelvana would work again a few years later for the Ewoks and Droids animated series.
Nelvana made an attempt to break into feature films in the early 1980s with Rock & Rule, a reworking of their The Devil and Daniel Mouse special and featured music by Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Produced over five years at the cost of $8 million, the film’s distributor, MGM/US, poorly marketed the movie leading to it bombing at the box office. Rock & Rule would go on to earn a cult audience thanks to sporadic home video releases and bootlegs circulated when the authorized releases would go out of print.
Over the 1990s through the 2020s, the studio worked on numerous animated series including the first season of Inspector Gadget, Babar for HBO, The Adventures of Tintin, Cadillacs And Dinosaurs, Bob And Margret, Care Bears, the first season of Clone High and the first five seasons of The Fairly OddParents.
It was acquired by Corus Entertainment in 2020.
