Canada’s Nelvana And Japan’s Polygon Pictures Sign Development Deal For Kids’ Content

Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana has unveiled a new development deal with Japanese production company Polygon Pictures to create Japanese animated content for kids around the world.

Here are the details of the new development deal:

• The arrangement will seek to utilize Polygon’s Japanese market connections and knowledge in combination with Nevlana’s experience in co-producing to bring new content from franchises like Bakugan, Beyblade, and Cardcaptor Sakura to a more global audience.
• Nelvana and Polygon will create new kids’ programming which draws on popular existing IPs as well as new original content, expanding the properties into areas including lifestyle, publishing, and design.
• Animation industry vet Rika Sasaki will act as an intermediary for Nelvana and Polygon. Rika has years of experience managing Japanese IP for global export from her previous roles at d-rights Inc., ADK Emotion, and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions.
• Colin Bohm, executive VP content and corporate strategy, Corus Entertainment, said in a release: “Nelvana has enjoyed tremendous success over the years working with several notable Japanese content companies on such brands as Bakugan, Beyblade, and Cardcaptor Sakura, and we are excited to team up with Polygon Pictures to uncover the next big global hit. We’ve long admired Polygon Pictures, a truly innovative and creative studio, and we couldn’t be happier to be working together.”
• Shuzo Shiota, president of Polygon Pictures, added: “Over the past 10 plus years, Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus Entertainment, Colin, and I have had many impassioned discussions about how we can synergize our strengths, to create global hits out of properties originating from Japan. With the help of Rika, I believe the time is finally ripe to achieve this goal. I am beyond excited at the prospect of what this partnership will bring.”

Cartoon Brew’s View: This expanded partnership sees Nalvana sticking to what it does best, working with popular IP. In February, the company announced it was partnering with Mattel Television to reboot the Barney franchise with a cg animated series.