Atkinson Film-Arts was an animation studio based in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. The company is best known for producing the first two

Care Bears Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. In 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears. The characters headlined their own televis ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

s – ''

The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings ''The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings'' is the first animated television special to feature the Care Bears characters. Made by Ottawa's Atkinson Film-Arts studio, it was premiered in syndication on April 22, 1983. The special features the ...

'' and ''

The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine ''The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine'' is the second animated television special to feature the Care Bears characters. Made by Ottawa's Atkinson Film-Arts studios, it premiered in syndication in April 1984. The special introduces three ne ...

'' – and the four syndicated specials that inspired ''

The Raccoons ''The Raccoons'' is a Canadian animated television series that ran on CBC from November 11, 1985 to March 19, 1991 in Canada and on Disney Channel from July 4, 1985 to August 28, 1992 in the U.S., with three preceding television specials from ...

'' (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 ''Tukiki and His Search for a Merry Christmas'' is a 1979 animated Christmas television special produced by the Canadian-based Atkinson Film-Arts. It was originally broadcast on CBC and in syndication on December 24, 1979. Plot Tukiki (voiced by ...

'' and '' The Trolls and the Christmas Express'' and the 1986–87 series ''

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin ''The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin'' is a children's animated television series based on Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic teddy bear created by Ken Forsse and distributed by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder. Produced in 1986–7 for television syndi ...

'' (with

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production com ...

). 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. The company acquired one of Canada's oldest film studios,

Crawley Films Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

(and its Graphic Films subsidiary), in 1982 for the price of just C$1. In 1987, the company was renamed Crawleys Animation. It produced the special ''The Nightingale'' (with

Shanghai Animation Film Studio Shanghai Animation Film Studio () also known as SAFS () is a Chinese animation studio based in Shanghai, China, as part of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation. Shanghai Animation Film Studio was officially established in April, 1957, led by pion ...

) and 13 episodes of '' Dennis the Menace'' along with 11 episodes of '' COPS'' for DIC, and worked with French studio Belokapi on a series ''Y's the Magnificent'' (which was cancelled during production and never broadcast), before shutting down in 1989 because of debt problems.

Filmography

Television specials

Television series

Direct-to-video films

Feature films

Short films

References

External links

* {{Animation industry in Canada Canadian animation studios Companies based in Ottawa Defunct film and television production companies of Canada Mass media companies established in 1974 Companies disestablished in 1989