Nest Family Entertainment is an American family entertainment company based in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in the ...

. It was formed in 1980 as Family Entertainment Network by Jared F. Brown, Stephen W. Griffin, and Seldon O. Young. The company has produced several dramatized radio series, animated films and TV series since the '80s which include the ''Animated Stories from the New Testament, The Swan Princess,'' ''The King and I,'' and ''The Scarecrow'' among others.

History

Nest Family Entertainment started as Family Entertainment Network in 1980, which was an offshoot of the Living Scriptures company that Brown, Griffin, and Young had formed a decade prior. It specialized in dramatized audio cassette sets and animated direct-to-video series based on stories from the

Holy Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. In 1981, a sibling company was formed, Living History Productions, for dramatized audio cassettes and animated videos based on noted figures and principles of history. In 1993, Family Entertainment Network was renamed to Family Entertainment. They acquired

Richard Rich Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (July 1496 – 12 June 1567), was Lord Chancellor during King Edward VI of England's reign, from 1547 until January 1552. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated almshouses in Essex in 1564. He wa ...

's animation studios Rich Entertainment, responsible for producing the videos, around that time and expanded into other ventures including animated features and live-action children's series. After Stephen W. Griffin stepped down, Family Entertainment was renamed to Nest Entertainment in 1994 along with Utah-based

loop bin duplicator A loop bin duplicator is a specialized audio tape machine used in the duplication of pre-recorded audio cassettes and 8-track cartridges. Loop bin duplicators were first introduced in the early 1990s. They had fewer moving parts than previous ...

Cassette Duplicators, Atlanta businessman K. Douglas Martin took over as president of Nest Entertainment. The company self-financed the original 1994 animated feature film, ''

The Swan Princess ''The Swan Princess'' is a 1994 American animated film, animated fantasy film based on the ballet ''Swan Lake''. Featuring Michelle Nicastro, Howard McGillin, Jack Palance, John Cleese, Steven Wright, Sandy Duncan, and Steve Vinovich, the film is ...

'', with New Line Cinema distributing (now distributed by Sony Pictures). Despite performing poorly at the box office, strong video sales helped save the company from potential debt. The next year, Nest partnered with

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

to form Warner-Nest Animation, a children's entertainment outlet. In 2000, Rich Animation Studios was sold to Indian animation company Crest Animation Studios and Nest Entertainment was renamed to NestFamily around the same time. Currently, Nest Family Entertainment distributes short animated films for children's education, such as ''Animated Hero Classics''. The intellectual property rights for The Swan Princess art, logo, and title have been transferred to Swan Princess Partners Utah LLC (DBA Swan Princess Partners). Swan Princess Partners is also owned by Jared F. Brown and Seldon O. Young, and is currently active in merchandizing ''The Swan Princess'' brand and creating more animated films with Sony Pictures and Streetlight Productions (Richard Rich's production studio).

Productions

* ''Animated Stories from the New Testament'' (1987–2004) * ''Animated Hero Classics'' (1991–2004) * ''Animated Stories from the Bible'' (1992–1995) * ''Animated Stories from The Book of Mormon'' (1987-1992) * ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childre ...

'' (1999) * '' The Scarecrow'' (2000) * ''

The Trumpet of the Swan ''The Trumpet of the Swan'' is a children's novel by E. B. White published in 1970. It tells the story of Louis (pronounced "LOO-ee" by the author in the audiobook, a reference to trumpeter Louis Armstrong, a point that is made explicit in the ...

'' (2001) * ''K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments'' (2003)

References

External links

* American animation studios Christian animation Companies based in Coppell, Texas Mass media companies established in 1987 {{animation-studio-stub