Pangea Corporation is an entertainment development and

creative services Creative services are a subsector of the creative industries, a part of the economy that creates wealth by offering creativity for hire to other businesses. Creative Services also means a department within a company that does creative work such a ...

company that specializes in the animation and toy industries. The company was part of the original creative team that launched the "

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...

" for

Playmates Toys Playmates Toys Limited is a Hong Kong toy company. The company was founded in Hong Kong in 1966 by Sam Chan as Playmates Industrial, manufacturing dolls for other companies. In 1975, Playmates began marketing their own line of pre-school toys, ...

and

Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Fred Wolf Films is an American animation studio founded in 1967 by Fred Wolf and Jimmy T. Murakami. It was founded as MW (Murakami-Wolf). It later became known as Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (MWS) when Charles Swenson became a full partner in 1978. ...

, the animation concern behind the property. In the early 1990s, Pangea kept pace with trends and launched a

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

platform called Toy Network, which was purchased by an internet IPO company, Internos. Toy Network had gained prominence as a child-centered service on Apple's

eWorld eWorld was an online service operated by Apple Inc. between June 1994 and March 1996. The services included email (eMail Center), news, software installs and a bulletin board system (Community Center). Users of eWorld were often referred to as ...

and

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

. As content providers and programmers for the kids channel, the company continued to grow with new technologies and helped develop a series of

virtual pets A virtual pet (also known as a digital pet, artificial pet, or pet-raising simulation) is a type of artificial human companion. They are usually kept for companionship or enjoyment. People may keep a digital pet in lieu of a real pet. Digital ...

, Nano for Playmates Toys and

Tamagotchi The is a handheld digital pet that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the USA on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the biggest toy fads o ...

for Bandai America. They also provided scripting and programming solutions for the innovative and interactive line of "Amazing" dolls from Playmates, and products from a variety of other manufacturers, including Brian the Brain, Yano, and Wittley. Additionally, the company set up some of the first ever websites for the toy industry, including domains for Bandai America,

Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...

and

Whac-A-Mole Whac-A-Mole is an arcade game, originally known as or in Japan. A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a waist-level cabinet with a play area and display screen, and a large, soft, black mallet. Five holes in the play area top are filled wit ...

. During this period, Pangea also produced a radio program on the national kids' radio network,

Radio Aahs Radio AAHS was a radio network managed by the Children's Broadcasting Corporation. Its flagship station was WWTC (1280 AM) in Minneapolis, which broadcast from the former First Federal Bank building at Minnesota State Highway 100 and Excelsior ...

. After a two-year development deal with Dic Enterprises, where then CEO

Andy Heyward Andrew B. Heyward (born February 19, 1949) is the former Chairman and CEO of DIC Entertainment, an animation production company. He is currently CEO of Genius Brands, Genius Brands International. Early life Heyward was born in New York City, ...

declared Pangea the "core development team" for DIC, Pangea's reputation in the animation industry grew further, having been lauded by their work on the seminal and creatively humorous "Ninja Turtles." Their list of credits ranged from the sublime
The Brotherhood
to the exploitive "New Kids on the Block." Prior to their formation, the three partners of Pangea Corporation, John Schulte, John Besmehn and

Cheryl Ann Wong Cheryl is a female given name common in English speaking countries. There are several prevailing theories about its etymology. The most common is that it has Italo-Celtic roots and is an Anglicised version of either the French name Cherie (from L ...

, were each accomplished in their own right. Schulte had completed a teleplay that was produced by

Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American filmmaker and actor. He started his career in the 1960s writing for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' before he developed Neil Simon's 1965 play ''The Odd Co ...

and was working as a writer of commercials and presentations for Tomy Toys. Besmehn was a performance artists and part of the group that helped relaunch the

Pasadena Playhouse The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California, United States. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engage ...

under the stewardship of entrepreneur developer David Houck. Wong was managing her marketing accounts with the

City of Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, City of Pasadena and the LA County Metropolitan Transit Authority. Pangea has developed a number of entertainment and toy properties, including

, Zorro,

Biker Mice from Mars ''Biker Mice from Mars'' is an American science fiction action animated series created by Rick Ungar. The series premiered in syndication the week of September 19, 1993. It consists of three seasons of 65 episodes, with the final episode airing ...

, Gormiti, The Mask,

Mirmo is a manga series written by Hiromu Shinozuka and serialized in '' Ciao'' magazine from July 2001 through December 2005. It was also published in twelve collected volumes by Shogakukan. The manga series was awarded in the 2003 Kodansha Ma ...

The Coneheads The Coneheads are a fictional family of extraterrestrials with bald conical heads, created for a series of recurring sketches on ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL). They first appeared on the January 15, 1977 episode hosted by Ralph Nader (episode 3 ...

Toonsylvania ''Toonsylvania'' is an American animated television series, which ran for two seasons in 1998 on the Fox Kids, Fox Kids Network block (usually placed in a block called "The No Yell Motel" that contained other scary kids' shows such as ''Goosebumps' ...

The Mummy A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse. Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to: Places *Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States *Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...

, Zorro: Generation Z, Freedom Ops Net,

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

and others. Pangea Corporation operates in the South Orange County city of

Dana Point, California Dana Point () is a city located in southern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 33,107 at the 2020 census. It has one of the few harbors along the Orange County coast, and with ready access via State Route 1, it is a po ...

. In addition to developing animated and toy content, they are also teamed up with veteran

television writer A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, Fred Fox Jr., on new intellectual properties, including the new musical, "Bubblegum" and the reality-based show, "Becoming Zorro."

References

{{Reflist Entertainment companies of the United States