Atkinson Film-Arts was an

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

studio based in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

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 Ca ...

, 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 e ...

s – '' The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings'' and '' The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine'' – 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'' and ''

The Trolls and the Christmas Express ''The Trolls and the Christmas Express'' is a 1981 animated Christmas television special produced by the Canadian-based Atkinson Film-Arts. It was originally broadcast on HBO on December 9, 1981. Plot Six troublesome trolls, whose leader is calle ...

'' and the 1986–87 series '' The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin'' (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 (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) 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