Cartoon Pizza is an American

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals o ...

located in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. It was co-founded by

Jim Jinkins James Jinkins (born August 8, 1953) is an American animator, cartoonist, and children's author. He is best known as the creator of the animated ''Doug (TV series), Doug'' television series which was later the basis for a Doug's 1st Movie, feature ...

and David Campbell as the successor to Jinkins' former company,

Jumbo Pictures The Walt Disney Company has owned and operated several animation studios since the company's founding on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; the current Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Cal ...

. A hallmark of both Jumbo Pictures and Cartoon Pizza has been their commitment to the continued use of hand-painted

cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

at a time when animated series are increasingly produced using digital ink and paint. The studio had partnered with several studios to help produce their shows, including

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in 2001, Sesame Workshop in 2006, and

Cuppa Coffee Studios Cuppa Coffee Studios (formerly known as Cuppa Coffee Animation) is a Canadian production company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Cuppa Coffee was founded by Adam Shaheen in 1992. It specializes in both stop-motion animation and 2D animation, ...

. The studio was formerly headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

until 2011, when the company relocated to

History

In February 1996, the company was bought by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

, which produced ''

Doug's 1st Movie ''Doug's 1st Movie'' is a 1999 American animated comedy film based on the Disney-produced episodes of the animated television series ''Doug''. The film was directed by Maurice Joyce, and stars the regular television cast of Tom McHugh, Fred New ...

'' (1999) and integrated the studio into its subsidiary

Walt Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney Ge ...

. In 2001, a year after

' former company

was closed by The Walt Disney Company, Jinkins and David Campbell formed Cartoon Pizza as a successor company. Jinkins was helming the position as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, Campbell as CEO, Jack Spillum as the president of animated productions, Ellie Copeland as the vice president of finances and operations, and Beldeen Fortunato as the vice president of administration. In December 2001, Cartoon Pizza agreed to a two-year nonexclusive production deal with Sesame Workshop, the creators of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...

'', ''

Dragon Tales ''Dragon Tales'' is an animated educational television, educational fantasy children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser and produced by Sony Pi ...

'', and ''

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat ''Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat'', or simply ''Sagwa'', is a children's animated television series based on the children's book of the same name by Amy Tan which aired on PBS Kids, co-produced by Canada-based animation studio CinéGroupe and ' ...

''. Sesame Workshop agreed to house the company at their

office and handle international distribution. They would co-produce a minimum of six new kids' properties. The company became a co-production partner in

Tiger Aspect Productions Tiger Aspect Productions (formerly known as Tiger Television from 1988 until 1993 and also known as Tiger Aspect Films for theatrical films) is a British television and film production company, particularly noted for its situation comedies. Fo ...

' animation division to develop a series titled ''Earth Kid''.

Gullane Entertainment Gullane Entertainment PLC was a British independent production company which produced children's programming, including ''Thomas & Friends'' (1984–2021), '' Shining Time Station'' (1989–1993), and '' The Magic Adventures of Mumfie'' (1994–1 ...

became an equal partner in ''Earth Kid'' as the show's international distributor in April 2002 until it was acquired by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sop ...

in September of that year. Gullane and HIT also had three other projects in the works with Cartoon Pizza. In 2015, the company had been dissolved. As of December 2016, Cartoon Pizza was brought back by Jim Jinkins, but in

Productions

References

External links

Cartoon Pizza's website via the Wayback Machine
American animation studios Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee Television production companies of the United States Re-established companies Mass media companies established in 2001 Mass media companies disestablished in 2015 2001 establishments in New York (state) 2015 disestablishments in Tennessee Mass media companies established in 2016 2016 establishments in Tennessee {{US-entertainment-company-stub