Jetlag Productions was an American animation studio that, like the similar studio

Golden Films Golden Films is an American production studio founded in 1994 by Diane Eskenazi, previously known as American Film Investment Corporation. The studio has produced a variety of animated films. The company's most notorious films were part of the ...

, has created a number of animated films based on different, popular children's stories, while creating a few original productions. Produced mainly for the American market, the films were animated in Japan by KKC&D Asia and Animal Ya among

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

n companies. They were later released directly to VHS through the

GoodTimes Home Video GoodTimes Entertainment, Ltd. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and ...

distribution company. Years later, with the introduction of

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

, a newer department of the same company,

GoodTimes Home Entertainment GoodTimes Entertainment, Ltd. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and ...

, distributed the films in that format. The films in Jetlag's catalog were dubbed into many different languages and were distributed by international departments of the GoodTimes corporation. Since 2005, the

Gaiam Gaia, Inc., formerly Gaiam, is an American alternative media video streaming service and online community focusing on fringe-science and yoga. Founded by Jirka Rysavy in 1988, its brands include Gaiam TV; the latter's name was changed to Gaia ...

company has held the copyrights to Jetlag Productions' animated films, following GoodTimes Entertainment's bankruptcy.

History

Jetlag Productions started out as a small animation company, assisting in the productions of such series as ''

The New Adventures of He-Man ''The New Adventures of He-Man'' is an animated series which ran in syndication in the fall of 1990 while Mattel released the toy line He-Man, an update of their Masters of the Universe line. The cartoon series was intended to be a continuation of ...

'' and ''Heroes on Hot Wheels'' in 1990, and '' Conan the Adventurer'' in 1992, until it was approached by Joe, Ken, and Stan Cayre (known artistically as the Cayre Brothers) of GoodTimes Entertainment. The company then replaced

as GoodTimes' provider of budget animated productions, when the contract with that company expired. Under the name of their new establishment, the Cayre Brothers produced ''Children's Classics'', a series of animated films that were very similar to those from Golden Films in style. Beginning their releases in 1994, Jetlag Productions produced a total of seventeen different animated films, thirteen adaptations of existing material, and four original features. All seventeen films were around 45 minutes in length, and were released as

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

VHS features, under the "GoodTimes" name by

. Their last release was ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', which was released on April 30, 1996, just before GoodTimes turned to a new company, Blye Migicovsky Productions, for their new line of animation releases. Jetlag Productions' films were revived on DVD under a "Collectible Classics" label in 2002 by GoodTimes Entertainment. The new releases were widely available until GoodTimes filed for bankruptcy in 2005 and all assets were transferred to

Title listing

Fairy tale and short story adaptations

*''Thumbelina'' (1992) *''Cinderella'' (1994), based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale and also on The

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

's 1697 and 1812 fairy tale *''Jungle Book'' (1995), based on the "Mowgli" stories from

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's 1894 short story collection *''Little Red Riding Hood'' (1995), based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale and also on the Brothers Grimm's 1697 and 1812 fairy tale *''The Nutcracker'' (1995), based on E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story *''Sleeping Beauty'' (1995), based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale and also on the Brothers Grimm's 1697 and 1812 fairy tale *''Snow White'' (1995), based on The Brothers Grimm's 1812 fairy tale

Myths and legends adaptations

*''Pocahontas'' (1994), also known as ''The Adventures of Pocahontas: Indian Princess'', based on the life of

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...

*''Hercules'' (1995), based on the legendary hero from

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

Literary novel adaptations

*''A Christmas Carol'' (1994), based on

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

's 1843 novella *''Alice in Wonderland'' (1995), based on

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

's 1865 novel *''Black Beauty'' (1995), based on Anna Sewell's 1877 novel *''Heidi'' (1995), based on

Johanna Spyri Louise Spyri (; ; 12 June 1827 – 7 July 1901) was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories, and is best known for her book '' Heidi''. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she spent se ...

's 1880 novel *''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1996), based on

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's 1831 novel

Original works

*''Happy, the Littlest Bunny'' (1994), written by Larry Hartstein *''Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle'' (1994), written by George Bloom *''Curly, the Littlest Puppy'' (1995), written by Larry Hartstein *''Magic Gift of the Snowman'' (1995), written by Larry Hartstain

TV series

*''

'' (1990) *''

Heroes on Hot Wheels ''Michel Vaillant'' is a French car racing comics series created in 1957 by French cartoonist Jean Graton and published originally by Le Lombard. Later, Graton published the albums by himself when he founded Graton éditeur in 1982. Michel Vail ...

'' (1990) *'' Conan the Adventurer'' (1992)

Music

Unlike its predecessor

, Jetlag Productions did not rely on familiar classical compositions as the soundtrack to their films (the only exception would be ''

Heidi ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Use ...

'', which featured a variation of

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

's "

Morning Mood "Morning Mood" ( no, Morgenstemning i ørkenen, translation=Morning mood in the desert, link=no, italic=no) is part of Edvard Grieg's ''Peer Gynt'', Op. 23, written in 1875 as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play of the same name, and was als ...

"). Instead, a variety of original compositions were created from scratch, produced by Andrew Dimitroff.

Original songs

As a general rule that went unbroken in all of their seventeen animated films, each film featured three original songs performed by a variety of singers. Jetlag Productions' successor for GoodTimes Entertainment, Blye Migicovsky Productions, continued this trend in their films. The instrumental bases to these original songs were sometimes used as part of the soundtrack outside the main musical numbers, as was the case in ''

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

'' (1995) and ''

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brot ...

'' (1995), among others. Though these musical numbers were placed into the films in often formulaic patterns, there were a few exceptions: ''A Christmas Carol'' (1994) was the only film to not feature an opening musical number, while ''Hercules'' (1995) was unusual in that it ended with an instrumental version of "Son of Zeus" rather than a vocal version. Though the vast majority of the songs were performed by off-screen voices, ''Snow White'' (1995)'s "Hip Hip Hooray", ''Magic Gift of the Snowman'' (1995)'s "Sleep and Dream", ''Cinderella'' (1994)'s "(It's the) Chance of a Lifetime", and ''Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle'' (1994)'s "Out on My Own" were sung by actual characters within the films; ''Cinderella'' (1994)'s "When Love Has Gone Away" was the only duet performed by characters from the film, sung by Cinderella and the prince, respectively.

Musicians

The credits attributed to the different composers and writers of the original soundtrack were listed in a formulaic manner in all seventeen animated productions, and were thus never associated with their actual compositions or performances. Among these credits, the following artists were credited as: *Music producer: Andrew Dimitroff *Composers: Nick Carr, Ray Crossley and Andrew Dimitroff *Lyricist: Joellyn Cooperman

Credited musicians

*Ray Crossley *Andrew Dimitroff *Milcho Leviev *Mel Steinberg *Leslie Woodbury

Uncredited vocalist performers

Kathleen Barr Kathleen Barr is a Canadian voice actress. She is best known for voicing Marie Kanker and Kevin in ''Ed, Edd n Eddy'' and Trixie Lulamoon and Queen Chrysalis in '' My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. She also voiced Henri Richard Maurice D ...

(as the singing voice of Tooey in ''Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle'' (1994), performing "Out on My Own") *

Garry Chalk Garry Chalk is a British-born Canadian actor. He has provided the voices for Optimus Primal of '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' and ''Beast Machines'', as well as Optimus Prime in the anime English dubs of '' Transformers: Armada'', ''Transformer ...

(as the voice of Leo in ''Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle'' (1994), performing "I'm a Really Nice Guy") *Wendy K. Hamilton-Caddey (for songs such as "A Little Bit of Magic," "The Season of Love," "Keep Christmas in Your Heart", and "Land of Pocahontas", among others)

External links

* {{Authority control Anime-influenced Western animation American animation studios Companies established in the 1990s