CiNAR

**Cinar.** was a Canadian media production and distribution company owned by DHX Media (now WildBrain). The company was first established in 1976 as **CINAR Films Inc.**, a Montreal-based studio that was heavily involved in children's entertainment. The company's business model, which included the licensing of its properties into educational markets, had a significant impact on its success; by 1999, CINAR held CDN$1.5 billion of the overall children's television market.

## History

After their 1976 meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, Micheline Charest, a native of London, England and resident of Quebec, Canada; and Ronald A. Weinberg, born in New York, organized an event for a women's film festival, and worked at distributing foreign films to US theatres. The couple moved to New York City and formed CINAR, a film and television distribution company.

In 1984, CINAR changed their focus from media distribution to production and moved operations to Montreal, where they concentrated on family-oriented television programming, including *Animal Crackers*, *Emily of New Moon*, *Mona the Vampire*, and *The Wombles*, as well as the English and French dubs of the anime series *Adventures of the Little Koala*, *Ronin Warriors*, *The Adventures of Albert and Sidney* and *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* and the Spain-originating TV series *The World of David the Gnome*, and the English dub of *Ultraseven*. As a production company, CINAR was also involved in the work of *Are You Afraid of the Dark?*, *The Busy World of Richard Scarry*, *Madeline* (Specials 2-6), *The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You*, *The Adventures of Paddington Bear*, *Space Cases*, *The Shoe People* and its most well-known work, *Arthur*, *Zoboomafoo* and *Caillou*.

The firm became a public company in September 1993. By 1999, CINAR boasted annual revenues of $150 million (CAD) and owned about $1.5 billion (CAD) of the children's television market. In 1996, CINAR acquired the library of the British animation studio FilmFair, and closed it in 1998. In February 1999, CINAR acquired the film library of Leucadia Film Corporation. CINAR also owned the Fandango Studios dubbing studio in Mexico City.

In 1998, CiNAR participated to the International Animation Consortium for Child Rights, "Cartoons for Children's Rights", a collection of 30-second non-verbal animated public service announcements promoted by UNICEF, which illustrates the Convention on the Rights of the Child. CiNAR's animation department contributed with "Children Have the Right to Protection From Landmines", based on the Article 38 of the Child Rights Convention. [1] [2] [3]

## Happy Family Works

* The Happy Family (1988) (first production when Hanna-Barbera's lisence to the characters expired
* Happy Family (1989) (co-production with Paramount, Nickelodeon and Hahn Film)
* Happy Family (1992-2003) (co-produced with Film Roman, KBS (Seasons 1-3) MBC (Seasons 4 - 6) ITV)
* A Happy Family Thanksgiving (1993) (co-produced with A.Film and Film Roman)
* Otto In Africa (1995) (co-production with Film Roman and A.Film APS)
* A Happy Family Easter (1995) (co-produced with Film Roman)
* Jeung Choi and the Long Lost Brother (1998) (co-produced with Film Roman Siriol Productions and HTV Cymru Wales)
* A Happy Family Christmas (1999) (co-production for Film Roman and NBC)
* Otto and the Sword in a Stone (2000) (co-produced with Film Roman and Hahn Film)
* Happy Family:The Secret Of Jeju Island (2003) (co-production with Film Roman and A.Film)
* Happy Family:The Swamp Monster (2004) (final co-production with Film Roman before being renamed to Cookie Jar)

## Trivia

* CiTV aired a few CiNAR shows such as *Chris Cross", "The Baskervilles", "The Twins," "Potatoes and Dragons" and "The Adventures of Paddington Bear*