Continent Animation

**Continent Animation** is an American animation studio that was operated from 1953 to 1996 when it folded into Universal Feature Animation. It was originally the feature animation department of Walter Lantz Productions. It was focused mostly on animated feature films.

## Background

After Disney's success with *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, the Lantz studio planned to make its own feature, *Aladdin and His Lamp*, featuring the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello, but after *Mr. Bug Goes to Town* failed at the box office, *Aladdin* never made it to actual production. Late in the decade, Lantz attempted to do a feature-length cartoon again, but it never came to fruition.

## History

### 1950-1956: Beginnings

The Walter Lantz studio was restarted in 1950 after its temporary closure in 1949. 10 employees (5 from Walt Disney Productions, the other 5 came from Famous Studios) was hired to work on feature animation following its success of Disney's *Cinderella*.

They set up its feature animation division in 1953 to work a color film adaptation of the fairy tale *Biancabella and the Snake*. It recruited some staff from its short subject department of Walter Lantz Productions to helm its feature film department, as well as artists from Warner Bros. Cartoons.

### 1956-1963: Initial success

Lantz's first film *Biancabella and the Snake* was released on June 6, 1956 by Universal-Internaitonal, and it was a major success at the box office, and Lantz took market share and stock of Disney's animation feature film division. It featured voice talents of Rock Hudson, Grace Kelly, Glenn Ford, Frederic March and William Holden. It received positive reviews from critics and was a major hit at the box office, finishing out as the fourth highest grossing film of 1956, establishing out Lantz as Disney's first key competitior in the animation industry.

Lantz's second feature *The Man of Stone* was released in 1958, and it was directed by Alex Lovy. It was a major success and positive reviews at the box office, like with the first one, finishing out as the sixth highest grossing film of 1958.

The success of the first two pictures led to Lantz doing the package film trend. The first of these package films was a musical film that starred short film characters Woody Woodpecker, Inspector Willoughby and Chilly Willy entitled *Musical Adventure* and released in 1959. It was followed with three more package films in the 1960s which included *Great Melody* (1960), *Fantasy Time* (1961) and *The World of Fun* (1962).

Afterwards, they started production on its first original project that was not related to any short subject character or fairy tale in any kind, *The Magic Tower*, which is a fantasy adventure animated film, which was released in 1963, and it was overpowered by Disney's *The Sword and the Stone* in the box office.

### 1964-1969: Growth of success on Lantz's film unit

On January 8, 1964, Walter Lantz made it into a millionaire, acheiving on feature films and cartoon short series. The next feature *Jim Starling* (1964), based on the book series by Edmund Wallace Hidick, received positive reception, from critics and audiences with estimated rentals of $3 million, and it was a box office success, marketed as the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of the year and Universal decided marketing campaign for *Jim Starling*.

The next feature, *Legend of the Golden Knight*, was released in 1965 to critical and commercial success, and it featured an all-star voice cast, and it was a financial success, finishing out the year as the fifth highest-grossing movie of the year.

In the January of 1968, Lantz released its tenth feature *The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book*, based on the short story collection of novels by Albert Bigelow Prince, and it grossed $37.6 million worldwide, becoming the seventh highest grossing film of the year, and it was a major commercial success, overpowering last year's rival Disney's *The Jungle Book*.
Lantz started the trend of featurettes in order to compete with Disney, beginning with 1968's adaptation of two short stories *Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes Errands* and *Milly-Molly-Mandy Spends a Penny*.

### 1970-1978: Lantz's reduced focus

The studio began in the decade with the 1971 release of *The Autism Problem*, which was directed by Lantz's short film animator Paul J. Smith. In 1972, Lantz ended its run of long-running short cartoons with the last cartoon ever created *Bye, Bye Blackboard*, which is also the last Woody Woodpecker cartoon, and decided that the studio will focus on animated featurettes and feature films.

In 1974, Lantz released its next animated feature *Legend of Beowulf* with a reduced budget and repurposed animation from previous features, and it competed with rival Disney's *Robin Hood*. Both *The Autism Problem* and *Beowulf* however ended up being minor box office and critical successes.

In 1977, Lantz released its thirteenth feature *Baboushka and the Three Kings*, based on the novel by Ruth Robbins, which overpowered Disney's *The Rescuers* at the box office and it was a success exceeding the achievements of the previous two Lantz features, and it received broad critical acclaim and commercial returns and ended up being Walter Lantz's most successful movie ever made.

*Baboushka and the Three Kings* signaled the beginning of a changing guard in the process of Walter Lantz's feature animation unit; as vetarans like Paul J. Smith retired, and replaced by new animators like George Wildivin, Henri Dosclz, Terry Ward and Jess Riol, and the new animators culled from an animation program and trained by Patrick Ilgi, David Bloka and Tom G. Slavi, which got their first chance to prove themselves as a group of new lines.

### 1979-1988: Reorganization

In 1979, Walter Lantz was retired from the animation industry and the whole company was reorganized into **Continent Animation**. It continued to produce animated movies and featurettes for Universal Pictures, and increase staff management so that movies will be released every year instead of two or four.

In 1980, the first film released under the Continental Animation name was *The Crazy Lalo Madness*, which turned out to be a major success at the box office, grossing $62 million as the ninth highest grossing animated film of the year and it was one of Universal Pictures' profitable films of the year and marked as the highest grossing animated movie of 1980.
This followed with Continental's next film was *Spiffed*, after three and a half years in production and it was a financial success from the company to overpower Disney's rival animated movie of the year *The Fox and the Hound*, and becoming the second highest grossing film of the year.

It followed up with the studio's third film *The Dark Red Eye*, which was considered the company's more successful than the first two films released under the Continental Animation name and finished as the highest grossing animated movie of 1982 ever made. In 1984, Lantz sold everything outright of Lantz's production company to MCA. Development continued on the studio's fourth film under the Continent Animation name *Falcons of Narabedla*.

*Falcons of Narabelda* intended to showcase a new talent of animators. Besides Wildvin, Dosclz, Ward and Riol, a new line of artists include other animators like Steve Samono, David Reynolds, Phil Smoson and Dave Warden. It was released in 1985, overpowering Disney's rival *The Black Cauldron*, and finishing out as the highest grossing animated film of 1985.
The next film of Continent, *Titan's God* was released in 1987 to critical and commercial success with Universal's marketing and fanfare, and it was finished out as the highest grossing animated film of 1987.

The year followed 1988, came with *Gools*, which was directed by Steve Samono, marked out with critical and commercial success with box office of $75 million as the tenth highest grossing film of the year, as well as the third highest grossing animated movie of the year behind Disney's *Oliver and Company* and Don Bluth's *The Land Before Time*.

### 1989-1996: Demise, closing up shop

The studio released its next project *The Red Whistler*, which is based on a fairy tale by Anna MacManus, and featured the voices of Joanne Whalley, Eric Bogosian, Timothy Hutton and John Heard. The movie received positive reviews at the box office and it was a critical and commercial success, and it was overpowered by Disney's *The Little Mermaid*.

Continent followed up with *The Orange Spaceship*, which was written by Tab Murphy and it was performed well better than Disney's rival *The Rescuers Down Under* and Hanna-Barbera's *Jetsons: The Movie* as the highest-grossing animated film of 1990 and it was a critical and commercial success.

It followed with summer's animated movie of 1991, *City of Aliens*, written by Steve Samono, Jess Riol and David Reynolds and failed to match the success of the previous two films. The next film, which was summer's animated movie of 1992, *The Snake Prince*, which performed well at the box office with $110 million, and it was a critical and commercial success, and receiving critical acclaim, and it was overpowered by Disney's *Aladdin*.

1993 saw the newest animated feature *The Green House*, which was written by Henri Dosclz, and opened bigger at the box office with $52 million and ended up being the highest-grossing animated film of 1993 with $260 million, and it performed better than Amblimation's *We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story!*

In March 1994, Continent through Universal released *The Golden Jewel*, which is an adventure about a mysterious man who searched the golden jewel and featured the voice talents of Richard Gere, Tuesday Weld and Kane Hodder. It was received positive reviews from critics and it was a critical and commercial success and it was overpowered by Disney's summer animated feature *The Lion King*. In March 22, 1994, Walter Lantz died in Burbank, California.

In 1996, both Gingo Feature Animation and Continent Animation were folded into Universal Feature Animation, taking most of the studio's artists with the unit. The last film by Continental, *The Lost Children*, which is an adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name, that recieived critical acclaim, overpowering Disney's summer release for the year, *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*, and it was one of the most memorable endings of the studio.

## Filmography

*Main article: List of Continent Animation productions*