FoxToons Home Entertainment

FXTHE logo used since 2020

**FoxToons Home Entertainment** (doing business as as **FoxToons Home Video** since its establishment in 1989) is the home video distribution division of The Walt Disney Studios division FoxToons Studios and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Unlike other motion pictures released on home media by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, all FoxToons Studios-branded motion pictures have been released only on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and Digital HD. Beginning on March 6th, 2007, motion pictures from FoxToons Studios, such as their theatrical movies that were co-produced with Walt Disney Pictures and Paramount Pictures, became participating titles for Disney Movie Rewards and have been released on DVD under WDSHE's Disney DVD banner and on Blu-ray under their Disney Blu-ray banner. Despite their movies also being released on home video by other divisions of BVHE, FoxToons Studios began distributing home video releases of their family-friendly and anime catalogs through FoxToons Home Entertainment (formerly FoxToons Home Video) and its divisions Radical Media (formerly Radical Entertainment Animation) and 4Kids Home Video.

The company was founded on February 1st, 1989, by Grayson Stewart and his best friend Elie Suave as FoxToons Home Video, with funding by Trey Totowa and his brothers, who became investors in the company. The company was eventually renamed FoxToons Home Entertainment on October 1st, 2003. FoxToons Studios was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on February 20th, 2007.

## Background

Before FoxToons Studios began releasing their Disney-distributed motion pictures on home video themselves in the fall of 1997, they agreed to license their Disney-distributed motion pictures that made up the *AB vs. RH in the WDS Arena* series and their co-productions with The Incredible World of DiC to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, who released them on home video in Ace Custom and Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition copies under their titular flagship label (formally Buena Vidta Home Entertainment) and their other labels, which include Walt Disney Home Entertainment (later dissolved into WDSHE), Touchstone Home Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment, Miramax Home Entertainment, Dimension Home Video and DiC Toon-Time Video. Therefore, all of FoxToons Studios' motion pictures have been released on home video by WDSHE.

## History

### Early history

In the early 1980's, Studio State-born Grayson Stewart was approached by his friend, Elie Suave, who was working as a digital ink and paint animator for FoxToons Animation Studios. Elie proposed that if Grayson could begin a digitally recolored anime dubbing company and help begin the phenomenon of anime throughout the U.S.-only Studiopolis Universe, then FoxToons Studios would license the rights to digitally colored anime to the universe and the Simtopian United States along with making anime more appealing to newer children. The duo met with co-worker Trey Totowa, whose brothers own a digital feed mill in Dimmsdale, Studio State, and convinced Totowa's brothers to sell their business and serve as an investor for the company. During this time period, the trio also convinced other anime licensing companies since their individual establishments, such as U.S. Manga Corps, Funimation, Right Stuf Inc., 4Kids Productions, Saban Productions and ADV Films (then Animation Dubbing Vision), to reanimate their hand-painted anime titles in digital ink and paint for Studiopolisian audiences as well, along with giving each company subsequent copies of their own CAPS system to do so.

The company was founded on February 1st, 1989 as **FoxToons Home Video**, with Grayson Stewart serving as the president of the company, Elie Suave as the vice president and Trey Totowa as the CEO. Since its inception, the company is based in FoxToons Studios's headquarters complex in Glendale, California and serves as both the home video branch of the company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. As soon as the company was established, the trio received phone calls from Geneon Entertainment (then Pioneer Entertainment) and Viz Media (then Viz Communications), who gave them permission to release the American English dubs of their anime on home video and reanimate their hand-painted titles in digital ink and paint with the help of FXTAS’ CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) system, respectively. This process of digitally recoloring each hand-painted anime title licensed by Pioneer/Geneon and Viz Media was completed with the permission from FoxToons Animation Studios and all original animators that helped produce each anime titles, who also requested them to do so to make Geneon's and Viz's anime outputs more suitable for home video releases from WDSHE and children of newer generations.

### FoxToons Home Video

Although Pioneer Entertainment and Viz Media began releasing their originally hand-painted anime titles onto home video during the summer of 1993, FoxToons Home Video did not do so with their editions of Pioneer's and Viz Media's hand-painted anime titles, respectively under themselves and their Radical Media division, which were reprocessed in digital ink and paint prior to release. On October 1st, 1997, FoxToons Home Video began releasing their anime titles on videocassette and DVD with distribution being handled by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, beginning with the digitally recolored editions of Pioneer's hand-painted anime series *Tenchi Muyo*, *Green Legend Ran*, *Moldiver*, *Kishin Corps*, *Phantom Quest Corp.*, *El Hazard*, *Magical Girl Pretty Sammy* and *Armitage III* (all under themselves) along with the digitally recolored editions of Viz Media's hand-painted anime series *Ranma 1/2*, *Mermaid Scar*, *Fatal Fury* and *Key the Metal Idol* (all under their Radical Media division) and FoxToons Network's animated television shows *Hey Willy!* and *Dante's Modern Life*, both of which were released under their 4Kids Home Video division.

Under FoxToons Home Video and its 4Kids Home Video and Radical Media divisions, FoxToons Studios began releasing both their digitally reanimated editions of Pioneer's/Geneon's and Viz Media's hand-painted anime outputs and their originally digitally colored anime outputs in their American English dubbed editions along with their own motion pictures on home video, all in Ace Custom and Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition copies that were highly praised for containing both Easy Find Menus and animated main menus (on DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD Blu-rays), Disney's Fast Play (on numerous DVDs beginning in March 2007), and a good variety of easily identifiable bonus features, including theatrical and home video trailers of other anime titles and FoxToons Studios's movies, providing selections between watching each movie in both their SDTV 1.33:1 pan-and-scan full screen and their original widescreen formats (the pan-and-scan versions are available only on VHS releases, while the widescreen versions are available only on digital copies; both the pan-and-scan and widescreen versions are also available as film watching selections on DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD Blu-ray discs), behind the scenes looks at the making of each movie, and playable bonus games (on DVDs, Blu-ray discs and 4K UHD Blu-ray discs). By the 1997-98 Studiopolisian American and Simtopian North American winter seasons, anime found success in both universes via home video, first-run syndication and national television, and the anime phenomenon quickly grew in both the entirety of the former universe and the Simtopian United States as it had elsewhere in the Simtopia Universe. This led FoxToons to license other anime to the Studiopolisian and Simtopian U.S.

Beginning in the snowy winter season of 1997-98, FoxToons Home Video, under their 4Kids Home Video division, began to release FoxToons Studios's family friendly titles on home video, including the direct-to-video and national television *Rhythm Hero* franchise, 4Kids' award winning American English dub of *Bulemon*, and FoxToons Network's original series *The Suite Life of Charitard & Blastare*, *That's So Pocono*, *Classroom Matters*, and *Step by Step*. During the fall of 1998, Radical Media (then Radical Entertainment Animation) made a deal with FoxToons Home Video to exclusively distribute Radical's properties onto VHS and DVD, such as *Bulemon* and the digitally recolored edition of *Ranma 1/2*, before Radical began producing their own VHS tapes and DVDs.

On October 1st, 1997, FoxToons Home Video launched the P Store, one of the biggest online stores where individuals could order merchandise of FoxToons Studios's motion pictures, including the latest home video releases, trading cards, coloring books, stress balls, collectible card games, toys, apparel, video games, and whatnot. As a result of the increasing popularity and advantage of the P Store website, FoxToons Studios established physical P Store locations throughout the Studiopolis Universe beginning in 2019.

### FoxToons Home Entertainment

On October 1st, 2003, due to the increasing popularity of the DVD format, the company was renamed to **FoxToons Home Entertainment**. In November 2004, FoxToons Home Entertainment signed a deal with Toei Animation to distribute some of their titles into the Studiopolisian American and Simtopian North American markets. Launching titles included *Air Master*, *Interlude*, and the digitally recolored edition of *Slam Dunk*. However, in late 2006, the deal smoothly ended, with all remaining video releases of each title being released as soon as possible, and the originally animated editions of the released titles eventually went in the hands of other anime companies in the States

### Acquisition by The Walt Disney Company

On February 20th, 2007, The Walt Disney Company acquired FoxToons Studios. Beginning on March 6th, 2007, all of FoxToons Studios' titles issued on home video platforms became classified as Disney Movie Rewards participating titles and (in the case of numerous DVDs) enhanced with Disney's Fast Play. FoxToons Studios also created a "Movies. Magic. More." promo for use on all of their DVDs that they released from March 6th through October 30th, 2007. This promo featured a ton of clips from their motion pictures forming the 2006 WDP castle, with "FOXTOONS" fading underneath it instead of "WALT DiSNEY PICTURES", after which a black screen lists all the television shows and movies available on home video in white. On November 6th, 2007, the promo was modified by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for usage on newer Disney DVD and Blu-ray releases, replacing the FoxToons clips and "FOXTOONS" with clips from Disney movies and the "DiSNEY" script respectively. The original version of Disney’s "Movies. Magic. More." promo was shown during the beginning of many Disney DVDs and Blu-rays released from November 6th, 2007 and August 26th, 2008, along with current FoxToons DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays released since the former date.

Four months later, it was announced that FOX Movies, which released their digitally-recolored editions of ADV’s hand-painted anime titles and their originally digitally colored anime titles on VHS and DVD in American English with United American Video Corporation distributing them under their UAV Gold banner, would take over the distribution, marketing, and sales of FoxToons Home Entertainment's properties in the Studiopolisian and Simtopian United States, starting October 1st, 2007. According to the announcement, FoxToons Home Entertainment would continue to acquire, license, and produce American English dubs of anime for release in the Studiopolis Universe and the Simtopia Universe's North America. However, the deal was cancelled in September before it was implemented, with both companies explaining that their budget situations caused them to be "incapable of reaching a mutual agreement."

On September 24th, 2007, FoxToons Home Entertainment restructured their distribution operations, with titles solicited through November 5th shipped by Buena Vista Home Entertainment throughout October 2007. Titles that were in mid-release and licensed were also released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment as soon as possible, beginning on November 6th, 2007. The Radical Media and 4Kids Home Video titles that were being distributed by FoxToons Home Entertainment were also affected by this restructuring, along with Disney DVDs and Blu-rays, since they smoothly transitioned from being released through Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment between November 6th, 2007 and February 5th, 2008. Around the same time period, another North American anime company, Funimation, began negotiating with Geneon USA to distribute the originally animated editions of some of the company's licensed titles. In July 2008, a formal arrangement was announced and Funimation acquired the rights to "manufacture, sell, and distribute" various Geneon anime and live-action titles. Former Geneon USA titles has since been re-licensed by other companies such as Bandai Entertainment, Funimation, Aniplex of America, Sentai Filmworks, Media Blasters, Discotek Media, Nozomi Entertainment, Maiden Japan, Viz Media, NIS America, Ponycan USA, and Cinedigm. On the other hand, both FoxToons Home Video's digitally reanimated anime titles from Geneon and their pressings of Geneon's digitally colored anime titles have since been re-licensed and re-released by themselves and Radical Media.

## Company structure

FoxToons Home Entertainment currently distributes digital media, Blu-ray discs, Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and DVDs under themselves and their divisions 4Kids Home Video and Radical Media. The company used to distribute VHS tapes by themselves prior to January 1st, 2008.

## Controversies

On October 1st, 1997, FoxToons Home Video’s first few videos included a double-length trailer for *The Very Best of The Ed Treelivan Show*, which contained a scene of its protagonist, Kevin Monkey, showing off his tangled tail towards the viewer as if he was giving the finger. Guardians found the scene offensive, so FoxToons Home Video was forced to make a different trailer for the video that omitted the offending scene.

In 2000, the trailers for their [TITLE OF SHOW] Collection series received criticism for its false advertising. The trailers in question would display all the videos in each series with either "Available now!", "NOW AVAILABLE ON HOME VIDEO AND DVD", or "Available From FoxToons" below them, suggesting that all of them would have been released, when in actuality, only a handful of the videos were released at a time.

On May 7th, 2020, the home video trailer for *The Adventures of Arnold Brady: The Complete Series* received a ton of backlash for claiming that each non-*Inspector Gadget*-inspired episode of the show would begin with its *SMBSS*-inspired and/or *FOP*-inspired scenes automatically; this is also false because the aforementioned episodes actually begin with live-action cutscenes that help develop the animated scenes.

On November 2nd, 2020, misleading *The Adventures of Arnold Brady* ads were banned in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after 7 complaints from people who believed the ads were misleading. Even though FoxToons Studios’ "false ads" were true because they showed the hidden content that was shown within each episode of the show, the FTC sided with the complainants, and requested FoxToons Studios to stop creating such ads.

## Reception

In February 2006, during the President's Day Weekend SSO Super Show, FoxToons Home Entertainment was named "The Best Studiopolisian American Anime Company" by the Studiopolisian Society for the Promotion of Simtopian Japanese Animation and "The Best Home Video Company" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. One year later, the company itself eventually claimed that the majority of their achievements occurred due to them advertising and releasing all of their titles in excellent quality and a timely manner, making a ton of money in terms of their titles becoming smash hits, taking advantage of the Disney Movie Rewards program and Disney's Fast Play, offering Easy Find Menus, animated main menus and multiple bonus features, and receiving critical acclaim for releasing all of their titles in both Ace Custom and Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition formats.

## Fun Facts

* Unlike most other home video companies, none of FoxToons Home Entertainment’s titles received laserdisc, HD-DVD, or 3D Blu-ray releases, nor did they receive Vanilla Edition releases.
* Since both groups of individuals who created the current late 2010's-early 2020's design for Funimation and Right Stuf Anime’s websites worked on FoxToons Studios' P Store website as well, each websites looks completely identical to one another.
* For legal reasons, not all of Pioneer, Viz Media, or 4Kids’ content have been released on video by FoxToons Home Entertainment. For example, only Pioneer Entertainment released the Ocean/Saban dubs of *Dragon Ball Z* and *Dragon Bomb Z*, while the 4Kids dub of *One Piece* and the *Naruto* and *Pokemon* franchises were only released by Viz Media.
* Although the VHS format was discontinued in many Simtopian countries in early 2006, newer FoxToons Studios titles have been released on VHS by the Glendale-reestablished United American Video Corporation through their UAV Gold banner beginning on February 12th, 2017, beginning with the *Arnold’s Pokémon Days* movies, *Grand Country Auto: Kong Fu Girl vs. the Brain Freezer*, *The Dragon Bomb Movie*, and *The Switch (2017)*.