SIP Animation


SIP Animation was a French animation studio, and a former subsidiary of Saban Entertainment. By 2009, the company had produced over 780 half-hours of animated content.
Despite the name, the company was not directly related to the Saban subsidiaries Saban International or Saban International Services.

History

Saban International Paris

Saban International Paris was founded in France by Haim Saban and Jacqueline Tordjman in 1977 as a record label. The company became a subsidiary of the newly-formed Saban Entertainment in 1980, and in 1989, Saban International Paris moved into the animation field, producing animated series for their parent company. Saban International Paris would eventually enter a partnership with the newly formed Fox Kids Europe in the mid-90s, and so would produce many animated shows for that network in the 1990s and 2000s.
In March 1996, Créativité et Développement, a company owned by DiC Entertainment co-founder Jean Chalopin, was purchased by Fox Kids Worldwide. The library was absorbed into FKW while the company itself was absorbed into Saban International Paris. With the buyout, a show under development at C&E: Diabolik was placed into the control of Saban International Paris, alongside other projects.
In August 1996, Saban and the German ARD network agreed to a three-year, $50 million co-production and library program licensing agreement. This deal included two new shows which would be produced by Saban International Paris and Canadian studio CinéGroupe: Jim Button and Night of the Wishes. The former premiered in late 1999, while the latter was renamed to Wunschpunsch and premiered in late 2000.
In December 2000, DIC Entertainment announced that they would be co-producing Gadget and the Gadgetinis with Saban International Paris, and that Saban International would hold international distribution rights to the series, which itself would premiere in 2002.

SIP Animation

In 2001, Fox Family Worldwide was sold by owner News Corporation to The Walt Disney Company; this also included Saban Entertainment and Saban International Paris, which were subsidiaries of Fox Family Worldwide. Saban Entertainment was renamed to BVS Entertainment, while Saban International Paris was sold off after Haim Saban departed the same year.
In April 2002, Saban International Paris confirmed that their newest show: Tofu Family, later renamed to The Tofus, was pre-sold to ITV to air on their CITV block in the United Kingdom. It was also confirmed that the company were working on 3 different shows: Tinsellania for TF1 and Family in co-production with Studio B, Sparkiz for France 2 and ROBO for M6. None of the 3 shows were ever completed.
In the same year, The Walt Disney Company purchased a 49% minority stake within Saban International Paris. The company however could no longer use the "Saban International Paris" name and on October 1, 2002, the company was renamed to SIP Animation, with a new domain name for the company website following soon after. On the same day, SIP announced they were producing a TV series based on the Disney-published comic book series W.I.T.C.H., alongside two others they were already working on before the name change. All the SIP shows made during this era were distributed by Buena Vista International Television, a Disney subsidiary.
In March 2003, SIP confirmed that they were due to start work on The Tofus, as well as confirming that they would be co-producing the second season of CineGroupe's What's with Andy?, in association with Fox Kids France and Super RTL. On the same day SIP also confirmed that they would produce a W.I.T.C.H. pilot to attract broadcasters into airing the series, as well as confirming that 2 shows were under development for Fox Kids Europe, one being a 2D show which TF1 was looking into airing and the other a 2D/3D show.
In September 2004, Jetix Europe announced that their next co-production with SIP would be an action-packed cartoon with the working title of The Insiders. Hasbro signed a deal to produce toys based on the show later in the month. The show's full title would eventually become A.T.O.M. - Alpha Teens on Machines, and premiered on Jetix channels all over the world in Mid-Late 2005. In October of the same year, website Kidscreen confirmed that the planned 2D show made by SIP would be titled Combo Niños and that delivery for the series would begin in early 2006. Jetix Europe and TF1 had been on-board with the series, but SIP had also been looking for other broadcasters or countries to co-produce the series.
In May 2007, SIP Animation announced that the production of Combo Niños had begun. The series eventually premiered on Jetix channels in Europe in mid 2008, and eventually Latin America in December.
In late 2007, it was confirmed that SIP would be co-producing a feature film with Korean distributor M-Line, titled Princess Bari, being the first ever French-Korean animated co-production. The film was rumored to have been completed, but was never released.
In early 2008, SIP introduced a new website and domain name. In its final year of existence, the company produced several television pilots, including Astaquana, Wesh Wesh Express, Ko-Bushi, and The Jokers; as well as an 8-minute short film titled Inukshuk, which was completed in December 2008, and premiered in May 2009.

Closure and legacy

In 2009, following Disney's full acquisition of Jetix Europe, SIP Animation silently went dormant. On May 12, 2009, the company was subject to liquidation, and SIP Animation as a whole was listed as fully closed on June 11, 2012, with only around 1 or 2 employees remaining at that time.
Bruno Bianchi, who had worked at the company since the 90s, went on to form his own animation company called Ginkgo Animation after SIP's shutdown, and ran it before his death on December 2, 2011. One of Ginkgo's projects had been George and Me, an adaptation of a 2006 Soleil Productions comic series that had first been picked up by SIP Animation as early as December 2007, and had been planned to start production at SIP at the beginning of 2009. However, by April 2011 this venture of Ginkgo's was considered unsuccessful due to changing priorities in the French animation industry, according to one of the authors of the original comics.
Malaysian studio, which had previously worked as a subcontractor on Combo Niños and Wesh Wesh Express, co-produced the Ko-Bushi pilot and would eventually co-produce a full series under the slightly different title , with the involvement of Zagtoon. Zagtoon itself was co-founded by SIP co-founder Jaqueline Tordjman and also employs several key people who formally worked at SIP, like composers Alain Garcia and Noam Kaniel.

Subsequent ownership

As of 2012, The Walt Disney Company France acts as a contact point for SIP and its former assets. Disney owns a majority of SIP's programs that were produced when the company was part of Saban Entertainment, which remain under the ownership of the Disney subsidiary BVS Entertainment. W.I.T.C.H. is however owned by Disney directly as the company was involved in the production itself and published the comic books the show was based on.
The shows co-produced with CinéGroupe remain in their catalogue, and are distributed by partner company HG Distribution. Gadget & the Gadgetinis is currently owned by WildBrain, via co-producer DIC Entertainment and its ownership of the Inspector Gadget franchise. Disney licenses out the first season of Alpha Teens on Machines to independent distributor Multicom Entertainment Group, including digital distribution rights. The short film Inukshuk is distributed by interfilm.

Shows produced

As Saban International Paris

Some of the shows featured the "Saban's" corporate bug in their title. Saban Entertainment itself is not listed.

  • Gadget & the Gadgetinis
  • What's with Andy?
  • The Tofus
  • W.I.T.C.H.
  • A.T.O.M. – Alpha Teens on Machines
  • Combo Niños

    Pilots

  • Astaquana
  • Wesh Wesh Express
  • The Jokers

    Short film

  • Inukshuk