| Wildbrain Entertainment, Inc. | |
| Type: | Subsidiary |
| Former Name: | Wild Brain (1994–2007) |
| Fate: | Closed |
| Predecessor: | Colossal Pictures BIG Pictures |
| Founders: | John Hays Phil Robinson Jeff Fino |
| Hq Location: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. New York City, New York, U.S. San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Industry: | Entertainment Animation |
| Products: | Television series, specials, television commercials, licensed merchandise |
| Parent: | DHX Media (2010–2017) |
| Divisions: | Wildbrain Animation Kidrobot Ghostbot |
Wildbrain Entertainment, Inc. (commonly known as Wildbrain, stylized as W!LDBRAIN, formerly known as Wild Brain, and later known as DHX Media Los Angeles) was an American entertainment company and animation studio that developed and produced television programming, motion pictures, commercial content, and licensed merchandise. Established in 1994, it maintained offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.
Its film productions included the Annie Award-winning computer-animated short film Hubert's Brain, while its television work included the Nick Jr. series Bubble Guppies and Yo Gabba Gabba!, and the Disney Channel series Higglytown Heroes. Wildbrain also produced earlier animated shorts and television specials of Monster High for Mattel.
They have produced national commercials for clients such as Esurance,[1] Chiclets, Target, Nike, Honda, Kraft, The Wall Street Journal, and Lamisil (featuring Digger the Dermatophyte). Their ad work has won Clio Awards, ADDY Awards, BDA Awards, and Annie Awards. A subsidiary, Kidrobot, creates limited edition toys, clothing, artwork, and books. It had stores in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami.
In 1994, John Hays, Phil Robinson, and Jeff Fino founded Wild Brain in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The new company bootstrapped with contract work from local game companies such as Broderbund, LucasArts, and Living Books. In 1996, Wild Brain moved to a 17,000 square foot warehouse at the corner of 18th St. and York St. in the Mission District spearheading the growth of what came to be known in San Francisco as Multimedia Gulch. In 1999, Austin, Texas-based Interfase Capital invested almost $17 million in Wild Brain.
Over the next few years, Wild Brain's staff ballooned from a staff of about 20 to about 250. It struck deals with Yahoo! and Cartoon Network to produce animated shorts for the web. It launched wildbrain.com, creating animated web shorts such as "Groove Monkee", "Mantelope", and numerous web series including Joe Paradise, Glue, Graveyard, and Space is Dum.
After legendary studio Colossal Pictures closed down in 1999, and with the financial backing of the Interfase companies, Wild Brain expanded further, providing employment for former Colossal directors and staff. Around this period, they produced the series Higglytown Heroes and Poochini.
In 2004, Charles Rivkin, former CEO of The Jim Henson Company, joined Wild Brain as president and CEO. Rivkin oversaw the creation and development of the series Yo Gabba Gabba! for Nick Jr.
In 2007, former founder Jeff Fino left to start Nuvana, an educational web-based company with former Colossal Pictures producer, Joe Kwong. Wild Brain rebranded to Wildbrain Entertainment that same year.
In 2008, Rivkin left Wildbrain after being named U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco. Michael Polis, the marketing director of Wildbrain, then became the new CEO.
Around this time, John Hays left Wildbrain to work on indie features La Mission and Howl, which opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
By 2009, the original founders of the company had all left Wildbrain. The company expanded its animation studios to Sherman Oaks in March, then closed its San Francisco office in June. It had been an independent company until Canadian studio DHX Media purchased Wildbrain in 2010. That same year, Phil Robinson and Amy Capen, executive producer of Wildbrain's San Francisco studio, started an independent company called Special Agent Productions. Robinson died in 2015 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.[2] [3] [4]
In 2016, DHX Media announced the formation of a new London-based multi-channel network under the name WildBrain, focusing primarily on YouTube channels aimed towards children, such as content and original series from DHX's properties, as well as other forms of educational and toy-oriented content.[5] In September 2019, DHX Media announced that it would change its name to WildBrain outright, with the MCN unit being renamed WildBrain Spark.[6]