"A Moose of a Deal or Bullwinkle has a Wildbrain" What does the Wildbrain Deal Mean for Jay Ward Cartoons

 

For those living under a rock (and also living in Frostbite Falls), Jay Ward Productions just made a deal with WildBrain for not just distribution of its cartoon library but also production rights for new content with these characters.  Very little is known about it other than a couple of articles including a Variety article.  What does it all mean?  Let's break it down.

First of all, WildBrain is a Canadian company that has a portfolio of cartoons in their cartoon library with ownership of many brands including the DIC library, Strawberry Shortcake, a share of the Peanuts Brand with new content, and more.  This is an independent company not owned by any of the 6 or 5 or 4 (that number keeps shrinking) major media conglomerates.  It's not the first time Ward Productions worked with these people as they helped them at Dreamworks with some rebooted shows such as The Mr. Peabody Show and Rocky and Bullwinkle.  WildBrain's track record has been hard to follow.  Not because they do so little, but because they do so much.  They license, sub-license, spread their content, and do all kinds of stuff that makes it hard to follow.  They also do animation for shows and movies not owned by their studio such as Dreamworks and Hasbro.  Even their most notable production, MLP Friendship is Magic, is not owned by WildBrain (or DHX as it was once called).  

WARNING: The next paragraph may cause headaches due to the information provided.  If you need to take a break and walk away, please do.

The Jay Ward cartoons had many different side ownership though Ward always owned his IP regardless.  Most of the confusion came from General Mills and Peter Piech, who distributed most of their cartoons to TV stations mixing in with Total Television cartoons under General Mills.  For example, in syndication, a Commander McBragg would appear in the 5th season of Rocky and Bullwinkle.  In syndication also, Tennessee Tuxedo would mix in some segments of Aesop and Son, Mr. Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tales, Mr. Know It All, and Bullwinkle's Corner.  Some of these may have ended up in original runs of Tennessee Tuxedo as well.  Original first runs of Underdog would sneak in a Jay Ward cartoon as well especially in the first season.  This mess up made the folks at TTV happy but ticked off Jay Ward as he felt that his cartoons were superior with better writing and clever gags.  Worse yet in syndication, the episodes were split into two.  Seasons 1, 2, and 5 were labeled as The Bullwinkle Show.  Seasons 3 and 4 were labeled as The Rocky Show, THOSE would also be labeled on paper as Rocky and His Friends.  As a result, the records are a mess as to what season is what.  The first two seasons were originally Rocky and his Friends while the rest of the series would be originally The Bullwinkle Show.  Somehow when some of the Bullwinkle Show ended up in syndication as The Rocky Show they just stayed in that package by Mr. Peitch while Saturday and Sunday morning reruns of The Bullwinkle picked up the first two seasons.  As a result, seasons 3 and 4 was labeled as seasons 1 and 2 and vise versa.  It wasn't until further research by Kieth Scott and his book The Moose That Roared put the correct episode order on record.  Meanwhile, Ward Productions handled everything else non TV related.  A deal was struck with Disney to distribute some of the episodes on home video under the Buena Vista label, but Universal became partial owners in the 90s mostly for theme parks and new content.  In the 2000's, Classic Media would take over that partial ownership which in turn became a part of Dreamworks in 2012 and would be bought by NBC Universal bringing them back to Universal.  The Program Exchange would be what Peter Peitch's company would become expanding beyond Ward and TTV and added sitcoms and more cartoons while still in agreement with General Mills.  Good copies, however, was not easy.  Program Exchange did a remastering process in 1987/1990 for The Bullwinkle Show.  However, The Rocky Show remained untouched in 16mm prints.  That company shut down in 2016.  The good news is that Ward productions did some remastering in 1990 for home video, and in 1997, they restored every single episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle.  They're not perfect, a music clearance issue occurred, and Bullwinkle Show titles are missing, but otherwise they are pristine (though not in HD since this was done in the 90's) and a lot of things are preserved including the original master audio for the voices and original bumpers and intros.  All under the label The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends these versions would end up on DVD.

So what's next?  Well, WildBrain is getting in total 788 episodes of Jay Ward's work.  There seems to be something missing however, and that something appears to be Hoppity Hooper.  Unfortunately, it appears that the original negatives and masters are gone.  The Program Exchange had these for years and years under the Uncle Waldo Cartoon Show brand, but they now appear to be totally missing ever since the shutdown of Program Exchange.  Only some 16mm prints and VHS recordings exists making all the episodes able to exist in some form.  Sadly, not broadcast or streaming ready.

The biggest thing WildBrain is great at is accessibility.  Many Youtube channels of their property popped up everywhere from Inspector Gadget to Sonic the Hedgehog.  A lot of their shows are up on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Paramount +.  This could very well happen to the Jay Ward stuff as well.  Rocky and Bullwinkle did stream on Hulu in its early days, but they don't anymore.  They also have a Youtube channel managed by Universal....meh....it's not that good.

As far as home video is concerned, we don't know if Universal will continue to distribute their library this way.  Even though WildBrain owns a share of Peanuts, the animated content is still being officially released on home video by Warner Bros.  Universal could in theory still have the home video rights, but it's hard to say.  Like I said, WildBrain's track record is hard to follow.  So many home video releases from so many companies.  The DIC shows when owned by Cookie Jar were all released by Shout Factory.  Now....they're everywhere.  The majority of them were released by Mill Creek Entertainment, but other companies include New Video Group, NCircle Entertainment, Invincible Pictures, and most recently with Discotek Media.  Who knows what will happen if the Jay Ward cartoons will be re-released on DVD.

What WildBrain WON'T get according to Kidscreen are the movies, The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Amazon series, and the George of the Jungle reboot series. These will continue to be owned by NBC Universal for sure.

Also, new content will be made with the Jay Ward characters.  These are the same people that worked with Tiffany Ward and Ward Productions before, so they are already familiar with the content.  We can expect to see more Rocky and Bullwinkle content from WildBrain.  Meanwhile, Bullwinkle's Fun Centers are still in operation as they just opened up a 5th location in Upland, CA.  The moose isn't going anywhere.  Speaking of Bullwinkle's, despite Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo appearing at these restaurants these were obviously commissioned by Peter Pietch and are NOT Jay Ward characters, these are Total Television.  Therefore, NBC Universal continues to have total control of the property.

That's all we know.  I will be keeping an eye on this since I am a fan of these cartoons, and it's very complicated with their history.  I expect to hear more about this in the coming months.