We are honored to welcome 3 special guest writers from Türkiye and Romania for this in depth love letter to classic Disney animated series that are tragically forgotten by the company. This is the premier resource online for information on these classic Disney assets. We present it unedited in two forms: the article here and a Google Docs version with color text highlights. The latter is embedded at the bottom.
DISNEY+
AND MISSING
SABAN ENTERTAINMENT & FOX KIDS–JETIX WORLDWIDE LIBRARY
As we all know, Disney+ was launched on November 14, 2019.
However, its library has had tons of issues since its launch.
Missing brand and studio catalogs are still a big problem for most consumers and fans.
One of these missing catalogs is the FOX KIDS/JETIX and SABAN (BVS) ENTERTAINMENT catalog.
When you hear “Jetix“, or “Fox Kids“, what comes to mind?
You probably heard of those names before, unfortunately, many people don’t realize what they actually mean.
Don’t worry, we’ll be telling you all of these in this article.
“Fox Kids” and “Jetix” were two children’s entertainment brands.
“Fox Kids” was originally launched as a programming block in the US, and starting from 1996, it started to expand internationally.
It was owned by Fox Family Worldwide until 2001, when the company was sold to
The Walt Disney Company. Later, in 2004, the Fox Kids channels started to be rebranded in Jetix,
but those were again replaced by Disney Channel and Disney XD in 2009-2010.
Fox Kids and Jetix had mixed opinions around the globe. For the people living in US, those channels never made any sense for them. For somebody living in the Western Europe, very few people will remember it, however, for the people living in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), Latin America and Middle East, they will most probably tell you this:
“Man!!!! This was such a wonderful experience! My childhood was so good with them…..”
And, as for someone who belongs to GEN-Y from these regions, it is indeed really special.
Still, people from other parts of the world will think that Fox Kids and Jetix were some boring, and non-sense channels.
However, this doesn’t stop us from telling you all the animated and live-action series these channels did air around the world, which Disney owned them but they don’t care about anymore.
Fox Kids/Jetix had a different programming policy outside the US, especially in Europe, where,
for a good while, it was the #1 children’s entertainment brand in the region.
Maybe this article will be a good remember notice for Disney executives to show the power of these brands and how much they are still missed.
CORPORATE HISTORY
Fox Kids began broadcasting in the United States as Fox Children’s Network in 1991 as a programming block, on the Fox channels and affiliates.
A few years later, the block accelerated its growth activities and the process of international expansion of Fox Kids began.
Back in 1996, News Corp. and Saban Entertainment merged together to form Fox Kids Worldwide (FKW), in order to expand the Fox Kids brand internationally. Thus, the shares of the company were shared 50% by 50%. When the merger was completed, Haim Saban became the CEO of the company.
But this merger would not be limited to FOX and SABAN only.
Although both companies are based in America, they targeted Europe and Latin America as their main markets. For this reason, many projects and libraries were purchased.
THE FAMILY CHANNEL/FOX FAMILY CHANNEL
ABC FAMILY CHANNEL/FREEFORM
International Family Entertainment (IFE) was founded in 1990 by splitting from the US Religious broadcaster CBN. Meanwhile The Family Channel (TFC) was a part of this company. Continuing to grow, Fox Kids Worldwide (FKW) acquired IFE and at the same time, TFC in 1997. After this stage, The Family Channel was renamed as Fox Family Channel, while Fox Kids Worldwide expanded its scope with a brand new corporate name as Fox Family Worldwide.
NEW WORLD ANIMATION
MARVEL PRODUCTIONS LTD.
Marvel Productions was founded in 1963 as DFE Enterprises by David H. DePatie and Fritz Freleng (who also created the Pink Püanther and many other MGM cartoons). The company, which had been closely associated with Marvel Comics from its inception, was dissolved in 1981. The studio and company assets were acquired by Marvel. Marvel Productions was founded in 1983, and a few years later, struggling with financial crises, the company was acquired by “New World Entertainment.” The name of the company was changed to “New World Animation” and the company continued its production. Unfortunately, bad luck caught on, and this company fell into the lap of financial crises. In 1996, “New World Entertainment” assets were separated, television and cinema units were purchased by News Corporation, while the animation unit was sold to the SABAN-FFW partnership in 1998 and fell into Disney’s hands in 2001. With the acquisition of 21st Century FOX in 2019, Disney became the owner of the remaining assets of that company. Since the company assets were plundered between 1989-1996 it is very difficult to say how much TV and Cinema productions produced by this company are still owned by Disney. (But it’s pretty easy to identify animations produced between 1983-1996.)
So why is this important?
When the SABAN-FFW partnership bought this company in 1996, it also had the entire legacy of MARVEL COMICS cartoons produced between the 60s and 90s. Disney bought FFW-SABAN in 2001, but, in 2004, MARVEL sued Disney. The reason was that Disney abused its characters and the FFW sale was made without asking MARVEL. (And that was the real and main reason why Disney bought MARVEL in 2009.)
CRÉATIVITÉ ET DÉVELOPPEMENT
This French animation company was founded by Jean Chalopin (who also founded DIC Entertainment). The company was responsible for the production of certain animated series. In addition, the French unit of DIC Entertainment was also included in this company. The company was acquired by FFW in 1996 and the rights to several series produced by the company fell into SABAN INTERNATIONAL PARIS.
In this way, FFW has the rights to distribute Pre-1990 DIC Entertainment series. Ironically, Disney bought DIC Entertainment along with ABC Television the same year, but distribution rights to these series didn’t fall into Disney’s hands until Disney bought FFW in 2001. Although DIC Entertainment left Disney in 2000, Disney continued to hold the Pre-1990 DIC’s library, which it acquired in 2001, until 2006.
(According to Wikipedia: “Many of DIC’s shows that were not re-acquired back by DIC Entertainment, including most shows produced by DIC’s French division which are part of the “Créativité et Développement” library, are currently owned by The Walt Disney Company through BVS Entertainment.” Some indications tell us that it’s not actually that true. More precisely, we do not have sufficient resources to verify this data. Even if we confirm that a few series produced by this company do not belong to Disney, the rest is a big question mark.)
After the merger, Fox Family Worldwide owned the entire Saban/Fox Kids library. The process of opening up to the world was continuing at a rapid pace.
But after a few years things started to go wrong. They were far from the low ratings in the USA and the desired success in the Western European and UK markets.However, Haim Saban and Rupert Murdoch decided to sell Fox Family Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company on July 23, 2001.
With this sale, Disney obtained a 75% stake in Fox Kids Europe N.V., “Fox Family Channel”, all the Fox Kids channels around the world, and all trademarks and copyrights of the whole series and movies produced by Saban and Fox Kids. In addition, all distribution/trade agreements signed between Saban/FFW and other third party copyright holders prior to the sale were transferred to Disney.
Until the company was sold to Disney, Saban International did distribute all Fox Kids programming.
When Disney gained control of the company, they didn’t change the distributor, however, its name was no longer “Saban“, due to “corporate branding” reasons. Since 2002, Saban International and Saban Entertainment have been renamed BVS International, and BVS Entertainment.
“BVS” name comes from the Disney’s major studios, “Buena Vista Studios” and “Fox Family Worldwide” corporate name was renamed as “ABC Family Worldwide”.
(This company is also the parent company of today’s important cable network called FREEFORM.)
After the sale, the entire Saban-Fox Kids library has been moved to the Disney’s “Buena Vista International Television“ (BVI TV) catalog.
(BVI TV currently known as Disney Platform Distribution or Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution)
SABAN INTERNATIONAL PARIS
SIP ANIMATION
SABAN INTERNATIONAL PARIS was founded in 1977 in Paris as a recording studio. The studio mostly did recording stuff for Haim Saban and Shuki Levy’s music that they composed, and it also did French dubbing for the series created by SABAN or licensed from Japan by SABAN. It started as the first established Saban studio and used to be the main headquarters of the company until Saban Entertainment was founded in the US in the late 80’s.
Back in 2001, during the sale to The Walt Disney Company, the company was separated from FFW and Haim Saban left his position as CEO of FFW and moved to head of this company (SIP Animation). However, at this stage, the ownership of the programs produced by SIP before 2001 was already changed to TWDC through its parent company in the US, Saban (BVS) Entertainment. One year later, Disney bought a 49% minority stake in SABAN INTERNATIONAL PARIS, and Haim Saban left this company as well.
SIP Animation was quite good at producing animated series based on classic stories, (Little Mermaid, Oliver Twist, Around the World in 80 Days, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) but also on modern stories that have been written by popular European authors, like Michael Ende’s Wunschpunsch and Jim Button, and even to some more famous European comics (for example Corentine, Iznogoud, Achille Talon, Diabolik).
In return for this well-deserved reputation, the TV adaptation of Disney Italy’s famous comics W.I.T.C.H. and the development of the next-generation Action Man series A.T.O.M. – Alpha Teens on Machines, which Jetix Europe decided to develop in a major trade agreement with Hasbro, fell into the hands of SIP Animation. From the beginning, SIP Animation worked very closely with Jetix Europe. In fact, Fox Kids/Jetix France offices and SABAN/SIP studio were intertwined.
In 2009, SIP Animation suddenly stopped its activity due to Disney’s acquisition of all shares in Jetix Europe, back in December 2008. In 2012, the company was completely liquidated and absorbed into the TWDC – France branch.
(Sadly enough, most of the SIP shows never made it to the US for various reasons and are unknown to US Audience.)
At the same time, Disney still maintains the corporate links it established through SIP Animation. Jacqueline Tordjman, creator of the famous “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir” series, was the CEO of SIP Animation from its founding until its closure (1977-2009) and still sells content to Disney as a 3rd party producer.
In the present day, BVS Entertainment, Jetix Europe, Jetix Latin America and Freeform are divisions of ABC Family Worldwide Inc. However, according to SEC filing history, BVS Entertainment was a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company until 2014 and Jetix Europe used to be until 2015 in the USA. Also International Family Entertainment and ABC Family Worldwide, still listed as subsidiaries, are TWDC.
Then they were completely removed from SEC filing exhibits, where they aren’t listed as subsidiaries anymore. However, The Walt Disney Company – France branch is still a contact point of SIP Animation’s former assets and intellectual properties after the liquidation of SIP Animation (formerly known as Saban International Paris.)
Remnants of Jetix Europe continued to exist until around 2012-2014 to wind down operations and as an overhang period to fully integrate Jetix into Disney. European Disney XD co-productions such as Rekkit Rabbit had the Disney XD logo in the credits, but “Jetix Europe Properties S.A.R.L., Luxembourg, Zurich Branch” is credited underneath.
Jetix Europe N.V. continued to exist until the end of 2014, when it merged with Disney Holdings (Netherlands) B.V., and it did form a new company which did resist until August 2015, named Jetix Holdings N.V.
As a legal entity, the UK subsidiary (which was mostly responsible for the operational side of Jetix) ceased to exist on 11th March 2019. However, other UK-based Jetix divisions, Jetix Entertainment Ltd. and Jetix Consumer Products Ltd. continued to exist until 20th April 2014, although by then Jetix‘s functions were already integrated into Disney. The Dutch subsidiary (Jetix Europe N.V.) which mostly handled the corporate side of Jetix had its final shareholders meeting on 22nd March 2012.
In addition, Jetix Europe Properties S.A.R.L. ceased to exist in September 2017.
BROADCASTING HISTORY
Although the sale of the company was completed and the transfer took place, this situation was not progressing in sync across the world. It took some time for Fox Kids to become a Disney brand as Jetix.
THE LAST YEARS OF THE FOX KIDS
Although the company was sold, Disney did not purchase the rights to use the FOX or Fox Kids brand.
(Just as Disney needs to completely discontinue use of the FOX name in TFCF, which it acquired in 2019, by 2024.)
However, “20th Century FOX” had given the rights to use the brand to Disney indefinitely. Even so, in accordance with the agreement with Disney, “Fox Kids” programming block broadcast on “Fox Television” and “Fox Family Channel” networks was discontinued in 2002. The Fox Kids programming block firstly changed as “The Fox Box” and then as “4Kids!”. In addition, “Fox Family Channel” has been renamed firstly into “ABC Family” and again into FREEFORM.
But across the Atlantic and in Latin America, things were different. Unlike the United States, overseas Fox Kids Networks had a rich and diverse programming and broadcast library. In addition, it was broadcast as a separate cable/satellite broadcast for a certain fee, not as a free programming block. This extended the value and life of the Fox Kids brand. So the brand survived until mid-2005.
The first ever Fox Kids channel to close was the French one, back in August 2004, being replaced by Jetix, while the last one was the German one, in June 2005.
This was so evident that Fox Kids continued to grow even about 1.5 years before its closure. The extensive programming catalog and content that did not fit in one channel would now be presented on two channels. Fox Kids Play started broadcasting in CEE and MENA regions, which are Fox Kids’ biggest markets.
Fox Kids Play was launched firstly in Poland, in January 2003, and in CEE and MENA in October 2003, however, in Russia it became available in March 2004.
In this way, Fox Kids was targeting the older age group (usually boys), while Fox Kids Play was targeting a younger age group. (Mostly girls.)
Fox Kids Play, which started broadcasting when pre-school broadcasting was not yet developed, laid the foundations of pre-school broadcasting. However, unlike today’s examples, educational broadcasting was not the main purpose. It was aimed only at a younger audience.
JETIX WAS BORN
As a programming block, Jetix began airing on ABC Family and Toon Disney in February 2004. This situation continued in the same way in international broadcasting feeds. At the end of the same year, most of the Fox Kids international feeds were replaced with Jetix, but no change in the US.
Although Jetix did broadcast all over the world, the European market was the best Jetix ever had, just like its predecessor Fox Kids. Having different variations such as Jetix Play and Jetix Max, especially in some countries in the CEE region, made Jetix special and unique for this markcet. Moreover, Jetix also undertook the distribution of original series such as Tutenstein, Roboroach, Captain Flamingo, Kid vs Kat, for the European market only. This put Jetix Europe one step ahead of Jetix administrations on other continents.
While Jetix Play is a sequel to the Fox Kids Play we mentioned earlier, Jetix Max was a separate programming block where Jetix aired action productions and was only available in certain countries.
After the sale in 2001, SABAN studios ceased operations. Therefore, the production capacity of the channel was limited only to SIP Animation, the French branch of SABAN. (W.I.T.C.H., A.T.O.M., Combo Ninos et al.)
Therefore, Jetix content mostly came from 3rd party distributors/producers. In order to deal with the negativity caused by this situation, As a solution, Disney developed the idea of Jetix Animation Concepts and produced three series in their own studios. These are Get Ed, Yin Yang Yo! and Super Robot Monkey Team HyperForce Go!.
Between 2004 and 2009, the number of series produced by Disney under the Jetix brand was only 6 and one of them (Combo Ninos) was produced only for release on the Latin American market.
As a result of this, Toon Disney/ABC Family did broadcast mainly Anime/3rd Party Action series. At the same time, Jetix Europe continued to be the framework for the series produced by Saban and Fox, with an exception. While removing SABAN/FOX content on Jetix channels worldwide excluding Europe these contents continued to be broadcast in Europe until 2010.
As a result, Disney’s policy to explicitly position Jetix as a Cartoon Network competitor did not vary in most parts of the world. It was exactly the same. That’s why series produced by Disney (except A.T.O.M. and W.I.T.C.H.) weren’t original, and Jetix was in many ways a bad Cartoon Network wannabe. It was far from the originality of Fox Kids and Saban. For this reason, the Fox Kids brand is known all over the world with SABAN/FOX productions. Jetix has always been known for third party series.
The end of JETIX – HOW WAS THE JETIX BRAND KILLED?
On December 8, 2008, Disney acquired the remaining shares of Jetix Europe and SIP Animation and took full control of the company. Thereupon, Disney decided to continue with their own brands. First of all, Jetix channel content has been made similar to Disney Channel content in most countries. In CEE, there was a block called “Disney Stars” launched in June and August 2008 respectively, where they aired Disney Channel series like Phineas & Ferb, Hannah Montana, Kim Possible, etc. In the remaining countries, the channel and its brand value were slowly drained with 3rd party series such as Urban Vermin and LazyTown, which were too absurd and cringey to satisfy the former Fox Kids/Jetix audience.
DISNEY XD ERA (THIS REALLY DID IT EXIST?) AND EXTINCTION.
Starting from 2009, the process of closing the channels began all over the world by 2010.
Jetix channels were changed to Disney Channel or Disney XD, and Jetix Play channels to Playhouse Disney and then Disney Junior, and the Jetix brand was completely discontinued.
Europe did not get out of this situation as an exception this time and the entire legacy of FOX and SABAN, including the CEE market (where the SABAN/FOX series is most popular) was completely destroyed and could not be reached again. The viewers, who were waiting to reach this library again with Disney+, experienced the biggest shock in history. Because, with a few exceptions, none of them were on the platform.
For all these reasons, Disney XD is the least loved and appreciated Disney brand worldwide.
Europeans didn’t like Disney XD because it destroyed the Fox and SABAN legacy and couldn’t even replace Jetix. Latin Americans, who have completely different Jetix program content from Europe, were equally dissatisfied with Disney XD. Some American viewers, who were disturbed by the Jetix block’s interruption of Toon Disney broadcasts, did not like the Jetix block from the very beginning. So they accuse Disney XD of directly killing Toon Disney and they don’t like it.
In short, the termination of Disney XD‘s activities in most countries of the world, with the exception of a few countries, was not met with sadness by anyone, in fact, most of the people didn’t even care about its closure.
Because Disney XD was a channel that only used the Disney brand and thus had a long life, it did not have any originality or uniqueness. It was nothing short of being the boys’ version of Disney Channel.
It was not possible for someone who likes to watch animation to love Disney XD. Of course, we have not forgotten that there are people who love this brand as much as those who do not, and we respect them, but as the people who prepared this article, we are on the side that does not like Disney XD. 🙂
Thank you to everyone who has read this far. 🙂 Thanks to your patience, we left the most boring part of the article behind.
In the continuation of our article, we will talk about the Vaulted content that we could not reach after Disney XD and how much of it still has Disney. But before that, we would like to make a small announcement. It’s our biggest dream and main purpose in writing this article for Disney to re-stream the vaulted FOX KIDS/JETIX/SABAN library. For this we need your support.
Could you please sign our petition?
https://www.change.org/p/bring-to-fox-kids-jetix-library-to-disney-plus
FOX KIDS–JETIX WORLDWIDE AND SABAN ENTERTAINMENT LIBRARY
Disney has a huge archive of more than 60 series through studios such as SABAN/FOX KIDS/MARVEL/C&D, but the number of series produced by Disney did not exceed six series. Accordingly, we can easily say that the productivity of Jetix is quite weak compared to the SABAN/FOX partnership.
Many people think that Fox Kids and Jetix programming are owned by Disney now, since Disney also owned the brands. It is mostly true, however, there are some exceptions.
For example, the Pre-1990 DIC Entertainment library expired, SABAN bought back the Power Rangers franchise and sold it to HASBRO, while Digimon was completely transferred to Toei Company, and most anime licensed and dubbed by the SABAN/FOX FAMILY are no longer owned by Disney as they have expired.
In this case, we did a really deep research, to see how much of the Fox Kids/Jetix programming and Saban-BVS libraries is still owned by Disney today. We actually found out that the library is owned through three main arms:
1) Currently owned by Disney:
BVS Entertainment/SIP Animation
We talked about SABAN‘s history at length, so we won’t talk about it anymore. But there is something we want you to know.
Every series produced in SABAN‘s studios and distributed by SABAN belongs to Disney if there is no copyright transfer. There can be no royalties, as Disney bought both the producer and the distributor at the same time. In such a case, copyright problems are only possible under extreme conditions. We will talk about this later, but for now, it is enough to know that all of them belong to DISNEY without any doubts.
SELECTED TITLES THAT MUST BE ON DISNEY+
We scanned the content published by Jetix and Fox Kids, and found the contents that people are still asking about. We would like to talk about a few series that are noteworthy among the content that remains at Disney. We have prepared large images for this. While content from every brand and studio catalog is available, why these contents are not available?
DIABOLIK: TRACK OF THE PANTHER
If your childhood was spent in the USA, you’ve probably never heard of it. We are not surprised. Because this great animated series was never aired in America due to some regulations.
Adapted from one of Italy’s most famous fumetti, Diabolik, this animated series ran for a total of one season with 40 episodes and was a huge hit in the CEE and Mediterranean regions. (In fact, its first broadcast in Italy was during Prime Time.) Diabolik‘s home video distributions were also good, and DVD’s were released by Jetix Europe in Italy, France, and Hungary, and VHS’s were released between 2001 and 2003 through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment (I hope you’re not surprised.) in Italy.
According to US Copyright Office public records, this animated series is still a property of The Walt Disney Company, through its defunct subsidiaries BVS Entertainment, BVS International N.V. and SIP Animation (f.k.a. Saban Entertainment, Saban International N.V. and Saban International Paris). Home video copyright disclosures also confirm this. (As you know, SIP Animation was the studio that later created A.T.O.M. and W.I.T.C.H.)
Unfortunately, this masterpiece is now forgotten by Disney and unknown to anyone.
If you like Gargoyles, TMNT: 1987 & 2003 versions, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Batman: The Animated Series, Lupine III or Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?, we guarantee you’ll love this series too. We hope Disney gives it the credit it deserves.
Just imagine you are watching this on Disney+ with proper AI upscaled resolution and nice color correction. Unfortunately it’s just a wonderful dream. 🙁
You can watch the opening sequence and intro created by Michael Dax from here. This is a remastered-cropped version of the original intro.
We are planning a separate article to review this masterpiece. Keep focused! 😉
JETIX ANIMATION CONCEPTS AND SABAN’S PRESENTS:
A.T.O.M. AND W.I.T.C.H.
Before we briefly mention the features of these series, although those aren’t under the SABAN brand, they are valuable because they are built on the cultural heritage and corporate culture of SABAN. Also, being outside of Disney’s general style makes them unique and valuable. How many such series can we count at Disney? (Maybe Gargoyles only count?) Let’s take a closer look.
W.I.T.C.H. was a great series that explored the concept of interdimensionally.
Adapted from the comic book of the same name, the general brand of Disney Italy, called as W.I.T.C.H.
This animated series came out of the kitchen of SIP Animation, which specializes in comic book adaptations. Consisting of a total of 2 Seasons and 52 episodes, this work is one of the IPs that Disney can maintain if desired. The fact that it’s better for revival than The Proud Family hurts my brain.
Here is the European Opening and Intro
We are planning to make a separate article about W.I.T.C.H., too.
Did you see that the new generation of Action Man is here?
A.T.O.M. was a great series created by SIP Animation to highlight the action-packed side of the Jetix brand. As the series was developed and carried out in collaboration with HASBRO, the trademark rights have been transferred by JETIX Europe to HASBRO under a specific agreement, but the intellectual property of the series is registered to Disney’s defunct subsidiaries SIP Animation and Jetix Europe.
Disney gave the distribution rights to a Californian independent distributor named MULTICOM in 2018. While the series can be watched on TUBI and Amazon Prime until 2020, then the only first season is available and now has been completely removed from the MULTICOM catalog.
A great example of how Disney doesn’t care and value their SABAN properties anymore.
I hope it can be removed from Amazon Prime and TUBI just like The Tick at the end of the license period and find a better place for itself on Disney+ or HULU. While the rights seem to have been back revoked by Disney, it is not a good move to lease this series to an independent organization close to the Disney+ launch. (I think Zaslav is around here somewhere.)
NASCAR RACERS
Although this show was produced by SABAN in SABAN‘s studios, the first copyright registration was made under the Fox Family brand due to the intertwining of company assets, and all rights are now registered under the ABC Family brand owned by Disney.
A movie based on this show was also released.
Season 3 was planned for the series, but it was canceled due to the FFW-Disney deal.
XYBER9: NEW DAWN
Compared to other shows, Xyber9 was unfortunately very unlucky. Because the first season had a chance to be broadcast on the USA Fox Kids block, the second season was never broadcast due to low ratings, and after 2007, it could only find a place for itself in Toon Disney/JETIX blocks. Not to mention that the whole show was broadcast years ago in various countries of Europe, and even in Russia it did air as a FTA broadcast. Sometimes I think it’s really unfair to US audiences.
Although this show was produced by SABAN in SABAN‘s studios, the first copyright registration was made under the Fox Family brand due to the intertwining of company assets, and all rights are now registered under the ABC Family brand owned by Disney.
THE SECRET FILES OF THE SPY DOGS
Be mindful of the pets you keep in your backyard. Introducing Spy Dogs!!!
We don’t need to say that this series is a series that will guide many cartoons that come after it.
Think again, don’t you think Perry the Platypus was inspired by somewhere? 😛
In an interview with the creator of the series, Jim Benton, confirmed in his own words that the rights to the series belong to Disney. Yes, we got you!! Disney is just like Candace who tried to catch up with Phineas & Ferb!
You can watch the interview with Jim Benton here.
You can check out the intro of the show here.
MAD JACK THE PIRATE
MAD JACK THE PIRATE™ & © 1998 BVS Entertainment – Inc. BVS International N.V. Based upon characters created by Bill Kopp. All Rights Reserved.
It’s really sad that Jack only lasted 13 episodes (with a total of 23 segments). Because this adventure, set on a flat and Earth-like planet, had the potential to be a Regular Show or Gravity Falls in itself. It was produced by Bill Kopp, who also created EEK!Stravaganza but its life was not that long.
The series, which has not been broadcast in the USA since 1998, has been offered for sale as VCD in Turkiye and Poland. It gained massive popularity in Romania, where it’s completely available on DVD, too.
Therefore, its popularity in these three countries is quite high.
Thankfully you can watch all episodes on archive.org with AI Remaster. It is very sad that the series that Disney should provide are provided by the fans.
WALTER MELON
Well, this was one of the best because it was based on an original concept, “Rental Hero”. This cartoon series, adapted from the French comic book series Achille Talon, was signed by SIP Animation, which is also famous for its comic book adaptations. From Batman to Luke Skywalker, from Peter Pan to Zorro, all the heroes of popular culture ran to him when he was in trouble. In the second season, important people from history come instead of popular heroes and Walter Melon takes their place when they are in trouble.
Unlike other French SABAN series, it was broadcast in the US, albeit for a short time.
You can watch the Intro and opening from here.
IZNOGOUD
OK! This one may not be a bit trigger and politically correct for the present, but there’s no reason not to have fun given the greedy vizier Iznogoud’s effort to replace the Caliph with Himself. This work, which gives a very Mad Jack the Pirate vibe as a concept, is adapted from the famous French comic book series of the same name, Iznogoud, and is again, produced by SIP Animation.
You can watch the opening soundtrack and intro here. The opening soundtrack was created by Michael Dax, and it was pretty good, considering that it fully reflected 90’s techno-pop vibes.
TENKO AND THE GUARDIANS OF THE MAGIC
Look, the series was original, but it had a very short life, too. It was one of the most important series which aired on Jetix Play, until January 2009. Inspired by the Japanese illusionist Tenko, this series aired only on UPN in the US and unfortunately only lasted 13 Episodes. However, I came across people still asking about this series in the country where I do live. This series of live-action magic sessions might be a good project to revive today. It is obvious that the drawing quality and anatomical depictions are better than most of today’s cartoons.
We can simply say Beverly Hills Teens meets He-Man. 🙂
The mystical opening and theme song was created by Michael Dax.
THE ADVENTURES OF THE LITTLE MERMAID
Did you know that Disney has one more mermaid besides Ariel? You probably didn’t know. Now here you have it. Meet Marina. 😀
How do you think it looks? It’s amazing isn’t it?
Produced in partnership with French and Japanese producers, this series continued to air in certain regions of Europe through Jetix Play until December 2008, although it was discontinued after a short release in the US in the early 90s.
Disney hasn’t broadcast this series for years so that it doesn’t conflict with its own brand or become a rival. However, what has been done is completely unfair. Because Disney’s mermaid series focuses more on active sea life and friendship, while Saban’s focuses more on romantic and dramatic elements. That’s why Disney’s thinking is unlogical. After all, there are two products that are similar in appearance, but different in content. Disney, which owns the Little Mermaid brand, should publish it as Vintage Little Mermaid, just like Vintage Star-Wars.
We also think that the animation materials of this series are well preserved, so that it can be restored in HD much more easily, since we did not have any difficulties in finding the image we prepared in high resolution.
FRANCINE PASCAL’S SWEET VALLEY HIGH
Let’s be honest, except for Power Rangers, SABAN has never been that good in the Live-Action series. If there is one exception to this, we can say that it is Sweet Valley High.
We could not understand how Disney, which has become a brand in youth TV series, could turn away from this.
Needless to say, only the first season is available on DVD through Buena Vista Home Entertainment in the US.
Apart from that, Sweet Valley High was one of the few SABAN series that aired on Disney branded channels. It aired frequently on Disney Channel Scandinavia in 2010.
OTHER SABAN TITLES
Unlike the first list, this section includes the unpopular and not much known titles in fact they are Disney owned assets and all rights are still held by Disney. (Maybe some series’ music rights are probably owned by other companies. Does not matter.) But they are not necessary for stream catalog.
If we look at the series that we can call exceptional here, The Why Why Family can be given as an example of an educational series for preschool generations, and the fact that it has a much better editing than today’s preschool series can make it a successful revival candidate. On the other hand, Space Strikers, whose story is based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, can be shown as a successful adaptation among the space series. This series didn’t even air on Fox Kids/Jetix networks in Europe as far as we know. Although it was aired on UPN for the US, we don’t think anyone has seen it or even heard of it for many years.
I think that the Saban’s Adventures of the Oliver Twist story, which tells about the adventures of human-shaped animals, can find its audience in the right place. While Disney has not released an Oliver Twist movie or series under its own brand, the existence of this series can put an end to the situation.
There are also a few other shows, such as Journey to the Heart of the World [source], adapted from the French comic Corentin, and live-action shows such as 2Hip4TV, Offshore Television, I’m Telling!, Treasure Mall, Mad Scientist’s Toon Club, Couch Potatoes, Grunt&Punt, Count DeClues’ Mystery Castle, FOX ClubHouse Pre-School Block and Bio-Man(unaired) did broadcasted in the USA.
We could not find any images about them or we don’t think that they are suitable for the streaming era anymore.
BATTLETECH – SPACE STRIKERS – BUREAU OF ALIEN DETECTORS
CREEPY CRAWLERS –
MONSTER FARM –
THE MOUSE AND THE MONSTER
™ & © BVS Entertainment – Inc., BVS International N.V. Creepy Crawlers is based upon characters created by Abrams/Gentile Entertainment Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
JASON AND THE HEROES OF MOUNT OLYMPUS – OLIVER TWIST – SABAN’S GULLIVER’S TRAVELS
LITTLE MOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE – AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DREAMS – MY FAVORITE FAIRY TALES
KIDD VIDEO – JIN-JIN AND THE PANDA PATROL – THE WHY WHY FAMILY
THE ALL NEW CAPTAIN KANGAROO – BREAKER HIGH – LOS LUCHADORES
FREEFORM (f.k.a ABC Family and FOX Family)
We can say that it’s also owned by Disney today. Some titles were distributed internationally by BVS Entertainment, however, since Fox Children’s Productions had a very weak production capability, there are few animated series produced by them.
SELECTED TITLES THAT MUST BE ON DISNEY+
We researched all the content published by Jetix and Fox Kids worldwide and found the contents that people are still asking about. We would like to talk about a few series that are noteworthy among the content that remains at Disney. We have prepared large images for this. While content from every brand and studio catalog is available, why isn’t this content not available?
THE TICK
The series, which was produced by the creators of the famous Adult Swim series Venture Bros, was released on Hulu by Disney, although it was broadcast in many countries around the world.
LIFE WITH LOUIE
To be honest, even the fact that this series has not been on the air for years is a great disrespect to the memory of Louie Anderson, who has just passed away.
Disney has no valid excuse not to air this. R.I.P. Louie Anderson. We are respecting your memory, unlike Disney who doesn’t care.
EEK!STRAVAGANZA
Eek! The Cat was a series that had two more segments besides itself. The Terrible Thunderlizards and Klutter. It was created by Bill Kopp, who is also the creator of Mad Jack The Pirate, and all rights reserved to Disney.
FOX’S PETER PAN AND THE PIRATES
Did you know that Disney has one more Peter Pan series besides the current one? You probably didn’t know. Now you have learned.
This show is another of the most requested, including the American audience, and people still want to see it.
Produced in partnership with America and outsourcing Korean producers, this series continued to air in certain regions of Europe through Jetix Play until it’s closed down, although it was discontinued after a short release in the US in the early 90s.
Disney hasn’t broadcast this series for years so that it doesn’t conflict with its own brand or become a rival. However, what has been done is completely unfair. There are two products that are similar in appearance, but different in content. Disney, which owns the Peter Pan brand, should publish it as Vintage Peter-Pan, just like Vintage Star-Wars.
OTHER FOX KIDS TITLES
I don’t have much to comment on what’s left, I wasn’t even sure if they should be on Disney+ but I added it so the library wouldn’t be left unfinished!
ZAZOO U – RED PLANET – PIGGSBURG PIGS
DFE Enterprises/Marvel Productions/New World Animation
We can say that it’s also owned by Disney today with a few expectations.
DFE Enterprises: The content was created by DePatie-Freleng, which was mostly owned by MGM(Amazon) and some assets were owned by 20th Century Fox. After the DFE Enterprises did shut down, the company’s assets were liquidated and ownership of all series produced by them were transferred to other companies. (MGM, Warner Bros, CBS, Dr.Seuss etc.)
But there might be some DFE Enterprises assets (we didn’t define from resources) that may be owned by Disney, since Disney did acquire 20th Century Fox in 2019, but again, there is very little info on this.
In 1983, Marvel Productions Studio was founded, and the Marvel Comics Legacy assets have been transferred to Marvel Productions. (Only 1968 Fantastic Four and 1979 The Thing Meets Fred&Barney owned by Warner Bros Discovery.)
THE MARVEL SUPER HEROES (1966)
Proof that we’re not kidding when we say Disney bought Marvel’s cartoons [1] [2] before Marvel itself.
The Marvel Super Heroes and three other MARVEL series have been Disney’s property for 21 years.
It is not a case that we can accept, they are not aired unlike other series that are part of the same archive which are currently broadcast.
SPIDER-MAN (1967) – THE NEW FANTASTIC FOUR (1978) – THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1982)
Marvel Productions/New World Animation:
In 1983, Marvel Productions Studio was founded. A few years later, another company called New World Entertainment acquired Marvel Productions, and changed its name to New World Animation. The acquired company continued its production during this period as well. However, the assets created by “Marvel Productions/New World Animation” for MGM/UA, Claster/Sunbow, Sony Pictures Television and The Jim Henson Company are currently owned by them. Claster-Sunbow assets such as G.I.Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony etc. These are not related to Disney or Saban-BVS. Owned by Hasbro/eOne
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
It’s been said many times before. It is clearly stated. Dungeons & Dragons, just like Spider-Man: TAS or X-Men, is a series that is ahead of its time and has a much darker atmosphere and theme than a children’s series, but despite its deserved popularity, it is not on the air. Great leverage for Disney to reboot and rival Netflix in the adult series space. Unfortunately, it is wasted.
ROBOCOP THE ANIMATED SERIES
Do not confuse it with the 1998 Robocop: Alpha Commando.
Let’s be honest, none of you expected this. Yes, Robocop is an MGM brand and its rights are owned by MGM, but this cartoon is not MGM‘s property and was not transferred to MGM, so it remained locked in Disney’s vault. It’s hard to believe, but the rights belong to Disney.
Home video copyright disclosures also confirm this.
BIKER MICE FROM MARS
Do not confuse it with the 2006 version.
Drew Ryan has written about this before. The series, which belongs to 1994 Iron Man creator Rick Ungar, is locked in Disney’s vault in a way that even the creator can’t understand.
LITTLE SHOP – DINO RIDERS – ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES
LITTLE WIZARDS – RUDE DOG AND THE DWEEBS – KID’N PLAY
MUPPET BABIES 84 – LITTLE MUPPET MONSTERS
The Muppet series actually has nothing to do with SABAN or FOX KIDS, but the reason they are here is that they are produced by Marvel Productions and are locked in the same place with the Saban library.
MERGE INTO FOX FAMILY WORLDWIDE AND SABAN ENTERTAINMENT:
In 1997, 20th Century Fox did acquire New World Entertainment, and its assets were immediately liquidated.
Basically, the remaining New World Entertainment and New World Animation‘s library were separated between Fox Family Worldwide/Saban Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. (This also means Fox Family Worldwide/Saban Entertainment had Marvel Legacy cartoon archives produced between 60’s and 90’s owned for the first time.)
But we couldn’t find any info about the general entertainment (Non-Animation Division) assets that went to Fox or not, since there is very little to no info about this.
(Also most of the MARVEL PRODUCTION cartoons musics have been composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.)
Link for the more details about the New World Animation/Marvel Productions/DFE Enterprises cartoon Library.
Jetix Animation Concepts
Jetix Animation Concepts was a joint-venture between Walt Disney Television Animation and Jetix Europe N.V. for producing animated series which aired on international Jetix feeds. Here are the series that everyone knows. (I wonder if it would be better if they didn’t know?) There isn’t much to explain.
YIN YANG YO!
Get ED!
2) Creativite et Developpement (C&D) and other undetermined titles
They might be owned, or not, by Disney. We don’t have much information about this. Our resources and materials from copyright.gov are not enough for a more accurate determination.
Creativite et Developpement (C&D):
There are very few series produced by this company. Although these series are not generally known by the public, it is rumored that the rights belong to Disney. However, we don’t know how many series produced by this company are still owned by Disney, as the sources we have are insufficient to confirm its accuracy.
Some might be owned by Disney and some are not. In addition, most of the series produced by this company have their music composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy and it’s part of the Saban’s music library. (Also most of the Pre-1990 DIC Entertainment cartoons musics have been composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.)
Only one or two of these titles seem noteworthy. For the rest, it is difficult to speak positively. We had a hard time finding and preparing these images. If we were to talk about these notable titles, the first would be “The Bots Master”, developed with the contributions of one of the famous names of MARVEL, Avi Arad, and the other would be Michel Vaillant, who can also be seen as a French national hero. (Michel Vaillant aired on JETIX from 2007 to 2009 in France.)
We should not forget that the series named Sophie & Virginie is also quite famous in Scandinavian FOX KIDS/JETIX feed.
However, according to the US Copyright Office, the fact that these series don’t have a clear and precise record and some have more than one claimant makes their copyright holders uncertain. However, two of the companies that own the rights to Michel Vaillant appear to be The Family Channel and C&D, both of which are owned by Disney, while the other company is JETLAG Productions, which owns the rights to the Conan The Barbarian and The New Adventures of He-Man series produced by C&D. As a result, we can say that the series (Micheal Vailant) belongs to either Disney or Jetlag. But, according to French Wikipedia, it was confirmed by the company (Graton Editeur) that owns the rights to the comic that some rights to the series belong to Disney. However, he said this by referring to the Home Video rights. Therefore, we cannot definitively determine which rights belong to Disney.
In addition, two live-action French children’s programs were developed by C&D in the late ’80s to be broadcast only in France. These rights belong to Disney. Here is La Lucarne D’Amilcar (Amilcar’s Window) and Le Vie Des Botes (Botts)
THE BOTS MASTER – DIPLODOS – HAPPY NESS: THE SECRETS OF THE LOCH
SOPHIE & VIRGINIE – MICHAEL VALIANT – THE TWINS OF DESTINY
CUPIDO – THE ADVENTURES OF THE T-REX – MAGIC TROLLS AND TROLL WARRIORS
Undetermined titles of the SABAN:
CAMP CANDY – LAZER TAG ACADEMY – ACTION MAN 3D
Unidentified content isn’t just for companies that are long gone. A similar situation can be found with more recent and prominent content. For example, Action Man is just one of them. According to the records of the US Copyright Office, Mainframe Entertainment, the producer of the series, shared the rights of the series between SABAN and HASBRO through contracts. Except that Action Man is a HASBRO brand, since the contents of the contracts are not shared with the public, we cannot see which rights belong to HASBRO and which rights belong to Disney to this series. If you are wondering, you can get information from the Library of Congress for a small fee.
For Lazer Tag Academy a.k.a Lazer Patrol, the situation doesn’t look much different. As a WOW Inc. brand, Lazer Tag was transferred to HASBRO after the company’s bankruptcy. (Disney, I hope you buy HASBRO.) The animated series, on the other hand, was a Ruby Spears production, but was transferred to SABAN with a certain agreement. This is also a question mark for us, as we have not seen the details of the agreement and we do not know which rights this transfer agreement covers for how long.
For Camp Candy, the situation is actually simpler. Since SABAN and DIC are co-production partners, we don’t know who it belongs to, that’s all. It is not displayed in the WildBrain (DIC’s current owner) catalog. Can we say Disney owns it? Eh! Maybe, or maybe not.
Also a Live-Action show called as Video Power undetermined. Because there are a few more claimants listed together with SABAN.
COMBO NINOS
And here we come to the last series of the unknown ones. The series you see above was recorded as the last animation series produced under the corporate umbrella of SABAN, and then SIP Animation disappeared completely. Actually, I’m not happy with the situation, and I can’t find any argument other than “Disney Magic” to explain how a studio that once made “Diabolik: Track of the Panther” was able to make such a pointless series. OUCHH!! IT HURTS.
Since we don’t know who owns a few TV pilots and short films (Inukshuk(Short Film), Astaquana, Wesh Wesh Express, Ko-Bushi, The Jokers) produced in the last years of SIP, we can’t make a clear statement about Combo Ninos either because we couldn’t find any record of it in the US Copyright Office. To be honest last produced TV Pilots looks like trash and looks like someone pee off on SABAN‘s entire legacy. I’ll be almost glad that SIP was shut down. I can’t blame Disney for that animation industry and changing circumstances, of course. Even so, Inukshuk looks quite artistic.
3) Not owned by Disney
Simple. Disney doesn’t own them, or it did in the past. And they never will come to Disney+ unless Disney makes agreements with the original creators.
CinéGroupe – 3rd party (just for change.org) Their programming was co-produced with Saban Entertainment, such as: Wunschpunsch, What’s With Andy, The Kids from Room 402, The Tofus, Bad Dog, Jim Button and Princess Sissi.
Disney however gave back the rights to these series to CinéGroupe and its partner company HG Distribution (which distributes them today), somewhere in 2010. Those aren’t owned by Disney anymore, however, those series are fan-favorites, so we decided to separate them from what Disney does own today. And Disney had author signature rights on them via Saban’s production partnership. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
THE KIDS FROM ROOM 402
The best description we could give of “The Kids From Room 402” would be to say it was a timeless classic. Its strong sense of humor, original characters and soft-sweet illustrations make it a work that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Find it and watch it.
Another shocking information for you, although “The Kids From Room 402” is similar to Recess and Rugrats, it was a much more popular and appreciated series in Europe especially in Central and Eastern Europe. It was even broadcast as FTA on Greek TV channels.
It was broadcast on Fox Family Channel in the USA, albeit for a very limited time.
A third season was also planned for the series, but it was canceled due to the FFW-Disney deal.
WHAT’S WITH ANDY – WUNSCHPUNSCH – THE TOFUS
Stay away from Andy because he’s going to prank you again.
What’s with Andy?
Again was one of the most appreciated and loved CO-production series from Saban-CineGroupe.
It was about the adventures of Andy Larkin, who takes great pleasure in playing pranks.
After airing for 1 season on the Toon Disney Jetix block, it was unfortunately never aired again in America.
You can watch the Intro from there
If you live in America you probably never heard of this series because it was never aired there.
However, Wunschpunsch, based on Michael Ende’s novel, was a great series and still no series in its own classification.
It was about Megalopolis, the fictional city where Bubonic and Tyrannia, two stupid wizards always lived, cast bad spells to harm its people, and the sorcerers’s pets, Mauricio and Jacob, breaking the spells.
You can Watch the Intro and opening song created by Michael Dax from there.
BAD DOG – PRINCESS SISSI – JIM BUTTON
The other four CineGroupe series were not as popular as the others.
The Tofus, a series about ecological activism.
Princess Sissi, a half-truth, half-fictional story about Elisabeth, the former Austro-Hungarian empress. (At the moment we are writing this article, Queen Elizabeth II has passed away, unfortunately. R.I.P. Queen Elizabeth II.)
Jim Button, a magical story based on the novel by Michael Ende.
And finally, Bad Dog, which is about a totally annoying dog terrorizing his family and neighbors.
I guess we don’t need to say it. Except for Bad Dog, none were released in the United States.
Co-produced series by Saban and other companies but never have been owned by Saban (BVS):
They were produced in Saban studios, but SABAN never owned the copyright.
ALF: The Animated Series, ALF: Tales, Karate Kid: The Animated Series, Pigs Next Door, Kissyfur, The New Archies
Foreign Dubbed Animes from SABAN and FOX FAMILY
Licences expired on early 2000’s
SCG Power Rangers Company (All titles now owned by Hasbro/eOne):
In a few words, we can tell you that Saban bought it back from Disney in 2010, then sold it again to Hasbro in 2018. Power Rangers (entire franchise), VR-Troopers, Masked Rider, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Mystic Knights of Tir Na-Nog [1] [2] [3]
Distributed by BVS International N.V. or JETIX Europe Properties S.A.R.L.:
In the past, some of them held the distribution rights, maybe Disney might still have some of the distribution rights. But I don’t think it’s a valid case today.
Bobby’s World, Goosebumps, Tutenstein, Roboroach, Galactik Football, OBAN Star Racers, Shaman King, Pucca, Kid vs Kat, Captain Flamingo, etc.
Pre-1990 DIC Audiovisuel Library
International rights to DIC’s pre-1990 library was owned by C&D Entertainment until 1996,
until Saban acquired their assets and so international distribution moved to Saban International/BVS International. In March 2006, DIC Entertainment re-acquired the international rights to 20 shows of its Pre-1990 library from Disney. These shows are now owned by Wildbrain.
(Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, Dennis the Menace, C.O.P.S., M.A.S.K., Care Bears, The Littles etc.)
In addition, the show Gadget and the Gadgetinis produced by SIP Animation in 2001 is now owned by Wildbrain.
3RD Party Content Only
Which only aired on their channels Disney have been never owned any kind of rights on them:
Totally Spies, Martin Mystery, Team Galaxy, Monster Buster Club, Code Lyoko, Funky Cops, Urban Vermin, Jimmy Cool/Jimmy Two Shoes, Lazy Town, Oggy and the Cockroaches, etc.
Click the Link for the more details about the 3RD party and Rights Expired content.
HOW WAS THE SABAN LIBRARY USED IN FOX KIDS & JETIX
Before we move on to this topic, we need to talk about which SABAN/FOX KIDS/JETIX content is available on Disney+. We believe this will make things easier.
Unfortunately we have very limited content from this library. The entire 90’s famous Marvel Animated Universe series is available on the platform. In addition to these series, 1979 Spider-Woman, 1980 Spider-Man and 1981 Spider-Man and his Incredible Friends are also listed on the platform. Disney TVA production Super Robot Monkey Team HyperForce GO!, a Jetix show, was added to the platform in August 2020.
(And unfortunately The Tick is only on Hulu.)
But most TV series in Western Europe are not dubbed or subtitled, for example, someone living in Germany cannot watch the 1994 Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Or, at the same time, it’s unlikely that someone living in Italy will watch Iron Man. These problems don’t just apply to Western Europe. Although these series are very popular in the Eastern European market (especially in Turkiye), even ready-made dubbings from 20 years ago were not found and were not fully added to the platform. Considering that Turkiye is the third country with the highest number of Disney+ users and followers in the world, we can easily say that this is a disrespectful move from Disney.
Of course, the current problems do not end there. Although we are in 2022, you need to watch the current series in 144p quality. No one did care about existing content, including the 1992 X-Men, and a sequel series is scheduled for 2023.
Again, as Drew Ryan mentioned earlier, SRMTHFG is broadcast in 4:3 SD format, which looks nasty even though it’s a 16:9 HD version.
Plus shows like Goof Troop, Chip’n Dale Rescue Rangers, The Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, Kim Possible, Fillmore! (UK only) looks great in HD but SRMTHFG looks awful in SD.
Although this bad image and incomplete dubbing is a topic in itself, we touched on it because we can’t accept that anymore. Believe me, we don’t know what the employees of this platform are doing and what they are busy with.
In addition, there are only 2 movies on platform from the huge Saban/Fox Family movie library other than the cartoons that it does have. This huge library, where we can talk about many movies, is the subject of a separate article.
The first is Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish, which is a Harvey Comics brand and we don’t understand how it was added to the platform as all home video rights are owned by Warner Bros and all character underlying property rights owned by Comcast. The second one is Three Days, the last Freeform (Fox Family) original film produced by Saban/FOX.
That’s enough for the general information…
Let’s take a look at the Jetix Europe Feeds’ program schedules.
As you can see below, Jetix Play was initially used to reinforce the main channel’s (Jetix) position as an Action channel by broadcasting content that appeals to girls or younger audiences with SABAN licensed animes (which did expire later), Pre-1990 DIC library, C&D series and fairy tale series.
Here is the first day of the channel launched as Fox Kids Play, a random selected day in 2007, and the last day of existence,when the channel did close on September 1, 2010, and left its place to Playhouse Disney.
However, after the developments on the main channel in a few years, out of concept TV series such as Wunschpunsch, Life With Louie, The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs, Walter Melon, Eek! The Cat, Gadget and the Gadgetinis, The Kids From Room 402, The Tofus, Bad Dog and Captain Flamingo became part of the Jetix Play programming, and therefore the content of the channel has undergone some kind of change. This caused the channel to deviate from its purpose of appealing to a younger (Pre-School) audience. As you can see, almost all of the content comes from the SABAN library we mentioned above, while the rest is 3rd party content and the Pre-1990 DIC Library or animes like Honeybee Hutch, Huckleberry Finn or Pinocchio have been removed from the channel because theirs rights did expire. But CineGroupe-SABAN co-production series continued airing there until closed down. As of this date, all of these series have been vaulted by Disney and are out of reach.
An audio switching footage from Jetix Play – 27/05/2009
The changes in the main channel are much more dramatic than that. The contents of SABAN-FOXKIDS have been made extremely limited over time and have mostly been replaced by 3rd party series.
Feeds in other Central and Eastern European countries except Turkiye had a general programming that gathered action series in one place, this programming was called Jetix Max.
You can watch Romanian/Russian promos below.
Actually, that was a really good idea. All action series and animes have been moved into one place on Prime Time and their broadcast hours have been extended.
Because SABAN/FOX productions such as The Tick, Diabolik, Nascar Racers and even MARVEL productions such as Hulk and Fantastic Four were abolished in Turkiye after 2006, while JETIX MAX blocks continued to broadcast in Central and Eastern European countries where Disney Channel did not broadcast.
When Jetix started to follow a Disney-dominated broadcast policy in these countries, JETIX MAX blocks and action series were either completely removed or moved to late hours. [1] [2] [3]
Why is this important?
Because: Positioning.
In these Hungarian promos below, which you will watch a few years before MARVEL became a Disney company, it can be seen that while Disney was programming Jetix Max, it clearly held Diabolik and A.T.O.M. on par with the Marvel cartoons of the 90s. However, it is extremely sad and absurd that 90s MARVEL cartoons take their place on the platform today, and that similar types of content that have been broadcast on the same channels for years cannot be received.
Considering that such cartoons are no longer produced today, it is clear that such content, which can find an audience, should be on the platform. This will increase diversity.
As a result, content that has taken an important place in people’s lives for 10 years or more in the past and published for years is no longer with us today. The only question is why?
The effects of brands on popular culture in the past and today…
Even though the brands are long gone, they still maintain their place in the past today.
For example, although the old Goosebumps series is not owned by Disney, Disney is developing a new Goosebumps.
Also, the new X-Men series from Fox Kids/MARVEL legends is on the way.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, let’s see what else there is.
Also Jetix Europe was publishing magazines on certain CEE countries.
1-) Firstly; FOX KIDS/SABAN archives were offered for sale in retail stores in major European markets via VCDs and DVDs. Even series such as Robocop, which have never been broadcast on these channels before, found a place to be shown in this way.
2-) While Jetix Europe was active, it had developed a policy to market its library to thematic channels as FTA.
Therefore, the popularity and reach of most SABAN/FOX KIDS series released in the Central and Eastern European market was higher than most of Disney’s series famous in the US and other markets.
So much so that between 2007-2013, more than half of the content of free children’s channels in Turkiye, Russia, Romania and Poland came from Jetix Play and between 2000-2003 FOX KIDS-SABAN library.
(Even 2-3 years after Jetix and Jetix Play channels were closed, these series continued to air until the expiration of their active license period.)
It is possible to see an example of this in the series Diabolik. It was also broadcast on FTA channels over the years in Turkiye and Romania. (In fact, most of the episodes you can find on YouTube can be watched with the defunct Turkish TV channel Cine5 screen bug. Someone has somehow synchronized the English dubbing to these recordings and presented it to the screen, but on the other hand, it is not possible to find the Turkish dubbing as it was broadcast on Fox Kids/Jetix and Cine5. Here is a really interesting fact.)
I don’t need to say that Disney did nothing while these footages were made unavailable, despite my numerous reports to the anti-piracy unit. 🙂
3-) Also, the popularity of Mad Jack The Pirate has almost become a meme in Turkiye. A drill rap song was written to refer to the character of Scuffy Skunk in the series.
“Şıpıdık Öldürmeli” means “Scuffy Must Kill” in Turkish.
Here is the that song.
4-) The Russians are still airing Jetix as illegal. (They especially love and air the CineGroupe series)
5-) W.I.T.C.H. It’s still live at night in France Disney Channel and its manga is on active sale.
6-) “Ekşi Sözlük” (Sour Dictionary in English), a website operating as a Turkish clone of Urban Dictionary, has received 18 pages of comments on this topic since 2018.
https://eksisozluk.com/fox-kids-cizgifilmlerini-arsivden-cikarma-talebi–5789400
(You can read with google translate.)
7-) A mini-documentary was made for Dungeons & Dragons, which became well established in our lives with Stranger Things. It really doesn’t make sense for Disney to exclude such an element in popular culture.
But the most interesting of all was this post. A Romanian Page called Nostalgic shared two posts about Fox Kids & Jetix The first post arrived on June 14, the global launch day of Disney+.
In the post, there was a Disney+ interface section with various content from the SABAN library, including the content whose license expired.
This post has received as many likes and comments as you can see. There were also congratulatory and supportive comments from countries other than Romania. The second share came about 1 month later in July. And it received as many likes and comments as you can see below.
FINAL THOUGHTS….
Disney cannot produce 50 cartoons a year alone. However, the fact that they actively add this archive to the platform means that more than 50 cartoons are on the platform at a time with a very low budget.
This can also be considered a plus for content wars. Of course, we do not expect all of these cartoons to be on the platform. This is not a realistic expectation, but we see that there are at least 20 series that should be on the platform.
We would like to remind you once again that they are series that were dubbed and translated for many languages 20-30 years ago and in this sense, they are cost-effective.
We are aware that Disney+ has many issues that need to be resolved. However, we can’t ignore the fact that this is also a problem. We have thought about the reasons for this, but we would like to briefly explain why none of them will be a valid excuse. As we showed in the examples above, there are still people waiting for these series.
Pre-Existing materials.
First of all, it is necessary to explain the difference between exclusive property and underlying property. Underlying property, especially in adaptations, indicates the character, subject, theme or other elements to which the work is adapted, while exclusive property has a limited scope. It indicates only the adapted work. In order to produce a proprietary property, a certain agreement must be made initially and a product must have been produced depending on this agreement. This underlying property is called the Pre-Existing material.
Since it is not such a cheap and easy thing to use Pre-Existing material, deals are made accordingly.
So if this was a problem then we shouldn’t even be able to watch the 20th Century movie Garfield on the platform.
So in this case, if Disney can publish Richie Rich or The Tick, there should be no problem in airing series produced based on other Pre-Existing material such as Diabolik, Robocop, Dungeons & Dragons, Sweet Valley High, Walter Melon or Iznogoud. In other words, if we are talking about an archive, we say that there is a copyright problem in 1 or 2 content and it is understandable, but which of us will accept that there is a copyright problem in this entire archive?
Well, let’s say there is a copyright problem on these or some of them, so why not Biker Mice From Mars and The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs, which have been verified by their producers to belong to Disney, aren’t on the streaming service even in 2022 (almost 2023, heck!)?
Music License Issues
Let’s think this way. Does every streaming service have a separate license for every music of every content they broadcast? Streaming services with thousands of content don’t have any problems in terms of having every music licensed or having streaming rights, but is there a problem when it comes to the Saban library? We do not find this convincing. Yes, the SABAN music library is owned by BMG Rights Management, not Disney. However, this library is actively used by many companies. This includes Disney.
Because the soundtracks produced by Haim Saban, Shuki Levy and Michael Dax were used in the cartoons produced by many companies except Saban.
Let’s talk about companies that still use this library, which is registered with BMG.
WildBrain (the pre-1990 DIC library), the HG Distribution-CineGroupe partnership, Hasbro/eOne (Power Rangers Franchise), Filmation and the current heirs of He-Man use this music library produced by SABAN and have no problems with it.
If we look at the MARVEL-SABAN co-production series on the platform, we see that Disney also uses this music library which belongs to BMG.
(Suffice it to say that the famous Spider-Man: TAS (1994) and X-Men: TAS (1992) intros were produced by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.)
In the meantime, let’s mention that the music rights for series such as Nascar Racers and Xyber9: New Dawn are owned by Fox Family Music company under ABC Family Worldwide.
Unedited image and sound.
If Disney were a company that really gave the old cartoons the value they deserve today, and was engaged in both verifying and grading the colors and converting them to HD by rescanning the image, there would be a valid reason for not streaming this library. But while they have DVDs or Blurays with better image quality for Disney who airs Spider-Man, X-Men or SRMTHFG from old VHS tapes, this is an approach that is not correct and does not examine the reasons for the actions.
In conclusion, none of these excuses are valid excuses for a media giant like Disney, let’s be truly honest. Likewise, it is not something that is very costly and impossible to do. The only reason this content isn’t live today is because DISNEY FULLY REJECTED THE SABAN LEGACY AND DIDN’T DO ANY ACTION ON THIS.
These are not a Disney brand.
I have mentioned that we have always found Disney’s brand tile idea absurd. However, it is not correct to talk as if there is no solution to this or all child-family friendly content is under the Disney brand.
How it does that? Let’s show it.
Both movies are listed as part of the same library and under the general entertainment category. (STAR)
From this we understand that Disney does not keep the general entertainment (STAR) category as neat and organized as Hulu. But we can understand that it uses the same logic as Hulu. This seems to be just one of the signs that the Hulu-Disney+ merger will happen after 2024, most probably.
Source: dsny.pl
Source: dsny.pl
“The Non-TWDC tag is mainly used to indicate 3rd party content other than TWDC’s own content, but when we say Non-TWDC we think that, you know, what we mean here is the source of the content, not copyright.
Because TWDC-Other and Non-TWDC are hidden tags on the platform and can often be used interchangeably.
We don’t think Disney paid Warner Bros. or Comcast for this show, let’s be serious. We guess that they are using the rights inherited from SABAN.”
Because in the current situation, even SRMTHFG is positioned as Freeform-STAR (General Entertainment) in the hidden tags within the platform. Of course, don’t see this as nonsense again, because in the UK you can see both The Walking Dead and Baby TV content under the STAR brand. 😉
Source: dsny.pl
The Saban (BVS-SIP) Library and Jetix collection will be a lovely addition to Hulu when it launches globally.
(This is also further proof of why there is a need for a separate children’s category called Hulu Kids/Star Kids or
Freeform, and that Non-Disney branded child-family content should also be consolidated under one roof.)
Kids don’t watch old cartoons. You are not the target audience.
We said from the very beginning that these shows should be classified as General Entertainment content and that Disney should stop treating them as children’s shows. For this reason, we recommend that these series be considered as General Entertainment or Nostalgia content and included in the platform as such.
In addition, there is content that can appeal to all ages, as well as content that can be enjoyed by those who love action or magic. We know that the drawing style of cartoons nowadays does not have such detailed anatomical descriptions and detailed background drawing sketches. The SABAN library is quite unique with its detailed quality anatomical illustrations and outsourcing animation by Asian studios. However, the children in question are; and, with the right color filtering and computer-artificial assisted remaster, we have no doubt that they will look at least as good as today’s cartoons. Even internet users who act on their own can do this, while world giant Disney of course does it very comfortably.
The fact that there was no excuse examining the SABAN legacy as much as we did could be a reason for this situation, but we wrote the first article that deals with the SABAN legacy in detail and relates it to Disney with its bibliography.
We expect Disney officials to return to our campaign and at least give us an official response regarding the current copyright status of this library.
We have a responsibility to provide the most accurate information on behalf of the fans we represent.
It is noteworthy that the only brand that isn’t on the platform alongside Marvel, Lucasfilm, ABC, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Disney Branded Television, Pixar, 20th Century FOX is, of course, SABAN/FOX KIDS/JETIX, and it causes speculation among people.
We request Disney to disclose its rights in this library and stop this speculation.
Therefore, we ask any Disney official reading this to return to our campaign and inform us.
Dear Disney executives, do you have any plans to publish this content in the future? Are you doing up-to-date work to publish this content? We want to know details like this.
We have been looking forward to this content for years. While Disney Plus is a great atmosphere for that, they still don’t exist.
Please let us know if you do not have such a plan, let’s not wait in vain as fans and be disappointed every time by your ignorance.
You can reach detailed resources from this link.
And you can check out a detailed ownership list of the Saban library and FOX KIDS/JETIX content.
You can reach our change.org campaign from this link.
Thank you for reading. That was all.
See you in other articles.
CREDITS
Author, research and co-visual preparation: Çınar Anıl KÖKSAL from Turkiye
Grammar validation and support: Ilie Iulian from Romania
Lead Visual preparation, support and co-writer: Barbaros Aydınlı from Turkiye
Special thanks to some resources and presentation support: Moleoman from Poland (An ASH Forum Member.)
Barbaros Aydınlı
Barbaros is a teacher that lives in Turikye. He loves the classic Fox Kids era, which is unforgettable to him.
Çınar Anıl Köksal
He is a good researcher who likes to write and has a Bachelor of Communications degree. He finds old TV productions more characterful.
Iulian Ilie
Iulian is a Romanian person, who does deep research about Fox Kids and Jetix brands. Alongside that, he is also a pretty friendly and chill guy to talk with.
