Category: Licensing

The Eskimo that has had a place on the tail of all Alaska Airlines aircraft for over a quarter century is stepping down from one plane to make room for some popular Disney characters. Alaska Airlines has launched the "Spirit of Disneyland" Boeing 737-400 aircraft, which features the faces of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy painted on a bright blue background.

Raven Moon Entertainment, a producer of childrens programming based in Orlando, Florida, is offering U.S. network affiliates and independent television stations the opportunity to telecast up to six airings of 13 episodes of its preschool series GINA DS KIDS CLUB at no charge. In addition, Raven Moon will make participating stations profit participants in all licensing and merchandising revenue.

Corus Entertainment's Nelvana put the wrap on MIPCOM 2002 with a number of new sales and renewals for its kids' brands and programs. BEYBLADE continued to be a popular property for the company and was snapped up by the UK's terrestrial broadcaster Five TV (formerly Channel 5), which licensed 51 episodes of the series for debut in November 2002. BEYBLADE currently airs in the UK on Cartoon Network UK. Nelvana also completed video and DVD deals for BEYBLADE and MEDABOTS in the UK with Contender Entertainment Group, which set the titles for a release date of December 2, 2002.

peppermint, the worldwide distribution company that has recently undergone a management buy out from Germany's Helkon Media AG, has signed a deal with Spanish production and distribution company BRB to distribute over 230 hours of programming to all Asian territories. peppermint, who will also handle Australia and New Zealand for BRB, will have exclusive distribution rights for 20 different series, each consisting of 26 x 26-minute episodes, plus 14 related features each with a running time of 75 minutes.

4Kids Entertainment has signed an agreement with DreamWorks Records to release an album based upon the music in the YU-GI-OH! animated television series. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the album, titled YU-GI-OH!: MUSIC TO DUEL BY, will be available at retail on October 29, 2002. The album will contain the YU-GI-OH! theme songs as well as orchestral passages and other songs from the television series. Also on the album will be some new music scheduled to be included in future episodes of YU-GI-OH!

Nickelodeon has agreed to license several of its popular cartoon properties to niche-market peripheral company KidzMouse. Several new KidzMouse computer mouse designs, sold under the "Nickelodeon by KidzMouse" name and based on Nick cartoon series, will debut in time for the holiday 2002 retail season. KidzMouse, is a "Kid-Friendly Computer Mouse" about half the size of a regular computer mouse with a squeezable "head" that replaces normal mouse buttons. The product is designed to make computers accessible and enjoyable for young computer users.

The U.S. Supreme Court now has the task of determining the legality of the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), a 1998 law that extended millions of existing copyrights by an additional 20 years. On Wednesday, October 9, 2002, the court will hear arguments in the matter of Eldred v. Ashcroft, which seeks to overturn the act on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. At the time of its enactment, the CTEA became known as the "Mickey Mouse Extension Act" because of aggressive lobbying by Disney.

Nickelodeon has extended its licensing agreement with Centrum Kids to launch a line of Centrum Kids Jimmy Neutron multivitamins. Centrum originally partnered with Nickelodeon to offer RUGRATS chewable multivitamins for kids, and will now present a new line featuring the characters Jimmy, Carl, Cindy and Goddard from the Oscar-nominated film JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS and the Nickelodeon series THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS. Animated characters have always featured prominently in the kids vitamin arena.

Target Stores have announced that they have struck a deal with Gullane Entertainment to carry an exclusive array of THOMAS & FRIENDS merchandise including apparel, toys and home entertainment. One Target exclusive will be a series of pocket-sized, die-cast, portable THOMAS & FRIENDS trains called "Take Along Thomas & Friends," which will be accompanied by all-in-one play sets. Target will also carry exclusive lines of THOMAS & FRIENDS apparel for toddlers and young children, and will introduce an exclusive line of children's footwear.

In a considerable licensing deal, Cartoon Network has acquired over 600 half-hours of programming from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to air on Cartoon Network UK. "In a fiercely competitive market, this is a major boost for Cartoon Network. With these titles added to our formidable library plus other Cartoon Network productions, co-productions and acquisitions, we have an unbeatable line up," said Finn Arnesen, vice president of programming, acquisitions and development for Cartoon Network, Europe.

Manga publisher Tokyopop has acquired publishing rights to the highly popular manga series LUPIN THE 3RD and the movie books for Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA. Tokyopop plans to publish the LUPIN THE 3RD series in its original right-to-left format, while AKIRA will join the company's growing catalog of "Cine-Manga" titles (digitally captured screen stills laid out in a storyboard format). With titles in its catalog including SAILOR MOON, GUNDAM WING, INITIAL D, REAL BOUT HIGH SCHOOL and COWBOY BEBOP, Tokyopop also publishes several hit properties based on popular Cartoon Network and Kids!