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Michael Hirsh (born February 8, 1948) is a Canadian television producer and author. He co-founded Nelvana, a Toronto-based animation and entertainment studio, in 1971 with partner…
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Michael Hirsh (born February 8, 1948) is a Canadian television producer and author. He co-founded Nelvana, a Toronto-based animation and entertainment studio, in 1971 with partners Patrick Loubert and Clive A.
Michael Hirsh (born February 8, 1948) is a Canadian television producer and author. He co-founded Nelvana, a Toronto-based animation and entertainment studio, in 1971 with partners Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith; the company produced several animated shows including Beetlejuice, Franklin, Babar, The Magic School Bus, Rock & Rule, the Care Bears movies, and Donkey Kong Country, among others.
After Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Nelvana in 2000, Hirsh became the CEO of Cookie Jar Group, which produced numerous children's shows, among them being Arthur, Johnny Test, and Strawberry Shortcake. When Cookie Jar was acquired by DHX Media (now WildBrain), Hirsh became the Executive Chairman of the company, the largest supplier of kids' programming to online streaming services, as well as a leader in production and licensing and merchandising for children. Three years after the acquisition by DHX Media, Hirsh left the company to serve as CEO and chairman of WOW! Unlimited Media from 2015 to December 2023.
In 2024, Hirsh wrote his memoirs which were published by Sutherland House. Animation Nation is a frame by frame account of how creative talent and entrepreneurial zeal built a global cartoon empire.
Hirsh was born in Brussels, Belgium. At the age of three his family emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Both of his parents were Holocaust survivors, his mother hidden by nuns and his father was liberated on a Death March from a concentration camp.
At 13, Hirsh's family moved to New York where he attended the Bronx High School of Science. He started making experimental films after cutting high school classes to watch American underground cinema. Hirsh continued his studies at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he pursued filmmaking. Hirsh transferred to York University's Glendon College in the autumn of 1966 where he met his future business partners Jack Christie and Patrick Loubert.
Hirsh's first feature film co-directed and co-produced with Jack Christie, Voulez Vous Coucher Avec God? was inspired by political turmoil and took over six years to make. The satirical film shed light on topics such as fundamentalist religion, politics, racism, and sexism.
Hirsh, working with animator Marc Chinoy and college friends Patrick Loubert, Jack Christie, and Peter Dewdney made five alphabet inspired animated shorts for PBS's Sesame Street, learning the basics of animation as they went along.
One episode of Drop-In was based on the history of the Canadian Whites, inspiring Hirsh to learn more about the comics published during the Second World War. Hirsh contacted John Ezrin, the most successful publisher of the Canadian Whites at the time. Tired of storing them, Ezrin sold the comics and rights to Hirsh and Loubert for $3,500.
In regard to the Canadian Whites, he co-authored a book and tv Documentary with Patrick Loubert called The Great Canadian Comics(book published by Peter Martin Associates 1971, documentary commissioned by CBC Telescope, 1971 and a National Gallery of Canada travelling exhibition.
In 1971, Hirsh, Loubert and Clive A. Smith founded Nelvana Limited, a new company with a focus on animation and a goal of creating a Canadian studio. The company got its name from Canadian/First Nations female comic book hero Nelvana of the Northern Lights, one of the comic books they acquired from John Ezrin known as the Canadian Whites.
In 1977, Nelvana released A Cosmic Christmas, an animated sci-fi Christmas television special distributed in the U.S. and Canada that caught the attention of George Lucas who watched the special and contacted Nelvana while they were working on a Halloween special, titled The Devil and Daniel Mouse.
Lucas hired Nelvana to help produce a cartoon for the Star Wars Holiday Special that was broadcast on CBS on 17 November 1978. The cartoon introduced Boba Fett, the iconic Star Wars character. Years later, the cartoon became available to watch again in 2021 on Disney+.
Later, Nelvana partnered with Lucasfilm and expanded the Star Wars franchise once again with Star Wars: Droids featuring the continuing adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO and Ewoks, two Saturday morning series.
In 1983, Nelvana released its first animated film Rock & Rule featuring original music by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick and funk group Earth, Wind and Fire. The film was distributed by MGM/UA and Orion.
In 1983, Nelvana produced The Care Bears Movie, which was distributed by The Samuel Goldwyn Co, and broke the record for an animated movie not produced by the Disney Studio. The film won the Golden Reel Award that year in Canada.
In 1987, Hirsh acquired the rights for Babar from The Clifford Ross Company and produced 65 half-hours for HBO, CBC and broadcasters all over the world. The series was produced with Europe-based Ellipse and led to the joint venture studio Le Studio Ellipse. Together with Ross, Nelvana licensed merchandising for Babar and honoured the event with a party that featured an elephant on the mezzanine floor at FAO Schwartz in New York City.
In 1988, Nelvana and Scholastic Corporation produced a direct-to-video series of The Video Adventures of Clifford the Big Red Dog based on the 1962 book. The company's fourth live-action series, T. and T., premiered in 1988 on Canada's Global network. The show starred Mr. T of The A-Team fame, playing a former boxer named T.S. Turner. The station was syndicated in the US. Nelvana faced bankruptcy when the show's original U.S. distributor, Qintex Entertainment (formerly Hal Roach Studios) was going out of business. In six weeks, they were saved when they found a replacement for their US distribution. In 1989, Hirsh produced the animated Beetlejuice series based on the Tim Burton motion picture and won its first Emmy.
Source: Michael Hirsh (producer) (CC BY-SA)
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Hirsh specialized in working with publishers and authors to adapt their books including Maurice Sendak's Little Bear, Joanna Cole's The Magic School Bus, Franklin the Turtle, The Neverending Story, Pippi Lon
