Saban

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Saban Entertainment was an independent/TV production company formed in 1983 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy as "Saban Records", a U.S. subsidiary of "Saban International Paris" (now SIP Animation) who provided music soundtracks to shows made by other companies (most notably DIC). In 1984, the company expanded in television production of its own, and was renamed "Saban Productions". Several years later, the company also established "Saban International" (now Buena Vista International Television), for international distribution of its shows (note: though used interchangebly with "Saban International Paris", they were technically two different entities). Finally, in the early 90's the company renamed itself "Saban Entertainment".

This company is known for importing, dubbing, and adapting several Japanese series such as, Maple Town(...Stories), Noozles (Fushigi na Koala Blinky and Printy), Samurai Pizza Cats (Kyatto Ninden Teyande), Dragon Ball Z) to North America and international markets for syndication, including both animation and live action shows. In doing so, the company replaced the original production credits with their own.

Before moving to the United States, Haim Saban lived a decade in France, where he founded the aforementioned Saban International Paris, and participated in the importation of the first Japanese anime and sentai series which started in 1978, by producing the adaptations' score and opening theme. The successful importation of Japanese licenses in France gave him a solid experience and the idea to apply the same principles in a bigger market, the United States, where he moved in 1983.

Saban was involved in the co-production of French/American anime shows created by Jean Chalopin for DIC but directed by uncredited Japanese studios such as Studio Pierrot, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Studio Junio. Some of these early 1980s co-productions were Ulysse 31, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold (the third of which actually was a Japanese anime).

Other famous franchises include Digimon, Mushrambo (localized as "Shinzo"), and various toku adapts, which include Power Rangers (based on the Super Sentai series), Beetleborgs (based on Juukou B-Fighters), VR Troopers (featuring elements of Metal Heroes series Shaider and Spielban), and Masked Rider (an original interpretation using scenes from the Japanese Kamen Rider Black RX).

Contents 1 Early operation 2 Tokusatsu Adaptations 3 Criticism 4 Renaming 5 List of television shows & films 5.1 1960s 5.2 1970s 5.3 1980s 5.4 1990s 5.5 2000s 6 References

[edit] Early operation

Early in its life, Saban was a non-union company, meaning that many of its union-member actors operated under pseudonyms. Some of its earlier anime dubs had no voice credits listed at all. In the mid-90s, after much bad press regarding payment and treatment of actors, the company went union. Several original animated series were produced for Marvel Comics, and the company's dubbed products began to rapidly increase as the anime boom began. Through a merger with US Fox Children's Entertainment in 1996, Fox Kids was born (with "Fox Kids Worldwide" as the holding company), although the Fox Kids block had actually been promoting itself officially as "Fox Kids" since 1993; prior to that, they were just simply the "Fox Kids Network", and all shows at that time had been promoted as airing "on Fox"

[edit] Tokusatsu Adaptations

During the anime boom during the 80s-early 90s, Saban decided to take a risk and introduce the Henshin Hero genre to America. In Japan, the Henshin Hero genre gained a lot of popularity led by manga writer Shotaro Ishinomori (creator of Kamen Rider, and co-producer of Toei) who is considered to be the "Father of Henshin Heroes." Meanwhile, in America, the only form of tokusatsu that Americans were familiar with was mainly Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman; all which were dubbed respectedly. USA Network did a dub parody of Dynaman for its Night Flight Theatre time slot. Shuki Levy decided to adapt a show from the Super Sentai genre, his first choices being Sun Vulcan, Bioman and Jetman which became Saban's first choice for the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Many thought that the idea was too extreme and absurd and would ultimately fail (especially since Jetman ends with one of the main characters being killed in a senseless act of violence). All of the above sentai shows were rejected. Finally, 1992's Zyuranger was accepted and used for footage in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' first season in 1993.

Surprisingly, the risk taking worked and the series became a hit. After the success of Power Rangers, Saban would go on to introduce other genres in Tokusatsu. The Metal Hero adaptations, VR Troopers, and Beetleborgs became hits as well; but both lasted two seasons each due to lack of footage. However, when it came to introducing Kamen Rider, it turned out to be a disaster and offended many fans who were familiar with Shotaro Ishinomori's work; as well as much of the Power Rangers audience despite the fact that Masked Rider is part of Power Rangers continuity. Ironically, Kamen Rider is Japan's equivalent of Batman and Spider-Man and the overall concept of the character was completely made a mockery. Ishinomori himself was also offended by this. Many fans would later use this as a reason for Saban being held responsible for Masked Rider not returning to America; considering the fact the New Generation Rider shows have gained a female demographic along with the increasing young boys demographic. Despite that, Kamen Rider V3 has recently been airing in Hawaii. Also Media Blasters has announced a "Masked Rider" project. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

Predictably, such adaptations from Saban often receive strong criticism from fans of the original material. Although censorship for violent content is considered a necessary, albeit semi-tolerated evil, many considered certain edits excessive or unnecessary. Examples range from the avoidance of any mention of death among characters, to things that (to this day) were never really explained. In their American dub of the popular anime series Dragon Ball Z, for example, a scene where a child is crying is edited so that tears are not streaming down his face.

Other complaints included dialogue revisions in the scripts, which were modified in an attempt to 'localize' the programs for an American audience. Nevertheless, viewed with an unbiased eye, of the assorted companies producing dubs specifically for television at the time, Saban was probably top of the pile. While many agree that nowadays 4Kids Entertainment is much worse than Saban was, some still to this day hate the company. Saban has also received some criticism from people who mistakenly believe that they attempted to create an American version of Sailor Moon. A clip of a live-action animation hybrid version of this series has circulated on the internet mistakenly attributed to Saban, in this clip certain characters were also changed around; in particular, Sailor Jupiter was to be disabled and use a wheelchair both as an average citizen and as a Sailor. However, this clip was not created by Saban themselves but by Toon Makers and Renaissance Atlantic.^[1]

[edit] Renaming

In October 2001, the group was sold to Disney, and renamed BVS Entertainment. Concurrently, Fox Kids was replaced with the Fox Box (now known as 4Kids TV), featuring a line of shows from 4Kids Entertainment. Disney gained ownership of all Saban's products, and began to air many of them on ABC Family, and later on Toon Disney in a programming block called Jetix. The European Fox Kids channel continued to run under that name until the beginning of 2005, when it was also rebranded as "Jetix", as is the former Fox Kids channel in Latin America.

Meanwhile, the fates of the company's two most popular shows were somewhat ignominious. The entire production of Power Rangers was shut down, and moved to New Zealand for reasons of cost. The resulting series (Power Rangers: Ninja Storm and Power Rangers: Dino Thunder) aired on ABC Kids, ABC Family, and Toon Disney in the USA, and on the various Jetix channels around the world. Meanwhile Digimon's fourth season was produced and voiced by the same crew (under the banner of Sensation Animation), but farmed out to UPN as part of a deal between them and Disney for the 2002-2003 programming year. On this less-than-accessible channel, the show was subjected to a shifting timeslot and a saturation of re-runs that hurt it considerably. With its conclusion, and the breaking of the UPN/Disney deal, Digimon joined its brother and sister shows on ABC Family and Toon Disney. The fourth season as well as the previous seasons also aired on the Canadian station YTV.

[edit] List of television shows & films

(This list also includes shows made by DIC Entertainment, which Saban provided the music for. Also, with the exception of Pinocchio, shows produced by "Saban International Paris" feature "Saban's" in their title. This list also includes live-action movies they provided music for.)

[edit] 1960s

Acquired from New World Communications. Originally produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation.

• The Marvel Superheroes Show (featuring "The Sub-Mariner," "Mighty Thor," "Iron Man," "Hulk," and "Captain America" segments)
• Spider-Man (1967 TV series)

[edit] 1970s

Acquired from New World Communications. Originally produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (later became Marvel Productions).

• The New Fantastic Four
• Spider Woman

[edit] 1980s

The Marvel Comics-based series were acquired from New World Communications. They were originally produced by Marvel Productions.

• Adventures of the Little Koala (provided music; show was distributed by Viacom)
• Alf: The Animated Series
• AlfTales
• Camp Candy
• Captain N: The Game Master
• Diplodo
• Dungeons and Dragons (distributed rebroadcast version which features an edited version of the original opening with original music)
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
• I'm Telling!
• Kidd Video
• Kissyfur
• Lazer Tag Academy (produced by Ruby-Spears)
• The Legend of Zelda
• The Littl' Bits
• Macron 1 (adaptation of GoShogun and Srungle)
• Maple Town
• The New Archies
• Noozles
• Rescue Me
• Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea ("Les Mondes Engloutis")
• Spider-Man (1981 TV series)
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
• Super Mario Brothers Super Show!

[edit] 1990s

The Marvel Comics-based series were acquired from New World Communications. They were originally produced by Marvel Productions.

• Addams Family Reunion
• Adventures of Oliver Twist
• Adventures of Pinocchio
• All New Captain Kangaroo
• Saban's Around the World in Eighty Dreams
• The Avengers: United They Stand
• Bad Dog
• Battletech
• Beetleborgs
• Blind Vision
• Bureau of Alien Detectors
• The Bots Master (provided music; produced by "Creativite et Developpement", later absorbed by SIP)
• Casper: A Spirited Beginning
• Casper Meets Wendy
• Christmas Reunion
• Creepy Crawlers
• Croentin
• Diabolik
• Digimon
• Dragon Ball Z (distributor of English dub produced by Funimation and dubbed by Ocean Studios)
• Dragon Warrior
• Eagle Riders (adaptation of second Gatchaman series)
• Fantastic Four
• Flint the Time Detective (Jikuu Tantei Genshi-kun)
• Funky Fables
• Saban's Gulliver's Travels
• Guns of Honor
• Heidi
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man
• Little Shop
• Mad Jack the Pirate
• Masked Rider
• Maya the Bee
• Men of Means
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
• Monster Farm
• The Mouse and the Monster
• The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
• Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
• Power Rangers in Space
• Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
• Power Rangers Turbo
• Power Rangers Zeo
• Prey of the Chameleon
• Saban's Princess Sissi
• Revenge on the Highway
• Round Trip to Heaven
• Rusty: A Dog's Tale
• Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
• Samurai Cowboy
• Samurai Pizza Cats
• Scorch
• Silver Surfer
• The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs
• Space Strikers
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Man Unlimited
• Sugar and Spice
• Super Pig
• Sweet Valley High
• Teknoman (adaptation of Tekkaman Blade)
• Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
• Till Death Us Do Part
• Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
• Under Investigation
• VR Troopers
• Walter Melon
• The Why Why Family
• WildC.A.T.S.
• X-Men
• Xyber 9: New Dawn

[edit] 2000s

• Cybersix
• Dinozaurs
• Escaflowne (edited TV broadcast version with altered music; originally distributed by Bandai Entertainment)
• Los Luchadores
• Mon Colle Knights
• Pigs Next Door
• Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue
• Power Rangers: Time Force
• Shinzo

[edit] References

1. ^ Animefringe: Features: Sailor Moon à la Saban: Debunked - An Interview with Rocky Solotoff - Adam "Omega" Arnold.