Creator / Saban Entertainment

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Saban Entertainment (formerly Saban Productions) was an independent television production company formed in 1983 by Israeli musicians Haim Saban and Shuki Levy^note who at the time composed the theme music for many '80s cartoons, such as Mister T, Saturday Supercade and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), as an offshoot of the former's previous company, Saban International Paris. It was best known for importing and dubbing Japanese series, both of the animated and live-action variety. In addition to that it teamed up with French production teams and DiC Entertainment for several animated series. They notably allied with Fox in the 1990s, forming a joint venture to run Fox Kids (and eventually Fox Family) alongside them and contributing many series (Power Rangers or otherwise) to the block. Thanks to Fox acquiring the remnants of New World Entertainment, they also gained the rights to the library of Marvel Productions (aka Marvel Films and New World Animation), as well as its predecessor DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (with the exception of DFE co-productions, and Marvel's co-productions with Sunbow Entertainment). Also thanks to Power Rangers, the company worked closely with Japanese toy and video game creator Bandai, leading to Digimon and other FK shows.

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In October 2001, Saban met its demise, and was renamed to BVS Entertainment. This came two months after Haim Saban and News Corporation sold Saban and Fox Family Worldwide (now ABC Family Worldwide) to The Walt Disney Company. Most of their library is still owned and controlled by Disney, except for Power Rangers, its successors (VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg, and Masked Rider), and Digimon; all of which were reacquired from Disney by Saban Entertainment's successor, Saban Brands, in 2010. Saban International Paris was spun-off from the company and rebranded itself as SIP Animation, and continued producing series until being shut down in 2008.

In 2002, Disney formed Saban's Spiritual Successor, Sensation Animation, which was created to continue dubbing Digimon episodes (specifically, Digimon Frontier). After the dubbing was completed, Sensation was done in by Disney losing the dubbing license to Digimon; Well Go USA later held distribution to the next Digimon series, Digimon Data Squad, followed by Saban Brands and Cinedigm (through Newvideo/Flatiron) reacquiring the rights.

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A last note: The infamous "Saban Moon" trailer has nothing to do with Saban. This was in fact a misnomer of the fandom because Renaissance Atlantic, Toei's American division that acted as a middleman between them and Saban for Power Rangers, was behind it.

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Series imported or produced by Saban:

• Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
• Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist
• Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (as Tales Of the Little Women)
• The All New Captain Kangaroo (Saban's rights eventually expired, and is currently an orphaned franchise)
• Saban's Around the World in 80 Dreams (a celebrity toon starring French singer Carlos, who voices himself in the French dub)
• Au Pair
• Barbie And The Rockers and Barbie and the Sensations (based on Mattel's toy line of the same name; co-produced with Dic Entertainment)
• Battletech
• Beetleborgs
• Bit the Cupid
• Black Ice
• Blindfold: Acts of Obsession
• Breaker High
• Bumpety Boo ^note  Saban's/Disney's rights expired on February 28th, 2007
• Bureau of Alien Detectors
• Camp Candy (third season only)
• Captain America (planned for fall 1998 on Fox Kids, but cancelled due to Marvel's bankruptcy)
• Captain N: The Game Master (co-produced with DIC Entertainment; season one only)
• Casper: A Spirited Beginning
  • Casper Meets Wendy
• Cho Hatsumei Boy Kaniplan ^note  Originally supposed to air on Fox Kids for the 2000-2001 season, but was cancelled for unknown reasons
• Couch Potatoes (with Group W Productions)
• Cybersix
• Digimon (distributor of English dub and dubbed it for English-speaking territories from 1999-2002, the franchise is now distributed by Toei Animation themselves)
  • Digimon Adventure
  • Digimon Adventure 02
  • Digimon Tamers
• DinoZaurs
• Dragon Ball Z (the heavily edited '90s English dub done jointly by Funimation and The Ocean Group, which covers the first 67 episodes and third movie The Tree of Might. They also composed its background music and the infamous "Rock the Dragon" theme song.)
• Dragon Warrior
• Dream Star Button Nose ^note  Saban's/Disney's rights expired on July 17th, 2004
• Dungeons & Dragons (inherited from Marvel Productions)
• Eagle Riders (adaptation of second Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series; reissued by Sentai Filmworks) ^note  Saban's/Disney's rights expired on September 7, 2004
• Fantastic Four (w/ Marvel Films)
• Flint the Time Detective (Jikuu Tantei Genshi-kun)
• Funky Fables (adaptation of Waku Waku Doki Doki Meisaku World and Ponkicki Meisaku World) ^note  Saban's rights expired on June 20th, 1998
• Future Police Urashiman (as Rock 'n' Cop) ^note  Saban's rights expired on February 21st, 2001
• Goosebumps (outside the United States and Canada)^note Saban's rights expired in 2013.
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (reissued by Discotek Media) ^note Combines seasons 1 and 2 of "Grimm Meisaku Gekijou (Grimm Masterpiece Theater); Disney's rights expired on July 19th 2005 for the first series and on March 31st, 2006 for the second series
• Saban's Gulliver's Travels
• Hakushon Daimao (as Bob in a Bottle) ^note  Saban's rights expired on December 12th, 2000
• Hallo Spencer (Saban's rights expired on October 7th, 1999)
• Honeybee Hutch (Konchu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch) ^note Disney's rights expired on October 19th, 2004.
• I'm Telling! (with DiC Entertainment)
• Iron Man (w/ Marvel Films)
• Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol
• Kidd Video (co-produced with DIC Entertainment)
• The Littl' Bits (originally made in 1980) ^note  Saban's rights expired on February 12th, 2000
• Macron 1 (adaptation of Go Shogun and Srungle; GoShogun was reissued by Discotek Media) ^note Disney's rights expired on April 9th, 2005
• Mad Scientist Toon Club (a mix of live action and animated segments) ^note  Disney's rights for the animated shorts expired on October 7th 2002, but they still own the live action segments
  • Kaba Totto (as Hyppo and Thomas; part of Tic Tac Toons) ^note  Disney's rights expired on October 7th, 2002
  • Kaiketsu Tamagon (as Eggzavier the Eggasaurus; part of Tic Tac Toons) ^note  Disney's rights expired on October 7th, 2002
• Maple Town
• Masked Rider (uses footage from Kamen Rider Black RX, ZO, and J)
• Maya the Bee (later reissued by m4e AG; rights currently owned by Studio 100) ^note Saban's rights expired on December 31, 1999. There are also two English dubs. The British English dub, which was made before Saban's dub, is the one currently available from Studio 100.
• Mokku of the Oak Tree (dubbed in English as Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio) ^note Saban's rights expired on September 12th, 1999.
• Monster Farm (not to be confused with Monster Rancher)
• Mon Colle Knights (final new series from Saban to be broadcast on Fox Kids; reissued sub only by Discotek Media)
• Mori No Tonto Tachi (as A Christmas Adventure; co-distributed with DiC Entertainment)
• My Favorite Fairytales (adaption of Sekai Dowa Anime Zenshu)
• The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg
• NASCAR Racers
• National Lampoon's Men in White
• Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
• The Noozles ^note (not to be confused with The Adventures of the Little Koala, which was dubbed by Cinar, who went on to become Cookie Jar Entertainment, who would later merge with DIC in 2008. The joint venture company is now part of Canada-based DHX Media.)
• Ox Tales (reissued and re-dubbed by m4e AG) ^note Disney's rights expired on May 27th, 2005
• Peter Pan no Bouken
• Power Rangers
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
  • Power Rangers Zeo
  • Power Rangers Turbo
  • Power Rangers in Space
  • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
  • Power Rangers Time Force
  • Power Rangers Wild Force (first half only; second half was produced by Disney)
• Prey of the Chameleon
• Samurai Cowboy
• Samurai Pizza Cats (reissued by Discotek Media) ^note Saban's rights expired on November 21st, 2000
• The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs
• Shinzo (Macekreed version of Mushrambo)
• Shuke and Beita (as Pip N' Squeek) ^note Disney's rights will expire on October 31, 2022
• Slayers (unaired edited version; reissued by Funimation) ^note This version was planned to air on Fox Kids and ABC Family, but it was cancelled due to some main plots that weren't suitable for the young audience
• Space Goofs (US TV and US/Canada home video distribution only) ^note Saban's/Disney's rights expired in 2002
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (inherited from Marvel Productions)
• Spider-Man Unlimited
• The Super Mario Bros Super Show! (co-produced with DIC Entertainment^note The live-action segments were produced by Binder Entertainment; also distributed the series outside the United States and Canada)
• Super Pig
• Sweet Valley High (as Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High)
• Tanoshii Willow Town ^note Disney's rights expired on August 8th, 2008
• Teknoman (adaptation of Tekkaman Blade; reissued by Media Blasters)
• Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (animated by Nippon Animation)
  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (animated by Group TAC) ^note Saban's rights expired on December 19th, 1999
• The Vision of Escaflowne (edited TV broadcast version with altered music; originally distributed by Bandai Entertainment and later reissued and redubbed by Funimation)
• Three Little Ghosts (adaption of Chiisana Obake Acchi, Kocchi, Socchi) ^note Disney's rights expired on December, 17th 2001
• Totally Spies! (distributed season 1 only; produced by Marathon Animation)
• Transformers: Robots in Disguise
• Treasure Mall
• Urikupen Kyujotai (as Jungle Tales) ^note Saban's rights expired on May 1st, 1999
• Video Power (with Bohbot Entertainment)
• VR Troopers
• Wowser (based on Luc Dupanloup's Cubitus, known as Don-Don-Dommel to Ron in Japan; rights currently owned by Mediatoon) ^note Disney's rights expired on April 23th, 2004
• X-Men
• Xyber 9: New Dawn
• What's with Andy? (Co-produced with Cine Groupe, for season 1; SIP Animation co-produced Season 2; Cine Groupe produced both Season 2 and 3)

Miscellaneous contributions

• The BOTS Master (provided music; produced by "Creativite et Developpement" [C&D], Jean Chalopin's firm after he left DiC Entertainment, later absorbed by SIP Animation)
• Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (composed music)
• Sylvanian Families (provided music; produced by DiC Entertainment and TMS Entertainment)

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