
Saban Entertainment (formerly Saban Productions) was an independent television production company formed in 1983 by Israeli musicians Haim Saban and Shuki Levynote , 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.
In October 2001, Saban met its demise (the company, not the man), 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.
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.
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
- 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
- Cho Hatsumei Boy Kaniplan note
- 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)
- DinoZaurs
- Dragon Ball Z (Distributed to television by Saban, the heavily edited '90s English dub was produced by Funimation and voiced by The Ocean Group, which covers the first 67 episodes and third movie The Tree of Might.Saban also composed its background music and the (in)famous "Rock the Dragon" theme song)
- Dragon Warrior
- Dream Star Button Nose note
- Dungeons & Dragons (1983) (inherited from Marvel Productions)
- Eagle Riders (adaptation of second and third Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series; reissued by Sentai Filmworks in its original uncut form) note
- 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
- Future Police Urashiman (as Rock 'n' Cop, reissued by Sentai Filmworks) note
- Goosebumps (outside the United States and Canada)note
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (reissued by Discotek Media) note
- Saban's Gulliver's Travels
- Hakushon Daimao (as Bob in a Bottle) note
- Hallo Spencer (Saban's rights expired on October 7th, 1999)
- Honeybee Hutch (Konchu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch) note
- I'm Telling! (with DiC Entertainment)
- Iron Man (w/ Marvel Films)
- Jason and the Heroes of Mount Olympus
- Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol
- Kidd Video (co-produced with DIC Entertainment)
- The Littl' Bits (originally made in 1980) note
- Macron 1 (adaptation of Go Shogun and Srungle; GoShogun was reissued by Discotek Media) note
- Mad Scientist Toon Club (a mix of live action and animated segments) note
- Kaba Totto (as Hyppo and Thomas; part of Tic Tac Toons) note
- Kaiketsu Tamagon (as Eggzavier the Eggasaurus; part of Tic Tac Toons) note
- 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 Studio100) note
- Mokku of the Oak Tree (dubbed in English as Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio) note
- Monster Farm (not to be confused with Monster Rancher)
- Mon Colle Knights (final new series from Saban to be broadcast on Fox Kids; reissued 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
- Ox Tales (reissued and re-dubbed by m4e AG) note
- Peter Pan no Bouken
- Power Rangers
- Prey of the Chameleon
- Samurai Cowboy
- Samurai Pizza Cats (reissued by Discotek Media) note
- The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs
- Shinzo (
Macekreed version of Mushrambo)
- Shuke and Beita (as Pip N' Squeek) note
- Slayers (unaired edited version; reissued by Funimation) note
- Space Goofs (US TV and US/Canada home video distribution only) note
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (inherited from Marvel Productions)
- Spider-Man Unlimited
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (co-produced with DIC Entertainmentnote ; 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
- 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
- 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
- Totally Spies! (distributed season 1 only; produced by Marathon Animation)
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise
- Treasure Mall
- Urikupen Kyujotai (as Jungle Tales) note
- 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
- 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)