Nickelodeon will release a new animated series about the cat Garfield and his friends. According to Variety, the development of animated series was made possible after the Viacom media conglomerate acquired Paws, Inc., which owns the rights to Garfield.
Viacom also owns the rights to the animated franchises SpongeBob SquarePants, Dasha the Traveler, and since 2009 on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Amount of transaction with Paws, Inc. were not disclosed, however, the publication believes that it was large, since Garfield brings millions of dollars annually only from the sale of goods with its symbols.
“I'm glad that Garfield will fall into the skillful hands of the guys from Nickelodeon,” character creator Jim Davis quoted Variety as saying. - They know how to captivate the viewer and will be able to perfectly dispose of the brand. I’m also glad to continue to do what I wake up in the morning to draw a comic book. ”
In an era when children are accustomed to excitedly watch one animated series and immediately switch to another, children's channels need to increase the variety of products - one of the interviews mentioned Nickelodeon channel head Brian Robbins. For this reason, Nickelodeon acquired the rights to develop the series with the participation of the Bear Paddington, as well as with characters from the Lego films. In addition, the channel will soon release an animated project based on Star Trek.
“I believe that today we need a selection of quality franchises. It’s necessary that we always have a certain number of new series on the way, and it’s not necessary to launch one on 80 series, ”Varbins cites Variety.
According to representatives of Nickelodeon, Garfield is a timeless brand with a worldwide reputation that naturally fits into the channel’s portfolio of iconic patented projects.
“Garfield has fans all over the world, both children and adults, but we want to breathe new power into it and turn it into a real titanium that will delight many generations of consumers,” noted Nickelodeon.
40 year old cat
The story of Garfield began in the late 1970s with stripes - comics in one or two lines of drawings that the artist Jim Davis invented for the newspapers of the Universal Press agency. Popular graphic novels about Snoopy and Marmadyuk inspired the creation of jokes about the lazy red cat Davis: the artist decided that if dog owners are happy to watch the adventures of dogs, then the cat owners may be interested in cats.
He was right. A few months after the launch of the column, the newspaper decided to close it, but dissatisfied readers demanded a continuation, thereby confirming the profitability of the project. The cat had to be returned.
- Shot from the movie "Garfield"
- © kinopoisk.ru
Garfield's popularity was gaining momentum. The first comic book for two years held the position of the bestseller number 1 according to The New York Times. To date, two animated series, two films and three full-length animated films about the adventures of a lazy cat have been shot. In addition, a number of educational computer games for children were created on the basis of Garfield.
Garfield cartoons and comics have been repeatedly honored with awards and titles. In 1982, a fictional cat in person appeared on the cover of People magazine. In 2002, the Garfield comics were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most widely circulated strips in the world - more than 2500 editions published them.
Films were less fortunate - the first received the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for the worst song, and the second was completely nominated for Golden Raspberries. Problems with the first tape began at the production stage: the premiere was planned for the comic's anniversary, but later moved for six months, so that the team managed to finish work on computer graphics. In the original voice acting, Bill Murray gave the voice to Garfield, and in the Russian version, the cat spoke in the voice of Oleg Tabakov.
Interesting fact: Jim Davis gave the character the name of his grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who, in turn, was named after the twentieth President of the United States, James Garfield. A relative of the artist, like a cat, had a difficult character and adored climbing.