Videocraft International
 |
|
| Industry | Film industry |
|---|---|
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Predecessor | Videocraft International/Arthur Rankin Jr. Associates |
| Founded |
September 14, 1960 (As Videocraft International) November 23, 1968 (As Rankin/Bass Productions) |
| Defunct | 2001 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States |
|
Key people
|
Arthur Rankin, Jr. Jules Bass |
| Products |
Television specials Television shows Feature films |
September 14, 1960 (As Videocraft International)
Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. (founded as Videocraft International, Ltd.) was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop motion animation. The pre-1974 library is owned by Universal Studios (via DreamWorks Animation/DreamWorks Classics), while the post-1973 library is owned by Warner Bros. Rankin/Bass stop-motion features are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts, and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic". Often, traditional cel animation scenes of falling snow would be projected over the action to create the effect of a snowfall.
Nearly all of the studio's animation was outsourced to at least 4 Japanese animation companies: Topcraft, Mushi Production, Toei Doga and TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan).
The company was founded by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass on September 14, 1960, as Videocraft International. The majority of Rankin/Bass' work, including all of their "Animagic" stop-motion productions, were created in Japan. Throughout the 1960s, the Animagic productions were headed by Japanese stop-motion animator Tadahito Mochinaga.
Their traditionally cel-animated works were animated by Toei Animation, Crawley Films, and Mushi Production, and since the 1970s, they were animated by the Japanese studio Topcraft, which was formed in 1972 as an offshoot of Toei Animation. Many Topcraft staffers, including the studio's founder Toru Hara (who was credited in some of Rankin/Bass' specials), would go on to join its successor Studio Ghibli and work on Hayao Miyazaki's feature films, including Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and My Neighbor Totoro.
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