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The Cookie Jar Company (formerly Cinar Inc. [pronounced seh-NAR]) is a Canadian producer of children's animated television programs. It is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, with offices in Paris, Toronto, and Los Angeles among other places.

In its previous incarnation as Cinar, the company enjoyed an illustrious existence that ultimately ended in scandal.^[1] Cinar was an integrated entertainment and education company involved in the development, production, post-production and worldwide distribution of family entertainment programming and educational products.

After their 1976 meeting in New Orleans, future spouses Micheline Charest and Ronald A. Weinberg organized an event for a women's film festival, and worked at distributing foreign films to US theatres. The couple moved to New York and formed Cinar, then a budding film and television distribution company.

In 1984, Cinar changed their focus from media distribution to production, and moved operations to Montreal, where they concentrated on children's television programming (including Animal Crackers, Arthur, Emily of New Moon, Mona the Vampire, and The Wombles). As a production company, Cinar was also involved in the work of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Madeline, Space Cases and Zoboomafoo. The firm became a public company in September, 1993. By 1999, Cinar boasted annual revenues of $150 million (CAD) and owned about $1.5 billion (CAD) of the children's television market. In the late 1990s, Cinar bought the rights to all the shows owned and made by British animation company FilmFair. The company had become known for it's children's programs, broadcast in more than 150 countries.

The success of Charest, Weinberg, and Cinar ended in March 2000, when an internal audit revealed that about $122 million (US) was invested into Bahamian bank accounts without the boardmembers' approval.^[2] Cinar had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. The names of Canadian authors were credited for the work, allowing Cinar to benefit from Canadian tax credits. While the province of Quebec did not file criminal charges, Cinar denied any wrongdoing, choosing instead to pay a settlement to Canadian and Quebec tax authorities of $17.8 million (CAD) and another $2.6 million (CAD) to Telefilm Canada, a Canadian federal funding agency. The value of Cinar stock plummeted, and the company was soon delisted.^[3]

In 2001, as part of a settlement agreement with the Societe des Valeures Mobilieres du Quebec (Quebec Securities Commission) Charest and Weinberg agreed to pay $1 million each and were banned from serving in the capacity of directors or officers at any publicly traded Canadian company for five years. There was no admission of guilt and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

In March 2004, Cinar was purchased for more than $190 million CAD by a group led by Nelvana founder, Michael Hirsh.^[4] Charest and Weinberg reportedly received $18 million (US) for their company shares.

The Company was subsequently rebranded under new management as Cookie Jar Entertainment.

The 1994-2005 former logo as "CINAR" (Note: The 1976-1994 logo had the "N" and "A" connected).

(This list also includes productions by the British company FilmFair)

• The Adventures of the Little Koala
• Albert the Fifth Musketeer
• Are You Afraid of the Dark?
• Arthur
• Animal Crackers
• The Babaloos
• The Baskervilles
• Bonjour Timothy
• Bunch of Munsch
• The Busy World of Richard Scarry (co-produced by CBS Paramount Television)
• Caillou
• Cat Tales
• C.L.Y.D.E.
• Country Mouse and City Mouse
• Chris Cross
• Dark Oracle
• The Doodlebops
• The Dreamstone
• Dr Xargle
• Emily of New Moon
• Feature Films for Families
• Flight Squad
• Gerald McBoing-Boing
• Huxley Pig
• The Intrepids
• Ivanhoe
• Ivor the Invisible
• Johnny Test
• Lassie (1997–1999 series)
• The Legends of Treasure Island
• The Little Lulu Show
• Magi-Nation
• Mona the Vampire
• Mumble Bumble
• Paddington Bear
• Papa Beaver's Storytime
• Postcards from Buster
• Potatoes and Dragons
• The Real Story of
• Ripley's Believe It or Not
• Robinson Sucroe
• Sally Marshall is Not an Alien
• Sci-Squad
• Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings
• Space Cases
• Spider Riders
• Stop the smoggies
• Thomas's Suit
• Upstairs Downstairs Bears
• White Fang
• Who Gets the House?
• The Whole of the Moon
• Will & Dewitt
• Wimzie's House
• The Wombles
• World of Quest
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• The World of David the Gnome
• Zoboomafoo

• CinéGroupe, another animation studio from Quebec.

1. ^ "Cinar Co-Founders Fined $1 Million Each, Banned From Company For Five Years (by Allan Swift)", Canadian Press Newswire, March 15, 2002. 
2. ^ Swift, Michael. "Cinar Co-Founders Fined $1 Million Each, Banned From Company For Five Years", March 15, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-09-07. 
3. ^ "In Depth: Micheline Charest", CBC News Online, April 14, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-09-07. 
4. ^ "Cinar sold for $143.9 million US; new owner outlines growth strategy", CBC News Online, October 31, 2003. Retrieved on 2006-09-07. 

• Official site (in English and French)
• Cookie Jar Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database (under former name, Cinar)
• A history of the studio (1998) from the Canadian Encyclopedia