Marvel Productions

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First production logo used after Marvel acquired DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
First production logo used after Marvel acquired DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
Second production logo from the 1980s with CGI Spider-Man used when New World bought Marvel. Famous for being seen at the end of Muppet Babies.
Second production logo from the 1980s with CGI Spider-Man used when New World bought Marvel. Famous for being seen at the end of Muppet Babies.
Third production logo used in the 1990s when New World Entertainment bought Marvel from Cadence Industries
Third production logo used in the 1990s when New World Entertainment bought Marvel from Cadence Industries

Marvel Productions Ltd. was a television and motion picture studio based in Hollywood, California. Originally an animation studio, Marvel produced such notable animated shows and specials such as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Pink Panther in: Pink at First Sight, The Incredible Hulk and the 1982 emmy-winner, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat.

The company began in 1963 as DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and was sold to Marvel Comics Group in 1981 after DFE founder and company executive Friz Freleng departed the company to return to his long term employers at Warner Bros. Animation. Freleng's business partner and DFE co-founder David H. DePatie continued to work for the company under the Marvel banner for several years until his retirement.

Over the years Marvel Productions' and its parent company Marvel Comics went through several ownership changes. Owned from 1968 by Cadence Industries Corporation, it was sold in 1986 to New World Entertainment (which was eventually acquired, in 1997, as part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation/Fox Broadcasting Company).

Between 1988 and 1989, New World sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman, who lost control of Marvel after it went into bankruptcy. In 1997, Isaac Perlmutter (owner of the Marvel subsidiary Toy Biz), who purchased Marvel and Marvel Productions Ltd. out of bankruptcy, decided to cut costs by selling Marvel Productions' back catalog to Saban Entertainment and he the closed the animation studio altogether opting to contract out all future animated projects to third party studios.

Saban's catalog is now owned by The Walt Disney Company, following Disney's purchase of Fox Family, Saban's successor. As a result, Disney now holds the home video and broadcast rights to virtually all Marvel animated programs produced during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as all Marvel series produced by DFE (the 1978 Fantastic Four revival) and Grantray-Lawrence Animation (The Marvel Superheroes Show). The only exceptions are the shows produced by Hanna-Barbera (the 1967 Fantastic Four and The Thing's 1978 spin-off are under Time Warner control) and programs involving characters and trademarks owned by other companies such as G.I. Joe and The Transformers (held by Hasbro with series rights by Sunbow).

Studio executives including Margaret Loesch and Lee Gunther moved to other animation studios while Stan Lee signed a new lifetime non-exclusive contract with Marvel in 1998, enabling him for the first time in his 50 year career with Marvel to establish his own company.

For a more complete list see Saban Entertainment.

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