MarVista Entertainment

MarVista Entertainment is an independent production and distribution studio, located at Los Angeles. It was founded as Whamo Entertainment in, by Joseph Szew. In, his son Fernando Szew joined Whamo, as vice president. Four years later, it was renamed to its current name. The new company was formed by Fernando; Whamo partner Mar Gaya retained her position as director of European operations in Barcelona. Senior VP of worldwide sales for PorchLight Entertainment Michael Jacobs became MarVista's president of production and distribution, and Anchor Bay Entertainment founder George Port joined as executive vice president.

History
Upon the company's rebrand, it had bought the worldwide rights, outside of Canada, to CBC's Tom Stone, retitled as Stone Undercover, and the worldwide television rights to the computer-animated film A Very Wompkee Christmas, directed by Mike DeVitto (The Christmas Light). In, MarVista signed a distribution deal with California-based MagicDreams for its animated series Kiddo the Super-Truck. As of, the show had been sold, through a feature film format, in numerous European markets.

At MIPTV 2005, MarVista launched independent animated film Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss, for which it handled the international outside-US rights. The feature was written, directed and animated by ex-Disney artist Phil Nibbelink, of Roger Rabbit and Fievel Goes West fame. Till then, he had also independently created the animated films Puss in Boots (1999) and Leif Ericson (2000), which were distributed by Liberation Entertainment; unlike the other two, Sealed with a Kiss mostly relies on frame-by-frame animation, which was completed over the course of four and a half years. As of today, this marks Nibbelink's last indie film. A Fairy Tale Christmas (not to be confused with the 2013 live-action MarVista film of the same name), the first in a series of animated direct-to-video films produced in partnership with Vancouver-based Waterfront Pictures and MarVista's first foray into animation, was also presented; it tells the story of a young princess who is captured by the King’s Viceroy and makes a journey back to the kingdom with her animal friends, as the Viceroy plans to take it over. It gained notoriety in late, as UK-based home media company Brightspark Entertainment was selling the film on DVD, under misleading artwork that had a close resemblance to Disney's Brave which was released earlier the same year. Disney managed to win a High Court order, stopping Brightspark from the distribution of this and other mockbuster DVD releases that capitalized on the success of its properties. Other shows on the lineup included Mike DeVitto's Ribert and Robert's Wonderworld, an educational computer-animated/live-action television series and Grace Animation Studios' The Avenging Apes of Africa. In, MarVista acquired the international rights to The Zula Patrol, an education children's series about the solar system and science.

In, MarVista inked an agreement with HBO Asia for some of Burbank Animation Studios' classic animated features. At MIPCOM 2009, MarVista presented three animated series: European Spanish television network Antena3's Cloud Trotters, Bunny Tale a collection of animation retellings of classic fairy tales, and the Perennal Animated Collections, a series of Christmas and Easter specials.

In, Saban Brands, a subsidiary of Saban Capital Group, Inc., selected MarVista Entertainment to represent the international television rights for the company's entire Power Rangers library of series. MarVista also started handling international rights (outside of Asia) of the Digimon series once Saban Brands acquired the brand in. MarVista Digital Entertainment (MVDE) was launched in 2014 to handle distribution and licensing of the company's digital content in North America. In April and May of, MarVista acquired the Latin American rights to Yo-kai Watch and Little Battlers eXperience respectively, by Dentsu Entertainment USA. It managed to secure a broadcasting deal with Disney XD for two seasons of Yo-kai and a film.

Beginning after acquiring capital investments in 2011, the company also began creating its own television and feature film content.

In 2016, MarVista and Elijah Wood's SpectreVision announced an agreement to co-produce four horror and thriller films over the following two years.

In some non-US countries, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer owns some MarVista content.

Distributed content

 * Burbank Animation Studios films (1991-2002) (initially in association with INI Entertainment Group Inc.)