Jumbo Pictures (later known as Cartoon Pizza) is a now-defunct New York based animation studio founded by Jim Jinkins which began operations in 1988. Their most famous work are Doug and PB&J Otter.
Nickelodeon era[]
Jumbo Pictures began business designing commercials and shorts for Sesame Street and Square One Television. In 1990, Nickelodeon began looking for creators for the channel's own original cartoons, as they only aired syndicated reruns of older programming and dubbed anime. So that same year, Jumbo Pictures created the pilot episode to Doug, "Doug Can't Dance". After being green-lit, Doug premiered on August 11, 1991 as the first Nicktoon. The show ended production with 52 episodes in 1994. During the fourth season of Doug, Jumbo Pictures created their first puppetry show, Allegra's Window, for the Nick Jr. block aimed at preschoolers.
Disney era[]
Until 1996, Nickelodeon had a policy in which if one of the Nicktoons ended before 65 episodes, the rights to the show goes back to the creators, leaving them to use the characters and settings for other projects, while Nickelodeon can still rerun the show. Because Doug ended with 52 episodes, the show's rights went back to Jumbo Pictures. In 1996, Geri Laybourne, the former president of Nickelodeon and at the time, the head of ABC's Saturday Morning lineup, was interested in Jumbo Pictures to create new Doug episodes for Disney. So in 1996, Disney bought Jumbo Pictures, and they created new episodes of Doug from 1996 to 1999. The new episodes had various changes to the characters, such as giving them new clothes, as well as changing a few locations and voice actors and releasing lines of merchandise. Fans had mixed feelings about the changes. Due to the buyout, Allegra's Window ended production on Nickelodeon, due to the company no longer on the channel's payroll.
In 1997, Jumbo Productions co-produced their first spin-off of a previous franchise, 101 Dalmatians: The Series. The show also had a very different art style than the rest of the shows produced by the studio, most likely for being a spin-off. It aired on The Disney Afternoon in syndication and One Saturday Morning on ABC from 1997 to 1998. Unlike Doug, 101 Dalmatians: The Series was in production at both Jumbo Pictures and Walt Disney Television, while Doug was worked on by only Jumbo Pictures.
The studio created their first show for the Playhouse Disney block on Disney Channel, PB&J Otter. The show ran until 2000.
In 1999, the studio wrote the stage show, Doug Live! which was performed several times daily at Disney-MGM Studios. The show ran until 2001. In the same year, the studio made their first movie, Doug's 1st Movie. It was supposed to be the first in a series of direct to video Doug films and new installments for the franchise, but due to failure at the box office and bad reviews, no subsequent films or Doug productions were made.
Post-Disney[]
After PB&J Otter was cancelled, Jumbo Pictures wanted to cut-off all ties with Disney, and closed their studio. They re-opened in 2001, now known as Cartoon Pizza. The studio wasn't under ownership by any channel, but co-produced Stanley and JoJo's Circus with Walt Disney Television Animation for Playhouse Disney. Other projects include various shorts for Sesame Street and Pinky Dinky Doo for the Nick Jr. channel. The Jumbo Pictures name is still under ownership by Disney (as the licensed T-shirts of Doug at Hot Topic contain a copyright from the studio), and has been folded into the Walt Disney Television Animation name.
TV Shows[]
As Jumbo Pictures[]
- Doug Commercials for Grapefruit Juice and USA Network Cartoon Express (1988-1990)
- Sesame Street shorts (1989-2000)
- Doug (1991-1994)
- Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever! videotapes (1993-1994)
- Disney's Doug (A.K.A. Brand Spanking New! Doug) (1996-1999)
- Allegra's Window (1994-1996)
- The Beginner's Bible (1995)
- Hoyt'n Andy's Sportsbender (1995-1996)
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997-1998)
- PB&J Otter (1998-2000)
- Sabrina, The Animated Series (1999)
As Cartoon Pizza[]
- Stanley (2001-2004)
- Sesame Street shorts (2002-2009)
- JoJo's Circus (2003-2007)
- Pinky Dinky Doo (2005-2009)