Gephyrophillia #203

Originally Posted on 08/04/2009 by Jeff Harris

4Kids Entertainment has often been a love-hate relationship with many of the readers of the site, let alone the "anime community" in general. According to some sources, 4Kids is up for sale. Of course, the company line is "We don't comment on rumors or speculation," which means something. If they are for sale, who would possibly buy them?

Classic Media? They're the New York-based company formerly known as Boomerang Media that recently bought Entertainment Rights (who owns the Filmation library, Postman Pat, Big Ideas Entertainment, Harvey Entertainment, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Underdog, Lassie, UPA, the classic Rankin/Bass titles, and others). Boomerang Media was founded by the founders of the original Classic Media, which they bought back and renamed themselves as when they bought Entertainment Rights. 4Kids would bring the evergreen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property, Cabbage Patch Kids, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Chaotic to the young company, as well as American outlets to broadcast their wares. In essence, it would be an ideal company because they would embrace Western programming as well as the international fare of 4Kids. Balance is a good thing.

The Cookie Jar Company? They're the Canadian media company that recently bought DiC Entertainment and is one of the biggest children's entertainment companies on the planet. 4Kids would bring those popular brands, and 4Kids will have a major animation house by their side producing shows based on their wares. A Cabbage Patch Kids/Strawberry Shortcake hour could become a possibility with such an acquisition.

Funimation Entertainment? They're the Texas-based media company known for bringing Dragon Ball Z to the masses and making One Piece the right way. Funimation had been distributing 4Kids' titles for years, so an outright purchase of 4Kids would be perfect, at least in the eyes of the anti-Western otaku fringe that cannibalized the fandom and largely wants them to do so for one reason. They want Funimation to "correct the mistakes" made by 4Kids. Yes, 4Kids is bad, but I think Funimation is overstretched as it is. On the minus side, there's a possibility that the 4Kids culture could permiate into Funimation rather than the other way around. On the plus side, one could wonder what kind of synergistic moves could develop by the biggest anime distributor with the industry's most successful programmer. Hell, Sgt. Frog on Saturday mornings followed by TMNT would be awesome on paper alone.

Time Warner? They're the New York-based media . . . you know who Time Warner is. You also know their media companies has made a lot of money for 4Kids and vice-versa. From Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh's dominance on Kids' WB to TMNT and Chaotic's success on The CW 4Kids and Cartoon Network, the two companies have been intertwined with each other. If anything, Time Warner has reassessed itself as a media company, and when a company that has emerged as a media titan as 4Kids had for a decade makes moves for a sale, then TWX could potentially be the intended suitor 4Kids wanted when they made the announcement.

But stranger things have happened. For all we know, a big company like Disney or an even smaller company could make a pitch to buy 4Kids. Let's just say if a deal happens, it'd be definitely interesting.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster