MoonScoop Group
The MoonScoop Group was a French animation and production company that created and published animated television series. Its corporate headquarters were located in Paris, France, along with offices in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was established in 2003. It is most famously known for Code Lyoko and its sequel series, Code Lyoko: Evolution.
Fate | Administration French operations acquired by Dargaud Media and Pathé US operations rebranded to Splash Entertainment |
---|---|
Predecessor | France Animation (1984–2005) Futuroscope (1987–90) Antefilms (1990–2001) Antefilms Production (2001–2014) |
Successor | Splash Entertainment (2014–present) (American unit) Mediatoon Distribution (French unit) |
Founded | 2003 |
Founder | Christophe Di Sabatino and Benoît Di Sabatino |
Defunct | January 24, 2014 |
Headquarters | Paris, France |
Website | www |
History
One of MoonScoop's predecessors was France Animation, founded in 1984.[1] France Animation went on to become the original producers of Les Mondes Engloutis ("Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea"). By the early 2000s, it bought Antefilms Production—an outfit created by Christophe Di Sabatino and Benoît Di Sabatino in 1990—to form the present day MoonScoop.[2] MoonScoop's holdings also include Funbag Animation Studios
On January 24, 2014, the Commercial Court of Paris accepted Dargaud's takeover bid of MoonScoop's library, which thus becomes the owner of the complete catalogue of MoonScoop and 2 of the company's last employees.[3]
Following the company's demise, several shows produced by the company such as Code Lyoko and Totally Spies have been released for free viewing on YouTube
Important people
Christophe Di Sabatino and Benoît Di Sabatino (brothers) were the co-executive chairmen of the MoonScoop Group. Nicolas Atlan and Axel Dauchez were co-CEOs.
Subsidiaries
The MoonScoop Group was made up of numerous subsidiaries:
- Antefilms Production - Antefilms Production is a French company that makes TV shows. It was established by Christophe Di Sabatino and Benoît Di Sabatino in 1990;
- XANA Post-Production — The XANA Post-Production company is a part of MoonScoop. It does the post-production for Code Lyoko;
- Taffy Entertainment - Handles worldwide Distribution, Marketing and Consumer Products Licensing for nearly all of the shows made by MoonScoop.[4] Now it's known as Splash Entertainment.
- Mike Young Productions - is the American unit of MoonScoop that produced ToddWorld and Growing Up Creepie. Now it's known as Splash Entertainment.
- MoonScoop Digital Entertainment (formerly known as Queen Bee Interactive) - French developer of interactive applications and broadcast services for Television, Mobile and the Internet.
- LuxAnimation - LuxAnimation is a Luxemburg unit of moonscoop. It made Babar and the Adventures of Badou and the movie Dragon Hunters. Now it's owned by Splash Entertainment
- Cyber Group Studios - is a CGI Animation studio it is private, and it produced Fish N' Chips and Mini Ninjas. Now it's owned by Splash Entertainment
- Kabillion - is a video on demand network for children launched in 2007, it's available in all United States by many cable and streaming services. Now it's owned by Splash Entertainment.
Most well-known shows
Code Lyoko
Code Lyoko is a French animated series featuring both conventional animation and computer-generated imagery, produced by Antefilms during the first season and MoonScoop during the second, in association with the France 3 television network and Canal J. Code Lyoko is about a group of four boarding school students enrolled at Kadic Junior High School, named Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. The students try to help a virtual girl named Aelita leave the virtual world of Lyoko (found inside a supercomputer housed in the basement of an abandoned factory near their school), and enter the real world.
A highly malevolent and rogue artificial intelligence (also referred to as a multi-agent system) named X.A.N.A., bent on world domination, has taken over the quantum supercomputer in charge of the virtual reality/world of Lyoko. If the group is able to get Aelita to the activated tower(s) out of the more than forty scattered about four of Lyoko's five tropical regions, she can neutralize Xana's violently destructive attack on the real world; then the supercomputer can reverse time to just before the attack, leaving no one except the group to remember any of the events that transpired. To complicate the situation, they must do this while ensuring that their classmates and teachers are not killed (because going back in time cannot return those killed by X.A.N.A. to life), and deal with the various personality clashes they have with them at the same time.
Code Lyoko: Evolution
This rebooted series takes place one year after the events of the original series stated above. Unlike its predecessor, however, it consists of live-action for the real world but still contains the 3D computer animation for the virtual world of Lyoko. Its first season has 26 episodes, and ended on an unresolved cliffhanger episode, which leaves a possibility for a second season in the near future.
X.A.N.A. has been mysteriously reborn with even more strength than before. This prompts Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi and Aelita to reactive their well-hidden quantum supercomputer in order to return to Lyoko to obliterate the menacing A.I. once again. They are joined, again, by William Dunbar as the sixth member of their fighting team, and a girl-genius named Laura Gauthier; whom they are unsure to confide in.
Traveling into the digital sea inside their submersible submarine (which they had called the Skidbladnir), the five Lyoko Warriors come across another virtual world near Lyoko called the Cortex. However, as this new virtual region is ever-changing and chaotic, Jeremie programs a secondary viechile called the Megapod with Odd as its pilot. In the very center, lies the Core/Heart of the Cortex itself and by investigating further, they all discover a new enemy just as dangerous as X.A.N.A. Professor Tyron − who seems unaware of X.A.N.A.'s existence within his own supercomputer. The Lyoko warriors must deal with constructing a strong enough virus to completely exterminate X.A.N.A. and stop Tyron, as well as the powerful team of Ninjas his virtualizes onto the Cortex to battle the five Lyoko avatars.
Even more puzzling is the fact that Aelita's own mother, Anthea Hopper, appears to be working with their enemy. The group is determined to discover why she is working alongside Tyron and how to reunite mother and daughter. Jeremie succeeds in developing an anti-virus to eradicate X.A.N.A. once and for all and wipe out Tyron's own data in the process. Unfortunately, Tyron eventually manages to find them at Kadic Academy; due to his connection to Aelita's mother and legality as Aelita's stepfather. Desperate to save his work, Tyron orders that his supercomputer be shut down, which gradually causes the Cortex to disintegrate. Luckily, Odd, Ulrich, William and Aelita all managed to escape permanent virtualization in the digital sea by mere minutes. With Tyron's quantum supercomputer shut off, Jeremie shuts off their own supercomputer; therefore rending X.A.N.A. dormant once again; not destroying it, therefore leaving the show open-ended.
Hero: 108
A long time ago humans and animals lived together in harmony. But a wicked wizard named High Roller controlled 2 animals and tricked the other animals into thinking that humans were their enemies. Chaos reigned until a group of warriors, Lin Chung, Jumpy Ghostface, Mystique Sonia, Commander ApeTrully, Mr. No Hands, and Mighty Ray, had joined forces to end the war.
List of MoonScoop shows
As MoonScoop was the result of a merger between Antefilms and France Animation, this list consists of programming from both catalogs.
- Air Academy
- Albert le 5ème Mousquetaire (Albert the Fifth Musketeer)
- Aquakids
- Arsène Lupin
- Au Coeur des Toiles
- The Babaloos On Vacation
- The Babaloos
- The Birds
- Bunny Maloney
- Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot (2012)
- C.L.Y.D.E. (co-production with CINAR)
- Chloe's Closet
- Chip et Charly
- Code Lyoko (2003-2007)
- Code Lyoko: Evolution (2013)
- Cosmic Quantum Ray
- The Christmas Pirates
- The Jungle Book
- Cybergirl
- Dr. Dog (TV series)
- En Attendant Noël
- Fantastic Four (French: Les Quatre Fantastiques)
- Fred des Cavernes
- Funky Cops
- Garage Kids (Pilot of Code Lyoko)
- Geronimo Stilton (2009-2017)
- The Guard
- Horace et Tina
- Hero: 108
- Insectoscope
- The Davincibles
- The Invisible Man (co-production with BRB Internacional)
- It's Archie
- The Legend of White Fang
- Les Mondes Engloutis (Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea)
- Lionelville
- Little Vampire
- Lalaloopsy
- Mr. Roger
- My Phone Genie
- Night Hood
- New Davincibles
- Nobeard The Pirate
- Nothing But Monsters
- Patrol 03
- Pet Alien (French: Alién Bazaar)
- Quick & Flupke
- The Race
- Rahan
- Robinson Sucroe
- Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures
- Titeuf (dubbed in English as "Tootuff")
- Toad Patrol (current distributor)
- The Twisted Whiskers Show
- Urmel
- Vampires, Pirates & Aliens
- Waiting For Christmas
- Wheel Squad
- Wild Grinders
- Zevo-3 (with Skechers Entertainment)
Cancelled
- Tara Duncan (2010–2011)
- Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch (2013–2014)
List of MoonScoop films
- Harry
- Titeuf Le Film
- Norm of the North
References
- Wright, Jean Ann (2012). "The History of Animation". Animation Writing and Development: From Script Development to Pitch. Taylor and Francis. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-240-80549-8. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- Willett, Rebekah; Robertson, Muriel; Marsh, Jackie, eds. (2011). "Achieving a Global Reach on Children's Cultural Markets". Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-203-88869-8. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
- "Moonscoop" codelyoko.fr.
- Archived July 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine