Medialab

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Medialab
The logo of Medialab.
Founded 1990[?]
Defunct 2000[?]
First Super Mario TV show Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Planet (1996)
Final president Jacques Peyrache

Medialab was a French animation studio founded in 1990. It animated the first two seasons of Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Planet, and commercials for the series.

History[edit]

Medialab was spun off from Videosystem in 1990 to focus on 3D animation for post-production work and the production of Starwatcher, a 3D animation movie done in cooperation with artist Moebius.[1] Following the death of founder Alain Guiot in a car accident in 1992, Medialab was acquired by Canal+, which canceled Starwatcher and focused the studio on TV animation.[1]

The company acquired the rights to produce a Donkey Kong Country animated series from Nintendo,[2] but fired the original writers after they produced scripts that were judged terrible and featured content unacceptable for a children's program.[2] Medialab contacted Nelvana for assistance in producing the show,[2] and insisted it feature musical numbers and dancing sequences in each episode.[2] Parallel to Donkey Kong Country, Medialab also produced Donkey Kong Planet for France 2, a post modern programming block for France 2's children programming. The company's work on its two Donkey Kong shows pioneered the use of magnetic motion capture in TV animation.[3]

The company was reacquired by Videosystem in 1999, and filled for bankruptcy in 2000.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Medialab. Paris ACM SIGGRAPH (French). Retrieved August 17, 2024. (Archived September 16, 2015, 03:26:03 UTC via Wayback Machine.)
  2. ^ a b c d Strobel, Erika (canuckgirl1966) (August 5, 2008). Donkey Kong Country | TV show. RetroJunk (English). Archived December 27, 2008, 06:03:42 UTC from the original via Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  3. ^ Fischer, Ron. The History and Current State of motion capture. Motion Capture Society (English). Retrieved August 17, 2024.

External links[edit]