Founded in 2002 as 9 Story Entertainment, 9 Story Media Group is a Canadian animation studio turned entertainment and distribution company. They are best known for their work on shows for PBS Kids, including Wild Kratts and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, as well as Peep and the Big Wide World (co-produced with PBS station WGBH Boston). They've also created some shows of their own, like Almost Naked Animals and Camp Lakebottom. Although the majority of their output is animated, they've produced quite a few live-action shows as well.
In 2013, 9 Story acquired the family catalog of CCI Entertainment, which includes Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, Erky Perky, Eckhart, Turbo Dogs, and Extreme Babysitting. In 2014, the company rebranded to its current name, after media entrepreneur Neil Court and Zelnick Media Capital became equity investigators. In 2015, 9 Story acquired the Irish studio Brown Bag Films, who is known for their work on shows like Doc McStuffins, Henry Hugglemonster, The Octonauts, Peter Rabbit, and others. Two years later, 9 Story rebranded their Toronto studio under the Brown Bag Films banner.
In 2018, 9 Story acquired the New York-based Out of the Blue Enterprises, their partners on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Creative Galaxy (and rebranded it to 9 Story USA a few months later), as well as the kids and family library of Breakthrough Entertainment, which includes Captain Flamingo, Jimmy Two-Shoes, Rocket Monkeys, and Max & Shred, among other live-action and animated productions. In-between these acquisitions, the company adopted a new logo to reflect its growing content library. In 2019, 9 Story acquired the Indonesian studio BASE. In 2024, 9 Story acquired fellow Canadian company Portfolio Entertainment which includes its distribution catalogue of content such as Groundling Marsh, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Freaktown, Roboroach, Carl², Hero Elementary among others. That same year, American publishing company Scholastic (which 9 Story currently distributes its catalogue) announced that it would acquire the company with the transition of ownership set to be completed by Scholastic's 2025 fiscal quarter.
Many of 9 Story's productions have aired domestically on Corus Entertainment's kids networks, CBC Television, TVOntario, Knowledge Network, and Family Channel and its siblings. Their content has also been seen in the United States on outlets such as PBS Kids, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Qubo, among many other channels in different countries, as well as streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and a multi-channel network on YouTube.
9 Story has produced, animated, and/or distributed the following works:
- 3 Amigonauts
- Ada Twist, Scientist
- The Adventures of Napkin Man! (distribution rights)
- Almost Naked Animals
- Andy and the Band (distribution rights)
- Angela's Christmas
- Arthur (seasons 16 to 19, taking over from Cookie Jar Entertainment. Replaced by Oasis Animation for seasons 20 to 25)
- Atom Town (distribution rights)
- Bad Nature (distribution rights)
- Barney & Friends (distribution rights, with HIT Entertainment)
- Best Ed
- Bing
- Blue's Clues & You! (with Nickelodeon)
- Book Hungry Bears (distribution rights)
- Bruno And Boots (distribution rights)
- Cache Craze
- Camp Lakebottom
- Captain Flamingo (distribution rights)
- Carl² (distribution rights)
- The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (distribution rights)
- Challenge DanTDM (distribution rights)
- Charlie's Colorforms City
- Chico Bon Bon
- Circle Square (distribution rights)
- Clifford the Big Red Dog (2019 reboot, with Scholastic Entertainment and Amazon Studios)
- Creative Galaxy (with Out of the Blue Enterprises and Amazon Studios)
- Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (with Out of the Blue Enterprises)
- Dee & Friends in Oz
- The Diary of Bita & Cora (distributor rights)
- Doc McStuffins
- Donkey Hodie (distribution rights)
- Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (storyboards for 2 episodes)List
- Dr. Panda (distribution rights)
- Doomsday Brothers (distribution rights)
- Dylan's Playtime Adventures
- Eckhart (distribution rights)
- Erky Perky (distribution rights)
- Finding Stuff Out (with Apartment 11 Productions)
- Freaktown (distribution rights)
- Fugget About It
- Full Out (film)
- Furze World Wonders
- Futz!
- Garfield and Friends (distribution rights)
- Get Ace (distribution rights)
- Get Rolling with Otis
- Grace Beside Me (distribution rights)
- Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
- Groundling Marsh (distribution rights)
- Guess How Much I Love You (season 2)
- Guitar and Drum (distribution rights)
- Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars (distribution rights)
- Haunted Tales
- Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs (distribution rights)
- Henry Hugglemonster
- Hero Elementary (distribution rights)
- Hero Inside (distribution rights)
- The Hollow (distribution rights)
- If the World Were a Village
- I'm an Animal
- Jacob Two-Two (animation for season 5; series is produced by Nelvana)
- Jerry and the Raiders (distribution rights)
- Jimmy Two-Shoes (distribution rights)
- Joe and Jack (distribution rights)
- Karma's World
- A Kind of Spark (distribution rights)
- Kiss and Cry (distribution rights)
- L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (distribution rights)
- Labuntina (distribution rights)
- Let's Game (distribution rights)
- Let’s Go, Bananas!
- Let's Go Luna! (formerly titled Luna Around the World)
- Little Critter - the Animated Adaptation (currently in Development Hell, after having previously been so with Nelvana for years)
- Look Kool (distribution rights)
- Lu & the Bally Bunch
- Luo Bao Bei (non-Chinese distribution rights)
- The Magic School Bus Rides Again (with Scholastic Entertainment)
- Making Stuff
- Max and Ruby (animation for seasons 3 to 5, with Nelvana)
- Max & Shred (distribution rights)
- Mischief City (distribution rights)
- Monica Chef (distribution rights)
- Monkey See, Monkey Do (distribution rights)
- Moon and Me
- My Big, Big Friend (distribution rights)
- My Friend Bubbles (distribution rights)
- My Friend Rabbit (animation for Season 2; series is produced by Nelvana)
- Nature Cat (with Spiffy Pictures; seasons 1-3 only)
- Nella the Princess Knight
- Nerds and Monsters (distribution rights)
- Noddy In Toyland
- Numb Chucks
- The Octonauts
- Olivia
- Open Season: Call of Nature (with Sony Pictures Animation)
- Peep and the Big Wide World
- Peg + Cat
- Peter Rabbit
- Pirate Express (distribution rights)
- Postcards from Buster (season 2-4)
- Pound Puppies (2010) (first 7 episodes of season 1 only. Replaced by DHX Media Vancouver for the rest of the series)
- Powerbirds
- Rico & Ed
- Ride (distribution rights)
- Ridley Jones
- Roboroach (distribution rights)
- Rocket Monkeys (distribution rights)
- Rosie's Rules
- Ruby's Studio (distribution rights)
- Sadie Sparks
- Sago Mini Friends
- The Samuel Project (distribution rights)
- Science Max (distribution rights)
- Skyland
- Spliced (animation only; series is produced by Nelvana)
- The Stanley Dynamic - a live-action/animated hybrid (animation only; series is produced by Amaze Film + Television and Nelvana)
- Star Falls (distribution rights)
- The Stinky and Dirty Show
- Super Why!
- Super Why's Comic Book Adventures
- Survive This
- That Lion Show
- Top Wing (with Industrial Brothers and Nickelodeon)
- Turbo Dogs (distribution rights)
- Vampirina
- Vivi (distribution rights)
- Wandering Wenda (distribution rights)
- Weird Waters (distribution rights)
- Wibbly Pig (with Wish Films and BBC Worldwide, distribution rights in North America and Latin America)
- Wild Kratts
- Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
- Zerby Derby (distribution rights)
Tropes associated with 9 Story:
- Animation Bump: Some of their shows have better animation than others. Shows like Xavier Riddle, Blues Clues & You! and Let's Go Luna! in particular have very nice animation and art.
- Creator's Oddball:
- Most of 9 Story's cartoons are aimed at children. Fugget About It, on the other hand, is not one of them.
- Skyland qualifies too, being a CGI-animated action/drama-focused series rather than a 2D Flash-animated kids' comedy or Preschool Show like most of their other works are.
- Domestic-Only Cartoon: Most of their original productions (Camp Lakebottom, 3 Amigonauts, Best Ed, etc.) are animated in-house or by other Canadian studios. They've also done some animation on cartoons by other Canadian studios, most notably Nelvana productions Spliced and Jacob Two-Two.
- Limited Animation: Happens quite a bit. Their work on Arthur is arguably one of the most notorious examples. The Magic School Bus Rides Again, Daniel Tiger, the 2019 Clifford reboot, and their HD reanimated intro for Garfield and Friends are also pretty suspect in terms of quality. This isn't always the case though, as noted in Animation Bump above.
- Production Posse: 9 Story appears to have strong ties with PBS Kids as of late, as a good chunk of their shows from The New '10s (Wild Kratts, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, seasons 16-19 of Arthur, Peg + Cat, Nature Cat, Let's Go Luna!, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum and the Clifford the Big Red Dog reboot) are produced or distributed by the company. Their marriage to PBS was solidified when they announced that they got the distributing rights to Donkey Hodie.