Saban Entertainment Inc. (formerly Saban Productions and also trading as Saban International NV) was an independent television production company formed in 1983 by Israeli musicians Haim Saban and Shuki Levynote , as an offshoot of the former's previous company, Saban International Paris. It was best known for importing and dubbing Japanese series, both of the animated and live-action variety. In addition to that it teamed up with French production teams and DiC Entertainment for several animated series.
They notably allied with Fox in the 1990s, initially airing the Power Rangers on Fox Kids and eventually entering into a joint venture with Fox in 1995 to operate Fox Kids outright, gaining the rights to the library of Marvel Productions (aka Marvel Films and New World Animation), as well as its predecessor DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (with the exception of DFE co-productions, and Marvel's co-productions with Sunbow Entertainment), and International Family Entertainment in 1997, leading to a rebranding to Fox Family Worldwide and addition of the now-named and eventually Fox Family Channel to the venture.
Also thanks to Power Rangers, the company worked closely with Japanese toy giant Bandai leading to Digimon as well as several other Saban shows getting toys.
However, not all things were going well. The Fox Family Channel struggled in the ratings and with failed attempts to create "Boys" and "Girls" channels on cable (effectively named "BoyzChannel" and "GirlzChannel") led to many money losses. Fox attempted to sell the venture to Saban but both companies couldn't agree on a deal, and decided to sell off to a third party. This eventually led to July 22, 2001, when The Walt Disney Company announced they would purchase Fox Family Worldwide, which was soon closed by October. The sale didn't include the Saban programming library, but Saban Entertainment as a whole, renamed BVS Entertainment by Disney not too long afterward. Power Rangers continued on as planned under the BVS name, while the Anime dubbing division was renamed "Sensation Animation" to continue dubbing Digimon episodes (specifically, Digimon Frontier). After the dubbing was completed, Sensation was done for by Disney losing the dubbing license to Digimon.
Most of their library is still owned and controlled by Disney, except for Power Rangers, its successors (VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg, and Masked Rider), Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation and Digimon; all of which were reacquired from Disney by Saban Entertainment's successor, Saban Brands, in 2010 until 2018, when all of these properties (sans Digimon) moved to Hasbro among many other shows that Saban licensed or distributed that went back into their original producers/distirbutors. Saban International Paris was rebranded itself as SIP Animation, and continued producing series until going dormant in 2009. Although SIP has been a multi-shareholder studio since 1991, SIP's trademark and intellectual property rights belonged to BVS International N.V. between 2002 and 2012. In 2023, SIP was terminated and its remaining assets folded into BVS Entertainment. Thus, BVS Entertainment directly owned properties such as W.I.T.C.H., A.T.O.M. and Combo Niños, which were produced by SIP but BVS was not credited.
A last note: The infamous "Saban Moon" trailer
has nothing to do with Saban. This was in fact a misnomer of the fandom because Renaissance Atlantic, Toei's American division that acted as a middleman between them and Saban for Power Rangers, was behind it.
Series imported or produced by Saban:
- Addams Family Reunion
- Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
- Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist
- Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (as Tales Of the Little Women)
- The All New Captain Kangaroo (Saban's rights eventually expired, and is currently an orphaned franchise)
- Saban's Around the World in 80 Dreams (a celebrity toon starring French singer Carlos, who voices himself in the French dub)
- Au Pair
- Barbie And The Rockers and Barbie and the Sensations (based on Mattel's toy line of the same name; co-produced with Dic Entertainment)
- BattleTech (1994)
- Beetleborgs
- Bit the Cupid
- Black Ice
- Blindfold: Acts of Obsession
- Breaker High
- Bumpety Boo note
- Bureau of Alien Detectors
- Camp Candy (third season only)
- Captain America (planned for fall 1998 on Fox Kids, but cancelled due to Marvel's bankruptcy)
- Captain N: The Game Master (co-produced with DIC Entertainment; season one only)
- Casper: A Spirited Beginning
- Cho Hatsumei Boy Kaniplan note
- Couch Potatoes (with Group W Productions)
- Cybersix
- Digimon (distributor of English dub and dubbed it for English-speaking territories from 1999-2002, the franchise is now distributed by Toei Animation themselves, with Discotek Media handling home video rights)
- DinoZaurs
- Dragon Ball Z (Distributed to television by Saban, the heavily edited '90s English dub was produced by Funimation and voiced by The Ocean Group, which covers the first 67 episodes and third movie The Tree of Might. Funimation later redubbed these episodes with their cast and reversed many of the edits by Saban. (But infamously, not the script changes) Saban also composed its background music and the (in)famous "Rock the Dragon" theme song)
- Dragon Warrior
- Dream Star Button Nose note
- Dungeons & Dragons (1983) (inherited from Marvel Productions)
- Eagle Riders (adaptation of second and third Science Ninja Team Gatchaman series; reissued by Sentai Filmworks in its original uncut form) note
- Fantastic Four: The Animated Series (w/ Marvel Films)
- Flint the Time Detective (Jikuu Tantei Genshi-kun)
- Funky Fables (adaptation of Waku Waku Doki Doki Meisaku World and Ponkicki Meisaku World) note
- Future Police Urashiman (as Rock 'n' Cop, reissued by Sentai Filmworks in a subtitled-only online release) note
- Goosebumps (1995) (outside the United States and Canada)note
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (reissued by Discotek Media, alongside the uncut Japanese version) note
- Saban's Gulliver's Travels
- Hakushon Daimaō (as Bob in a Bottle) note
- Hallo Spencer (Saban's rights expired on October 7th, 1999)
- Honeybee Hutch (Konchu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch) note
- I'm Telling! (with DiC Entertainment)
- Iron Man: The Animated Series (w/ Marvel Films)
- Jason And The Heroes Of Mount Olympus
- Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol
- Kidd Video (co-produced with DIC Entertainment)
- The Littl' Bits (originally made in 1980) note
- Macron 1 (adaptation of GoShogun and Srungle; GoShogun was reissued by Discotek Media with subtitles only, without the dub due to music rights issues) note
- Mad Scientist Toon Club (a mix of live-action and animated segments) note
- Kaba Totto (as Hyppo and Thomas; part of Tic Tac Toons) note
- Kaiketsu Tamagon (as Eggzavier the Eggasaurus; part of Tic Tac Toons) note
- Los Luchadores
- Maple Town
- Masked Rider (uses footage from Kamen Rider Black RX, ZO, and J)
- Maya the Bee (later reissued by m4e AG; rights currently owned by Studio100) note
- Mokku of the Oak Tree (dubbed in English as Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio) note
- Monster Farm (not to be confused with Monster Rancher)
- Mon Colle Knights (final new series from Saban to be broadcast on Fox Kids; reissued by Discotek Media)
- Mori No Tonto Tachi (as A Christmas Adventure; co-distributed with DiC Entertainment)
- My Favorite Fairytales (adaption of Sekai Dowa Anime Zenshu)
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg
- NASCAR Racers
- National Lampoon's Men in White
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
- Noozles note
- Ox Tales (reissued and re-dubbed by m4e AG) note
- Peter Pan no Bouken
- Pigs Next Door
- Power Rangers
- Prey of the Chameleon
- Samurai Cowboy
- Samurai Pizza Cats (reissued by Discotek Media) note
- The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs
- Shinzo (Loose and partial translation of Mushrambo)
- Shuke and Beita (as Pip N' Squeek) note
- Slayers (unaired edited version; reissued by Funimation) note
- Space Goofs (US TV and US/Canada home video distribution only) note
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (inherited from Marvel Productions)
- Spider-Man Unlimited
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (co-produced with DIC Entertainmentnote ; also distributed the series outside the United States and Canada)
- Super Pig
- Sweet Valley High (as Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High)
- Tanoshii Willow Town note
- Teknoman (adaptation of Tekkaman Blade; reissued by Media Blasters alongside the uncut subtitled version)
- Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (animated by Nippon Animation)
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (animated by Group TAC) note
- The Vision of Escaflowne (edited TV broadcast version with altered music; originally distributed by Bandai Entertainment and later reissued and redubbed by Funimation)
- Three Little Ghosts (adaption of Chiisana Obake Acchi, Kocchi, Socchi) note
- Totally Spies! (distributed season 1 only; produced by Marathon Animation)
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise
- Treasure Mall
- Urikupen Kyujotai (as Jungle Tales) note
- Video Power (with Bohbot Entertainment)
- VR Troopers
- Wowser (based on Luc Dupanloup's Cubitus, known as Don-Don-Dommel to Ron in Japan; rights currently owned by Mediatoon) note
- X-Men: The Animated Series
- Xyber 9: New Dawn
- What's with Andy? (Co-produced with Cine Groupe, for season 1; SIP Animation co-produced Season 2; Cine Groupe produced both Season 2 and 3)
Miscellaneous contributions
- The BOTS Master (provided music; produced by "Creativite et Developpement" [C&D], Jean Chalopin's firm after he left DiC Entertainment, later absorbed by SIP Animation)
- Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea (composed music)
- Sylvanian Families (provided music; produced by DiC Entertainment and TMS Entertainment)
