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Wang Film Productions:
Serving practically everyone under the face of the sun since 1978.

Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. (also known as Cuckoo's Nest Studio and Hong Guang Animation) is a Taiwanese animation studio co-founded in 1978 by former Hanna-Barbera employees James Wang and Jerry Smith as a means for the company to outsource their animation to back when the technique was still relatively uncommon at the time. Many employees from Chungwha Cartoon, as well as employees from Ying Ren Cartoon and Shang Shang came to work for Wang. Don Patterson was brought on board as a trainer. The company started with 50 employees but soon had 300.

Since its founding, Wang has worked with and/or for several companies like Warner Bros.*, Disney, Nelvana, Klasky-Csupo, Film Roman, Universal, Cookie Jar, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation, Kennedy Cartoons, Toon City and Studio Pierrot (among others). Through them, they have done animation for shows and movies made in the North America, Europe and Asia.

Their main claim to fame, though, is being used by a large number of shows. The Other Wiki, in fact, has a list of their works about a mile long. The works featured below are just scraping the surface.

Hong Ying is generally considered an offshoot, having started out getting extra Wang work.

The company also has satellite studios in Indonesia (PT Asiana Wang), Thailand (Thai Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd.) and China (Hong Guang Animation (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., established in Zhuhai in 1990 as Speedy Victory Animation Co., Ltd.). Their credits are listed here for obvious reasons.

In 1988, many long-time employees of Wang, such as Sam Wang, split off and started their own studio, Morning Sun.

In 1998, the studio would team up with CGI studio CGCG Inc in a strategic partnership deal. This deal would eventually end sometime in the mid to late 2000s.

In 2014, some long-time employees of Wang, such as Bunis Yang and Vincent Liu, split off and started their own studio, BV Animation Studio. It has worked on Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle (with Tycoon Animation), The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave and Bamse and the Thief City.

At some point in The New '10s, Wang was acquired by a company called Brilliant Pictures Group, which continues to operate the studio under the name WangFilm Animation Studio.

Compare (and contrast) AKOM, TMS Entertainment, Toei Animation, Fil-Cartoons, Saerom, Sunwoo Entertainment, Dong Woo Animation, Synergy Animation, Hanho Heung-Up, Rough Draft Studios, Nakamura Productions, Dai Won and the aforementioned Toon City and Kennedy Cartoons. Their partners for many of the shows listed below.


Side note - the amount of work Wang did is staggering. The following folders consist of an (almost) complete filmography.

    open/close all folders 
    Shows and TV Specials 
Disney
  • 101 Dalmatians: The Series [Wang] (12 episodes) List / [Thai Wang] (13 episodes) List
  • The 7D [Wang] (Season 2 with Toon City, replacing Digital Emation)
  • Aladdin: The Series [Wang] (14 episodes) List
  • American Dragon: Jake Long [Wang] (14 episodes)List
  • Bonkers [Wang] (4 episodes) List
  • The Bug Hunt (1996 TV short) [Wang]
  • Brandy & Mr. Whiskers [Wang]
  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command [Wang] (10 episodes) List
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (16 episodes) List
  • Darkwing Duck [Wang] (4 episodes) List
  • Dave the Barbarian [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (13 episodes)List
  • DuckTales (1987) [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest)List
  • The Emperor's New School [Wang] (23 episodes)List
  • Fillmore! [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (21 episodes)List / [Hong Guang] List
  • Gargoyles (2 episodes) [Wang] List / [Thai Wang] List
  • Goof Troop [Wang] (9 episodes)List / [Thai Wang] (ink & paint for six episodes) List
  • Hercules: The Animated Series [Wang] (13 episodes)List / [Thai Wang] (5 episodes)List
  • Jungle Cubs [Wang] List / [Thai Wang] List
  • The Legend of Tarzan [Wang] (15 episodes)List
  • Lilo & Stitch: The Series [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (13 episodes)List
  • The Little Mermaid (1992) [Wang] (four season 2 episodesList and all of season 3)
  • Marsupilami [Wang]
  • Mickey Mouse Clubhouse [Wang]
  • Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series [Wang] (2 episodes)List
  • Milo Murphy's Law [Wang] (8 episodes)List (with Synergy Animation)
  • The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh [Wang] (5 episodes) List
    • Winnie the Pooh: Boo To You Too! [Thai Wang]
  • Phineas and Ferb [Wang]List
  • Quack Pack [Wang] (5 episodes)List / [Thai Wang] (4 episodes)List
  • The Replacements [Wang] (23 episodes)List
  • TaleSpin (8 episodes) [Wang] List
  • Teacher's Pet (the series, 9+ episodes) [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] list
  • Timon & Pumbaa [Wang] List / [Thai Wang] List
  • The Weekenders [Wang]
  • W.I.T.C.H. [Wang] (First season with Hong Ying, replaced by Dong Woo in the second)

Hanna-Barbera

Warner Bros.

  • Animaniacs [Wang] (89 shorts) List (bumpers) List
    • Pinky and the Brain [Wang] (27 episodes)List
    • Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain [Wang] (Odd number episodes; Even number episodes and the opening are done by Rough Draft)
  • Baby Looney Tunes [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (9 episodes) List (4 songs) List
  • Detention [Wang]
  • Histeria! [Wang] List (with uncredited assistance from the Thai branch)
  • ¡Mucha Lucha! [Wang] (4 episodes) List
  • Ozzy & Drix [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (13 episodes) List
  • Road Rovers [Thai Wang] (three episodes, with Studio Junio)List
  • Taz-Mania [Wang] - 30 episodes List
  • Tiny Toon Adventures [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (39 episodes List - 28 episodes Wang solo, List - 3 episodes both, Ink & Paint and camera services on eight Kennedy Cartoons episodesList. Footage from "K-ACME TV" was recycled into the TMS-animated "Take Elmyra, Please")
  • What's New, Scooby-Doo? [Wang/Cuckoo's Nest] (some episodes of season 1list, including the Christmas Special)

Other

    Movies & shorts 

     Tropes Associated with Wang include 
  • All-CGI Cartoon: The Bionicle films, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Donkey Kong Country.
  • Animation Bump: Fairly often, particularly in The Brave Little Toaster and Animaniacs.
  • Animesque: Some of their works (W.I.T.C.H. and Winx Club, mostly). The fact that they worked on the sequel series to both Willy Fog & Dogtanian, and Yu Yu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report adds to this.
  • Art Shift: In the early '90s, Hanna-Barbera sent their innovative (for its' time) computer system overseas to Wang (back when they still had some ownership in the company), and they used it on some productions for H-B (such as Yo Yogi!, 2 Stupid Dogs and Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights) and outside of them (such as a couple of Chucklewood Critters specials, the 1994 Fantastic Four series, certain episodes of The Pink Panther, the "Cheesefist" segment on The Ren and Stimpy Show, Willy Fog, and late season 1 through season 2 of Tales From the Cryptkeeper). They generally appeared more bright and garish than their product using traditional cel animation, and it didn't help that the computer system was quite dated by this time, and it often showed (especially in Arabian Nights and Tales From the Cryptkeeper). By the late '90s, Wang replaced it with a more up-to-date computer system for doing digital coloring.
  • Depending on the Artist: Usually noticeable when working on a show with multiple other studios attached during the 90s like Tiny Toons or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as their animation tended to be far more cartoonish and bouncy than other companies.
  • Deranged Animation: There are several shows containing this, but The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and Courage the Cowardly Dog are the best examples.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: Wang isn't utilized as much as it once was in recent years (typically nowadays used by Disney), especially compared to the '80s and '90s when it was used on an insane amount of shows. They haven't been credited on anything under their original name since 2019, being credited instead under the Brilliant Pictures name going forward.
  • I Have Many Names: As mentioned at the top of the page.
  • International Co Production: Inspector Gadget, Transformers: Go-Bots, The Bionicle films, The Brave Little Toaster and most of their Hanna-Barbara work.
  • Lazy Artist:
    • Tying into their origins as a spin-off from Hanna-Barbera, Wang could get just as bad with the shortcuts on some shows.
    • Pound Puppies: The Legend of Big Paw notoriously got blasted for things like the "Water is quicksand" mix-up thanks to its rushed production schedule.
    • This happened often during the late 80s/early 90s, when the company saw a surge in credits. And while some projects got off easy (like their work for Disney and on Garfield), others (like Mighty Mouse, New Kids and Cartoon All-Stars) suffered greatly from cheap, rushed-looking animation.
    • Parodied in the Garfield & Friends segment "Mistakes Will Happen". Mark Evanier would later go on to admit that it took a good amount of time to get Wang to actually do the errors deliberately.
  • Limited Animation: Most of their Hanna-Barbera projects, which as a side-effect, would be carried over to the majority of their other credits from the 1980s to varying degrees. They got better during the 90s.
  • Medium Blending: Featured in the later The Land Before Time sequels. Also present in TRON, Courage, Winx Club, The Pagemaster, Ferngully, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Bionicle 3 (Albeit as an effects screw-up), and Phineas and Ferb, among other titles.
  • Production Posse:
    • Hanna-Barbera, since they basically helped create the studio in the first place. H-B extensively used the studio throughout the late '70s to the mid-90s, though they gradually phased them out in favor of Fil-Cartoons, Rough Draft Studios and others.
    • Nelvana has used both the main studio and Hong Guang on several of their projects.*
    • Disney has also used the company heavily since the 1980s for both film and TV efforts. To put this into perspective: The only Disney animated series where Wang wasn't utilized as an overseas studio have been: The Wuzzles, Adventures Of The Gummi Bears, Pepper Ann, Doug, Recess, House of Mouse, Lloyd in Space, Mickey Mouse Works, The Proud Family, The Buzz on Maggie, Kim Possible, and some of their more recent stuffnote . Every other show has used them.
  • Scenery Porn: Regardless of their animation quality at times, their background art (especially with their work for Disney and Warner Bros.) are some of the better ones to come out of an overseas studio.
  • Signature Style: Their overly cartoony style seen during the latter half of the 80s and throughout the 90s, which can be attributed in part to John Kricfalusi, who during his time on The Jetsons revival "taught them how to animate".
  • Thick-Line Animation: The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and The Replacements. They also went through a period of this during the TTA era (mainly season one). Their work on Ren and Stimpy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tended to suffer from this as well.

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