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 who at the time composed the theme music for many '80s cartoons, such as Mister T, Saturday Supercade and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), 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., Alpha Teens on Machines and Combo Niños, which were produced by SIP but BVS was not credited.
A last note: The infamous "Saban Moon" trailer👁 Image
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
- The New Addams Family
- Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid
- Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980)
- Tales of 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 Saban's/Disney's rights expired on February 28th, 2007
- Bureau of Alien Detectors
- Camp Candy
- 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 Originally supposed to air on Fox Kids for the 2000-2001 season, but was canceled for unknown reasons, likely because 4Kids Entertainment would gain control of the block the following year, renaming it the Fox Box.
- A Christmas Adventure (adaptation of Elves of the Forest; co-distributed with DiC Entertainment)
- Couch Potatoes (with Group W Productions)
- Cybersix
- Digimon (distributor of English dub and dubbed it for English-speaking territories from 1999-2001, (late 2001-2003 episodes were renamed as BVS Entertainment) the franchise is now distributed by Toei Animation themselves, with Discotek Media handling home video rights)
- Digimon Adventure
- Digimon Adventure 02
- Digimon Tamers (as BVS Entertainment)
- Digimon Frontier (as BVS Entertainment and Sensation Animation)
- 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 Saban's/Disney's rights expired on July 17th, 2004
- 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 Saban's/Disney's rights expired on September 7, 2004
- 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 Saban's rights expired on June 20th, 1998
- Future Police Urashiman (as Rock 'n' Cop, reissued by Sentai Filmworks in a subtitled-only online release) note Saban's rights expired on February 21st, 2001
- Goosebumps (1995) (outside the United States and Canada)note Saban's rights expired in 2013.
- Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (reissued by Discotek Media, alongside the uncut Japanese version) note Combines seasons 1 and 2 of "Grimm Meisaku Gekijou (Grimm Masterpiece Theater); Disney's rights expired on July 19th, 2005 for the first series and on March 31st, 2006 for the second series
- Saban's Gulliver's Travels
- Hakushon Daimaō (as Bob in a Bottle) note Saban's rights expired on December 12th, 2000
- Hallo Spencer (Saban's rights expired on October 7th, 1999)
- Honeybee Hutch (Konchu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch) note Disney's rights expired on October 19th, 2004.
- 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 Saban's rights expired on February 12th, 2000
- 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 Disney's rights expired on April 9th, 2005
- Mad Scientist Toon Club (a mix of live-action and animated segments) note Disney's rights for the animated shorts expired on October 7th 2002, but they still own the live-action segments
- Kaba Totto (as Hyppo and Thomas; part of Tic Tac Toons) note Disney's rights expired on October 7th, 2002
- Kaiketsu Tamagon (as Eggzavier the Eggasaurus; part of Tic Tac Toons) note Disney's rights expired on October 7th, 2002
- 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 Saban's rights expired on December 31, 1999. There are also two English dubs. The British English dub, made before Saban's dub, is currently available from Studio 100.
- Mokku of the Oak Tree (dubbed in English as Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio) note Saban's rights expired on September 12th, 1999.
- 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)
- 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 (not to be confused with The Adventures of the Little Koala, which was dubbed by Cinar, who went on to become Cookie Jar Entertainment, who would later merge with DIC in 2008. The joint venture company is now part of Canada-based DHX Media.)
- Ox Tales (reissued and re-dubbed by m4e AG) note Disney's rights expired on May 27th, 2005
- Peter Pan no Bouken
- Pigs Next Door
- Power Rangers
- Prey of the Chameleon
- Samurai Cowboy
- Samurai Pizza Cats (reissued by Discotek Media) note Saban's rights expired on November 21st, 2000
- The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs
- Shinzo (Loose and partial translation of Mushrambo)
- Shuke and Beita (as Pip N' Squeek) note Disney's rights expired on October 31, 2022
- Slayers (unaired edited version; reissued by Funimation) note This version was planned to air on Fox Kids and ABC Family, but it was canceled due to some main plots that weren't suitable for the young audience
- Space Goofs (US TV and US/Canada home video distribution only) note Saban's/Disney's rights expired in 2002
- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (inherited from Marvel Productions)
- Spider-Man Unlimited
- The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (co-produced with DIC Entertainmentnote The live-action segments were produced by Binder Entertainment; 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 Disney's rights expired on August 8th, 2008
- 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 Saban's rights expired on December 19th, 1999
- 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 Disney's rights expired on December, 17th 2001
- Totally Spies! (distributed season 1 only; produced by Marathon Animation)
- Transformers: Robots in Disguise
- Treasure Mall
- Urikupen Kyujotai (as Jungle Tales) note Saban's rights expired on May 1st, 1999
- 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 Disney's rights expired on April 23th, 2004
- 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)