Sale of FilmFair London to CINAR and reopening (1996-2002)
On 1 November 1996, it was announced that CINAR Films, a Canadian-based company, agreed to a deal with the Caspian Group to purchase FilmFair London's catalogue and production amenities for $10.5 Million. The deal would include all television, video, music publishing, licensing and merchandising rights, and the opportunity to produce new episodes of select shows.[7] The deal was completed at the end of the month.[8]
On 25 March 1997, CINAR announced the opening of their London-based European production and distribution studio CINAR Europe. Alongside that, they had announced that they had also reopened FilmFair as a fully-fledged animation studio to produce new content with their parent company, as well as remaster and restore their existing catalogue for an international expansion. The first two shows to be produced under the revived studio would be The Wombles and The Adventures of Paddington Bear, themselves being revivals of shows FilmFair previously produced.[9][10] The company also co-produced the series The Upstairs Downstairs Bears[11] in 2000, and announced a revival of Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings in November 2001, which would be handled in Canada by CINAR themselves.[12]
Following CINAR's founders being implicated in a financial scandal in 2000, CINAR Corporation went under major economic issues. The company announced that they would put up CINAR Europe for sale in September 2001[13] but after being unable to find a buyer, the company shut down in February 2002 with all sales and distribution activity moving to CINAR's main headquarters in Montreal.[14]
In 2004, after being bought out under new management, CINAR Corporation rebranded to Cookie Jar Group, which in turn was acquired by DHX Media (now WildBrain) in 2012, thus acquiring the rights to the European FilmFair properties and making DHX the largest independent producer of kids programming with 8,550 half hours up from 2,550.[15]
